Ambassador Melinda Simmons in conversation
Date and time:
Monday 11 September, 2023
19:00 - 20:00
Location:
JW3
341-351 Finchley Road, NW3 6ET
London
Dame Melinda Simmons will speak about her extraordinary ambassadorship in Ukraine since 2019 and during the first 18 months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
After four years leading the British Embassy in Kyiv, Dame Melinda Simmons will share some of her experiences as Ambassador during this unprecedented period. Since Dame Melinda arrived in Ukraine in 2019, she has worked through the outbreak of coronavirus, a change of three UK prime ministers and, of course, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Dame Melinda has displayed extraordinary leadership in her role as Ambassador. The British Embassy was one of the last embassies to temporarily relocate from Kyiv, and one of the first to return in April 2022; Dame Melinda has been exceptionally active in supporting volunteer efforts, meeting with soldiers, visiting reconstruction efforts in eastern Ukraine, and living and breathing the experience of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Dame Melinda is herself Jewish, and she has worked actively with the Jewish community in Ukraine during her ambassadorship, including attending the re-establishment of synagogue services in Kyiv following a temporary pause during the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Dame Melinda's steadfast support and commitment in her role as Ambassador has been a source of great inspiration for Ukrainians. Earlier this year, she received a Damehood for her services to British foreign policy.
Dame Melinda will be in conversation with Dr Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture at UCL SSEES.
This event is co-organised by the Ukrainian Institute London and JW3, with support from Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.
Speaker
Melinda Simmons DCMG
A rare diplomat to move into the civil service in 1998, after a career in advertising, and a conflict resolution NGO, Dame Melinda has been one of the most robust ambassadors supporting Ukraine before and during the full-scale invasion, for which she was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George in 2023. After working in the Department for International Development, with focus on conflict prevention and resolution, including land restitution, and humanitarian response, her work at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had a similar emphasis in the National Security Secretariat.
Appointed British Ambassador to Kyiv in 2019, quickly taking up Chair of the G7 Ambassadors’ Support Group for Ukraine in 2020, Dame Melinda led close work with the Ukrainian government to promote reforms to strengthen the state, improve transparency, combat corruption and buttress the rule of law. Constantly a friend to civil society, she has called attention to the struggles of anti-corruption activists, joined British Embassy staff in Kyiv Pride, and was involved in running the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture with over 1,000 artists and cultural professionals. Since the full-scale invasion, Dame Melinda has helped tirelessly to invigorate Ukrainian society’s rebuilding, and to carry out the British government’s military, economic, and humanitarian assistance of Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion.
Speaker
Uilleam Blacker
Dr Uilleam Blacker is Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture at UCL SSEES. His areas of research interest are the literatures and cultures of Ukraine and Poland and cultural memory in eastern Europe. His monograph Memory, the City and the Legacy of World War II in East-Central Europe was published by Routledge in 2019. He is co-author of Remembering Katyn (Polity, 2012) and co-editor of Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013). He has published widely on Ukrainian, Polish and Russian literature and culture. He has translated the work of several contemporary Ukrainian writers, including, most recently, Oleg Sentsov’s short story collection Life Went On Anyway (Deep Vellum, 2019). He is a member of the jury for the International Booker Prize 2023.
