Natalka Cmoc, ambassador of Canada to Ukraine, says she finds it important to stay. ‘We consider ourselves witnesses,’ she told The Globe and Mail.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
In most of the world, being the Canadian ambassador means an endless stream of formal parties, marked by speeches about the potential for an expanded trading relationship with the host country.
That’s not a life that Natalka Cmoc recognizes. On too many mornings, her job as Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine begins with the predawn scream of air-raid sirens over the city.
As soon as that happens, Ms. Cmoc looks at her phone, which is already receiving a barrage of information about the number of Russian missiles and drones headed toward Kyiv. She then joins a Signal chat with other members of the embassy staff, and a quick decision is made about whether the diplomats can wait out this attack in the safe rooms of their apartments, or whether it’s one of those nights that will have to be spent in an underground shelter.
When the all-clear signal is given, it’s time to get on with the business of representing Canada in wartime Kyiv.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Cmoc’s own “safe room” is the windowless corridor outside her bedroom, where a small cot waits, always made-up, beneath a wall map of Ukraine. A nearby closet is packed with water bottles, a headlamp and her bulletproof vest. A walkie-talkie and another flashlight sit charging on the floor. If they keep such gear at other Canadian embassies abroad, the ambassador certainly doesn’t have to sleep within reach of it.
The threat from above is real. The building next to the residence of one staff member, a local hire, was struck in a June 17 assault when Russia launched more than 400 missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing 30 people and injuring 172 others. Five days later, the cousin of a different embassy staff member was left homeless by another massive attack that left 10 people dead in the capital.
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When explosions end, and the all-clear signal is given, it’s time to get on with the regular business of representing Canada in wartime Kyiv, which is often about showing Ukrainians that Canada still stands with them, three years and five months after the full-scale Russian invasion began.
“My number one concern for the team is sleep deprivation. I’m worried about that. What else can I say? We live here like everyone else, right?” Ms. Cmoc said in an interview at her official residence in the Ukrainian capital.
“We know that the strikes are louder, scarier and more will get through the air defence,” she said, referring to how Russia has been increasing the size and frequency of its air attacks in recent weeks, just as Ukraine is running low on the U.S.-supplied Patriot air defence missiles that help guard the skies over Kyiv and other cities.
Ms. Cmoc, a fluent Ukrainian speaker, served in the embassy as counsellor for technical co-operation between 2011 and 2013 before returning to Ottawa, where she worked as a senior civil servant. Despite the physical and emotional grind, she has put her hand up to stay on for a third year in Kyiv, opening the door to further prolonging a stint that began in August, 2023.
While a third year in Kyiv would mean a third year of living apart from her husband, as well as their two grown children – Canadian government policy forbids diplomats from bringing their family with them to an active war zone, a policy that also applies to Iraq, Haiti, Mali and South Sudan – the 55-year-old Ms. Cmoc says her family supports her decision to remain.
“For me, it’s important to stay. We consider ourselves witnesses. I can tell somebody what’s happening in Kyiv, because I’m in Kyiv. I also think it’s incredibly important for solidarity,” she said, adding that she also believes that the presence of Western ambassadors in Kyiv serves as a deterrent against even worse Russian attacks on the capital.
Despite the physical and emotional grind, Ms. Cmoc has put her hand up to stay on for a third year in Kyiv.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
Along with other Western ambassadors in Kyiv, Ms. Cmoc has been stretching the boundaries and potential of public diplomacy. In the wake of some of the worst strikes, Ms. Cmoc has gone to the scene afterward, using social media to show the impact of the deadly Russian attacks. She has also become known in Ukraine for promoting LGBTQ rights – a photograph of her wearing a rainbow-themed version of the traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka shirt garnered thousands of likes online – as well as the role that women have played in wartime.
She has the symbol of Zla Mavka, an all-women’s resistance group working behind the front lines in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, tattooed on her left forearm.
“When I signed up, Minister Joly said to me at the time, ‘I hope you’re comfortable doing interviews, social media and public speaking.’ So, I took that as my marching orders. Be visible,” Ms. Cmoc said, referring to then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly.
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The one topic Ms. Cmoc – like most Western politicians and diplomats – is careful to avoid is U.S. President Donald Trump, who has set the war for Ukraine on a more difficult course since returning to office in January. First, Mr. Trump pushed Ukraine to make peace on terms viewed as largely favourable to Russia. More recently, Mr. Trump appears to have lost interest in the conflict.
It’s a disinterest that works in Russia’s favour. Mr. Trump has been slow to introduce new sanctions targeting Moscow, and his administration has effectively delayed the supply of U.S. weapons to Ukraine just as Russia is stepping up its attacks.
The closest Ms. Cmoc has come to giving her opinion on the new U.S. administration was an April 11 photograph she posted on LinkedIn and X, showing her standing alongside then-U.S. ambassador Bridget Brink in front of a destroyed apartment block in the city of Kryvyi Rih. The building had been hit by a Russian ballistic missile a week earlier, killing 20 people, including nine children.
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Ms. Brink had come under harsh criticism in Ukrainian media for issuing a statement about the attack that didn’t use the word “Russia.” In line with the Trump administration’s policies, she wrote only that the deadly attack showed “why this war must end.”
Ms. Brink announced her intention to resign as ambassador on April 10 – the day before she and Ms. Cmoc travelled to Kryvyi Rih – and has since become a loud critic of Mr. Trump’s policies toward Russia and Ukraine, while running for Congress as a Democrat in her home state of Michigan.
Ms. Cmoc says there’s nothing to read into the photograph other than what it shows: two ambassadors trying to raise awareness about another devastating Russian attack on Ukraine.
“My picture was a woman ambassador to a woman ambassador in solidarity,” she said, before a brief pause that suggested she was carefully choosing her next words. “I know she believes in Ukraine, and I believe she did everything she could.”