Margaryta Sytnik and Alena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz are the new members of the Polish Public Relations Association admitted after a new initiative was announced last week: #UkraincywPSPR. The former, with extensive journalistic experience, had to flee from Russian security services and has been working in the field of PR in Poland for three years. The latter has just fled Kiev. She is an expert and a member of international industry organizations with significant professional accomplishments.
The aim of the campaign is to officially invite PR professionals from Ukraine who are currently in Poland to take advantage of the option of free membership in the association in 2022 and to integrate into the community. Depending on individual needs, the campaign is to facilitate adaptation in the profession on the Polish labour market, networking, exchange of know-how and recruitment support.
"For obvious reasons, many representatives of the Ukrainian PR industry are moving to Poland and have to set up their professional life anew. Those who have worked here before are losing their employers or clients from Ukraine. We are opening wide and are very pleased to welcome our first two new members. It's heart-breaking that although their lives were very different, in the end they both had to suddenly change their lives under the influence of... Russia. We want not only to support such people as part of industry solidarity, but also to simply develop substantive cooperation," explains Luiza Jurgiel-Żyła, President of PSPR.
MARGARYTA SYTNIK
Margaryta Sytnik came to the PR industry after 15 years of working in media, including as a correspondent and head of foreign editorial offices in Moscow and Warsaw for the largest Ukrainian TV station «1+1». Since 2020, she has been working as a PR manager at an international HR agency Gremi Personal in Gdańsk. "For me, working in public relations is an amazing professional challenge that constantly inspires me to grow, gain knowledge and experience. I am glad that I will be able to do it also in PSPR. I see a lot of opportunities in the synergy of Ukrainian and Polish professionals for the development of the industry in Poland: after all, we already have experience in running joint PR campaigns on a global scale, such as the support of Euro-2012. Russia's aggression and the resulting migration crisis will present us with new challenges. Together we can do something new and bigger," says M. Sytnik, who is also currently helping to develop messages in Ukrainian for the Tricity media dedicated to newly arrived refugees from her homeland.
After the outbreak of the war, Margaryta gave an interview to the Onet portal, in which she talked not only about the situation in her country, but also why she fled from the Russian security services. Following is an excerpt from the interview:
In 2014, I conducted a journalistic investigation in Moscow about the so-called volunteers who supplied separatist troops in Donbass. I had to leave. The FSB began to take an interest in me. This happened after I revealed that one of the then militant leaders, namely Igor Girkin aka Strelkov, was a Russian intelligence officer who had nothing to do with Donbass; he was a Russian citizen from Moscow. My friends who worked in the Russian Foreign Ministry warned me that the security services would not leave it that way. Several times I realized I was being followed. One time I went on holiday. It turned out that at that time someone called the owner of my apartment in Moscow and said that I was linked to Ukrainian terrorists. When I found out about it, I immediately contacted my station. They told me to go back to Ukraine right away.
(journalist) You left all your things in Moscow?
Yes, I didn't want to risk checking if I could pack safely. Around that time, the Russians arrested pilot Nadia Savchenko in Donbas. Besides, the owner of 1+1 TV, where I worked, Igor Kolomoisky, is a fierce enemy of Vladimir Putin. I returned to Kiev. Then I came to Poland and stayed here.
Read the entire interview with Margaryta [Click].
- Sytnik's LinkedIn profile to be found HERE.
ALENA DALSKAYA-LATOSIEWICZ
The second new member of the association is Аlena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz. "I am grateful to the PSPR for giving me and my fellow PR professionals the opportunity to join other PR professionals in various fields. The analysis and expertise of each member are invaluable and open up new prospects for the PR industry in general," argues Аlena, who continues to actively advocate for her company and integrate the e-sport industry around aid projects for the fighting Ukraine.
Аlena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz is CCO at WePlay Holding. Her main areas of expertise are strategic communications, media relations including running the press office and SMM, crisis communications, reputation management, stakeholder management and personal PR.
Prior to joining WePlay Holding, Alena had held the position of PR director at SAME & Friends Marketing Communications Agency, worked as a senior editor for Marie Claire magazine and had been responsible for marketing at Video International Ukraine.
She was born and raised in Kiev, the heart of independent Ukraine. Realizing that public relations was her calling, Alena dedicated a large portion of her life to studying to become a certified PR and communications professional and receive a Dip CIPR from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. She is a member of the international associations CIPR and PRCA.
- Dalskaya-Latosiewicz's LinkedIn profile to be found HERE.
PSPR would like to invite more Ukrainian women and men in the PR industry to join our community. Already now, in addition to Poles, we have representatives from India, USA and Georgia.
Let us recall that the Polish Public Relations Association has launched a special initiative for Ukrainian colleagues. It officially invites PR professionals from Ukraine who are currently in Poland to take the option of a free membership in the organization in 2022 and integrate into the community. The campaign is to facilitate adaptation in the profession on the Polish labour market, networking, exchange of know-how and recruitment support. PSPR would like to stress that the initiative is open to all Ukrainian citizens, not only those who have had to flee the war in recent weeks or are about to do so. Those interested in membership can apply (in English or Polish) in the standard way, through a form on the website.
More information about the #UkraincywPSPR campaign - a special initiative for our Ukrainian Colleagues - can be found HERE.
PSPR application form:
https://polskipr.pl/wstap-do-pspr