TRANSCRIPT OF AMBASSADOR TAYLOR'S PODCAST FOR APRIL

Good day. I am Bill Taylor, the U.S. Ambassador here in Kyiv, Ukraine. I am very pleased to be initiating this first podcast to be used on our website. I hope to do these once a month to bring you up to date on issues that are affecting us that we are working for on behalf of the America people.

Let me start right off with a description, an explanation I hope, of what's going on here in Ukraine that many of you will have seen on your television screens and in your newspapers. There is political turmoil here in Ukraine. The government is working to try to resolve this issue. It's an issue that has to do with factions in the Parliament. It's an issue that has to do with the President and the Prime Minister. It's an issue that may be resolved in the Constitutional Court - the supreme court of constitutional issues. So it's a very serious issue that will determine how Ukraine proceeds in the future.

We care about this. We care about democracy in Ukraine. We are concerned that any solution be undertaken in a democratic way. I've urged the leaders of the political factions here in Kyiv and across Ukraine to act responsibly, and they have. They have encouraged their supporters and followers to act responsibly as they've come onto the streets. So far, this has come off in a very restrained way. (See also official statement from Washington. Ukr Eng)

A week ago Saturday, there were two big rallies here in downtown Kyiv, very close to each other - within about two blocks of each other. On one square, were tens of thousands of people who were demonstrating their support for one political force. About two blocks away, as I say, just up the street on another square, there were tens of thousands of people demonstrating their support for another combination of political forces. Both rallies were well behaved, well organized, well disciplined, no trouble. The military was in the barracks. They were not to be seen. The police were on hand. They were staying in a low profile way. They were not provoking anyone. They were being very professional. This all worked extremely well. And that's the model. That's what we hope will be the model for a political resolution of this problem.

What is happening now, and what we hope will resolve the crisis is for the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Parliament to continue the discussions that they are now having and come to a conclusion that will resolve this issue one way or the other. There are several options on the table: there could be new elections, there could be a constitutional court decision, there could be negotiated settlement. Those are for the Ukraine people to decide. That is the way that Ukraine has developed its reputation for solving these problems democratically and peacefully, and we strongly recommend that that tradition be maintained. (See also Ambassador Taylor's Remarks to the American Chamber of Commerce. Ukr Eng)

Two other events that have taken place here in Kyiv over the past month that I wanted to tell you about. One has to do with missile defense and the other is a new form of assistance that the U.S. Government is about to provide to Ukraine.

On missile defense, as you know, the United States is about to undertake negotiations with the Poles and the Czechs on installing defensive missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic that would defend against threats coming out of Iran. We know that Iran has been developing nuclear weapons. We know that Iran is also developing the long range capability to deliver these weapons. We want to be sure that we have a defense against these weapons. So the negotiations with the Poles and the Czechs are designed to come up with an agreement on how to install defensive systems in these two countries that would protect the United States, but also Europe, from long range threats coming from Iran.

We have been lucky to have General Obering, the head of the Missile Defense Agency, here a couple of weeks ago to describe to the Ukrainians, obviously Ukrainians are neighbors of the Poles and the Czechs, how this system would work (See also Foreign Press Center Briefing). And Ukrainians are very interested to know how this system would work. General Obering described this in great detail, and I believe he was able to reassure the Ukrainians that they would be involved in these decisions and that they could even put people on site to build confidence that this was working exactly as they expected.

General Obering had a press conference at the end of his visit that was interrupted by some protestors. He handled this extremely well, observing that Ukrainian democracy was alive and well as evidenced by these people exercising their right to free speech. He then went on to continue his press conference in a very professional manner and in a very effective manner.

The second issue that I wanted to mention was also a visit here to Kyiv and to all of Ukraine by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (Ukr Eng.) The Millennium Challenge Corporation is a new U.S. Government agency that is providing assistance to Ukraine and other countries in a new innovative way. The Ukrainian people will decide how they want to use this money, and it could be up to half a billion dollars, to alleviate poverty and to promote economic development here in Ukraine. They decide. It's not the Americans who decide. We will of course have some approval, but they will decide what is the main serious problem that they want to address with this money.

The Vice President of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, John Hewko, was here in Ukraine, and he visited many cities, talked to many people, governors, mayors, non-governmental organizations, press conferences, to describe to Ukrainians how they have the responsibility to decide how these funds are going to be used. We are sure that Ukrainians will take full advantage of this, and this will be a big success between the United States and Ukraine.

Let me conclude, expressing my appreciation for your attention. I look forward to having these kinds of podcasts on a frequent basis, and I'll give you an update the next time on all of these issues. Thank you very much.