U.S. State Department bigwig is latest in line of important Americans invited by Pinchuk
Former United States Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke will visit Kyiv on July 8 for a two-day private visit on the invitation of Viktor Pinchuk’s Interpipe Corporation, said a spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Neither Pinchuk nor Interpipe Corporation responded to inquiries by the Post as to the exact nature of the visit or Holbrooke’s intended itinerary in Kyiv.
An informed source at the U.S. Embassy said Holbrooke’s visit to Ukraine was private, though he would meet with U.S. Ambassador John Herbst on July 8.
Holbrooke, who will hold a press conference for journalists on July 9, is the most recent of several well-known figures whom Pinchuk appears to have brought to Ukraine in an apparent effort to legitimize himself by strengthening connections abroad and to improve Ukraine’s image in the eyes of the West.
Pinchuk, who is married to President Leonid Kuchma’s daughter Olena Franchuk, or his companies have in recent months facilitated trips to Ukraine by various influential and high-level Americans including former U.S. President George Bush Sr., retired U.S. general and former NATO Commander in Europe Wesley Clark, former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and billionaire-philanthropist George Soros.
Clark, who visited Kyiv in early June, told the Post he believed Pinchuk’s company paid for his trip, and that the visits are part of an effort to better acquaint the West with positive developments in Ukraine.
