Author: Orest Deychakiwsky

The strong support that Ukraine has received in recent years, especially from the U.S. Congress, did not occur in a vacuum. It is the result of much work by individuals and institutions over the course of many years, indeed, over the last century.  An important component of laying the groundwork was the commemoration of important anniversaries, whether it be the annual Independence Day (both 1918, and for the last 26 years, 1991) or one-offs such as the 1988 Millennium of Christianity of Kyivan Rus’.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly four years ago, I have found a tendency by many to view U.S. governmental assistance to Ukraine largely through the lens of lethal weapons. Indeed, defensive lethal weapons, are critically important for Ukraine in raising the costs to Russia of any further aggression and in reinforcing and amplifying U.S. commitment...

“The Internal Enemy” is the fitting title of a Helsinki Commission staff report on corruption in Ukraine. Recently, I joined Oksana Shulyar, deputy chief of mission, Embassy of Ukraine to the United States, Anders Aslund of the Atlantic Council and Brian Dooley of Human Rights First as a speaker at a Helsinki Commission briefing on...

Recently, one of the nation’s most prominent Democrats, longtime senator and former Vice-President Joe Biden presented the Liberty Medal to Sen. John McCain, an icon of the Republican Party. The two consider themselves friends, despite many disagreements over national security matters during the course of their many decades of public life. Both men, notwithstanding party...

Ukrainian-Americans have been advocating for Ukraine in Washington for a long time, beginning 100 years ago with the proclamation of a “Ukrainian Day” by President Woodrow Wilson based on a joint congressional resolution.  Our community’s work, especially with the U.S. Congress, has continued with greater or lesser degrees of intensity throughout the last century. Efforts...

In a bizarre tweet following his begrudging signing of the Russia, Iran and North Korea sanctions legislation earlier this month, President Donald Trump blamed the poor state of U.S.-Russia relations on Congress, rather than on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where that responsibility squarely belongs. Sorry, Mr. President, the foe here is not Congress, but an oppressive,...

Anyone following Russia’s war against Ukraine in the Donbas has probably heard of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Special Monitoring Mission (SMM). The OSCE SMM is an unarmed, civilian mission now numbering around 900 monitors and staff whose main task is to observe and report on the situation in...

Although not always understood or recognized by many in the Ukrainian American community, Ukraine is fortunate to have numerous friends among Washington’s foreign policy community – in government, Congress, think tanks and NGOs. In the last three years, because of Moscow’s invasion of and ongoing intervention in Ukraine, this support has escalated. Support for Ukraine...