Whenever Ukraine is mentioned, my thoughts immediately recall two particular names - Andriy Shevchenko, the talented forward of Milan fame, and that of Yalta, the city renowned for the 1945 conference between Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin meant to discuss Europe's post-war restructuring.

However, throughout the 2009 P1 Championship, my Ukrainian interest was enhanced with two other interesting names - Viktor Shemchuk and Ukrainian Spirit.

Their involvement in a successful sporting venture has led to their establishing of sound relationships with Malta.

Shemchuk is the crew member of Seagull Chaudron, the SuperSport Class 2009 UIM Powerboat P1 world champion. Ukrainian Spirit is a project with a most fascinating concept; it strives to improve to the highest-level Ukrainian Powerboat Sports and to encourage and support competitors in international and world sport events.

Shemchuk, 39, hails from the Ukrainian city of Ternopol. In 1993, he graduated from Lvov State University and today is a Doctor of Philosophy in Law.

He has had a successful legal career heading various high-ranking posts from investigating officer to Deputy General public prosecutor of Ukraine. Moreover, Shemchuk is the president of the National Ukrainian Powerboat Federation.

I had the opportunity to meet Shemchuk recently at an Awards Night, organised by the Malta Powerboat Federation to honour Aaron Ciantar's P1 achievements.

How and when did your interest in powerboats begin?

In 1986, the only Powerboat World Championship ever to be held in former USSR was staged on Ternopol's lake.

Naturally every boy in my home town wanted to be a racer those days, anything related with speed.

One of the organisers then was my father, Viktor Nikolayevich who was Deputy Major of Ternopol. I was extremely interested in powerboat sports, but I did not participate then... yet, my dream of racing never died.

When was the Ukrainian Spirit project set up?

The Ukrainian Spirit project kicked off three years ago. Besides backing us to contest the P1 Championship, Ukrainian Spirit this year supported a children's team in the World JT250 Circuit in Estonia, as well as others to compete in a European Formula 250 Championship in Hungary and a World O250 Circuit Championship in Sweden.

This project is an excellent example where politicians, businessmen and sportsmen joined forces under the auspices of the National Ukrainian Powerboat Federation (NUPF), the only official body which unites and represents interests of Ukrainian powerboat sportsmen.

How popular is powerboat racing in Ukraine?

From the foundation of the federation in 1954, Ukrainian racers were the core of the USSR team in powerboat sports.

There are several Ukrainian winners of international championships within the structure of NUPF, the like of superstar Ivan Gerasimenko, 15-time USSR champion.

Nowadays powerboat sport in Ukraine comprises championship and cup events. We are developing children and youth academies with schools in Kiev and Cherkassy.

Powerboat sport in Ukraine has a 100-year history with the first races held in Odessa in 1909.

That's why victory in Powerboat P1 is so valuable for us in this jubilee year.

What attracted you to P1 and have you been a keen follower of the championship?

Yes, I have been following the championship for some years, initially only on TV but in 2008 I started to attend P1 races as a spectator.

These races are the equivalent to F1 on waters and that's why they are so widely followed in my country. The philosophy of P1 itself attracted me and turned me back to my childhood dream of participation in powerboat races.

P1 has its own spirit, and not only the principle "faster, higher, stronger" is put as the cornerstone, but also the principles of mutual respect between teams. I pay tribute to P1 organisers that they manage to maintain this spirit from season to season.

It is a fascinating emotional world, where participants are not only racers, but supporters and technical staff too. Moreover, it is a big powerboat holiday for the country that hosts it".

Why did you choose a Chaudron boat?

When our team, together with the investors Sergey Tsyupko and Sergey Brova, who are renowned Ukrainian patrons of art, decided to build a boat for the SuperSport Class we had many options.

We attended various boat shows including the famous one in Miami. But none of the leading companies fulfilled our requirements... we needed a company that would not only build a boat but would follow it giving technical support and a specialist's service throughout the whole season.

Such a complex approach we found only in one company - Chaudron. It is no coincidence that its boats have become world champions three times in a row.

What are your future P1 plans and ambitions?

For us the sky is the limit. The first aim for us is the participation of a totally Ukrainian-structured team in P1.

We are already preparing this team. We have agreements with investors and advertisers who will put their logos on our boat. The second aim is to carry out a stage of the 2010 World Championship in Ukraine.

We have already certain approved agreements on this possibility. On clarification of some small details Ukraine should host a P1 championship stage hopefully in May 2010.

While our main plans are connected with P1, we continue to support the Ukrainian Spirit project, to have our country represented in various international competitions for children and adult teams alike.

But P1 clearly will be the avant-garde of this project. Obviously, in the crew of Ukrainian team there will be two sportsmen: Viktor Shemchuk and Alexey Chendekov.

Are Maltese elements to feature in your future P1 plans and ambitions?

We are like family members in our team and the founder of this big relationship unit is the Ciantar family. These people, I can confirm, have made a lot for the strengthening of friendly ties between Malta and Ukraine.

We are planning to develop co-operation between Chaudron and Ukrainian brokers which could lead to building boats in Malta for Ukrainian customers. Today, we are even considering the possibility of building a boat to contest the Evolution Class.

Actually, co-operation on a broad scale between Maltese and Ukrainian businessmen enjoys mutual consent: in boatbuilding, banking and property selling where P1 has became a kind of accelerator of bilateral relations.

We have proposed to our Maltese friends to organise a business forum to discuss different ways of co-operation between Ukraine and Malta. Thanks to our close relations with Chaudron we feel comfortable in Malta. We became a kind of goodwill ambassadors for each other. We are proud that we can represent our Maltese friends.