MP Slavjanka Petrovska took part in Ukraine's National Prayer Breakfast, held on 23 August in Kyiv, ahead of the country's 35th independence anniversary. The event is held under the patronage of the Ukrainian president and brings together domestic and foreign representatives, members of parliament and religious leaders.

During the visit, Petrovska was presented with the Order of Princess Olga, first class. The decoration was awarded to her by the Ukrainian president on 4 September 2023, for her contribution to strengthening Ukraine's defence capabilities, during the period when she was defence minister. The order was handed over by Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

Three years between the decision and the presentation. That is a long road for a decoration, and that interval alone says something about the pace at which things move when a war outlasts terms in office.

What stands behind the order

Petrovska also met Zhovkva, confirming Macedonia's support for Ukraine and its commitment to reaching a just and lasting peace. The parliamentary press service said her participation expresses the country's solidarity with the Ukrainian people in preserving their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

A decoration for contributing to defence capabilities is not awarded for statements at conferences. It is awarded for specific decisions taken at a time when those decisions were not popular everywhere, and when each one carried a price at home.

Macedonia is a small country and its contribution to the large accounts of this war is modest in scale. But for a state whose heaviest foreign-policy burden for decades has been precisely that its voice does not count, a first-class order presented in Kyiv is a reminder that there is a difference between being small and meaning nothing.