AJC Delegation Concludes Visit to Ukraine

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Feb 04, 2015, 05:16 ET

KIEV, Ukraine, Feb. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the third time in the past ten months, an AJC leadership delegation has visited Ukraine's capital.

During the two-day trip, the 12-person group, led by AJC Executive Director David Harris, met privately with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk; Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin; President of the Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Volodymyr Groysman; Head of Internal Security Services Valentin Nalivaychenko; the American, German, and Israeli ambassadors to Ukraine; and Jewish community leaders.

Among the principal topics discussed were: (i) the ongoing Russian-supported conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has cost an estimated 6,000 Ukrainian lives to date; (ii) financial, military, and other forms of international support needed by Ukraine; (iii) the well-being of the Ukrainian Jewish community; and (iv) relations between Ukraine and the U.S., EU, and Israel.

"First and foremost, we visited Kiev to express our ongoing solidarity with, and support for, the Ukrainian quest to chart its own destiny," said Harris, who has been to Kiev many times and was honored by the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko in 2008. "We applaud the current government's determination in the face of overwhelming adversity. With so much at stake for Ukraine and regional and global security, it is critical that Western governments respond with appropriate support for the country. This is nothing less than a defining era."

During the visit, the delegation had dinner with many leaders of the Ukrainian Jewish community, with which AJC has maintained close ties, and several members of Parliament.

The group also visited Maidan Square, which became the symbol of the successful Ukrainian effort last year to oust President Viktor Yanukovich's failed government. More than 100 people lost their lives there in the struggle to associate Ukraine more closely with the EU.

In 1991, AJC became the first Jewish organization outside Ukraine to call on President George H.W. Bush to recognize the country's independence from Moscow. Since then, it has staunchly supported a free and democratic Ukraine. In May, AJC's Director of Russian Affairs, Sam Kliger, who organized the mission, relocated to Kiev for four months to serve as AJC's temporary representative in Ukraine and demonstrate our support on the ground.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee