WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made a quick visit to Washington, D.C., last weekend to attend a memorial service for U. S. Sen. John McCain, a strong supporter of Ukraine.
McCain died on Aug. 25 after succumbing to brain cancer and was buried on Sept. 2 after memorial services in the Republican’s home state of Arizona and finally on Sept. 1 in the nation’s capital.
McCain is considered a hero for enduring years of torture in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War. His captors offered to release him because McCain’s father, Admiral John S. McCain, was the Pacific Theater commander. But McCain chose to remain a prisoner rather than hand the Vietnamese enemy a propaganda victory. He spent seven years in prison.
McCain was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona in 1982 and elected to the United States Senate in 1986. He made at least two visits to Ukraine — one in December 2013 amid the EuroMaidan Revolution that would topple President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014. He also came on New Year’s Eve on Dec. 31, 2016, to visit Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, the Azov Sea city of 500,000 people located 800 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
Poroshenko called McCain a hero of Ukraine who stood by the country at some of its most critical times. For that reason, the Ukrainian leader said he felt compelled to fly to America to express Ukraine’s gratitude by attending a memorial service for the senator at Washington’s National Cathedral on Sept. 1.
Before entering the cathedral, he told reporters: “I, as the president of Ukraine, and a friend of Senator McCain’s, have to be heard today to show my respect to my friend and a great friend of Ukraine, a true fighter for the ideals of democracy and freedom.”
US Senator John McCain (R) shakes hands with a protester during a mass opposition rally at Independence Square in Kiev on December 15, 2013. US Senator John McCain told more than 200,000 EU supporters rallying in the Ukrainian capital Kiev today that Washington backed their desire for European integration. “To all Ukraine, America stands with you,” he called out to the cheering crowd. “The free world is with you, America is with you, I am with you… Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better.” (AFP)
He added: “We all remember him on the Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity when, with temperatures at minus 26 degrees, he appeared in shirtsleeves and addressed the hundreds of thousands standing on the Maidan to express absolutely vital, at that moment, words of support that the entire world and the United States stood with Ukraine.”
The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the EuroMaidan Revolution, was a 100-day uprising that succeeded in driving Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014.
Poroshenko joined members of the senator’s family inside the cathedral and around 200 others, including some of the most prominent members of the American establishment. Two former presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, were among those who eulogized McCain.
The next day McCain was buried at the U. S. Naval Academy in the city of Annapolis where he studied as a cadet.
On Aug. 31, the day before the memorial service, tens of thousands of people queued for two and a half hours in temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius to file into the Capitol building where McCain lay in state in a coffin draped with the American flag.
As a leading Republican who found respect among rival Democratic Party politicians, McCain was instrumental in rallying support in the U. S. Congress to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine’s military and take a tougher line against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Ukraine receiving Javelin anti-tank weapons earlier this year.
During his short stay in Washington, Poroshenko met with a Senate delegation to thank the U. S. Congress for supporting Ukraine.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko also traveled to the American capital to pay his respects to McCain.
