Ukrainian Independence Day commemorated at Embassy in Washington (08/29/99)

Ukrainian Independence Day commemorated at Embassy in Washington

by Yaro Bihun

WASHINGTON - Ukraine marked the eighth anniversary of its independence here August 24 with a national day reception at the Embassy of Ukraine. The evening affair was attended by some 200 representatives of other embassies, the U.S. Government and military, foreign affairs organizations, the business community and the Ukrainian-American diaspora.

Ambassador and Mrs. Anton Buteiko greeted the guests as they entered the historic embassy building in the Georgetown district of the nation's capital, and later, in his welcoming remarks, Mr. Buteiko, thanked them for their support of Ukraine.

Among the many diplomatic representatives of various rank were the ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova and Poland. A number of U.S. Government officials were present, among them Carlos Pascual, special advisor to the president and senior director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, and the former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakstan and Georgia, William Courtney.

Also helping mark the occasion were members of the Washington area Ukrainian-American community and leaders of some major diaspora organizations, including Ukrainian American Coordinating Council President Ihor Gawdiak, The Washington Group President Orest Deychakiwsky and Ukrainian National Information Service Director Michael Sawkiw, Jr.

"It has been more than a thousand years that we, Ukrainians, have been establishing our statehood - losing it and regaining it again," Ambassador Buteiko said in his welcoming remarks. "We were annexed and divided, and for centuries we were forced to forget our very name," he said.

But "justice prevailed" on August 24, 1991, when the Verkhovna Rada declared Ukraine's independence, he added.

Ukraine can state "with pride" that it has achieved a lot since independence, transforming itself politically, economically and psychologically, he said. Ukrainians now see themselves not as the citizens of a superpower but as citizens of a medium-size country deserving respect, he said. The country has modeled its society on the highest European human rights and democratic standards and has set as its goal the "integration into European Euro-Atlantic structures," ready to build an "all-European security system."

Ambassador Buteiko said that since its independence, Ukraine strove to establish the best possible relations with its neighbors, established a strategic partnership with the United States, and has continued to develop its ties with its former Soviet neighbors, including "our greatest neighbor" Russia. Ukraine has already met a lot of challenges, he said, and will successfully meet those that remain.

Ambassador Buteiko thanked the countries represented at the reception for their past support of Ukraine and used the occasion to ask for their support in getting Ukraine a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

The ambassador also expressed Ukraine's gratitude to the Ukrainian-American community, which, he said, "contributed greatly to our independence and to our successes."

"I hope that that process will continue," he added.

With the next presidential elections in Ukraine only a couple of months away, Ambassador Buteiko expressed his confidence "that those elections will be free and fair, and [that] it will be a transparent process."

| Home Page |