26 years ago, on August 1, 1991 US President George HW Bush delivered a prescient warning on the dangers of Ukrainian ethno-nationalism in an address in Kiev. Bush told the assembled that “Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.” Bush’s wise pragmatism and caution enraged American neocons like New York Times columnist William Safire who unfairly dubbed Bush’s remarks “the Chicken Kiev speech.”