Page:Interview of George Kent.pdf/20

20 service career -- is not possible without a Ukraine full free and at peace, including Crimea and Donbas, both current occupied by Russia.

I am grateful for all of you on the key congressional committees who have traveled to Ukraine in the past 5 years -- and I had occasion to speak to many in the 3 years I was in Kyiv -- and appropriating billions of dollars in assistance in support of our primary strategic goals, in particular, increasing Ukraine's resiliency in the face of Russian aggression in the defense, energy, cyber, and information spheres, and empowering institutions in civil society to tackle corruption and undertake systemic reforms.

I believe that all of us in the legislative and the executive branches in the interagency community working out of our embassy in Kyiv, with Ukrainians in government in the Armed Services in civil society, and with our transatlantic allies and partners, can be proud of our efforts and our resolve in Ukraine over the past 5 years, even though much more remains to be done.

U.S. officials who have spoken publicly in Ukraine to push back on Russian aggression and corrupt influences have been subject to defamatory and disinformation campaigns, and even online threats for years. Starting in 2015 for former Ambassador Pyatt, in 2017 for me, and in 2018 for former Ambassador Yovanovitch.