Ukrainian Americans host fund-raiser for Sen. Mitch McConnell (07/14/96)

Ukrainian Americans host fund-raiser for Sen. Mitch McConnell

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee, says he intends to continue earmarking U.S. aid for Ukraine regardless of which party wins the White House in this year's presidential election.

"As long as I'm chairman of the subcommittee, we're going to deal with Ukraine in every bill in a highly specific way - whether it's the Clinton administration or whether it's the Dole administration - to make certain that Ukraine is given the kind of priority it deserves," Sen. McConnell said June 26 at a Ukrainian American fund-raiser for his re-election bid in November.

"And the reason that we're doing it is that I think it's in America's best interest to do that," he added.

Over the past few years, the second-term Republican from Kentucky has been earmarking the foreign assistance budget - assigning aid specifically for Ukraine or specific assistance projects in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics - rather than assigning aid amounts regionally and allowing the executive branch to divide up the aid budget as it sees fit.

The latest aid budget, for fiscal year 1997, which recently came out of Sen. McConnell's subcommittee as well as the Appropriations Committee, again earmarks $225 million for specific development programs in Ukraine.

The bill also includes a proviso that U.S. aid is dependent upon Ukraine not pursuing what the Washington Times recently alleged was a "strategic relationship" with Libya.

"The Ukrainians say that there's nothing to that," Sen. McConnell said when asked about this addition. "But I think it's important to put that in the bill just to make sure that whoever might have been having such conversations - if, in fact they had them - understand that sort of thing the United States is not going to put up with in an aid recipient."

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Sen. McConnell said, he has felt that maintaining the best possible relations with Ukraine is in the best interest of the United States. That was not the case with the Bush and, until recently, the Clinton administrations, which thought of Ukraine and the other former Soviet republics as "appendages" to Moscow, and that you could deal with them through Moscow, he said. So, using earmarks, he set out to get the U.S. government to deal with Ukraine on a bilateral basis.

Sen. McConnell said he is convinced that Ukraine "will be on the right side of the line" in an expanded NATO. This should be done, he feels, not as a hostile act towards Russia and despite Moscow's protestations.

"But we're not stupid," he explained. "We know what the last 70 years brought to the countries in that region; we know what we just went through in the last 50 years in the Cold War period. And this is a sort of useful hedge against Russia going the wrong way."

Sen. McConnell said he is not totally convinced by the "democratic credentials" of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. "Some days he is, and some days he isn't," he said.

Sen. McConnell said he has "high hopes" for Ukraine's future development. "It's not going to happen overnight," he said, "It's going to take a while." But Ukraine is lucky to have the Ukrainian American diaspora that is willing to help it develop, he added.

It is hard to predict what U.S. policy toward Ukraine will be after the election, regardless of who wins. Both parties now are courting - as they should be, although the Democrats are more active here - the Ukrainian and other ethnic vote in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio, he said.

"I'm going to be as intensely interested in pursuing this approach (earmarking aid to Ukraine) no matter who's in the White House, because, typically, White Houses - whether Republican or Democrat - don't like earmarks. They want a blank check, so they can make all of the decisions."

George Chopivsky Jr., a Washington businessman, hosted the fund-raiser for Sen. McConnell at his home with the help of Eugene Iwanciw, a consultant who was director of the UNA's Washington Office until it closed.

Introducing the senator, Mr. Chopivsky underscored his understanding of the world geopolitical situation and his vision of how the United States should react to it.

"Sen. McConnell is one of the few, rare individuals who thinks that far ahead and does something about it," he said.

Mr. Chopivsky expressed the appreciation of the Ukrainian American community to Mr. McConnell for being one of the first in Congress to recognize the importance of Ukraine's independence, its potential role in Europe and the world, and the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Mr. Iwanciw credited Sen. McConnell for "succeeding in shifting U.S. policy" toward Ukraine. "And it's not only foreign aid that's important; it has provided the opportunity for business, for investment, for trade," Mr. Iwanciw said. And in large part due to his efforts, he added, the administration and the Congress now understand the importance of Ukraine.

Sen. McConnell is running for his third term this November. He is the only Republican elected to national office from Kentucky, which has very few Ukrainian Americans.

The senator pointed out that his wife, Elaine, who accompanied him to the fund-raiser, has her own connection to Ukraine - she was Peace Corps director during the last year of the Bush administration, when the first contingent of Peace Corps volunteers was sent to Ukraine.

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