UCCA Lauds US 'Crimea Declaration'

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representation of over 1.5 million Americans of Ukrainian descent, welcomes today’s long-awaited declaration by the United States Department of State, affirming as the United States did in 1940 with the Welles Declaration, the non-recognition of “the Kremlin’s claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law.” The “Crimea Declaration,” as signed by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, rejects “Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea,” and pledges that the United States intends to maintain this policy of refusal to recognize Russia’s illegal assertions “until Ukraine’s territorial integrity is restored.”

UCCA President Andriy Futey responded enthusiastically to today’s declaration, stating, “Today the U.S. Government sent a strong message of support to those living under direct threat from Russia’s unrelenting aggressive behavior. The United States and Ukraine stand united, as demonstrated by the recently increased U.S. security assistance to the government of Ukraine, which will help deter the government of the Russian Federation from further destabilizing and invading Ukraine and other independent countries.”

The United States’ refusal to recognize the Soviet Union’s occupation of three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - was enshrined in the 1940 Welles Declaration by then-Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles. Doubted by some as a merely a symbolic gesture, the Welles Declaration would go on to outlast the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, and made clear to our allies that the United States stood with them no matter the circumstances.

UCCA began its advocacy for a “21st century Welles Declaration” for Crimea immediately after the invasion of Ukraine began on February 27, 2014. In previous statements, the UCCA has categorically rejected Russia’s March 2014 staged plebiscite in Crimea and forced “annexation” of the peninsula. UCCA continues to call upon elected officials in Congress and the White House to work to aid Ukraine, including those Ukrainian citizens living under foreign occupation. Russia currently imprisons over 60 Ukrainians abducted illegally from their homeland, including the award-winning filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, a native of Crimea. All Ukrainian citizens living under Russia occupation live under constant threat of imprisonment and torture, including the all too common “disappearance” of activists, journalists, or ethnic minorities such as the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, whose language, rights, and culture are being threatened as much today as they were during the Soviet and Tsarist regimes.

Source: UCCA