“It’s not easy making a democracy,” James Mattis, the U.S. secretary of defense, told reporters on Sunday as he prepared to embark on his foreign tour. So far, it has taken him to Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, and, today, Ukraine. Today is also the 26th anniversary of the country’s independence from the Soviet Union; the occasion will be marked with a military parade, and Mattis will be on hand to express continued U.S. support for the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the Pentagon. Or, as Mattis put it himself, he is visiting Kyiv “just to make certain … that they know we’re aware of the values and what they’re trying to put together coming out of the history they’ve had in the past,” he said on August 21. “It’s not easy making a sovereign state, especially right now with the way Russia has been violating territorial integrity.”
Ukraine-U.S. Relations
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (L) shakes hands with US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis before their meeting in Kyiv on August 24.
