Contact: Sammy McDavid
Ukraine's top diplomat to the United States will visit Jackson Sept. 20 as a special guest of Mississippi State University.
Ambassador Oleh V. Shamshur will be guest speaker for the city's Executive Lecture Forum, which is coordinated by MSU's Janos Radvanyi Chair in International Security Studies. The noon luncheon program will be held at the downtown University Club.
Earlier in the day, Shamshur will be meeting with officials of the Mississippi Development Authority.
His appointment as U.S. ambassador began in January 2005. Previously, he was deputy minister of foreign affairs for four years. Holding a doctoral degree from Kyiv (formerly Kiev) University and fluent in English, French and Russian, he has served in a variety of diplomatic and governmental posts since the early 1990s.
Ukraine is an Eastern European nation that, though slightly smaller than Texas, is the continent's second largest country. Strategically located on the Black Sea at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, it has a population of some 47 million. Achieving independence from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, it now has a republican form of government.
Iron ore, coal, manganese, natural gas, oil, and salt are among Ukraine's natural resources.
While Executive Lecture Forums are not public events, interested members of the news media always are invited. To ensure adequate seating, reporters planning to attend are asked to contact Tan Tsai or Rebecca Kirkland of the Radvanyi Chair office in advance at 662-325-8406 or jr1@ra.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.