UKRAINE REACTS TO TERRORIST ATTACKS ON U.S. (09/16/01)

UKRAINE REACTS TO TERRORIST ATTACKS ON U.S.

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine led the international response to the unprecedented terrorist attacks on Washington and New York on September 11 when its Permanent Mission to the United Nations called a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council to coordinate global reaction. For security reasons, the meeting was held outside the confines of the United Nations at the mission headquarters of the Ukrainian delegation in New York.

Ukraine's ambassador to the U.N. Valeri Kuchynskyi who chaired the meeting, condemned the terrorist attack and called for an adequate global response.

"Humanity is shocked by the catastrophic effects of the terrorist attack on the U.S. The Security Council considers these acts a challenge to all humanity," said Mr. Kuchynsky, according to a press release issued by Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the U.N.

Ukraine is in its second and final year as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, occupying one of the four rotating chairs.

The unusual meeting - one of the first formal international reactions to the attack - was part of several initiatives and gestures by Ukraine and its citizens in expression of support and sympathy for the United States and its people made in the initial days following the tragedy.

President Leonid Kuchma, who had just concluded the Ukraine-European Union summit in Yalta with European Commission President Romano Prodi and European Union Secretary of Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana on September 11, issued a statement expressing shock and offering condolences.

Messrs. Prodi and Solana, who were at Symferopol Airport in Crimea on their way back to Brussels, expressed shock and condemned the attacks, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

"We mourn those who died in this act of terrorism," said Mr. Prodi.

Immediately upon his return from Yalta, President Kuchma first called a special meeting of the National Security and Defense Council for the next day and then went on national television to call for an effective response to terrorism.

"The whole of the civilized world must demonstrate unity, concord and coordination of efforts," said Mr. Kuchma.

The Verkhovna Rada, which had begun regular plenary sessions this week, began the next day with a minute of silence in memory of the perished. Before the Parliament went about its daily business, Hennadii Udovenko made a statement on behalf of the National Rukh of Ukraine parliamentary faction which he heads, as well as the Reform-Congress and the Ukrainian National Rukh factions, to express solidarity with the United States and its people, while underscoring the need to prevent this attempt at global destabilization from succeeding. He called on Ukraine to take measures necessary to prevent the spread of terrorism, but warned against compromising democratic norms.

It was the Ukrainian people, however, who showed the most sincere sympathy for the victims of the tragedy. Beginning almost immediately after word of the disaster reached Kyiv and continuing for at least the next two days, individuals left scores of bouquets, wreaths and simple clusters of wild flowers along with candles and individual messages outside the fence that secures the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

Valentyna Snopak, from the village of Zhukivtsi in the neighboring county of Obukhiv, stood in the rain outside the Embassy on September 13 while Ukrainian security officials reviewed her documents before allowing her to sign the memorial book Embassy officials had placed on a table near the floral arrangements.

"It is a huge tragedy. These were innocent people. Of course, I had to come here," explained Ms. Snopak.

Meanwhile in subways and taxis, and on the streets of the capital city the violent act and the disaster it created were never far from the center of conversation, and the reactions were overwhelmingly critical.

As one young woman who wished to remain anonymous explained, "Even those who may not agree with the U.S. understand that this goes beyond what is fair. It was an attack against the American people."

Appearing at what originally was intended to be a press conference introducing next year's U.S.-Ukraine student exchange programs, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual said on September 12 that he had received messages of support from Ukrainian citizens from various regions, including Kherson, Kharkiv and Lviv, and expressed gratitude for the support, both official and unofficial.

"On behalf of the U.S. and its citizens, I want to express thanks for the incredible outpouring of sympathy we have experienced over the last 18 hours," explained Mr. Pascual.

The ambassador thanked Mr. Kuchma for his condolences and sympathy and for the increased security provided by the Ukrainian government at both the various embassy facilities and those housing U.S. businesses. He also expressed appreciation to Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko, who led a high-level delegation from the Foreign Affairs Ministry that appeared at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to personally convey condolences and give reassurances of its support to the U.S.

In addition to releasing a separate, official statement of condolence in the hours immediately after the attack the Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a press release in which it announced that a crisis group had been formed within the ministry "to assess the afteraffects of the tragedy and to coordinate the work of the diplomatic representations of Ukraine abroad to increase their security, and to aid citizens of Ukraine in their search for dear ones who reside in the United States."

On September 13 at 1 p.m. a moment of silence was observed across Ukraine in memory of the thousands who are thought to have lost their lives in the disasters in New York and Washington.

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