Friends!

In a few hours in the United States will start an extremely important event - the inauguration of President-elected Donald Trump and vice president Michael Pence.

All the world is waiting the ceremony. And no wonder - the new US president and his course will affect any other country. And Ukraine in particular.

These elections in America were one of the loudest. The country even experienced the "hand of the Kremlin", when Russian hackers broke into the servers of the Democratic Party. Now America is uniquely responsive to the inauguration of Trump. There are people that support President-elect. They have already bought souvenirs for the holiday and the T-shirts with his name. There are those who came out to massive protests, including well-known artists such as Cher, Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro and others. One man even tried to set fire to himself at the Trump hotel, but was rescued.

In any case, Ukraine and America should develop friendships. This time for the inauguration of US President went a record number of Ukrainian representatives- about a hundred. They are the deputies of Ukraine, representatives of the Presidential Administration. I hope they will put maximum efforts in order to establish a productive dialogue between the countries.

Today we say goodbye to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, I would like to thank them for the support and assistance they have provided to Ukraine. It is unlikely that it would have been the same if the US did not apply sanctions against Russia. They helped us to restrain the aggressor and his appetites. Remember the recent visit Joe Biden in Kyiv. Imagine, after receiving the Liberty Medal's, his name was thundering across the world, and he arrived on an official visit to Kyiv! I hope that Michael Pence, which will soon be responsible on Ukrainian issue at the White House will follow Biden’s steps and built a partnership between the two countries on mutual respect and support.

It is difficult to imagine what awaits us next. But we have to believe and hope for the best.