Author: Orest Deychakiwsky

As the House returns to Washington this week, its highest priority must be to pass a Ukraine spending package that would provide badly needed air defense, artillery and other essential military needs. This long-overdue aid is essential to resupply air defenses to protect Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure against Russia’s relentless missile, drone and aerial attacks....

Not providing desperately needed assistance to Ukraine would be a radical departure from Congress’ historical bipartisan support for Ukraine’s freedom. And the stakes have never been higher – for Ukraine, for the United States, and for European and global security. So why do I say this? Where are we now, and what can we do?...

Ukraine, with the substantial support of the U.S. and its revived North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other partners around the world, has already significantly degraded the Russian military. Russia has incurred stupendous military manpower and equipment losses – 90 percent of its original pre-2022 invasion force, according to U.S. intelligence. Moscow now spends an...

Rarely has there been such a confluence of American values and interests as there currently exists in Ukraine. For the sake of the country and the larger geopolitical order, nothing is more immediate than Congressio­nal passage of a robust Ukraine aid package – ideally, the $61 billion in supplemental funding in the Biden Administra­tion’s request,...

Forty years ago this month, in October 1983, nearly 18,000 people came from all over the United States (and some from Canada) to Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor. A mass rally at the Washington Monument followed by a march to the Soviet Embassy...

Grassroots advocacy with the U.S. Congress by Ukrainian Americans and all of Ukraine’s many other American friends may be more important now than it ever has been. The priority in the coming weeks will be to ensure that Congress provides Ukraine with the military and other vital assistance that is essential to defend itself and...

This month marks three years since the August 9, 2020, stolen Belarusian presidential elections that sparked the largest protests ever seen in that country’s history.  It also marks 1 ½ years since the self-described “last dictator in Europe,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka, joined forces with Vladimir Putin in invading Ukraine. While Putin takes the prize as the...

Soon after Russia’s initial invasion back in 2014, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), which comprises 56 member countries, overwhelmingly passed a resolution initiated by Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin. The resolution – which was bitterly opposed by Russian parliamentarians – called upon Russia to cease its “clear,...

Don’t ask the question if you are not prepared to hear the answer, as the old saw goes. I suspect the reporter from Russian state-owned media RIA Novosti regrets asking U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the question he did during a May 1 news conference in Israel. The hapless questioner posited that Mr. McCarthy...

After more than a year of writing columns about the war, I thought it time to switch gears and take a look back at The Washington Group (TWG) – a remarkable organization that helped fill a void at a transformational time. TWG was especially active at a crucial point in history, as enormous changes were...

Last March, just a few weeks after Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion began, I went to Dulles International Airport to pick up the wife and children of a Ukrainian official who had sent them to safety in the early days of the war. As we were driving back to my home in Charles Town, W.Va., the...

Throughout my 35 years on Capitol Hill working at the Helsinki Commission (1981-2017) I was no stranger to the Capitol itself. But never have I been more thrilled to be in that hallowed building than for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s December 21 address to a joint session of Congress. This was truly an historic moment that...