More than 300 Ukrainian school students will be able to travel to the United States next year as part of the FLEX school exchange program. US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt announced this on Tuesday, October 7, on the Twitter microblogging service.
The diplomat cited the speech of US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland during a meeting with students at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. 'Russia decided last week to abandon exchange programs for 2015-2017, taking away the opportunity for Russian students to study in the US. This is sad for us, we hope to restore this program in the future. But therefore more places have become available for Ukrainians. More than 300 Ukrainians will be able to come to the US next year,' Nuland's words are quoted by RBK-Ukraine.
As Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Pavel Astakhov told Interfax on October 1, Russia withdrew from the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) educational program because the US violated obligations to return students who arrived for training. Later, the children's ombudsman told the Kommersant newspaper that one of the Russian schoolchildren who participated in the program was adopted by a same-sex American family.
Based on Deutsche Welle materials.