In my new YouTube blog, I talk about our compatriots who were forced to leave Ukraine because of the war and became that very “soft power” shaping a positive image of our country around the world.Kateryna Chebotariova is from Kharkiv. She now lives near Nuremberg and works at the German National Museum. Kateryna founded the Ukrainian hub Spilnota — a volunteer initiative that organizes events for Ukrainians in Nuremberg. Donations go toward tactical medicine supplies for our army.Oksana Zahurska, a TV producer from Kyiv, has long worked in broadcasting. She now lives in Erfurt and serves as a member of the city’s Migrant Advisory Council.My old friend, director and screenwriter Maria Starozhytska, is now in New Zealand with her daughter, writing a script for a new film they plan to shoot there. She compares the film support systems in that tiny country and in Ukraine. “We hope to achieve here what we couldn’t in Ukraine,” Maria says.Ordinary Ukrainians abroad organize exhibitions, meetings, and talks to tell the truth about our country. They do what the state itself should be doing — at their own expense and on their own initiative, without coordination or support.Does it work? Yes. Is it enough? No. Because the state has no right to shift its responsibilities onto the shoulders of refugees.Ukrainian communities abroad receive no systemic support from the state. There are no grant programs for diaspora cultural projects, no coordination between government institutions and active Ukrainians in Europe and beyond. Everyone is left to manage on their own.So what should be done?First, stop writing new strategies and start implementing the ones that already exist — the Public Diplomacy Strategy 2021–2025, the Cultural Development Strategy until 2030, the Ukrainian Institute’s programs for cultural diplomacy, and even the Information Security Strategy and draft law on combating disinformation (which remains only a draft).Second, allocate real budgets for cultural diplomacy. Build a support system for Ukrainian communities abroad — with grants, training, and coordination. Finally, adopt a working law on information security.And most importantly, start functioning as one mechanism. When the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ukrainian Institute each act separately, efficiency suffers.Imagine what Ukrainians abroad could achieve if the state finally fulfilled what’s already written in its own strategies.