UKRAINE/SUDAN: UKRAINIAN HELICOPTERS FOR UNAMID

C O N F I D E N T I A L KYIV 000158 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/UMB AND EUR/PRA E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2018 TAGS: PREL MARR KPKO SU UP SUBJECT: UKRAINE/SUDAN: UKRAINIAN HELICOPTERS FOR UNAMID REF: A. STATE 6694 ¶B. 07 KYIV 2720 ¶C. 07 KYIV 2677 ¶D. 07 KYIV 2515 Classified By: Political Counselor Kent Logsdon for reasons 1.4(b,d) ¶1. (C) Visiting EUR A/S Daniel Fried raised the issue of helicopter assets for the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID, ref A) during a January 24 meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandohiy. (Note: FM Ohryzko was unavailable due to his travel in Davos, Switzerland.) Fried thanked Khandohiy for Ukraine's past support for UN and other peacekeeping missions and urged Ukraine to be responsive regarding the latest UN request. Khandohiy said that, while Ukraine had sufficient numbers of helicopters in the past, the availability of military helicopters had gradually dwindled. Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) representatives had said that Ukraine had provided all the airlift support available, and the issue continued to be worked through the Ukrainian military representative at Ukraine's UN Mission. ¶2. (C) Recalling Ukraine's recent request for a NATO Membership Action Plan, Fried commented that countries desiring NATO membership needed to demonstrate their capability to make a security contribution across-the-board. Khandohiy noted that Ukraine actively supported multilateral peacekeeping operations (PKO) and was the only NATO Partnership for Peace member to participate in all NATO PKOs. ¶3. (U) Visit Embassy Kyiv's classified website: www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev. Taylor