Mass protests. Snipers. Political unrest. The threat of martial law. Nothing seems to dissuade American men from traveling to Ukraine in search of love.
Ukraine, that little country whose borders are currently under siege by masses of Russian troops to the East, has been in the news a lot lately. A time-line of critical events in the country's last 6 months would read something like: November: Ukrainian President abandons bid to join European Union / Pro EU - Anti Government Protests Develop as thousands of protesters gather in Independent Square, Kiev. December: As protests grow to 300,000, activists seize government buildings. January: Draconian anti-protests laws are enacted, then repealed as protests grow. February: Protesters are shot by Ukrainian secret police, almost 100 people die. President Yanukovich is overthrown and leaves country. Russian troops amass on the Ukrainian borders. Armed men seize Crimean airport. March: Russia invades Crimea, fires warning shots to unarmed Ukrainian soldiers trying to recapture Crimean airport. Mass protests, supporting both sides, organize and march in city centers throughout Ukraine. April: Russia threatens to invade other cities in Ukraine's Eastern front. Indeed, the political situation in Ukraine is unstable and volatile enough to erupt into chaos in any given area and at any given time.
But why should any of that stop a determined guy from getting on a plane to go right to the heart of conflicted areas to find a wife!
A number of undeterred Romeo's, armed with a US passport and all the objectivity of a bull elk during rutting season, are getting aboard planes bound for Ukraine's far east. Their mission: to court, seduce and ultimately marry one of the thousands of beautiful Ukrainian women who may be more determined than ever to find a husband and get out of Dodge. Phoenix-based A Foreign Affair, the last international dating company to still operate group romance travel tours to Ukraine, offers their clients the opportunity to at least travel together with the support of an American tour leader and savvy locals to cities like Kiev, where AFA started conducting romance tours 15 years ago. A romance tour, lest you haven't heard, is a 10 day, tightly orchestrated singles event where 2 dozen guys get the chance to meet literally hundreds of foreign women through a series of parties and individually arranged dates. CEO John Adams gets a daily briefing from staff abroad each morning, and then picks up his phone to clue in his upcoming tour clients. "We've taken double, even triple the precautions in making sure our guys are well informed of the risks as well as the rewards of travel to Ukraine right now," Adams says, "including offering a complete refund all money if they decide to back out, and it's clear that nothing is going to stop them from getting on that plane. It's almost as if the more serious the situation gets in Ukraine, the more determined these guys are to go. We're obviously concerned and doing as much as we can to present the facts to our guys, but until the situation reaches a level truly life-threatening, as long as they want to go, we'll go." Adams also told us of a romance tour currently underway in the cities of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaparozhye where socials have been attended by a "record number of women."
Virtually every city in Ukraine has experienced some level of protests or unrest, albeit with very few injuries or arrests per se. People on the ground are saying despite what you see in the news each day, life goes on. People go to work, come home, take their kids to swimming lessons, meet friends for a dinner out at the cafe.
Are guys making their way to the front-lines going to get extra credit from Ukrainian ladies for making such a monumental effort? "I don't know about that," says Cory, an AFA tour client from the midwest, "but come to think of it I have been dumped by women before who left me for active military guys. It was like - 'this guy gets shot at so he's manlier.' I mean seriously - what is that!" When asked if he was aware of the imminent risks involved in traveling to Ukraine for love - versus other, more peaceful destinations like the Philippines, one would-be foreign bride finder laughed. "Oh, sure. Absolutely. But there may not be a better time to try this. Think of the impact all of this has had on Ukrainian women, many of whom struggle to find a reliable life-mate in the best of times. If there's gonna be any kind of a coup detat while I'm there - I hope I'm the one being occupied."