Month: March 20, 2020 5:27 am

WASHINGTON – At a reception held at the Library of Congress on March 11 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Lithuania’s restored independence, Volodymyr Yelchenko (right), Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, and Michael Sawkiw Jr. (left), executive vice-president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, are seen with Rolandas Kriščiūnas, Lithuania’s ambassador to the United States. At the event, Ambassador Kriščiūnas presented a gift to Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), co-chair of the House Baltic Caucus, and Anthea M. Hartig, the director of the National Museum of American History, of a nanocopy of the U.S. Capitol building, which is 600,000 times smaller than its actual size. A nanocopy of the Statue of Freedom, the crowning feature of the Dome of the Capitol, is 10 times smaller than a human cell. The nanocopy of the U.S. Capitol was created by Femtika, a Lithuanian company that is a spin-off from the Vilnius University Laser Research Center.

“Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly protests against a new wave of illegal searches and detentions of Crimean Tatars today, by Russia’s occupation administration in the Bakhchysarai district of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

“As of now, at least four Ukrainian citizens – Amet Suleimanov, Seitumer Seitumerov, Osman Seitumerov and Rustem Seitumerov – are reported to have been detained.

“By neglecting its duties as an occupying power under international law, Russia continues to treat the indigenous Crimean Tatars as a threat to its ongoing occupation. It is extremely aggravating that in conducting its policy of repression, it abuses once again its anti-terrorist law by fabricating accusations of terrorism to purge Crimean Tatar activists.

The following media release was issued by the Ukrainian World Congress on March 14.

On March 11, 2020, the Trilateral Contact Group comprised of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) signed a proposal to create a Consultation Council. According to that decision, Russia will be replaced as the counterparty in the peace negotiations with the representatives of separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (known by the Ukrainian acronym ORDLO) – in fact with Russia-controlled terrorist organizations of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics” (DNR and LNR).

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls on the president of Ukraine and the Parliament to reject this proposal. Agreeing to these terms would legitimize the Russian narrative of “internal conflict in Ukraine” and turn Russia from an aggressor into an “observer,” then possibly even to a “peacemaker.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress on March 14 issued the following statement in response to the news that Ukraine plans to enter into direct negotiations with so-called “representatives” of the Russian occupying forces in Donetsk and Luhansk.

 
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, representing 1.4 million Ukrainian Canadians, is alarmed by the March 13 announcement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak that Ukraine will officially enter into direct negotiations with Russian proxies.

In six years of war, Russia and its proxies have purposely targeted civilians with artillery and rockets, systematically tortured prisoners of war and shot down an international airliner, murdering 298 innocent people.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations released the following statement on March 15.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations (AFUO) is alarmed at the decision of the Trilateral Contact Group to create a Consultation Council involving representatives of the self-proclaimed so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, and suggesting further representatives of Russia, Germany and France to be at the table alongside the official representatives of Ukraine.

These faux republics are in fact Russian-controlled terrorist organizations.

The president of Ukraine has the opportunity now to show leadership and refute this proposal and not cross the red lines that he has agreed would not be crossed.

With the world in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, there are bad actors at work, eager to take advantage of the public’s fear and anxiety.

Certainly, there are those out to make a quick buck by selling hand sanitizer and similar products at outrageous prices. Phishing campaigns try to get people to click on fake links that will ask them to reveal sensitive information. And there are countless other examples of those seeking to exploit the situation. According to Forbes, Amazon said that by the end of February it had removed over 1 million products falsely claiming to treat the virus. Reuters reported that United Kingdom citizens lost a total of $1 million to scammers during the month of February alone.

Twenty years ago, on March 26, 2000, Vladimir Putin won the first-round of the presidential elections in Russia. However, his initial comments suggested that he recognized that he did not get the kind of mandate that could lead him to act without taking into account other political forces in the country.

Mr. Putin noted from his campaign headquarters in Moscow that the Communist Party had done better than expected, but added that “there are many people in the country who are not satisfied with the state of things. People are tired, things are tough for them, and they expect better things from me. But, of course, miracles don’t occur.”

The first two days in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian over the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over Ukraine on July 17, 2014, have demonstrated just how incriminating the proceedings will be for Russia. The latter’s track record of state-organized killings in Qatar, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria was cited as one of the reasons why certain witnesses’ identity must be kept secret, with the need for such protection having been recognized by the examining magistrate.

Such witnesses include the person identified as M58 who “has stated that Russian military personnel, whom the DPR fighters said were from the FSB, were with the Buk TELAR at the launch site.” Witness S24 was said to have expressed fear of reprisals by the Russian Federation, of being killed “so as to prevent the truth from coming out.”

“Putin’s coalition now rules Ukraine,” by Vitaliy Portnikov, Euromaidan Press, March 7:

Even before the beginning of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s term, I assumed that the Kremlin was preparing a “Moldavian scenario” for our country, when at first – under the pretext of fighting oligarchy and corruption – a coalition of pro-Western and pro-Russian forces is created, and then pro-Western forces are expelled from it and Vladimir Putin’s supporters begin to rule alone. And they would rule with the support of the very same unprincipled corrupt government officials with whom they supposedly recently fought.

…The scenario was launched with the help of simple populist slogans that served to lure to vote for Zelenskyy and his party’s parliamentary candidates not only outright supporters of Ukraine’s surrender and rapprochement with Moscow, not only the indifferent and the ignorant, but also an unsophisticated fraction of Ukrainian patriots.

One of the most common Ukrainian expletives is “kholiera” – in English “cholera.” Another swear word is “zaraza” – in English pestilence/disease. Comprehensive dictionaries of the Ukrainian language fail to provide the etymology of those expletives, although it’s not hard to figure out.

Cholera is a horrific disease: a highly contagious bacterial infection of the small intestine that rapidly depletes bodily fluids through severe diarrhea. Spreading through contaminated water, foods, flies and people-to-people contact, cholera can quickly reach epidemic proportions with half or more of the infected dying within the first two days if left untreated.

While it might be largely forgotten now, March 1990 – 30 years ago – was a milestone on Ukraine’s path toward independence. It was a pivotal month in Ukraine’s transition from a captive nation to an independent state, an important testament to the dramatic changes that were taking place in the Soviet Union. It was also a month during which the U.S. Congress accelerated its engagement with Ukraine. Nonetheless, it also showed the limits of that engagement and of Soviet liberalization. Let me explain.

Three decades ago this month, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic held elections to its legislature that starkly differed from the fictional elections that had been held throughout the preceding 70 years of Soviet rule. While far from perfect, they were competitive; they were real. These elections helped to break the monopoly of the Communist Party. They were a genuine expression of the Ukrainian population’s quest for democracy and self-determination – a critical step towards independence.

The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA), which is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year, has worked through the decades to answer some of Ukraine’s challenges brought about by events in the tumultuous 20th and 21st centuries. Today, one of the great challenges for Ukraine is the current fighting in the east. The war in the Donbas has killed thousands and injured many more. These injuries are not only physical, but leave emotional and spiritual scars as well.

Since the war in eastern Ukraine began, the UNWLA has supported both the physically wounded through its War Victims’ Fund established in 2015 and the psychologically war-traumatized through the Prostir Nadii project. The latter is part of the Mental Health Institute of the Ukrainian Catholic University established in 2016. Last year, the UNWLA launched its newest project, the Spiritual Rebirth of Ukraine, aimed at restoring the spiritual health of the individual.