Georgia Crisis Tops Agenda on Cheney's Ukraine Visit

Ukraine set a courageous example to the world by standing with Georgia following Russia's August 8 attack, says U.S. Vice President Cheney. "The people of Georgia are looking to both our countries, and to the rest of the free world, to support them in this time of great trial and testing, and we must answer the call."

"We believe in the right of men and women to live without threat of tyranny, economic blackmail, or military invasion or intimidation," Cheney said September 5 in an appearance with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko in Kyiv. "Ukraine's best hope to overcome these threats is to be united - united domestically first and foremost, and united with other democracies."

President Bush sent Cheney to the region September 2. Cheney held private consultations with leaders in Georgia and Azerbaijan before arriving in Ukraine, whose choice to follow Georgia on the path to political and economic reform since its 2004 "Orange Revolution" has drawn sharp criticism from Russia.

"The United States fully supports the right of Ukraine to build ever-stronger ties of cooperation and security throughout Europe and across the Atlantic," Cheney said.

Ukraine is divided by language and politics into an ethnic Russian-dominated east and Ukrainian west. To the south, Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula - home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet - is regarded by many experts as another potential flashpoint following the conflict over Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"Russia's actions have cast grave doubts on Russia's intentions and its reliability as an international partner - not just in Georgia, but throughout the region," Cheney said. "President Bush has asked me to give a clear message to the people of Ukraine: The United States has a deep and abiding interest in your well-being and security."

"The conflict of the 8th of August showed that there are security risks in the Black Sea area," Yushchenko said. "We need to do everything possible to make sufficient steps that would not allow expanding of that threat to other regions."

With an eye toward regional security challenges, both Ukraine and Georgia are seeking a path to future NATO membership - a move unanimously endorsed by the trans-Atlantic alliance's 26 member states during its April 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, over strong objections from Russia.

"Ukrainians have a right to choose whether they wish to join NATO, and NATO has a right to invite Ukraine to join the alliance when we believe that you are ready and that the time is right," Cheney said. "No outside country gets a veto,"

"The allies agreed in Bucharest that Ukraine will eventually be a NATO member," he added. "That commitment stands today."

U.S. NAVY DROPS ANCHOR IN POTI

Meanwhile, the USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean-based Sixth Fleet, made the first delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid in Georgia's key Black Sea port of Poti, where Russian troops have been patrolling in violation of a cease-fire agreement brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Previous aid shipments carried by the USS McFaul and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas were routed to Georgia's smaller port of Batumi to expedite delivery of more than 1,200 tons of food and other goods for thousands of families left homeless by Russia's attack, as well as to avoid stepped up Russian naval patrols in the region.

Poti sustained heavy bombing from Russian warplanes during the conflict. Russian forces occupied the port's oil shipment facilities, sank eight Georgian naval vessels in the harbor, emptied the port's offices of computers and equipment and seized five U.S. Marine Humvees that had been packed for shipping back to the United States following a U.S.-Georgia training exercise.

U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood confronted the Kremlin's false claims - echoed repeatedly by its state-owned media outlets - that $30 million worth of U.S. aid delivered by land, sea and air shipments have included weapons to rearm the demolished Georgian army.

"We certainly reject the Russian charges," Wood said, adding that the Mount Whitney's cargo included 4,000 blankets, juice, diapers and hygiene products. "There's absolutely no foundation to this Russian charge."

Source: U.S. Department of State