The recovery of Ukraine is a topic that is continuously discussed today at many international conferences. Alongside these debates there are also concrete actions, like those organised in Switzerland, where the ambassador of the Odessa Regional Council Yulia Schimanski-Matiushkina, founder of the investment and legal company S&Yu, carried out business, training and humanitarian projects.
Her path to Europe began with the University of Bern, where she completed the CAS (Certificate of Advanced Studies) Rebuild Ukraine programme. This training experience was the start for understanding how to combine European standards and Ukrainian realities, turning them into new projects and partnerships.
Having been Member of the Odessa Regional Council 2016-2020, Yulia was appointed as an ambassador of the Odessa regional administration, in July 2023.
In this position she organised, in November 2023, a course on infrastructure protection and civil defense with the Swiss Federal Department of Civil Protection, in order to exchange the experience of Ukrainian specialists’, who were brought by Yulia. She is also the initiator of collaboration between European and Swiss higher and secondary education councils and universities and educational councils in Ukraine, particularly in the Odessa region, developing programmes in accordance with the specific focus of each institution.
Not only training projects, but also humanitarian aid. In September 2023, 6 haemodialysis machines (Fresenius-5008) were delivered to the Odessa Regional Clinical Hospital, thanks to a Belgian volunteer group. The initiative was coordinated by the Secretary of the Environmental Safety Council Eduard Ryabiy and the Head of the Odessa Regional Council Grigory Didenko. The General Director of the hospital Yuriy Gulchenko and the medical staff expressed their gratitude for the much-needed equipment. Moreover, with the help of Igor Vitenko Foundation, some ambulances were supplied to various hospitals across Ukraine, with the purpose to strengthen the healthcare system.
The activity of Odessa regional ambassador brought Yulia to participate actively in international conferences and forums related to the reconstruction of Ukraine and international cooperation:
- Business Forum in Lugano, July 2022, on “Recovery of Ukraine”.
- International Economic Conference in Brussels (2023).
- Conference “Rebuild Ukraine” in Warsaw, November 2024.
- International Economic Forum in Davos (2024–2025).
Moreover, several local events were organized by Swiss and European partners and institutions, with a focus on cooperation with Ukraine. This activity made Shimanski-Matiushkina play the role of a representative of Odessa in the international arena. “My task is to show Ukraine as a country of opportunities. And Odessa is the heart of these opportunities,” Yulia notes.
To support her promotional activity she founded the legal firm S&Yu in Odessa, which is not just a legal structure, but also a tool that combines international law, investment projects and diplomacy. S&Yu helps investors to approach the Ukrainian market and Ukrainian companies to work in Europe.
Yulia’s activities represent the diplomatic style of the new Ukrainian generation, which combines business, with law and humanitarian initiatives, in order to achieve a prosperous and safer Odessa, inside a strong and independent Ukraine.
