‘No regrets’: Why Australian Pixie Shmigel is proud to call Ukraine home | latikambourke
Charity worker Pixie Shmigel and her partner Blake Badman moved to Ukraine in September last year, but she has no regrets about her decision to leave the safety of the city where she grew up, Sydney.
She grew up in Sydney speaking Ukrainian at home and was determined that the chaos of the pandemic and the difficulty of flying internationally would not crush her dream of living in the homeland of her grandparents. Moscow denies it plans an invasion, but the US has already rejected demands for assurances that the Ukraine will never be admitted to NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formed to counter the former Soviet Union, which promises that if one member is attacked, all will come to their aid.Ukraine applied for NATO membership in 2008, although this was shelved in 2010 by the then President.