Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: John E. Herbst, 5th U.S. ambassador to Ukraine
It’s not right that Ukraine is being dragged into the internal politics of the world’s most powerful country just before its 2020 presidential election. That much should be obvious to any reasonable person.
Firstly it’s not fair on Ukraine and Ukrainians to be put between such a rock and a hard place. They have to do a great deal in order to maintain alliances, so the country’s borders, the lives of its people and the nation’s very existence can be ensured.
And secondly it’s not fair on the voters of the world’s greatest democracy for their leaders to leverage a vulnerable foreign state to interfere in its internal democratic process. None of this is right. But where and with whom did this all begin?
Here’s a brief reminder for those people who missed the last episode: U.S. President Donald Trump is a mafioso-style serial liar who was impeached by his country for attempting to use a quid pro quo arrangement that aimed to use frozen military aid to Ukraine as leverage to have his presumptive presidential opponent Joseph Biden investigated on weak, fabricated accusations in Ukraine.
Trump was ready to use Ukraine, to manipulate and exploit Ukraine, in order to get ahead in the 2020 presidential election with a weak hit job on Biden.
It’s harmful and embarrassing to the U.S. and to Ukraine, and it casts a worrying shadow over every democracy. We all need the United States to be strong, stable and free.
Thankfully, there are those who resist this worrying trend of subverting and manipulating the democratic process and diplomatic channels for political reasons and, thankfully again, many of them are working for the U.S. State Department.
In fact nine of them are former ambassadors to Ukraine: “We have worked over the years to build and strengthen the US-Ukrainian strategic partnership established in 1996,” all nine former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine stated in an op-ed penned by John E. Herbst, the 5th US ambassador to Ukraine, and published for the Atlantic Council on May 26.
“We… are disheartened by efforts to inject Ukraine into America’s domestic politics as the 2020 US presidential election approaches,” the article continues. “Those efforts advance a false and toxic narrative, one with no basis in the reality of US-Ukraine relations, in order to weaken the relationship between the United States and Ukraine and sow division within our two countries.”
“That serves neither country’s interests. We strongly condemn these efforts to divide our two countries and call on officials in both to avoid steps that will only erode the bilateral relationship and alienate our countries from one another.”
Now is an appropriate time to remind our readers that Herbst is an undisputed friend to Ukraine, as are the other eight U.S. ambassadors to the country, who have been champions for Europe’s biggest country at its most challenging hours.
It serves us all for the United States and Ukraine to be strong and free, and a world in which dictatorships such as Russia and China are rising powers is a better place with these two democracies as strong allies. We thank Herbst for his friendship to Ukraine and award him our Order of Yarolsav the Wise.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
And why does Ukraine need such robust alliances? Because of people like Gerhard Schroeder, who are quite comfortable in bed with the Kremlin while Vladimir Putin and his proxies continue to murder Ukrainians in the Donbas and occupied Crimea.
Schroeder is an inconsequential 76-year-old former German chancellor, but he is also chairman of the board of directors at the Russian oil and energy firm Rosneft.
This is a Kremlin-linked, Putin-run enterprise that is also a publicly registered company on the London Stock Exchange, unfortunately.
But it’s also a rubbish company and it has been trading sideways at a pitiful $4-5 a share under Schroeder’s leadership. Under his watch, investors would have lost about 20% of their equity if they backed Rosneft in the last year or so.
Desperate to remain relevant in his old age, Schroeder has just started a stupid podcast and in the first episode he insulted the ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, a popular and respected diplomat.
This was reported in the Ukrainian language service of Deutsche Welle, where the retired politician spoke sharply about the Ukrainian ambassador, who had criticized him earlier, and called the Ukrainian diplomat “some Ukrainian dwarf.”
Melnyk had prompted the humiliating comment after he previously called a statement from Schroeder about Crimea “shameless” – the former chancellor said it would never be returned to Ukraine from Russian occupation.
Melnyk was right. Schroeder is shameless. We think that most decent Germans are rightly embarrassed by this Russian propagandist, Kremlin puppet and employed lobbyist for Moscow.
Furthermore, Schroeder has been helping to lobby for Nord Stream 2, and the German government’s accelerating pursuit of this gas pipeline with Russia is extremely harmful to Ukraine and other countries in Europe that are investing in their energy security.
With its proposed route under the Baltic Sea, the $12 billion pipeline allows Moscow to avoid transporting its Europe-bound gas through Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of billions in transit fees and placing further energy-related pressure on the besieged nation.
We hope it fails. We name Schroeder as the foe of the week to Ukraine, and not for the first time, and bestow on him our Order of Lenin, and send our warm regards to Melnyk, who is working hard for the Ukrainian people’s interests in Berlin.
