Statement by Former US Ambassadors to Ukraine on the Support of Ukrainian-American Cooperation

On May 26, Atlantic Council posted the Statement of seven Ambassadors of the United States of America to Ukraine on the support of Ukrainian-American cooperation.

The Document was published after the Statement of the representatives of Ukrainian politics, civil society, and the expert community in the defence of the strategic partnership between our countries had been issued. The latter was initiated by the Kyiv Security Forum.

This exchange of messages is unique in the history of our relationship. It testifies to the exceptional importance of the problems we have raised in these texts.

The statement emphasizes that over the past three decades, the United States and Ukraine have developed a broad and robust relations that serves the interests of both countries - "countries that share values such as democracy, liberty, and human freedom. Ukraine’s success in developing as an independent, stable, democratic state with a strong market economy, anchored to European institutions, advances the US interest in a more stable and secure Europe."

"The bilateral relationship has long enjoyed wide bipartisan support in the United States, including in Congress and from both Republican and Democratic presidents alike. It has also enjoyed support from a broad political spectrum in Ukraine."

"We have worked over the years to build and strengthen the US-Ukrainian strategic partnership established in 1996. We thus are disheartened by efforts to inject Ukraine into America’s domestic politics as the 2020 US presidential election approaches," - the Statement says,

"Those efforts advance a false and toxic narrative, one with no basis in the reality of US-Ukraine relations, in order to weaken the relationship between the United States and Ukraine and sow division within our two countries. That serves neither country’s interests." 

"We strongly condemn these efforts to divide our two countries and call on officials in both to avoid steps that will only erode the bilateral relationship and alienate our countries from one another," stated the Ambassadors. 

Signed by:

Ambassador (Ret.) Roman Popadiuk, 1st US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) Steven Pifer, 3rd US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) Carlos Pascual, 4th US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) John Herbst, 5th US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) William Taylor, 6th US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) John Tefft, 7th US Ambassador to Ukraine

Ambassador (Ret.) Marie Yovanovitch, 9th US Ambassador to Ukraine

The Statement is on the website of the Atlantic Council - https://bit.ly/3c3t5DG.