Ukraine’s Search for Identity and Heroes

Ian Bateson Ukraine’s Search for Identity and Heroes From Stepan Bandera to Paul Manafort

Since the Lenins fell after the Maidan Revolution, Ukraine has been looking for new heroes to replace him on his pedestal, and for a national story to unite around as a way to break with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Russian world.” Ian Bateson will talk about his reporting over the past five years, from his ancestral village in western Ukraine to the front in the east, on the stories and heroes being used to unite, and divide, Ukrainians at a time of growing nationalism, both civic and ethnic.
Ian Bateson is freelance journalist from Kyiv. Currently he is a Milena Jesenská Visiting Fellow at the IWM.