Ukraina



To reach Ukraine (in the local Kyrillic writing YKPAÏHA) you have to be prepared to get rid of a lot of prejudices. Neither one finds a country suffering from poverty with people cracking cars for living nor a desperate and entirely sucked-out ex-vasall of the former USSR. Instead you meet a country rich in culture and traditional way of living; you encounter people with an open friendlyness and a keen interest for the visitors from the center of Europe (despite they are claiming the geographical centerpoint of this continent for themselves), you find them helpful but without any obtrusiveness. A lot of them felt to go further west to escape from poverty by earning money and bringing it back home to invest in a better life. (A new artificial political barriere is just established now to keep them out once more from the "golden West"for quite a while.)

To reach Ukraine (in the local Kyrillic writing YKPAÏHA) you have to be prepared to get rid of a lot of prejudices. Neither one finds a country suffering from poverty with people cracking cars for living nor a desperate and entirely sucked-out ex-vasall of the former USSR.
Instead you meet a country rich in culture and traditional way of living; you encounter people with an open friendlyness and a keen interest for the visitors from the center of Europe (despite they are claiming the geographical centerpoint of this continent for themselves), you find them helpful but without any obtrusiveness. A lot of them felt to go further west to escape from poverty by earning money and bringing it back home to invest in a better life. (A new artificial political barriere is just established now to keep them out once more from the "golden West"for quite a while.)

They have still - or again - their strong religion (either Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox); there is a number of environmental problems, either as a heritage from the Soviet aera or caused rather recently by the nowadays obviously unevitable plastic generation (replacing the times of natural ressources which used to rot back into nature after use); but one can find also widely unspoiled wilderness in their deep forests, still lacking the increasing hordes of tourists causing growing damage and subsequently severe restrictions.
The Ukrainians are proud people, well managing their lives despite their financial restrictions, and full of hope for a better future, but - as usual in the East - not quite aware of the disadvantages of "development" which they will certainly also have to accept..

4WD adventures and a view to a widely unknown culture - these two aspects combine for a new CAM 3001 documentary. Again some 4WD enthusiasts supplied the logistics to enable this very personal encounter with some off-beaten-track areas of this widely unknown country.