June 19, 2015

More

“The focus on Ukraine in the [U.N.] Security Council is important, because it gives me the chance – on behalf of the United States – to lay out the mounting evidence of Russia’s aggression, its obfuscation, and its outright lies.

“…But there is something more important that is often lost in the international discussion about Russia’s efforts to impose its will on Ukraine. And that is you – the people of Ukraine – and your right to determine the course of your own country’s future. Far too often, people tell the story of what is happening today in Ukraine without you in it. It is East versus West. …The irony of applying this way of thinking to the current crisis is that it goes against the very ethos of the Maidan, which was – and still is – about putting you, the Ukrainian people, back in the driver’s seat of your country’s future. …It is this idea – that the people can use their voice to hold their leaders accountable – that is so threatening to leaders like President [Vladimir] Putin, and the autocratic governments they lead. And it is the reason Moscow is working so desperately to sabotage your efforts at reform.

“…It is bitterly ironic that the Russian government – which views international support for NGOs that promote human rights as an unacceptable threat to its security – it is ironic that that same government has no qualms bankrolling, training and arming separatist movements in multiple neighboring countries, and sending its soldiers across Russia’s borders to fight alongside those same fighters. You tell me: which of these is the true foreign agent: Russian NGOs in Russia or Russian soldiers in Ukraine?

“…America believes that your struggle has resonance far beyond your sovereign borders. And because we believe that there is no greater cause than the cause of human dignity. …

“You, Ukraine, are standing tall for your freedom. And if you stand tall together – no kleptocrat, no oligarch and no foreign power can stop you.”

– U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power, delivering an address to the people of Ukraine in Kyiv on June 11, as quoted by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. (A transcript of Ambassador Power’s remarks is available at http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/243583.htm.)

Comments are closed.