Newspaper Article

The Ukrainian presence in the United States: Embassy of Ukraine

Lew, Khristina

1994

Overview

The brunt of defending Ukraine's existence, however, falls on the Embassy's press and information counselor, Dmitro Markov, who says that changing the media's pro-Russia bias is a hard struggle. \"Ukraine is very unlucky -- it is a successor state to the legislation of the Soviet Union, but not to the media.\" With Russia controlling the media, it will be difficult to break the media's association of Ukraine with missiles, said the former editor-in-chief of Radio Ukraine. Despite the impediments, Mr. Markov, who is the only member of the Embassy's media staff, has attempted to expand media relations: in 1993, the Embassy released 71 press releases, afforded Ambassador Bilorus 200 press exposures, held 13 press conferences and 40 briefings. Mr. Markov is also working toward bringing more Ukrainian journalists to the United States -- Ukraine has only one accredited journalist here -- \"so that the people of Ukraine know why close cooperation is important with the United States.\" The Embassy does not, however, consult with the Ukrainian American organizations that for years have lobbied Washington on behalf of Ukraine. \"The Embassy has certainly not made full use of the Ukrainian community through the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Association Washington offices,\" said Askold Lozynskyj, president of the UCCA. \"It operates on its own and seems to think of the Ukrainian diaspora only as a money cow. I don't think this is a policy of Ambassador Bilorus. This is the way the Ukrainian government with President [Leonid Kravchuk] at the helm operates.\"

• Publisher: Ukrainian National Association
• Subject: Bilorus, Oleh / Diplomacy / Diplomatic & consular services / Government / International relations / Politics / Smeshko, Ihor / Vlassov, Volodymyr / Zabigailo, Volodymyr