CHICAGO - U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today joined Chicago's Ukrainian-American community at a rally to mark the one-year anniversary of the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine and to protest Russia’s military invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory. Representatives of the Polish, Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian Communities, and Ukrainian-American organizations participated in the event with Senator Kirk.

"Our allies in Ukraine have struggled under Putin's aggression for too long," Senator Kirk said. "Democracies are more effective when they stick together, and heading into the new Congress I can assure the Ukranian-American community that their voices have been heard and help is on the way."

Senator Kirk has been an outspoken critic of Russian aggression in Ukraine. In May, Senator Kirk led a bipartisan, bicameral letter with Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Kinzinger (R-Ill.) urging France to halt its sale of Mistral warships to Russia, a request with which France eventually complied in September. In July, Senator Kirk led a letter with 18 other Senators requesting that President Obama designate the main pro-Russian separatist organizations of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) under U.S. law.

Senator Kirk is a co-sponsor of the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, a bipartisan bill that would impose additional sanctions on Russia’s defense, energy and financial sectors, as well as increase military and non-military assistance for Ukraine. In September, the Ukraine Freedom Support Act was unanimously adopted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and now awaits an up-or-down vote by the full Senate.

The UCCA is a non-governmental non-profit organization whose mission is to support cultural, educational, and humanitarian activities that emphasize the Ukrainian American heritage and to provide support for Ukraine's newly developing democracy.

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