October 30, 2020

Unite, and fight those trying to divide us

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Dear Editor:

Ukrainians stand united! Jaroslaw Martyniuk’s essay “An encounter with two Trump haters” (October 18) identifying relevant and important achievements by President Donald Trump that support Ukraine defeating Russia, is needed information for Ukrainians approaching the seventh anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity and Russian-Ukrainian War. While Askold Lozynskyj’s piece in that same issue, “Treachery and Trump,” calling Ukrainian Trump supporters “useful idiots” and concluding that “They can be friends neither of Ukraine, nor of the Ukrainian people,” divides our Ukrainian diaspora, just when the opposite is needed.

Ukrainians dying at the hands of the Russians requires Ukrainian unity and strength. Two years ago, August 22-23, 2018, I participated, with fellow Ukrainian American Veterans, in a Veterans Forum in Kyiv, whose theme “Там де ми, там Україна” (Wherever find ourselves, there is Ukraine) is what we should aspire to in our diaspora. We were invited by the Veterans Affairs Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, in recognition of our bipartisan congressional effort that amended the National Defense Authorization Act, authorizing expense payment for treatment and caregiver education/training of wounded Ukrainian soldiers in U.S. military treatment facilities, which President Trump signed into law. While visiting military hospitals from Kyiv to Lviv, we were introduced as “Ukrainians, not born in Ukraine, but here now helping because of their love of Ukraine.”

Now, 29 years after Ukraine’s re-established independence, we need Ukrainians to unite. Vote to help Ukraine maintain its freedom and prosper, and fight the enemy trying to divide us.

Lt. Col. Michael P. Hrycak,
U.S. Army (ret.)
Cranford, N.J.

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