    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 12, 1995]
    [Pages 683-685]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at Schevchenko University in Kiev
    May 12, 1995

        Thank you very much.
        I first would thank Olexiy Meleshchuk for that fine introduction. I
    thank Olena Sheveliova for her fine remarks and for representing the
    university students here. I thank the rector, Viktor Skopenko, for his
    remarks and for the honorary degree, which I will treasure and display
    in the White House.
        I am delighted to be joined here by my wife and by ministers and
    other important members of our administration, by the mayor of Kiev and
    members of your National Government, and by former President Kravchuk. I
    am glad to see them all here, and I thank them for being here with me
    today. I am deeply honored to be the first American President to appear
    before the people of a free and independent Ukraine.
        Today we celebrate the alliance of our peoples, who defeated fascism
    50 years ago. We shared victory then, but the cost to your people of
    that victory was almost unimaginable. More than 5 million Ukrainians
    died in the conflict. I am pleased that now after all these years we can
    pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifice here in the Ukrainian
    homeland.
        It is fitting that we are meeting at this institution, named for
    Taras Schevchenko. More than 30 years ago, America recognized his
    passion for freedom by erecting a statue of Schevchenko in the heart of
    our Nation's Capital. Now, at last, America also honors this great
    champion of liberty in the heart of Ukraine's capital.
        I am also glad that we are meeting here at this university because
    so much of your nation's

    [[Page 684]]

    future depends upon this place of learning and others like it throughout
    your land. Here, the knowledge that Ukraine needs to build itself will
    be found. Here, the dreams of a new Ukraine will be dreamed.
        I would like to say a special word to the students and scholars
    here. I know the times are difficult now, and I commend you for taking
    the hard road, for putting the needs of your future and your nation
    above immediate personal concerns. Your efforts will be repaid, for your
    independent country has a better chance to create freedom and prosperity
    than it has had in centuries, and to do it in a way that is uniquely
    your own as one of Europe's oldest peoples forging one of its newest
    democracies.
        Ukraine is rising to the historic challenge of its reemergence as a
    nation on the world's stage. Already your nation can claim
    responsibility for a major contribution to global peace. Your wise
    decision to eliminate nuclear weapons on your territory has earned your
    nation respect and gratitude everywhere in the world.
        Your accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has sent an
    unmistakable message for peace and against weapons of mass destruction.
    Without those farsighted acts, the historic vote yesterday by the
    world's nations to extend the Non-Proliferation Treaty indefinitely and
    unconditionally would not have been possible. This will make the people
    of the world for generations to come safer and more secure.
        For 25 years, this treaty has been the cornerstone of the world's
    efforts to reduce the dangers of nuclear weapons. I am proud of the
    leadership of the United States in securing the extension of the treaty.
    But I am also proud of the role that Ukraine played, and you should be
    proud as well. In the short period of your independence, you have helped
    make the world a safer, more hopeful place, and I thank you for that.
    [Applause] Thank you.
        A few moments ago Rector Skopenko quoted Taras Schevchenko's
    question, ``When will we receive our Washington with a new and righteous
    law?'' The answer is now, because so many Ukrainians are striving to
    build a nation ruled by law and governed by the will of the people.
    Holding free, fair, and frequent elections, protecting the rights of
    minorities, building bridges to other democracies, these mark the way to
    a ``new birth of freedom,'' in the phrase of our great President Abraham
    Lincoln.
        Already you have held a landmark election that produced the first
    transfer of power from one democratic government to another in any of
    the nations that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. You
    have put tolerance at the heart of your law and law at the heart of your
    state. You have claimed your place in the ranks of the world's great
    democracies, as demonstrated by the sight of your flag flying next to
    the American flag at the White House during President Kuchma's historic
    visit last November.
        You have earned the admiration of the free world by setting on a
    course of economic reform and staying on that course despite the pain of
    adjustment. President Kuchma's decision to launch ambitious economic
    reforms and to press ahead with them was truly bold. We know that after
    so many decades of a command-and-control economy, reform carries real
    human cost in the short term in lost jobs, lower wages, lost personal
    security.
        But your efforts will not be in vain, because the course is right,
    even if the path is difficult. The toil is bitter, but the harvest is
    sweet, as the old proverb says. In time, your transformation will
    deliver better, more prosperous lives and the chance for you and your
    children to realize your God-given potential. You and your children will
    reap the harvest of today's sacrifices.
        In the pursuit of peace and prosperity, you have been well served by
    President Kuchma and his government's bold and farsighted leadership.
    You should know this: As you build your future, the United States will
    stand with you.
        For America, support for an independent Ukraine secure in its
    recognized borders is not only a matter of sympathy, it is a matter of
    our national interest as well. We look to the day when a democratic and
    prosperous Ukraine is America's full political and economic partner in a
    bulwark of stability in Europe.
        Fifty years ago, Americans and Ukrainians engaged in a common
    struggle against fascism, and together we won. When U.S. troops met a
    Soviet force at the Elbe for the first time and made that legendary
    handshake across a liberated Europe, the unit they met was the First
    Ukrainian Army.
        Cruel events made that embrace brief. During the decades of East-
    West separation, it was left to a million Ukrainian-Americans to keep
    alive the ties between our people. They fought hard

    [[Page 685]]

    to ensure that the hope for freedom for you never died out. Today, their
    dreams are being fulfilled by you. And on behalf of all Ukrainian-
    Americans, I rejoice in standing here with you.
        In the months and years ahead, our partnership will grow stronger.
    Together we will help design the architecture of security in an
    undivided Europe so that Ukraine's security is strengthened. We will
    increase defense contacts between our nations, consult with one another
    as NATO prepares to expand, and foster ties between Ukraine and the
    West. Ukraine has already taken a strong leadership role in forming the
    Partnership For Peace, which is uniting Europe's democracies in military
    cooperation and creating a more secure future.
        We will work with one another as Ukraine becomes a full partner in
    the new Europe, and we will deepen the friendship between our peoples in
    concrete economic ways.
        The United States has shown its support for Ukraine in deeds, not
    just words: in the commitment of more than a billion dollars in
    assistance over 3\1/2\ years for political and economic reform, another
    $350 million to help eliminate nuclear weapons, in leading the world's
    financial institutions to commit $2.7 billion for Ukraine's future and
    urging our partners in the G-7 to do even more. We will continue to work
    to assist you to build a brighter future.
        Our nations have established vigorous trade and investment ties, and
    a group of American and Ukrainian business people are promoting these
    ties here in Ukraine this year and next year in their meeting in the
    United States. Together we will enter into exciting new ventures, such
    as a commercial space launch cooperation.
        All these efforts will help to build a Ukraine that is sovereign and
    democratic, confident and successful, a Ukraine that will fulfill the
    hopes of your 52 million citizens and provide an essential anchor of
    stability and freedom in a part of the world still reeling from rapid
    change, still finding its way toward the 21st century.
        Of course, in the end it is you who will make your own future. The
    people of Ukraine have it in their power to fulfill their oldest wishes
    and shape a very new destiny. To live up to that promise, to make the
    most of your role in this global economy in the information age, your
    ability to learn and learn and learn will be essential. And so I urge
    you to take to heart the words of Schevchenko: ``Study, my brothers,
    study and read, learn of foreign things, but don't forget that which is
    yours.''
        Our two nations are bound together by a common vision of freedom and
    prosperity. Together we shall make that vision real.
        As the great poet of our democracy, Walt Whitman, wrote a century
    ago, ``The strongest and sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.'' Those
    strong, sweet songs are of free people fulfilling their hopes and
    dreams; they are the songs of Ukraine's tomorrows.
        God bless America. Slava Ukrainiy.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. at the Volodomyrs'ka Street Plaza.
    In his remarks, he referred to student speakers Olexiy Meleshchuk, Kyiv-
    Mohyla Academy University, and Olena Sheveliova, Schevchenko University;
    Viktor Skopenko, rector, Schevchenko University; and Mayor Leonid
    Kosakivsky of Kiev.