A few Ukrainian politicians and officials visited the inauguration ceremony of 45th U.S. President Donald J. Trump in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20.
Some of them said they were personally invited to the ceremony by Trump’s team, but only showed up at inaugural events that open to the public. They were quick to share their impressions on social media.
Mykola Malomuzh
Mykola Malomuzh, the ex-chief of Ukraine’s Intelligence Service and a former adviser to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, was the first Ukrainian official to announce that he was invited to come to the Trump inauguration. He posted a photo of a personal invitation from the Republican Party on Facebook on Jan. 10, confirming that he was going to go.
The ex-head of intelligence kept his followers updated: He said that he held seven meetings with the representatives of Trump’s team prior to the inauguration on Jan. 19, but didn’t go into any detail.
Malomuzh also posted a summary of his visit with some photos from the streets of Washington and the Republican Party dinner on the eve of the inauguration. He listed the people he spoke with at the dinner, but there were only three: Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, General Tim Haake and Prime Minister of the Canadian province of Alberta Rachel Notley, whom he didn’t mention by name.
Malomuzh added that he participated in the wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and was at the reception at the Lincoln Memorial. He shared a photo of himself standing alone at the party.
Borislav Bereza
The independent lawmaker and the Deputy Head of the Committee on Corruption Prevention in the Verkhovna Rada Borislav Bereza bragged to Gordon.ua news website that he was the only Ukrainian parliamentarian invited by the Republican Party, denying the rumors spreading in the Ukrainian media that Ukrainian officials bought tickets to Trump’s inauguration.
“Ask the Republicans why they’ve invited me. They know better with whom to have negotiations,” Bereza said.
While the tickets to the inauguration were distributed free of charge and could be received on request, there were reports of scalpers reselling the tickets.
While Malomuzh showed a photo of an invitation, Bereza only posted a photo of a regular inauguration ticket with no name on it and a selfie from the inaugural ball that was open to the public. Admission to the ball was $50, according to Time.com.
“Today the new era begins,” Bereza wrote when posting the selfie. “The time of the pragmatic relations has come. And for us (Ukraine) it means: change or die!”
Sergey Kivalov
Head of Odesa Law University and scandalous ex-head of the Central Election Commission Serhiy Kivalov, who was widely believed to help rig several elections in favor of the Yanukovych regime, also bragged that he received “a personal invitation” to the Trump inauguration.
As proof, he posted photos of several tickets – almost all of which, however, showed regular tickets that were up for sale, like the tickets to the Liberty Ball, the Inaugural Parade, the Inaugural Concert.
Kivalov’s ticket to the inauguration ceremony was for the green zone, putting him into a more privileged area than Bereza, who had a ticket to the blue zone, farther away from the stage.
Kivalov posted photos and videos from the Liberty Ball, including several that were shot from a screen, and a wire photo of the first dance. It appears that Kivalov never was in the same room as the new U.S. president at the ball.
Still, he claimed he was personally invited by the Trump administration.
“It meant a lot for me to receive a personal invitation from the administration,” he wrote on Facebook on the eve of the inauguration.
Yevhen Deydey
People’s Front Party lawmaker Yevhen Deydey watched the inauguration standing in the crowd outside the Capitol Hill. Like other politicians, Deydey claimed he was invited to the ceremony. His only photo from the ceremony, however, shows him not far from the Peace Monument, in the part of the Capitol Hill that was open to the public and didn’t require a ticket.
Deydey wrote that he was “trying to make it through the crowd” and added that he didn’t notice many Ukrainian representatives at the inauguration.
“As for Trump, I can say he is a powerful leader who has people’s trust and bears a huge responsibility for that,” he wrote. “So let’s hope his U.S ruling strategy will be as successful as his business managing talent.”
Mikheil Saakashvili
Odesa Oblast’s ex-Governor Mikheil Saakashvili, who calls himself a friend of Trump, also said he was at the inauguration of Trump. But unlike other Ukrainian politicians offered no evidence of it.
On Jan. 20 he addressed the convention of his Georgian party National Movement via Skype while having a picture of Capitol Hill in the background and said he was in Washington, D.C.
He also posted an old video of himself and Trump taken during Trump’s visit to Georgia, writing about the new U.S. president: “A very curious and detail-oriented guy, gets it instantly.”
