Panel SA: Ukrainian businessman demands Bolsonaro’s position against Russian attack

The businessman Sergio José Maciura, owner of the tourism agency Dnipro, which specializes in travel to Ukraine, believes that the country invaded by Russia and its neighbors will be harmed by the reduction in tourists, but the flow in Europe in general will also suffer the effects. of military action.

Maciura, who is also president of the Brazil-Ukraine chamber, says he has suspended business missions and that the community demands that the Bolsonaro government take an effective stance against the attack.

like mr. are you following the war from here? I am the grandson of Ukrainians, we are celebrating 130 years of our immigration to Brazil. We have family, cousins, uncles, a direct relationship there. It’s dramatic. This relationship with Russia has always been very troubled.

Russia has never accepted an independent Ukraine and this was exacerbated by the NATO talks, it triggered the process of this invasion, this Russian aggression on the territory. We are following.

I have a partner, from a Ukrainian company, who is hiding with her mother and little daughter in a bunker on the Russian border. And we don’t know the extent of these actions by Putin. We are baffled, in the middle of 2022 a nation with the power of Russia to do what it is doing.

Mr. has a tourist agency. Have trips been cancelled? I have a company named after the Dnipro River in Ukraine. She was born 29 years ago focused on the Ukraine destiny, because of our family relationship. It is a beautiful country, it has historical and cultural riches. Of course, for an invaded country, naturally, no one wants to be at risk.

January to March are not traditional months for traveling there because of the cold. We don’t have a winter itinerary. So we don’t have passengers there. Our projects are always after May and June.

Of course it will have an impact depending on how the situation is there. Today, everything is at a standstill, nobody will want to go to Ukraine at this moment or from now on, until things are calm. And not just Ukraine. It also generates negative expectations for tourism in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, countries linked to NATO, deploying troops, military equipment.

This is sure to have an impact on the travel industry. There have already been cancellations of Aeroflot flights and closure of airspace. It generates an impact within Europe itself, in the flow of tourists to Russia.

Mr. Are you also president of the Brazil-Ukraine chamber of industry and commerce? This. It’s a recent project. We are restarting a project carried out many years ago in Brazil and Ukraine, focused on the areas of industry and innovation, because Ukraine is a country with very strong technological production. And it is evident that this compromises any movement of missions from there to here and from here to there.

We were planning the coming of Ukrainian delegations here in May, technical visits, mainly here in Paraná, focused on technologies in agribusiness. It’s suspended. We can’t even think about anyone traveling right now.

Have Ukrainian businessmen here come together to talk about it? Yes. It should have an impact on the flow of trade. It is premature to speak. Immediately, it is the perplexity of the world and ours in the face of an atrocity carried out by a country with this military capacity.

It is a cowardly attitude against a country that, in 1994, in the Budapest Memorandum, gave up its entire nuclear arsenal in favor of world peace. And now, sadly, it is being attacked for not having that ability.

This will generate distrust of other countries with Russia, an international pariah that will lose relations. It will generate a big imbalance with Russia in the commercial area. But with Ukraine, we have to wait.

Are you from the Ukrainian community making contact with the government? Yes, we are centralizing our communications with state governments, such as Paraná, Ratinho Júnior, who have given us full support.

We received a statement from the São Paulo Department of Justice, placing the state at the disposal of eventual refugees in terms of housing, documentation, and we thank you very much on behalf of the community.

We have to be prepared, because there can be a huge outflow of people from there to look for alternatives.

Regarding the government, when President Bolsonaro went to Russia, there was an important position from the Ukrainian community in which we expressed that Brazil is a sovereign country, which has trade relations. We were not opposed to his going to Russia, but that he could also, on his return, stop in Ukraine, to talk to President Zelensky, but it was not possible.

We followed the demonstration by Vice President Mourão, who was blunt [disse não concordar com o ataque feito pela Rússia] and was even contested by the president.

We want Brazil to also express its repudiation of the invasion of Ukrainian territory.

I think it’s important for Brazil, despite having trade relations with Russia. But you have to understand that the attitude that Russia has taken is not that of a correct country, which wants to have relations with the world.

Yes, it has to manifest itself and we ask this to the Brazilian government through our representatives, deputies and senators, so that they cover the effective position of the president, so that he repudiates this atrocity that is being done against the territory of an independent country and a peaceful people.

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Director of the company Dnipró Gold Turismo, specialized in travel to Ukraine and president of the Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Innovation Brazil-Ukraine. He was also vice president of the Ukrainian-Brazilian Central Representation