Twenty-five years ago, on October 23, 1995, Ukraine’s United Nations Mission officially opened its new home at 51st Street in Manhattan, with a host of Ukrainian dignitaries present, including President Leonid Kuchma. Since Ukraine regained independence in 1991, it had shared its U.N. facilities and accommodations at the former Soviet U.N. Mission building with the Russian and Belarusian missions for more than four years.
Former ambassador of Ukraine to the U.N., Viktor Batiuk, recounted the difficulties for Ukraine’s U.N. Mission to function in the same building as the Russians, who could not accept the idea, let alone the reality, of a free Ukraine. There could be no expectation of privacy for delicate or sensitive conversations.