At the Ukrainian restaurant Veselka in New York, diplomats to the UN participated in a master class on baking paska (traditional Ukrainian Easter bread) using flour made from grain grown on demined land in Ukraine.
According to a Ukrinform correspondent in New York, the event was part of the international awareness campaign Soul of Soil 2.0, initiated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ukraine.
Under the guidance of Veselka’s chefs, paskas were baked by diplomats from Ukraine, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Croatia, Italy, as well as UN Under-Secretary-General Xu Haoliang and members of the Ukrainian community in New York.
“This project brings people together and highlights the importance of raising awareness about a very serious issue – the heavy contamination of Ukrainian land with mines due to Russian aggression,” said acting Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Khrystyna Hayovyshyn, in a comment to Ukrinform.
She noted that approximately 139,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory are potentially hazardous due to landmines.
Hayovyshyn emphasized that Ukraine has always played a key role in global food security, exporting 400 million tons of food annually.
“We will continue this work,” she said. “But we need the support of the international community to make our land mine-free. That is why we are working to draw attention to this issue.”
As Ukrinform previously reported, a similar paska-baking master class using flour from demined fields was also held on Saturday in Kharkiv.
Source: Diplomats in New York bake Easter bread using grain from demined fields in Ukraine
