Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust - Opinion - OP-ED - McConnell: 'Even today we... - 0 views
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"The following is a statement made by Robert A. McConnell, co-founder of the U.S. Ukraine Foundation, on April 21 before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. Chairman [Howard] Berman, ranking member [Ileana] Ros-Lehtinen and distinguished members of the committee: As the committee looks at the very important issue of nuclear weapons, their proliferation and the potential of their use by terrorists, as well as reviewing the results of the April 12-13 nuclear security summit, I offer comments and a historical perspective related to one country most in the news during the summit: Ukraine. I do not speak for Ukraine or for anyone in Ukraine, however, as you are aware, I am one of the founders of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S.-Ukraine Foundation [a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that hopes to build peace and prosperity in Ukraine through democratic values] that, having established an office in Kyiv in 1990, is among a select few with an American presence in Ukraine since before independence. Therefore, I speak for myself and my comments are based upon personal knowledge gained from trips to Ukraine made before we opened our office there, meetings with Ukrainian government officials that began before independence, hundreds of hours spent with the leadership of Rukh (the "Movement" that was established in 1989 and was a fundamental catalyst to Ukraine's drive for independence), as well as having participated in numerous meetings between officials of the Ukrainian government and officials of our own government in the early 1990s and since."