BRAMA, Sep 3, 2003, 9:00 am ET
Newly appointed US Ambassador to Ukraine Herbst meets Ukrainian Community in New York City
— by Max Pyziur
John Edward Herbst, US Ambassador to Ukraine
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New York — On Thursday August 28th 2003 US Ambassador to Ukraine
John Edward Herbst met a small group of Ukrainian Community
members at the Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA) in New York City.
Mr. Herbst, a professional US Foreign Service officer, was
nominated by President Bush in April 2003 and
confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July. After receiving degrees from
Georgetown University in Washinton DC and the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy in Massachusetts Mr. Herbst joined the US Foreign Service
in 1979. Prior to his appointment to Ukraine his career has
advanced steadily having served as political counselor at the US
Embassies in Tel Aviv Israel, Moscow Russia, Riyadh Saudi Arabia;
Principal Deputy to the Ambassador at Large for the Newly Independent
States, and, most recently, as Ambassador to Uzbekistan (appointed by
President Clinton in February 2000 and later beginning his duties in
October of that year). In addition, (per his US State Department bio) Mr. Herbst
claims fluency in Russian and a working knowledge of Arabic.
Ambassador Herbst, Mr. Walter Hoydysh and Mr. Jaroslav Kryshtalsky of the UIA
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Thursday's afternoon meeting was relatively impromptu. After
a short introduction by one of the UIA members Mr. Herbst briefly
discussed his experiences, quickly noting his interest to add
Ukrainian to his set of linguistic fluencies. After concluding his
remarks he readily took questions and comments from the floor.
These covered topics such as the reduction of Voice of America
broadcasts in Ukrainian, seeming avoidance in the granting of USAID funded projects to
Ukrainian American organizations, the USA's policy towards veterans of the
UPA, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army of World War II, election monitoring
efforts, and encouragement of the US political apparatus in Ukraine to
move from political sloganeering to interjecting ideas into political
discourse, just to name a few.
After an hour of give-and-take where the Ambassador was cautiously
forthcoming the meeting ended with informal discussions over wine
and canapés.
Dr. Bohdan Vitvitsky, Ukrainian American Professionals and Businesspersons
Association of New York and New Jersey
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Mr. Andrij Lastowecky, Ukrainian American Coordinating Council
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Mr. Eugene Stakhiv
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Ms. Tamara Gallo, Ukrainian Congress Committee of America
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Ambassador Herbst with Mr. Volodymyr Baranetsky (UIA)
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