What did Ukraine's autumn of 2018 say about recognition abroad?
Two reports from late October 2018 show Ukrainians honoured on the international stage, in sport and in human rights.
What did recognition abroad look like for Ukraine as of 29 October 2018? Two reports from the preceding days offer a partial answer, one from the sports field and one from European institutions.
On 27 October 2018, Ukrainian competitors at the Invictus Games in Sydney were reported to have won 20 medals: seven gold, ten silver and three bronze. The medal count is the plainest measure of how the team performed there.
Two days earlier, on 25 October 2018, Oleg Sentsov was awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The prize carries the name of Andrei Sakharov and was given to Sentsov for his stance on freedom of thought.
The two items are different in kind: one is a tally of athletic results, the other an award from a European institution. Taken together, they show Ukrainian names appearing in international news in the final days of October 2018, and they remain a useful marker of how the country was seen beyond its borders at that moment.
