Ambassador of Ukraine in the U.S. Valeriy Chaly, Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Defense Council Oleh Gladkovskyi and California National Guard Adjutant Major General David S. Baldwin held a briefing in the U.S. Congress on the current state of Ukrainian National Security. 

The meeting was attended by Congressmen and staff, including Member of a Foreign Affairs Committee and Financial Services Committee in the House of Representatives Brad Sherman, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and member of the Armed Services Committee Duncan Hunter, Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, Member of the Budget Committee Ted Lieu.

The Ambassador of Ukraine and Deputy Secretary of the NSDC spoke about the situation in Donbas and the state of reforms launched in the Ukrainian security and defense sector to increase the defense capacity and eradicate corruption. They highly estimated a level of cooperation between Ukraine and the US. In this respect, Oleg Gladkovskyi spoke about the bilateral working group established to align on responses to the current security challenges that are posed by the Russian aggression against Ukraine.  Valeriy Chaly, in his turn, called for further support to Ukraine from the United States, in particular through continuation and increase of train-and-equip programs as well as providing defense equipment to Ukraine.

Adjutnat Major General, David S. Baldwin shared his experience obtained from training the Ukrainian National Guard and spoke highly about their professional level and combat spirit.

During the discussion the congressional representatives reiterated their continuous support for Ukraine, namely, Congressman Duncan Hunter underscored his effort to assist the Ukrainian armed forces, as embedded in the draft Ukrainian Warefighter Assistance Act.

The participants also discussed ways to counteract to propaganda and cyber challenges.