UCCA Calls on U.S. to Support Ukraine\'s New Interim Government

Now, the collapse of the Yanukovych regime comes amidst reports that Russian war ships are amassing off the Ukrainian coast and that the Putin regime is attempting to establish a pretense for a Hitleresque Sudetenland option in Ukraine. Additionally, the Russian government is pursuing ever increasing, multi-vectored, political, economic, informational, social, cultural and religious aggression and encroachment directed against Ukrainian sovereignty. Putin\'s moves towards re-colonization are rightly viewed with alarm by our NATO allies, most particularly by those in Central Europe. They are understood to be a threat to the stabilizing transnational, trans-Atlantic security framework that first emerged in the years after the Second World War and seemingly transformed with the fall of the Soviet Union.

American geo-strategic interests depend upon regional stability which can only be achieved by supporting the fragile democracy in Ukraine through its interim government. The United States must take the lead in promoting international norms. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America calls on the United States to:

• Facilitate all possible unilateral and multi-lateral economic assistance to Ukraine – in an effort to stabilize the situation in Ukraine; including urging the International Monetary Fund (and our European Allies) to provide the interim Ukrainian government with the necessary financing so that it can begin restructuring its economic institutions according to OECD country norms; Work with our allies to establish a Marshall Plan for Ukraine.
• To act upon the public and politically binding security guarantees including, but not exclusively, the 1994 Trilateral Agreement which elicits, at the very least, Washington\'s engagement when Ukraine\'s security is threatened in exchange for Ukraine\'s commitment to its renunciation of its nuclear weapons and its ascension to NPT as a non-nuclear state. These assurances were critical for Ukraine and they included U.S. support for Ukraine\'s territorial sovereignty and integrity, the non-use of force and the freedom from economic coercion.
• Publicly condemn any internal or external attempts or threats that affect Ukraine’s territorial integrity, stability and political independence.
• Expand the list of visa sanctions against the perpetrators of the massive violence in Ukraine, to include Viktor Yanukovych and his “clan” as well as Russian official actively threatening Ukraine. Institute asset freezes for Ukrainian and Russian government officials and others implicated in the state-sponsored crackdown on the peaceful protestors;
• Freeze Russia\'s membership applications to OECD and other international organizations;
• Support the Global Human Rights Accountability Act, legislation that would ensure that human rights abusers from anywhere in the world are denied entry into the United States and barred from using our financial institutions;
• Actively engage in monitoring the upcoming presidential elections slated for May 25, 2014, and provide technical assistance where needed to ensure that they are held in a free and fair manner, in accordance to international standards, so that the voice of the people will be truly represented;

The United States must work to facilitate the transformation of Russia\'s lingering imperial ambitions into ambitions of democratic statehood. With American support, a democratic, independent Ukraine can be that keystone of freedom in the region. However, anything less than a full commitment to strengthening Ukraine as a bulwark of freedom amounts to nothing other than a policy of appeasement and history has shown that appeasement simply does not work. Unless Ukraine is fully integrated into Europe and its structures, trans-Atlantic security is simply an illusion.

http://www.ucca.org/

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the umbrella organization representing over one million Americans of Ukrainian descent wholeheartedly commits itself to the rebirth of a truly democratic and free Ukraine and to the people of this freedom-loving nation and pledge our support to them in the hopes of attaining a future where true freedom, democracy and the rule of law will endure and thrive.