Yesterday, the AUK students, team and friends had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Evelyn Farkas, the executive director of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University, during the offline AUK Talks “Global democracy in the era of populism, arms race and cyber wars” led by Oleksii Shershnov, AUK Vice President.
Dr. Farkas noted “I come in the spirit of advancing Senator McCain's legacy and the message he gave to the Ukrainian people back in December of 2013. Senator McCain had a long history of frankly correctly estimating Vladimir Putin. He said “When I looked into his eyes, I saw KGB. And he understood what Vladimir Putin was all about before many people certainly in the U.S. and Western Europe indeed. He came to Ukraine in December of 2013, and he stood at the top of the Union building he looked at Maidan and everybody was freezing, and he was really moved by what he saw. And he said to the Ukrainian people “This is your moment! This is about the future you want for your country, and this is about the future that you deserve: a future in Europe, a future in peace, and good relations with all your neighbors. The destiny you seek lies in Europe. Ukraine will make Europe better, and Europe will make Ukraine better.”
I felt that is important to come here today, to this university, because I want to make sure that Senator McCain's messages are heard again in Ukraine, here among people, academics, and an institution powered by Arizona State University which McCain Institute is part of.”
We are grateful to Dr. Farkas and the McCain Institute for their consistently strong support of Ukraine and for inspiring our AUK Talks guests.