Month: September 20, 2019 1:21 am

SAN FRANCISCO – For the third straight year, friends of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) gathered in San Francisco in fellowship at a festive banquet to raise funds to benefit the university. IT leader SoftServe Inc. was the principal corporate sponsor. Along with longstanding supporters, new guests were welcomed to the July 28 event, including IT innovation stars in Silicon Valley, and representatives from academia and finance.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Ukrainian community of Binghamton gathered at the annual celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day at Binghamton City Hall with a flag-raising ceremony on August 26.
The ceremony has been held annually since 1950 and organized by the local branch of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

JEWETT, N.Y. – The Ukrainian community centered in Hunter, N.Y., gathered on Sunday, August 25, to celebrate Ukraine’s 28th Independence Day with a commemorative program held at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church’s Grazhda community hall.
Dr. Irene Sawchyn Doll, as emcee, invited Father Vasyl Kadylo to open the program with a prayer for the people of Ukraine. She then introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. Andrew Nynka, who gave a presentation titled, “Examining Ukrainian Journalists’ Ethical Beliefs Amid Pluralism, Propaganda and War.”

PHILADELPHIA – The contest “Going from Childhood to Taras” is one of many programs in Ukraine sponsored by the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC). The purpose of this competition is to promote and foster patriotism and identity among the youth of Ukraine through study and recitations of poems by Taras Shevchenko.
The winners of the contest – 28 children from Luhansk Oblast (in May), 27 each from the oblasts of Ivano-Frankivsk and Donetsk (in June), and 28 from Mykolayiv Oblast (in August) – were rewarded with a trip to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Kaniv, where the poet is buried.

KYIV – Moscow freed 35 Ukrainian political prisoners and hostages in an exchange involving the same number of detainees held by Kyiv because of their hostile activities on behalf of Russia.
The return to Ukraine on September 7 of the Ukrainian captives, including the internationally renowned filmmaker from Crimea, Oleh Sentsov, generated joy and hope, but also some controversy.
There were moving scenes at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport as the families and Ukraine’s president welcomed home the exhausted, relieved and still somewhat bewildered representatives of Ukraine’s current battle for its freedom. Many who were there, or were watching on TV, had tears in their eyes.

KYIV – More than five years after his arrest in Crimea, and just three days after his release from Russian custody as part of a prisoner swap with Ukraine, filmmaker Oleh Sentsov says his plans are simple. “Do the two most wonderful things on this planet: shoot films and live.”
Speaking to a large number of journalists in the Ukrainian House in downtown Kyiv on September 10, Mr. Sentsov and another freed Ukrainian activist, Oleksandr Kolchenko, expressed thanks to “all who supported us and contributed to our liberation.”

BERLIN – On September 6-8 at Berlin City Hall in Germany, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) held its annual general…...

Despite various hints and declarations of progress in Moscow’s dialogue with the new Ukrainian government, Russia has nonetheless maintained its aggressive behavior. The shelling of the Donbas persists, and the Ukrainian General Staff reports almost daily on new casualties – wounded or killed. Simultaneously, the Kremlin’s information operations against Ukraine have not ceased.
On August 23, several media outlets from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk published a fabricated news story about Lt. Col. Robert Tracy, the United States Army commander of the Joint Multinational Training Group – Ukraine. The disinformation claimed Lt. Col. Tracy complained about the conditions at Ukraine’s Yavoriv training center and purportedly accused Ukrainian military personnel of stealing equipment, widespread alcoholism, corruption and lack of control. The story was based on a post the commander supposedly made on his personal blog (which was also fake and soon deleted) and swiftly amplified by a number of top Russian information outlets (Vzglyad, August 28).

Trump on joining Normandy talks

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he isn’t averse to joining talks with Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Trump told Voice of America on September 9 in Washington that he’d join the talks, known as the Normandy format, if the participants needed him. “I believe the fact that the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine took place… is a very big step, and a very positive [one],” the president said. France, Germany and Ukraine have called for talks to take place by the end of this month. Russia has said it is ready to meet once “concrete steps” are taken before the meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in Kyiv on September 5, during which both lawmakers expressed support for the former Soviet state’s continued progress.
“I want to thank our strategic partner – the United States – for the continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a statement on the presidential website.
Both senators are members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus whose mission is “to strengthen the political, military, economic and cultural relationship between the United States and Ukraine.”

Teenager Lina Nazipova has always dreamed of following in her parents’ footsteps. Now she is getting her chance.
Ms. Nazipova is one of 20 young women who started classes on September 2 at Kyiv’s prestigious Ivan Bohun Military High School, the first female freshmen in the school’s history.
“My dream is to be an army helicopter pilot like my father and grandfather,” she told RFE/RL ahead of the first day of classes, adding that her mother was also an officer in the armed forces.

Seen in the photo are members of the Supreme Assembly of the Ukrainian National Association who were elected at the organization’s 19th Convention, which was held May 10-15, 1937, in Washington. Seated (from left) are: Supreme Financial Secretary/Treasurer Roman Slobodian, Supreme Vice-President Gregory Herman, Supreme President Nicholas Murashko, Supreme Vice-Presidentess Maria Malievych, Supreme Recording Secretary Dmytro Halychyn and member of the Supreme Auditing Committee Dmytro Kapitula. At the time of its 19th Convention, the UNA had 30,335 members and assets of $4,489,305.