Month: November 22, 2019 7:15 am

NEW YORK – Ukrainian Americans gathered in New York City on Saturday, November 16, to remember the victims of Stalin’s Famine-Genocide – the Holodomor of 1932-1933.
Gathering at the landmark St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the heart of Manhattan, attendees were greeted by Metropolitan Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., prior to the start of the memorial ceremonies. As the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York began singing, students from St. George Academy slowly processed up the nave of the cathedral followed by Holodomor survivor Nadia Severyn, who was escorted by her grandson, Bill Wieting.

KYIV – The leaders of the Normandy Four countries – Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France – have finally agreed to hold a summit on December 9 in Paris in an attempt to resume the long-stalled negotiations over the future of eastern Ukraine. Moscow had delayed agreeing to a date, and even now continues its attempts to set the summit’s terms.
Meanwhile, complex discussions are under way between Kyiv and Moscow on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine after the present contract expires at the end of the year. With Gazprom making proposals that Naftogaz finds unacceptable, the current negotiations are stalled.

JENKINTOWN, Pa. – Among Ukrainian organizations in the United States, the United Ukrainian American Relief Commit­tee (UUARC), a community-based charitable organization occupies a unique place.
During the uncertain post-war years, the UUARC made it possible for tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to resettle in displaced persons’ camps in Germany and Austria, and eventually reach America. Many of them were well-educated and leaders of their communities. Many others were young but unafraid of the Soviet regime and committed to Ukrainian independence. Because of the UUARC, they were given an opportunity to live in a country that allowed them to achieve their potential but never forget their ancestral roots.
Today, the UUARC still continues to help Ukrainian immigrants throughout the world.

Ambassadors from the North Atlantic Council – the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) principal political decision-making body – visited Ukraine on October 30-31, for a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the commission’s meeting, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who led the delegation, addressed the parliament in Kyiv (Nato.int, October 31).
Comprising all 29 (imminently 30) allied countries’ ambassadors to NATO, the delegation also visited Ukraine’s naval academy and the port of Odesa. A NATO group of four minesweepers (Romanian, Bulgarian, Italian, Spanish) and two Island-class coastal guard boats just gifted by the United States to Ukraine were anchored there for the occasion (UNIAN, October 30, 31).

Seized ships returned in bad condition

Ukraine’s Navy says that the three ships captured by Russia almost a year ago and released on November 19 have been returned in very poor condition and are not able to make it back to port under their own power.
Vice-Admiral Ihor Voronchenko said on November 20 that, because of their condition, the ships – two small Ukrainian armored artillery vessels and a tug boat – were being moved slowly by other vessels. “They cannot sail on their own. The Russians ruined them – even took lamps, power outlets and toilets. We will show the whole world the Russian barbarism towards them,” Admiral Voronchenko said. The ships arrived at the port of Ochakiv in the southern Mykolayiv region on November 20. On November 25, 2018, Russian coast guard vessels fired on and seized the three ships and their crews, consisting of 24 sailors, in the Kerch Strait, while they were on their way from the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. Ukraine called the attack and subsequent capture of the 24 crewmen a violation of international maritime law.

KYIV – The Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly on November 14 adopted the draft resolution on the “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine.” Voting in favor were 67 U.N. member states, 23 voted against, 82 abstained. The Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations reported that 38 countries became co-sponsors of the draft resolution. The document concerns the violations of human rights in Crimea by the Russian Federation as an occupying state.
The Third Committee – one of six main committees of the U.N. General Assembly – is concerned with social, humanitarian and cultural issues, including human rights, around the globe.

OTTAWA – Mary March figured something was up when her friend and fellow Ukrainian Catholic cantor Larisa Galadza was warmly greeted by fellow Ukrainian Canadian, then-Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, at the Ukrainian Canadian Congress’s recent triennial congress in Ottawa, where Ms. Galadza was given a front-row seat in a group photograph taken at the conference on November 2.
The next day, Ms. Freeland announced that 48-year-old Ms. Galadza had been appointed Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, its 10th representative since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991.

NEW YORK – During the Revolution of Dignity of 2014, millions of Ukrainians all over the world were united in seeking change in their homeland, and many volunteer groups were formed to help protesters on the Maidan. Later, some of those organizations continued their activity. Among the brightest examples is Razom for Ukraine, an organization that celebrated its five-year jubilee on October 6 in New York at its 2019 annual meeting.
Razom, which means “together” in Ukrainian, believes in the enormous potential of dedicated volunteers around the world united by the goal of unlocking the great potential of Ukraine. “Razom works toward that mission by creating spaces where people meet, partner and do,” as is stated on the organization’s official website.

Seen in the photo above are participants of the Soyuzivka Workers’ Reunion over the weekend of November 17-19, 1989. It was the first such reunion of employees of what was then the Ukrainian National Association’s heritage center in Kerhonkson, N.Y. (With the beginning of 2015, the Ukrainian National Foundation Inc. (UNF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization became the owner of Soyuzivka Heritage Center.) Writing in The Ukrainian Weekly, Andrew Oprysko noted that the reunion brought together Ukrainians of all ages for a celebration of their cherished past. “For years, the opportunity to work a summer or two at Soyuzivka has proven to be a rewarding experience to a good many people. Each year, bonds are formed and friendships flourish, it has become a place of memories: of youthful exuberance, and the ability to share it with others in a place of unthinkable beauty.

NEW HAVEN, CONN. – The Ukrainian National Association’s Connecticut District Committee held its fall organizing meeting at St Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church Hall in New Haven on Sunday, November 17. Shown above are representatives from UNA branches in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Britain and New Haven, along with Chief Operations Officer/National Secretary Yuriy Symczyk and Insurance Operations Manager Nina Bilchuk from the UNA Home Office.

– Myron Kolinsky

The guest editorial below is adapted from remarks by Andriy Futey, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, at the Holodomor commemoration held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on Saturday, November 16.

For over 35 years, the Ukrainian American community and our many friends have gathered here, within the sacred walls of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, to pray for and honor the memory of the millions of innocent victims lost in one of the worst tragedies that befell the Ukrainian nation – the Holodomor Genocide of 1932-1933.

Forty years ago, on November 29, 1979, U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Addabbo (D-N.Y.) delivered a statement from the floor of the House of Representatives, noting that the Ukrainian National Association was marking its 85th anniversary, an “anniversary of faith, reason and understanding.”
Rep. Addabbo underscored the UNA’s history and reputation as among the most revered fraternal benefit societies in the world, as it recently celebrated its 85th anniversary with a banquet celebration in New York.