REFLECTIONS ON CONGRESSIONAL BIPARTISAN SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE NOW AND BEFORE UKRAINE’S INDEPENDENCE

DOI 10.17721/2521-1706.2024.18.3

Orest Steven Deychakiwsky,

Former policy advisor of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1981–2017), Co-chair of the Transatlantic Task Force on Ukraine, Expert of the Ukrainian Association for American Studies, Washington, DC, USA

Abstract.  This paper discusses bipartisan US Congressional Ukraine support and advocacy efforts over the course of more than a century.  It examines Congress’ extraordinary focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine and the difficult but ultimately successful April 2024 passage of the Ukraine supplemental assistance.  The paper then looks back at the history of Congressional activity with respect to Ukraine prior to the re-establishment of Ukraine’s independence in 1991. It examines the peak of Congressional activity in the decade and a half leading up to independence, highlighting the role of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (a.k.a U.S. Helsinki Commission).  This pre-independence Congressional activity, greatly abetted by the Ukrainian American community, took place in an environment in which little was known about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people’s aspirations in U.S. policy circles and public.  This period laid the groundwork for greater U.S. political and material support following independence.  Senators and Congressmen from both major U.S. political parties supported Ukraine prior to independence. This bipartisan Congressional support continues to this day, notwithstanding the challenges from the isolationist right wing of the Republican party.

Key words: U.S. Congress, Congressional aid to Ukraine, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), human rights, Helsinki Final Act, Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group, Ukrainian diaspora.

Submitted: 20.08.2024

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