Well known Ukrainian-American broadcaster Peter Zalmayev has left Ukraine for the Global South on a whirlwind 35-country mission as unofficial spokesperson for Ukrainian democracy. Zalmayev is concerned about the incoming Trump administration, an end to the flow of armaments, and a forced settlement. “I’m visiting countries we have taken for granted in the past to ask for their support. We want a settlement we can live with as a sovereign democratic nation, we do not want capitulation. Ukraine needs a large-scale grass-roots outreach, a listening and talking tour, to counter Russian propaganda, a longer-term effort involving civil society, prominent cultural figures, journalists and activists to identify commonalities and build genuine relationships that will outlive this war.”
I caught up with Peter in Wellington, New Zealand. He’d already been to Samoa, Fiji and Tonga, meeting the ambassadors from Ukraine, local politicians, and Ukrainian refugees wherever he could find them. There are now more than 6.6 million Ukrainian refugees living abroad and 8 million displaced within Ukraine, the largest refugee crisis since World War II. The numbers increase daily. Many have found refuge in the Hudson Valley through Biden’s “Uniting for Ukraine Program.” Unlike refugee resettlement, the program allows a faster entry process into the country and relies on sponsors rather than resettlement agencies. More residents in New York have volunteered to sponsor a refugee than in any other state — about 28,000 — most sponsors are from New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. More than 25 families have been taken in by the Ukrainian settlement in Kerhonkson.
Peter Zalmayev grew up under communism in the predominantly Russian-speaking, coal-mining city of Donetsk, in Eastern Ukraine. Even when he was very young, he was aware of Soviet indoctrination and wanted to break through the “Iron Curtain” to travel far and wide. “You know I’ve never lost my wander lust, I haven’t conquered it. I’ve been to more than 100 countries,” he said in our conversation the other day on What’s App audio.
Peter got his chance to escape Donetsk in 1994 when a group of Christian missionaries from the American Bible Belt invited him to come to the US to study at a Bible college, become a minister and return to Ukraine to lead the flock. He took them up on part of their offer: to travel and study in the United States. He received his Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, and became the director of the New York/Kyiv based NGO Eurasia Democracy Initiative. Tri-lingual, he moves with ease between Ukrainian, Russian and English which has made him a valuable commentator since the war began. In addition to his own programs within Ukraine, he’s become a regular on BBC, CNN International, Al Jazeera and France 4. His commentary is heartfelt, energetic, informed and sustaining to Ukrainians at home and abroad, as well as exiled Russian dissidents.
So I was surprised when I heard that he was going to be away for nearly a year. I asked about his family — his partner, two young sons, and his mother — even though I knew that he had sent them abroad as soon as the war began and that they were safe. “I stopped off to see them on my way to Australia,” he said. “They are all well.”
I thought back to the attempted invasion, the Russian tanks rolling towards Kyiv, and knew that Peter and his colleagues would be among the first to be rounded up, all media shut down as it is with any invasion or coup. “When the Russians failed to take Kyiv, I knew this would be a long war,” he told me when I first interviewed him in 2022.
All wars end eventually. Last October Zelensky outlined a ten-point Peace Plan, a negotiating tool. Is Putin prepared for concessions and withdrawal? Will Peter be satisfied with the final settlement? Will Trump interfere to the detriment of Ukraine? Stay tuned for another update in the months ahead.
Carol Bergman last wrote about Peter Zalmayev for HV1 at the beginning of the war, “Hope in a Stamp,” and then caught up with him a year later in “Dateline Kyiv.”
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