Groundbreaking Ceremony for the New Embassy Compound

May 21, 2009
Kyiv Ukraine

Ambassador Taylor: Whoever we have to thank for this glorious weather, we should thank that person. Let me ask two other people to come join us up here at this site, Mr. Krivinos and Bill Pryor. Mr. Krivinos is well known to all Ukrainians and all diplomatic missions. We can only be building here thanks to Mr. Krivinos and the mayor. The deputy mayor may join us, but he sent word that he's been called to a meeting and he asked Mr. Krivinos to represent him. He asked us to get started with the celebration. Bill Pryor is the most important person out here. He works at an office in the State Department in Washington called O.B.O., the Office of Buildings Overseas. The office of O.B.O. is very well known in the State Department. This man is paying for this new embassy. He's got it right in his pocket. Thank you, Bill. This ceremony is one that I've looked forward to, but also people who have been in the embassy for the past many years have been looking forward to this day. My pedecessor, Ambassador John Herbst, he thought as one of his last actions before he left Kyiv that he had the final premit in hand, but he didn't. He told me what I had to do, and he said I had to talk to Mr. Krivinos, and the mayor, and many others. When I first arrived, one of my first duties was to talk to President Yushchenko. President Yushchenko was probably a little surprised when I raised the permit for a peice of land for our new embassy in my first meeting with him. But I also had several meetings with the foreign minister, then it was Mr. Tarasyuk. I talked to the Prime Minister, then it was Mr. Yakhanurov. I had to talk to other ministers. All the cabinet ministers had to sign off on this final deal. We got very close, and then someone came out to this site and noticed that there were a couple of greenhouses on this site. And then someone, and I'm sure it was not Mr. Krivinos, said if it is greenhouses that must mean this is agricultural land. And as everyone knows, it's against the law to buy and sell agricultural land. But we overcame that as well, and here we are today. We will break ground. The three of us in a moment will go put shovels in the dirt, and in two years many of our Ukrainian employees of the embassy will move into this new building. We want to have this building, which is shown here, so you can come take a look at this drawing of it, we want this building to be something that our Ukrainian employees at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv embassy are proud of. And I want Ukrainian officials and Ukrainian people when they come to this embassy to be proud of it as well. That will make the Americans who work there proud. In two years, we will see the ribbon cutting. That will be the next ceremony. Mr. Anatoly has suggested that I come back, and I would be glad to come back for that ribbon cutting as well. You can see the yellow and black tape here. That is the outline of the main chancery building, and that's the building that you can see on this banner.

Mr. Krivonos: Esteemed Mr. Ambassador, the embassy, the Kyiv city administration, headed by Leonid Chernovetsky, paid a lot of attention finding a place housing the U.S. embassy in Ukraine. Mr. Ambassador was right in listing all the officials that he had to talk to to achieve the final deal for this project. You know it is very tough to find four hectares of land in the city of Kyiv. And it is true that the city of Kyiv offered several sites in Kyiv for this project. And a delegation from Washington DC came to review the sites, and they made their final choice on this particular site that previously was named Tankovo street. Because prior to the greenhouses, there was a tank training site here. And we are proud that the street Tankovo was renamed Tsikorsky street. I congratulate Mr. Ambassador on the mission that he has accomplished and suggest that we start breaking ground. And the mayor, Mr. Chernovetsky, has assured that he will do his best so the embassy will be built even earlier than planned.