US Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Samantha Power has taken an active pro-Ukrainian stance from the very beginning of the Russian aggression against our country. During the past year-and-a-half, the whole world was able to watch how, thanks in particular to her quite emotional, but also clear and reasoned speeches at meetings of the Security Council, the Russian representative was being transformed into a laughing stock, full of ridiculous attempts to justify the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas invasion. “A thief can steal a thing, but it does not make him its owner,” was Power’s March 2014 comment on the unchanged national and international status of Crimea. It was to listen to her colorful speeches that Ukrainian TV viewers again and again tuned to another UN broadcast, even though the hope that these talks would somehow affect Russia’s position seemed to be waning further on every occasion.
And now, Ukrainians have an opportunity to see Power live, for she is holding her first official visit to this country currently. In the visit’s framework, the US representative to the UN will address the Ukrainian people at the October Palace in Kyiv at 5:15 p.m. on June 11. After the speech, those present will be able to offer their questions to the American diplomat. As stated in the announcement, Power will speak, among other subjects, on the critical importance of reform efforts by Ukraine, emphasize US support for Ukrainians in this complex process and for Ukraine defending its territorial integrity and sovereignty in the face of the hostilities in eastern Ukraine and the continued occupation of Crimea. For those who cannot attend the event in person, there will be a live broadcast of the speech on the Youtube channel of the US Embassy in Ukraine.
Throughout her professional career, Power has repeatedly had to work in situations of armed conflict, and not only as a diplomat. After graduating from Yale, the daughter of Irish immigrants (Power was born in a Dublin suburb and moved to the US only as a nine-year-old) worked as a journalist covering events in Bosnia, East Timor, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe for several leading American media. Back in the States, Power graduated from Harvard Law School, worked as the executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights, and taught courses on US foreign policy, human rights and UN reform. In 2005-06, Power worked in the office of Senator Barack Obama, going on to be involved in his presidential campaign. After Obama’s victory, she worked for the State Department and National Security Council. The president appointed her US ambassador to the UN in August 2013.
“Power represents a new generation of diplomacy practitioners, for whom the unity of word and deed is the most important feature of their professional work,” founder and director of the Litopys publishing house Mykhailo Komarnytsky commented for The Day, “because it is the only way to prevent global conflicts or overcome them. During the past 30 meetings of the Security Council, Power has dignifiedly and uncompromisingly defended her nation’s stance on the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Her speeches at the UN Security Council, as well as her professional and yet deeply humanistic approach to conflict resolution, offer an essential lesson for all young democracies. The Ukrainian society needs examples of words and deeds, professionalism and morality, just like those described in Power’s book and featured in her professional activities. Her Chasing the Flame is an attempt to answer the question: how best to cope with the deadly threats of the 21st century? Sergio Vieira de Mello solved hundreds of complex dilemmas on every occasion: should refugees be cared for in the camps or would they be better off deported to their homeland? Do the UN peacekeepers have the right to intervene in the conflict, or rather just observe it? Ukrainian readers have an opportunity to look for their own answers to these difficult questions together with the author and the book’s protagonist who embody the voice of conscience of the 21st-century international community.” According to Komarnytsky, Power was actively involved with the creation of the Ukrainian version of her book, in particular through participating in designing its cover. Litopys plans to conduct, in cooperation with Yi magazine, a presentation tour of Ukrainian universities this fall, aimed at holding public discussions of this dramatic story about a man who wanted to change and improve our world.
