Director of the New Europe Center, Alyona Getmanchuk, participated in an advocacy visit to Washington with a delegation of civil society leaders and experts.

 During the visit to Washington, meetings in the US Government were planned (in particular, U.S. Department of Defense and the State Department, Congress, as well as discussions in leading think tanks.

 The purpose of the trip is to express gratitude to the American partners for their support, as well as to communicate at the appropriate levels the priority tasks, the solution of which will help bring Ukraine’s victory in the war closer.

 The delegation also included:

• a well-known volunteer, paramedic Yuliya (aka Taira) Paevska (was held captive by Russian forces for three months earlier this year),
• the head of the board of the National Interests Advocacy Network ANTS and the co-founder of ICUV – International Center for Ukrainian Victory Hanna Hopko,
• a member of the board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center Olena Halushka.

The delegation began its visit to Washington with a briefing by the Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Oksana Markarova (September 12).

On the same day, representatives from Ukraine met with the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, Mitch McConnell.

On September 13, the delegation met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Defense. On September 14, Alyona Getmanchuk and her colleagues held working meetings in the Congress (Jim Risch, Jason Crow, and Marcy Kaptur).

On September 15, delegates from Ukraine spoke at the event “Ukraine at War: Four Perspectives from Ukrainian Civil Society” organized by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

•      Our core message is that today it is a right moment not only to stand with Ukraine, but to win with Ukraine.
• The Kharkiv counteroffensive is a turning point in the war. Now we cannot afford any interruptions in our counteroffensive operation but for this we need uninterrupted flow of weapons including the US and European weapons.
• Over the last 8 years since Maidan happened, Ukraine managed to build resilient institutions. And that was one of the preconditions why Ukrainian public administration hasn’t failed in 3 days, one week or six months.
• We are very optimistic with regards to the Ukrainian future because civil society has just received a very powerful tool for reforms advocacy – EU candidate status and EU accession process.
• Process of reconstruction and renovation of Ukraine should be merit-based and with a clear Euro-Atlantic emphasis. Choosing between Chinese or Turkish companies, which are quite interested in the reconstruction process, Ukraine should make it clear that American and European companies would prevail in this process. It is not about money, it is about bringing best European business practices to Ukraine, bringing leverage on the reform process etc.

In the last days of the visit, the delegation:

• Initiated the hearing of the indomitable Ukrainian paramedic Yuliya (aka Taira) Paevska  at the Helsinki Commission of the US Senate.
  “We are convinced that her testimony about three months in Russian hell will become a serious additional argument for the approval in the US Congress of existing legislative initiatives to recognize Russia as a terrorist state, and Russian criminal actions in Ukraine as genocide against the Ukrainian people,” Alyona Getmanchuk said.
• Also they held a number of meetings in Congress, including with Democratic Congressman Andy Levin and Senator Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Relations Committee.