McCain was elected as a Senator for six times. He served in Vietnam and spent more than five years in captivity. He twice ran for the presidency of the United States and headed the Defense Committee. John McCain was in Ukraine at the worst moments of December 2013. He was a great friend of our country and believed that Ukraine would make Europe better. How the legendary senator is remembered by Ukrainians – in reactions from DUMKA.
Petro Poroshenko reminded us that McCain was together with the Ukrainians on the Maidan and supported the spirit of the Ukrainian military in the Donbas. According to the president, we will never forget his invaluable contribution to the development of democracy and freedom of Ukraine and his support of our country. The memory of John McCain will remain forever in our hearts.
Blogger Boris Nemirovski said that McCain was one of the most consistent and steady friends of Ukraine. And if Americans have their own “Heavenly Hundred” then he‘s there. After all, America can be proud of this person, although he didn’t have a chance to become president.
Writer Maksym Butchenko, on the other hand, is convinced that if McCain had won the elections instead of Obama, the world could be completely different. Then, most likely, there would be no Russian occupation in Ukraine. Butchenko is convinced, that this way the history could have been changed completely only by this one person.
But the journalist Marina Danyliuk-Yarmolaeva criticized those who began to write posts like “If McCain won the election and lived on, we would return the Crimea and Donbas”. The journalist’s logic is quite clear: the American republican is not obliged to do things for which we choose numerous MPs. The defense and security of the state are in the hands of everyone who has four limbs and a little bit of grey matter in the brain.
The blogger and actor Andriy Alekhin admitted that he doesn’t know anyone who could be a greater example for us. After all, McCain was really a great person. Alekhin added that he would some Ukrainian street in the honor of a senator or a skyscraper so that the next generations would remember him and, after having learned how he lived a life, were surprised and endlessly admired him.
On how McCain actually spent his life, journalist Olexander Mykhelson told on his page, citing twenty facts about this “extraordinary Yankee”. These facts, I think, perfectly shape the portrait of the American senator, because they explain and say a lot.
The journalist and TV presenter, Myroslava Barchuk, in her turn, said that a lot of people wrote about McCain’s honor and dignity on the day of the death, but some of those “writers” are completely dishonest. Therefore, it would be better without this false pathos and to extrapolate McCain’s moral principles to Ukrainian politics.
The blogger Oleksandr Danylyuk reminded that when McCain was captured, his father became commander of all the navy involved in Vietnam. Then McCain was offered the immediate release of his son, but John refused himself until all other prisoners would not be released. These are the stories of heroes that are very different from the stories of our “canned” politicians.
Politician Gennadiy Zubko while commemorating McCain did not forget to recall the chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andriy Vynogradsky, which passed away on the same day two years ago. Andriy was an example of the service and support of the moral condition of our soldiers in Shyrokino. Senator McCain is a politician, a fighter, a patriot, a voice of Ukraine and truth for the whole world. For sure the had one thing in common, it was the desire to see an independent and democratic Ukraine.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine, expressed condolences to the family and the American people, thanking the senator. According to her, McCain was a warrior, politician, patriot, leader, the voice of truth and friend of the free world.
Oleksandr Krasovytsky, director of the publishing house “Folio”, while writing about McCain, also recalled Oleg Sentsov, who, like the senator, is ready to give his life for the freedom of other prisoners behind the Russian bars. Krasovytsky expressed his hope that Sentsov will also be alive and will be able to benefit Ukraine for many years like McCain did to America.
MP Igor Lutsenko stressed that John McCain did not pass away because of the age, but because of a disease that could, in theory, occur for a couple of decades before, or a dozen years later. For sure, he passed away much earlier than his political age.
Also, thinking about American politics, Lutsenko described the absence of the concept of a “party’s discipline”, if to compare with Ukrainian or even European traditions. There are many more cases when everyone treats the party program and its goals individually. There are few cases when it comes to some monolithic voting.
The blogger Artur Fred emphasized that in the mourning for John McCain, nobody asks for some reason about what happened to those who tortured him in Vietnam. And who directed them and who was interested in information about the American army, who taught to shoot with the Soviet missile an American plane. This and much more is left out of sight. As well as how many “those who” are paid pensions now throughout the former USSR.
Письменник, психолог і психіатр Борис Херсонський присвятив Маккейну вірш. «Маккейн полюбив свою країну, коли у чужій перебував у полоні, я полюбив чужу країну, коли рабом був у своїй», – пише Херсонський.
TV host and actress Yanina Sokolova thanked McCain for pointing out the clear features of who should lead the country you love. Sokolova expressed her hope to live as long as the leader of Ukraine will become the one who, at least inherited the features of the American senator: categoricalness, decency, intransigence, reason, and honesty. And the main thing is the desire to enter the history not with the help of the funds, but with deeds. And you succeeded in it, Mr. Senator.
McCain expressed his categoricity, as it turned out, even after his death, because his posthumous will was not to invite Trump to his funeral. This is how American integrity looks like.
By the way, to somehow keep the situation light, I will give you an offer by the writer Oleksiy Chupa: There is a city in Ukraine that can be renamed to McCainivka so that nobody will notice it.
And, in the end, if your news feed resembled our review, then everything is well, you live in the correct information field.
Reactions were collected by Stepan the Goat
