Ukraine's Embassy hosts reception celebrating decade of independence (09/16/01)

Ukraine's Embassy hosts reception celebrating decade of independence

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The Embassy of Ukraine and its friends celebrated the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence at a festive reception here September 6.

Some 300 diplomats, government officials, businessmen and representatives of numerous organizations joined in the celebration, which came two weeks after the actual anniversary date to allow those who were in Ukraine for the August 24 festivities, Ambassador Kostyantyn Gryshchenko and a number of prominent guests among them, to participate.

Also on hand to mark the occasion at the Ukrainian Embassy was a unique U.S. diplomatic grouping - all four ambassadors to serve in Kyiv during its 10 years of independence, Roman Popadiuk, William Green Miller, Steven Pifer and Carlos Pascual.

Welcoming the guests, Ambassador Gryshchenko noted that Ukraine has not advanced as far as some would have hoped in its relatively brief period of independence. "But we have come a long way," he added, citing advances in nation-building, strengthening democracy and moving away from the Soviet command economy.

"We have a society that is clearly devoted to returning back to Europe, to European traditions, to European values" and sees its relationship with the United States as "a pillar" of this movement, he said.

Ambassador Gryshchenko pointed to the visit of Pope John Paul II and other recent high-level visits to Ukraine as an indication that Ukraine is a "well-established and important player" in international relations.

"We are looking forward to the next 10 years of prosperity, of strengthening democracy, of building up our economy," he said. "For that we need friends," he added, "and today there are many friends here who will be important players in moving along this path."

Most present would place Ambassador Miller near the top of such a list of friends of Ukraine. He was ambassador to Ukraine for almost half of its first decade as an independent nation and continues to be involved in Ukrainian affairs.

Commenting on the significance of Ukraine's 10th anniversary in an interview for The Ukrainian Weekly, he characterized it as a "remarkable achievement by any measure."

"The most important fact is that Ukraine not only has survived, but has laid down principles of a future Ukraine which it is aiming for" in a Constitution, against which the performance of its government can be measured, he said.

He praised Ukraine's first president, Leonid Kravchuk, for "holding the country together, fulfilling the aspirations of Ukrainian nationalism, and making it possible for the successor government to operate in a relatively stable climate."

He said Ukraine's overriding difficulty during the first 10 years has been in economic transition. "And here the judgment about the quality of government is very mixed," he said, adding that it will take a third, post-Soviet generation of leadership to fulfill these aspirations.

Ambassador Miller spent a month this summer in Ukraine looking into Ukraine's current government crisis, which includes charges of corruption, mismanagement, the murder of journalist Heorhii Gongadze and curtailment of press freedom.

"I came away with the belief that the measurements about what should be done still remain in the constitutional framework," he said. The issues are difficult to deal with, "but I think Ukraine will manage," he added.

While the approval of the Constitution was the most memorable event of his tenure in Kyiv, the former envoy noted that the most challenging U.S. policy objective was the completion of the process of eliminating nuclear weapons from Ukraine and convincing Ukraine that the United States would then not lose its resolve to support Ukraine.

"I'm happy to say that we stood shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine throughout the time that I was there, and it's clear that we will maintain our support of Ukraine as it proceeds down the track of its constitutional aspirations," Mr. Miller said.

After leaving Ukraine in 1998, Ambassador Miller has been senior policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington.

In the developing U.S.-Ukrainian relationship, both countries have sent four ambassadors to each other's capitals.

Mr. Popadiuk, the first U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who served from 1992 to 1993, is now executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation in College Station, Texas.

Mr. Pifer, who followed William Miller, served in Kyiv from 1998 to 2000. He has returned to the State Department, where he continues dealing with Ukrainian issues as deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

The fourth U.S. ambassador, Mr. Pascual, will complete his first year in Kyiv this October.

On the Ukrainian side, the first ambassador, Oleh Bilorus, who served from 1992 to 1994, is now a national deputy in the Verkhovna Rada.

He was followed by Yuri Shcherbak (1994-1998), who, following a later assignment as foreign policy advisor to the president, is now ambassador to Canada.

Anton Buteiko, who was recalled abruptly in December 1999 after only one year in Washington, has fallen off the political radar screen. And his successor, Ambassador Gryshchenko, took over the helm of the Embassy in January 2000.

The Ukrainian Embassy reception on September 6 was the second of three events planned to mark Ukraine's independence anniversary in Washington. There was an independence day picnic on August 26 organized by The Washington Group. The third event, an anniversary banquet in Congress planned for September 19 by major Ukrainian-American national organizations, however, was called off following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11.

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