The National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service has initiated the second stage of the information campaign ‘No to Dishonest Officials’ (‘Сhynovnyk’ Under Ban’) with the slogan ‘Territory Free of Сhynovnyky’.

‘The key principles of our ‘territory’ are integrity, empathy, gender equality, inclusiveness and barrier-free access. It is important for us to abandon mentally alien concepts and get rid of phenomena that society considers inappropriate for a public servant. We have marked the entrance to the NAUCS building accordingly - ‘Сhynovnyky-Free Territory’. We are grateful to our colleagues from many regional and district state administrations who actively support us. We invite our colleagues from other government institutions to join the initiative and mark their offices. We are ready to continue to share illustrative materials, a brand book and a message box,’ said Nataliia Aliushyna.

The Head of the NAUCS noted that, according to search statistics, Ukrainian media used the term ‘сhynovnyk‘ and its derivatives an average of 5350 times during the week. This activity illustrates the persistence of the myth of the dominance of ‘сhynovnyk’, which is largely rooted in the public consciousness.

‘Our history has no 'сhynovnyk' basis. This term was fixed by Peter the Great in the ‘Table of Ranks‘, a document that became a factor in the destruction of the Ukrainian elite. The use of this imperial cliché infects society with hate against public service. It is used by everyone in the public sphere: journalists, MPs, government officials, and experts. And this strengthens a foreign historical tradition in society,‘ said the Head of the Agency.

‘It's painful to see that after 33 years of independence and 10 years of war, Ukraine is living in someone else's narratives. We call on the public to stop using the term ‘сhynovnyk‘ as mentally, historically and politically alien to Ukrainians. We propose national equivalents: ‘state‘ and 'public' servant. Ukrainians are associated with ‘сhyn‘ solely because of their forced detention in the Moscow empire. Our values are the desire for freedom and national statehood. For a Ukrainian public servant, the framework of an ‘сhynovnyk‘ of a dictatorial regime is unacceptable in principle,‘ Nataliia Aliushyna noted.

For information: The NAUCS team initiated the educational campaign ‘No to Dishonest Officials’ (‘Сhynovnyk’ Under Ban’) as a response to the mindless identification of Ukrainian civil servants with ‘сhynovnyk‘. The goal is to get rid of foreign narratives and introduce national equivalents.