Twenty-five years ago, on May 5, 1992, President Leonid Kravchuk and Ambassador Oleh Bilorus officially opened the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States in Washington. The Embassy was an 11-room suite of offices located at 1828 L St. NW. The Embassy location moved after 1992 to its current location at 3350 M St. NW, known as the historic Forrest-Marbury House.
With the opening of the Embassy, President Kravchuk and Ambassador Bilorus declared that a new phase of Ukrainian-American relations was beginning and that the Embassy of independent Ukraine in the U.S. was ready to work.
During the opening ceremony, U.S. Secretary of State James A Baker III noted that “a free and independent Ukraine has taken its rightful place in the community of nations. And if Ukraine has come far, so also has America’s relationship with it.”
Ukraine’s delegation arrived at Andrews Air Force Base and was traditionally welcomed with bread and salt by some 150 Ukrainian Americans. President Kravchuk then boarded a helicopter to the Pentagon, where he was officially greeted by Secretary Baker in an unprecedented ceremony, as it had not been protocol for the U.S. secretary of state to welcome a head of state arriving on a working visit.
Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, President Kravchuk said: “It was a long journey to this day, and for us this is a joyous day now that it’s come. I want to sincerely welcome you and state that today we have an Embassy. I am convinced that Oleh Bilorus will discharge his duties in a dignified manner. Very soon we will welcome the ambassador of the United States to Ukraine, Roman Popadiuk.”
President Kravchuk acknowledged the assistance of President George Bush, and Secretary Baker, which led to the opening of the Embassy. He also cited “the great assistance rendered to Ukraine, a young state, by U.S. citizens of Ukrainian descent.”
“The Ukrainian community did much to ensure that this Embassy would be opened today. I want to sincerely thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for this help,” he noted. “…Ukraine, a young state, is being built on the principles of peace, democracy and civilization, and on the basis of respect for all nationalities and religions. However, we still have to travel the path on which the United States has already traveled… I am confident that our ambassador in the United States and the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv will do all to ensure that our relationship will be that characteristic of independent states.”
Secretary Baker, in his greeting, stated: “…I want to say that it is a very great honor for me to be here with you today as you cut the ribbon, opening an embassy for an independent and democratic Ukraine… Change has been so swift and so vast that it sometimes left us breathless. Nowhere has this been more true than in Ukraine. Your achievements over the last year have been nothing less than remarkable. Ukraine has fulfilled its ancient destiny and it has been reborn as a nation… I trust that my interpreter will be able to translate [a traditional Ukrainian toast] from Texan back to Ukrainian: President and Mrs. Kravchuk: Good fortune, health and many years.”
Following the singing of “Mnohaya Lita,” the Embassy offices were blessed by Bishop Walter Paska, auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and the Very Rev. William Diakiw of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Ambassador Bilorus, in his greeting, said he was honored to be at the opening of the Embassy of Ukraine on American soil and was ready to get to work. He welcomed guests to the Embassy and invited President Kravchuk and Secretary Baker to be the first to sign the Embassy’s guest book.
Source: “Ukraine opens Embassy in U.S., beginning new phase in relations,” by Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 10, 1992.