Prerequisites and Specificity of the Establishment of Ukraine-US Relations at the Early 1990s

Abstract

The article reveals the contradictory conditions of the formation of Ukraine-US relations at the interstate level in the early 1990s. It highlights the American strategy and approaches to the struggle of Moscow and the republican elites within the USSR over the new union agreement, the reasons for Washington's support for M. Gorbachev's course. It is noted that the strategic goal of the USA in this situation was to preserve the reformed USSR, albeit in a weakened form, as a convenient partner within the bipolar system. Based on this, the centrifugal tendencies and ambitions of the Soviet republics were perceived coolly by the US government. On the other hand, supporting the allied center, the USA chose not to interfere in the internal struggle of the Soviet elites for power. In this context, L. Kravchuk's independent course was perceived in the USA as undesirable and to some extent dangerous from the point of view of maintaining control over the Soviet nuclear arsenal. The result of inadequate understanding and assessment of the prospects of the disintegration processes in the USSR on the part of the American leadership and intelligence services was the scandalous speech of the US President J. Bush Sr. on August 1, 1991 in the Verkhovna Rada, in which he directly opposed Ukraine's declaration of independence. It is proved that there was no policy of the administration of J. Bush Sr. regarding Ukraine until the fall of 1991. Only after the failure of the August putsch in Moscow and the declaration of Ukrainian independence did the US government begin discussions about the prospects of the collapse of the USSR and the prospects of Ukraine-US relations. Acting in captivity of old patterns of thinking, the administration of J. Bush Sr. even after the Ukrainian referendum on December 1, 1991, hesitated with the decision to officially recognize the independence of Ukraine. Only three weeks later, when it finally became clear that the USSR had ceased to exist, the USA decided to recognize Ukraine and establish diplomatic relations with it.