Ukrainian American staffer of U.S. Embassy killed in car accident along with daughter

U.S. Embassy

KYIV - A Ukrainian American employee with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Gregory Hulka, died November 9 in a fatal automobile crash. Also killed in the accident were Mr. Hulka's 10-year-old daughter, Abigail, and their relative Yurii Kotyk, a Ukrainian national, who was driving the vehicle.

The accident occurred Friday evening on the road betwen Uman, Cherkasy Oblast, and Nemyriv, Vinnytsia Oblast. The three had set out from Kyiv to attend the wedding of a Ukrainian relative in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast.

Mr. Hulka, 44, had arrived in Kyiv in early September to begin an assignment as consul general of the Embassy's Consular Section. It was a position he had long sought since joining the Foreign Service 15 years ago. His previous assignments were in Moscow, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and in China, both in Beijing and Guangzhou.

Gregory Paul Hulka was born October 31, 1957, in Inglewood, Calif. He is survived by his wife, Jane, and three children, Andrew, 12, Alexander, 6, and Aaron, 3.

The Interfax news agency reported that the Fiat in which Mr. Hulka, his daughter and Mr. Kotyk were riding was trying to pass a KaMaZ tractor-trailer on a curve and collided with a Mercedes minibus. The accident is under investigation.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 18, 2001, No. 46, Vol. LXIX

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