Ukraine-born Russian diplomat resigns from Russian Embassy and appears in culinary competition in Uruguay
A former Russian diplomat born in Zaporizhzhia has won a cooking competition in Uruguay. Kateryna Hermanovych worked at the Russian Embassy in Uruguay until 2022 and resigned after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. The woman took up baking and won a cooking competition after resigning.
Source: AFP
In an interview with journalists, Kateryna said she retrained as a cook and won the Bake Off Uruguay cooking competition.
The woman was born in Zaporizhzhia but moved to Russia with her parents and sisters as a child. She received a diplomatic education in Moscow and began to build a diplomatic career in the Russian Foreign Ministry.
When Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kateryna worked as a consul in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital. In March 2022, Hermanovych wrote an application for dismissal.
Currently, Kateryna is expecting her third child from Cameroonian football player Alain Yombi, and also plans to open a dessert department in one of the restaurants in Montevideo. According to Kateryna, she has no plans to return to Russia.
In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia, Kateryna Hermanovych said that she has been living in Uruguay for the last 11 years, 10 of which she worked at the Russian Embassy.
Kateryna was on maternity leave when Russia launched a full-scale invasion. The woman was supposed to return to the diplomatic service at the beginning of March 2022, when her youngest son would have turned one and a half years old.
Quote: "I realised that I did not want to continue working and return to Russia, so I gave up all my "immunities" and stayed to live in Uruguay.
I have an older son who also condemns the war and does not want to return to Russia so as not to be mobilised," she says.
The woman said that part of her family now lives on the peninsula temporarily occupied by the Russians.
"For me, military actions are a failure of diplomacy. Crimea should be part of Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war in 2014, I have not been to Ukraine or Crimea.
I help my relatives in Ukraine, with whom we keep in touch. Some stopped communicating with me because I represented the interests of the aggressor country," Kateryna added.
The native of Zaporizhia also noted that she has a Russian passport, so she will not be able to enter Ukraine until she receives Uruguayan citizenship.
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