The British newspaper The Guardian on Dec. 1 published a U.S. State Department cable, classifed "SECRET," authored in December 2008 by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor. The brief describes his Dec. 8, 2008 meeting with Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash and the supply of Russian natural gas to Ukraine.
The whistleblower site WikiLeaks says it will release over 250,000 cables between December 28, 1966, and February 28, 2010, by 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions. According to statistical information published on its website, about 1,800 communiqués discuss Ukraine.
Only six of the more than 600 U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks by Dec. 2 originated in Ukraine. But future releases, to take place "over the months ahead," are expected to include 1,139 diplomatic cables sent from the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv from December 2005 through February 2010.
Cables mentioning Ukraine posted to the Internet by The Guardian and the Moscow-based Russian Reporter, meanwhile, provide insight into U.S. interest in Russia’s rocky relationship with Ukraine, top-level government corruption in the transit of Russian natural gas via Ukraine to Europe, Ukraine’s plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and consequences of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Georgia in August 2008.
The U.S. State Department cable about Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash is here.
U.S. State Department cables from Kyiv published by WikiLeaks can be found here.
