Two months after taking up her post as Ukraine’s ambassador to Portugal, Maryna Mykhailenko is giving new impetus to the Ukrainian diplomatic mission.

Christmas is over and in Portugal we are facing the challenges, and hopefully the delights, of a new year. For Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, however, Christmas falls this Sunday, January 7.

It is possible to argue that the United Kingdom could get on perfectly well without the anachronism of monarchy. Does the world we live in today really need so much pomp and circumstance, it could be asked.