Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said $60 billion aid package is 'deal of the century'

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, expressed confidence Monday in the resolve of the Ukrainian people to both win the war with Russia and make strides in eliminating governmental corruption that she linked to a vestigial legacy of communism.

Yovanovitch also told a near-capacity crowd at the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall that it is in the best interest of the U.S. to pass a $60 billion aid package – now tied to border security, as well as funds for Israel and Taiwan, in a bipartisan bill that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called dead on arrival.

“Sixty billion dollars and no American boots on the ground is the deal of the century and we should take it,” said Yovanovitch, who also noted that 90% of that money stays in the U.S.

The second speaker in this season’s RCLA schedule, Yovanovitch served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019.

Before that, she served as the ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic from 2005 to 2008 and the Republic of Armenia from 2008 to 2011.

Now a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and non-resident Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, her book, “Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir,” is a New York Times bestseller.

Spontaneous applause

She received spontaneous applause from the crowd at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall three times: when she said the crowd should know where she stood on the $60 billion aid package; when she said that the U.S. needed to battle back against Russian disinformation; and when she explained her removal from her ambassadorship.

Yovanovitch acknowledged that all ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the President but, after receiving positive feedback from professional diplomats and facing a public campaign for her removal, she asked for a full-throated statement of support from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

She was told to issue a video statement herself and include a pledge of loyalty to President Trump. She refused.

“We pledge loyalty to the Constitution,” Yovanovitch said. “We dispensed pledging loyalty to an individual with the Revolutionary War.”

Yovanovitch also equated Ukraine’s struggle to the Revolutionary War, where the former colonists were aided by the French, who supported their cause for freedom.

“They know why they’re fighting, just like we did in 1776,” Yovanovitch said.

Painting Russia as a threat

In a media briefing before her talk, Yovanovitch stressed it was in the best interest of the U.S. to aid Ukraine to stop what she sees as a clear plan by Russian President Vladimir Putin to push on to reclaim other lands that once belonged to the former Soviet Union – including some countries that have since become members of NATO.

“It seems like every day there’s a new threat to those ‘historically Russian lands’ that now incorporate many countries that have been independent for years, for decades, for centuries, and of course, some of them are NATO countries now,” Yovanovitch said. “So I think that Russia is a threat to the United States, to Europe, to the international order – it is in our interest to help Ukraine stop Russia in Ukraine.”

Yovanovitch detailed other atrocities, emphasizing the abduction of more than 700,000 Ukrainian children.

She emphasized that the 700,000 figure was attributed to the Russian Commission for Children’s Rights and added that Ukranians had three choices: fight, become “Russified,” or be detained and killed for not capitulating.

While for Russians, Yovanovitch said, the war is one of choice, “For the Ukrainians, it’s an existential war.

“If they stop fighting, Ukraine ends.”

Confidence in the Ukrainian people

In response to a question regarding Ukraine’s cleanup of corruption, Yovanovitch admitted that there is no quick fix but keyed the eventual success to Ukrainian resolve.

It’s a generational fight that will take time but I put my faith in the Ukrainian people,” Yovanovich said. “Through multiple elections, through two revolutions they have said they want to live differently, they want to live according to different values, and they want to live according to the rule of law.

“That’s what the revolution of dignity in 2014 was all about,” she added, “‘Dignity being I want the same laws applied to me, applied to you.

“They’re not fighting this war to make the oligarchs rich again. They’re fighting to create a future for themselves and perhaps even more importantly their children.”

Yovanovitch pointed out how Ukrainians have been pushing ahead with governmental reform while keeping the electrical grid up and repairing other key aspects of infrastructure.

Instead of filling out paper forms in triplicate to ask for services, “You now have an app for that on your phone and it’s clear and transparent – eliminating any possibility for corruption,” she said. “The Ukrainians are using the war as an opportunity to reinvent government.

“One of the miracles, really, of this war is that the Ukrainian economy is still working and the people are still there … and not running away from this terrifying war … and making Ukraine work,” she later added.

A call to action

Yovanovitch urged audience members to do two things. First, call their representative and urge passage of the Ukrainian aid package. Secondly, to write a check to a Ukrainian charitable cause. She later showcased the blue and yellow socks she wore urging people to “Be Brave like Ukraine.”

Yovanovitch also stressed vigilance against Russian disinformation – especially targeting the 2024 Presidential Election.

Social media debates, she noted, are often shaped by Russian disinformation.

“Russia is not just passively standing by and watching what’s happening in the United States,” she said. “Russia is rapidly trying to shape our internal political discussions and the 2024 Presidential Election."

Related: An evolving portrait: Two Sarasota photographers document impact of the war in Ukraine

Ultimately, Yovanovitch said, the U.S. needs to be as committed as Ukraine.

“Yes it’s about their future but it's about our future,” she added. “What kind of a world are we going to be living in if we don’t provide assistance?”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Former ambassador to Ukraine said U.S. must approve $60 billion in aid