Podcast: Ambassador Taylor Discusses Recent Events In Ukraine And The Region
Good afternoon! I'm very glad to be back. It's been two months since I've been able to do a Podcast and I am very pleased to be able to talk to Ukrainians from this format. It's been a busy two months, with both good news and bad news.
All of you are well aware of the political turmoil going on in Kyiv. Not long ago, the speaker of the Rada dissolved the Rada based on the fact that one of the parties in the coalition withdrew from the coalition. This has set off a round of discussions and negotiations among the parties in the Rada in an attempt to form a new coalition. United States Government and other governments, I'm sure, are not players in this process. We are interested observers. We will support whatever coalition comes out of these negotiations.
We don't pick favorites. What we want to be sure of is that this process is democratic, legal, constitutional and peaceful. Those are the important things for us. If the discussions meet those criteria then we will support whatever government comes out. Whatever coalition comes out, we will be working with that government.
During this period as well, we have seen an invasion of a sovereign democratic country. Georgia and Russia have had problems for some time. Georgia made some mistakes, Russia made some mistakes. We know that there are mistakes on both sides. We don't believe, however, that the mistakes called for the invasion of a sovereign country; sending troops across international borders, violating the territorial integrity of Georgia, and then recognizing parts of Georgia as independent States. We disagree with that. We are supporting Georgian territorial integrity. We support Ukrainian territorial integrity. We think that principle is an important one in international relations. So we have focused a lot of attention on rebuilding Georgia, on supporting the Georgian people as they rebuild their country, as they rebuild their roads, as they rebuild legitimacy. This is an important time for Georgia as it is an important time for democracy. This democracy is worth supporting and we will continue to do that.
These two political events - the Russian invasion of Georgia and the dissolution of the Rada, the coalition here in Kyiv, have brought a number of visitors from the United States to Ukraine. Of course at the highest level was the visit of the Vice President Cheney earlier this month. He was joined by his staff. But he was accompanied, earlier and later by senators. A couple of senators from the United States visited: Senator Lugar, Senator Lieberman, Senator Graham, as well as our Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried, Ambassador Fried, who was here for bilateral discussions with the Ukrainian Government. This attention to Ukraine from the U.S. Government is an indication of the importance that we place on democracy and the territorial integrity, the independence and the sovereignty of Ukraine. We wanted to come, the Vice President in particular wanted to come, just after the invasion of Georgia to demonstrate the U.S. Government support for Azerbaijan, for Georgia, and for Ukraine. He visited all three of these countries on that trip with the same message: We care about your sovereignty, we care about your independence we care about your territorial integrity. This was very important. I think it's also an indication of how important Ukraine is to the United States that the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States and the National Security Advisor, three senators, and Assistant Secretary all come here within the past four - five months. We care about this country and our senior leadership is eager to show that.
I mentioned that there had been a humanitarian disaster. Of course, in the end of July, hit the south-west part of this country very badly. Thirty Six people died. Much damage, many people out of homes, a lot of humanitarian stress, people without food, without electricity, cut off from the rest of civilization by these floods that damaged the roads and bridges. The Unites States Government, as well as many governments around the world, as well as the central government here in Ukraine, have moved a lot to bring humanitarian assistance. We've provided an initial 50,000 dollars right away, we provided another million dollars worth of humanitarian assistance. American businesses have contributed another million dollars both in kind and in cash to try and help the victims of these floods. The rebuilding continues. This will be something that we keep our eye on. My deputy - Jim Pettit was in the region right away during the disaster, I was there last week to see how the progress is going. I hope to continue and watch how the rebuilding takes place.
Last thing I'll mention is an interesting scientific endeavor that Americans and Ukrainians are doing together. As you know, there have been many shipwrecks in the Black Sea. And very few of these wrecks have been discovered, explored, identified. A U.S. Navy ship, a research vessel called the Pathfinder has been in the Black Sea with Ukrainians and Americans, again, working together to try to find wrecks on the bottom of the Black Sea. In particular they're looking for one large important wreck, which was a Hospital ship in World War II. The name of this ship was the Armenia and on this ship were patients - soldiers who were being treated, as well as sailors who were manning this ship. This ship has never been found. The American ship, this past summer, has been looking for this ship and others by using Sonar to try to identify wrecks on the bottom of the Black Sea. And once identified, sending a small unmanned submarine to explore and see what is actually down there. They found 36 ships, 36 wrecks, on the bottom of the Black Sea but they haven't yet found the Armenia. So we hope that next summer this research ship will be back to try to find the Armenia and to bring it to the attention of the Ukrainians and the Russians, (regarding) this Soviet Ship.
So these are the kinds of things we're doing together. I am hoping that I can get back together with you in another month and tell you the kind of things we're doing. Until then, thank you very much.