On 18 September 2014 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko concluded an official visit to the capitol of the United States, Washington, DC, where he met with President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
In his address President Poroshenko expressed gratitude to the U.S. Government for its solidarity with Ukraine and noted, that today’s war with Ukraine has global significance. With this, he emphasized that in order to defend the territorial integrity of its country the Ukrainian Armed Forces need more lethal and non-lethal military equipment. The President of Ukraine also called for the U.S. to grant Ukraine the status of Major Non-NATO Ally, establish a designated fund to help with Ukrainian economic reforms and implement additional economic sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Attending the address to the U.S. Congress were Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij and a delegation from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America led by its President and UWC Vice President Tamara Gallo Olexy.
President Petro Poroshenko also addressed a rally of Ukrainian Americans in support of the President and people of Ukraine and received the prestigious Global Citizen Award from the well-known think tank, the Atlantic Council.
“The Ukrainian World Congress calls upon the U.S., as one of the signatories of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, to effectively assist Ukraine defend its territorial integrity and independence and stop the attack by the Russian Federation on peace and security in Europe and throughout the world,” stated UWC President Eugene Czolij.
