Mr. Kryvdyk was accompanied to many of the meetings by Ukrainian American community representatives Iryna Mazur and Borys Potapenko, as well as by Ukrainian Embassy staff.
They met with senior staff of the co-chairs of Congressional Ukrainian Caucus and the Senate Ukraine Caucus, including Reps. Sander Levin (R-Mich.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), as well as with relevant departments of the executive branch, including the National Security Council and the Department of State.
They also met with the Carnegie Endowment and think tanks involved in President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, the International Republican Institute, Jamestown Foundation, Heritage Foundation, American Foreign Policy Council and others.
While all major areas of U.S.-Ukraine relations were discussed, a special focus was on Russia’s war in Ukraine and need to increase U.S. cooperation with Ukraine in deterring Russian aggression and in containing Russian hegemonic goals.
In this regard, it was noted that Russia’s military invasion, occupation and illegal annexation involves 7 percent of Ukrainian territory and directly affects approximately 4 million Ukrainian citizens, with more than 1.7 million rendered internal refugees. Ukrainian refugees alone approximate the total number of refugees that entered the European Union over the course of the last year, primarily as a consequence of the war in Syria. Whether they hail from the war zone or not, the military occupation profoundly impacts every Ukrainian citizen and Ukraine as a state existentially.
The principled position of the U.S. Congress on Russia’s war against Ukraine in the past gives hope that Ukraine will be able to count on continued and increased support now that there is a unified government in the United States. It was noted that there is no question that bipartisan congressional support is essential.
Obligations under international law also were discussed, including the Budapest Memorandum. Russia is a nuclear weapons state and a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum. Russia’s armed forces invaded the memorandum’s subject country, Ukraine, thereby, violating the commitments that Russia and the other signatories, including the United States, freely took upon themselves. Those obligations are to respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. To be clear, for Ukraine, the provisions of the Budapest Memorandum are not diplomatic abstractions or redundancies. Indeed, the international norms referenced in the memorandum are not unique. They are identical to those of the United Nations Charter and the Helsinki Final Act.
The memorandum carries with it profound implications for the survival of humanity itself. In exchange for security, Ukraine relinquished its nuclear weapons and entered into the non-proliferation regime. For Ukraine honoring the provisions of the memorandum is a matter of survival. This is the first and only case of a nuclear state relinquishing its arsenal in exchange for security assurances. Every country will consider the consequences of the Budapest Memorandum in making a decision on becoming or not becoming a nuclear weapons state. Thus, Ukraine is an important partner for the U.S. in safeguarding international norms and promoting the non-proliferation regime.
With the help of many countries, including the United States, Ukraine has been able to resist Russia’s invasion and stop its advance. In this regard, sanctions also have been significant expressions of international unity and solidarity with Ukraine, Mr. Kryvdyk and his cohorts noted. Sanctions not only need to be maintained, but Russia must be made to understand that sanctions will be increased in the event it continues to forestall the withdrawal of all Russian personnel, including its surrogates and weapons from the occupied areas and Ukraine regains full control of its border. All other considerations and modalities, including local elections, follow after the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Just as American volunteers with the help of France and other states mobilized to defend their revolution against the British Empire, volunteers from the Maidan Revolution of Dignity deployed to defend Ukraine’s independence against the Russian invader. According to assessments by military experts, the Ukrainian army is today one of the strongest in Europe, tempered in the crucible of modern warfare waged against Ukraine by Russia. To deter any further aggression it is essential for the U.S. and its allies to provide Ukraine lethal defensive weapons.
Ukraine is blessed with economic potential in agro and high-tech industries, manufacturing and natural resources, including energy. It also has been compelled to expand its armed forces including the military industrial sector. These factors, taken together with the size of its territory and population – including a highly educated, united and patriotic citizenry – make Ukraine a potential guarantor of regional peace and security. Ukraine should be supported in its reform efforts, including in the fight against corruption. In this regard as well, particular attention should be accorded to the hybrid elements of Russia’s aggression, acts of sedition and economic subversion and in the field of information warfare.
While Ukraine is very important to Vladimir Putin, it is not his only goal, the delegation noted. In the event Russian objectives in Ukraine are secured, Mr. Putin will increase his efforts to destabilize Europe and to extend his domination further with a view to restoring Russia’s hegemony to the boundaries of the former USSR and beyond to all of the other former Captive Nations. His strategic design is to return to a bipolar world similar to that of the Cold War of the previous century. To do so he is intent on destroying global stability, tearing asunder international law and order, and accelerating the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Therefore, Ukraine has an important role in containing Russia by also expanding cooperation in regional economic development in Central and Eastern Europe. This will contribute directly to security and stability in Europe. Countries in the region are united by nature itself, river and mountain networks, linking them from the north to the south. The approximately 200 million people living between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas also have a shared experience and common memory of totalitarian communism imposed by the Kremlin rulers. These democratic societies have together traveled a long and arduous road of struggle for freedom and independence. Today, they seek to live in peace, dignity and prosperity.
Many of these countries are members of NATO or aspire to join this important security network of the Euro-Atlantic community. Mr. Putin’s aggression, threats, harassment and intimidation specifically target this region. He cannot proceed without first consolidating his aggression against Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, and his subversive intrusions in other states in the region. This hard-power aggression coupled with the soft-power hybrid assaults call for a separate collective response by the region’s states in coordination with NATO. Strengthening and expanding America’s bilateral and multilateral relationship in Central and Eastern Europe is a sine qua non to regional, continental and Euro-Atlantic peace and security, it was argued.
Therefore, it is important for Ukraine’s foreign partners and the incoming U.S. administration to demonstrate a real commitment to and support for Ukraine. Ukrainians and their neighbors need to know that they are not alone and that the U.S. and its allies are standing with them to:
• deter Russia by providing the defensive weapons, intelligence, and other military support Ukraine so desperately needs;
• make clear to Russia that sanctions will not be removed, but rather, increased according to a timetable for compliance with the terms of Minsk II and that negotiations on a settlement will return to the Geneva format;
• increase U.S. engagement with newly established and traditional Ukrainian government agencies engaged in the fight against corruption, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Prosecutor General and Military Prosecutor, as well as the Security Service;
• provide additional macro monetary support, business investment and safety net economic support for average Ukrainians;
• support efforts to eliminate Russia’s seditious efforts inside Ukraine, especially subversive economic activities and information warfare, including control of mass media;
• work with Ukraine and other countries in the region to develop economic and security arrangements that will supplement the EU and NATO, with collective responses specific to the region as a further bulwark to contain Russia.
These and other issues that impinge on the security and prosperity of the United States and Ukraine should be subjects of expanded consultations and discussions between their governments (their legislative and executive branches) and between their NGOs (civic groups and policy institutes).
The visit to Washington by the advisor to the chair of Ukraine’s Parliament underscored the importance of enabling ever greater U.S. engagement with Ukraine in the post Euro-Maidan/Revolution of Dignity era. Ukrainian American community advocates are well-positioned to facilitate such visits in cooperation with, inter alia, the Parliamentary Group of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Inter-Parliamentary Relations with the United States of America (U.S. Caucus of the Parliament of Ukraine) and in coordination with the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington.
Borys Potapenko is vice-president of the International Council in Support of Ukraine, and member of the External Affairs Committees of the ODFFU and Illinois and Michigan chapters of the UCCA.