Month: April 17, 2020 4:16 am

WHIPPANY, N.J. – The Parent’s Association (Lanka Batkiv) of the Newark, N.J., branch of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization held its annual Plast Debutante Ball at the Hanover Marriott in Whippany, N.J., on January 25. The debutante ball is a traditional event at which each debutante is formally presented to the community as a young lady.

Marta Sygida-Kowal and Orest Temnycky served as this year’s masters of ceremonies, and they formally opened the event by welcoming the debutantes, their families and guests. After being formally introduced, each debutante was welcomed as she was escorted through the center of the ballroom.

DEARBORN, Mich. – This year marks the 51st anniversary of the annual Winter Ball and Presentation of Debutantes hosted by the Detroit chapter of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America (UESA). The celebrated event, with nearly a year’s preparation, arrived with tremendous support from the local community and those traveling long distances for the occasion. This elegant event was held on Saturday, January 25, in the Grand Ballroom of the historic and ornate Dearborn Inn Marriott situated on the spacious grounds of the Henry Ford Greenfield Village, in Dearborn, Mich.

The memorable evening began with guests gathered in the elegant foyer of the Dearborn Inn Marriott for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, before being ushered into the Grand Ballroom for the formal presentation of the debutantes, the dinner and ball. This year’s debutantes continue a tradition and join a group of nearly 500 debutantes that have graced Detroit’s debutante stage since the inaugural ball in 1959.

PEARL RIVER, N.Y. – Over 700 guests celebrated 15 debutantes at the Chervona Kalyna Cotillion Ball on February 8 at the Hilton Pearl River in Pearl River, N.Y. A portion of the proceeds from the evening’s event will benefit the Ukrainian American Veterans’ Wounded Ukrainian Soldier Project. Pictured above are the debutantes and their escorts (from left): Nicholas Santone, Solomiya Koziy, Mark Klemick, Kalyna Woloszyn, Roman Zharovsky, Sofia Turko, Michael Knysh, Juliya Martchiuk, Roman Raguso, Adrianna Mandzy, Darius Kulchyckyj, Katerina Bazarko, Azarchyk Babczenko, Katherine Anne Czernyk, Catherine Marie Tymkiw Hanifin, Lev Lysyj, Hannah Bazylevsky, Paul Williams, Sofia Tetiana Savchuk, Alex Brandafi, Alexa Sophia Malone, Taras Erachshaw, Kristine Kostiv, Andrey Petruniv, Olya Yezerska, Alexander Jaroszak, Natalia Elizabeth McMeekin, Daniel Ougrin, Arianna Porytko Thomson and Michael Wroblewski.

Fill-in to full-time for Fedun

Taylor Fedun’s 2018-2019 hockey season did not begin on a positive note. He had difficulty cracking the line-up on a regular basis in Rochester, N.Y., the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL affiliate, due to a numbers issue – not because of his play. The 30-year-old has veteran status in the AHL, where teams are limited to dressing a specific number of veterans per contest. There were too many veterans in Rochester, so Fedun played in only five of the club’s first 14 games.

At a time when he found himself wondering if his playing days were coming to an end, along came an opportunity.

KYIV – Ukraine and Russia-backed “separatists” in the east of the country have begun another prisoner swap.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said in a Facebook post on April 16 that 19 Ukrainians who were in the custody of the Russia-backed militants are being returned to Kyiv.

According to Russian news agencies, the swap is taking place near the town of Horlivka in the region of Donetsk.

At this point, it is not clear how many individuals held by the Ukrainian side will be handed over to the separatist-controlled territories.

KYIV – Ukraine will continue to implement a strategy to return people illegally detained in the temporarily occupied territories and in Russia until it releases all its citizens, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

The third stage of the mutual release of detained persons within the “all for all” format has now been completed. Ukraine has returned 20 of its citizens held captive in the temporarily occupied territories.

“The first stage was when 35 people were returned: political prisoners and our sailors. That was the first part. The second exchange was after the Normandy four arrangements – 76 people were released. We are returning 20 people now,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

WHIPPANY, N.J. – Never did I expect that a historical event would make history a second time 102 years later.

On Saturday, February 29, our Saturday School of Ukrainian Studies (Ridna Shkola) in Whippany, N.J., and the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization branch of Newark, N.J., which is based in Whippany, gave Plast scouts the opportunity to once again learn about the Battle of Kruty.

With the help of Plast senior counselor Roman Shyprykevych and in conjunction with Ridna Shkola, a Skype meeting was arranged for us to learn more about this significant battle in Ukrainian history. The Skype meeting took place in the main hall at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey in Whippany where we Plast scouts attend Ridna Shkola.

KYIV – As Ukraine enters the second month of its coronavirus quarantine, new restrictions were enacted on April 6. With 1,668 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of April 8, Ukraine remains one of Europe’s least affected countries (per capita). However, the paucity of virus testing leaves observers to suspect that the real number of those taken ill is highly undercounted.

New quarantine measures are forcing Ukrainians to stay home both for fear of infection and a huge fine for non-compliance with the rules. For a violation of quarantine rules, a penalty of between 17,000 hrv ($623 U.S.) and 34,000 hrv ($1,246) is envisaged. Moreover, for violating sanitary laws and regulations for the prevention of infectious diseases, a person faces criminal prosecution.

PHILADELPHIA – Metropolitan-Arch­bishop emeritus Stephen Sulyk, who headed the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States in 1981-2000, died on April 6 at the age of 95. A day earlier, he had been hospitalized with symptoms of the coronavirus.

Archbishop-Metropolitan Borys Gudziak wrote on Facebook on April 5: “A few hours ago, Archbishop Stephen was hospitalized. He is presenting the symptoms of COVID-19, and his vital signs are weak. The Archbishop is receiving comfort care. Everything is in the Lord’s hands.”

Metropolitan Borys provided the following biography of the deceased hierarch.

WASHINGTON – In the aftermath of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government shake-up on March 4 that brought to power a number of ministers with questionable reform credentials, observers were concerned that Ukraine would be backtracking on the progress that had been made by the previous Cabinet of Ministers.

Unexpectedly, the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing global economic crisis have forced Ukraine to demonstrably recommit to reform efforts in order to access major loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which have again become critical to the country’s stability. That funding comes with strings attached – conditionalities requiring that Ukraine stay on track with reforms, particularly through the passage of a banking legislation banning the return of nationalized banks to previous owners and a land market law that allows for the sale of farmland.

On February 3, the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Maj. Gen. Serhiy Kryvonos, suggested the necessity to legalize private military companies (PMC) in Ukraine. According to the national security official, many Ukrainian soldiers – especially those coming from the frontlines in the Donbas – are unable find decent jobs upon their demobilization (UNIAN, February 3). The following day, National Deputy Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk (representing the majority Servant of the People party), officially introduced a bill “On Military-Consultancy Activities,” de facto proposing to legalize national PMCs. The bill regulates terms and conditions under which Ukrainian PMCs are to operate (Rada.gov.ua, February 4).

The issue of legalizing PMCs in Ukraine became more pressing after 2014 (Russia’s annexation of Crimea and war in the Donbas). On April 3, 2015, the then-leader of the Right Sector organization, Dmytro Yarosh, working with members of Privat­Bank (at the time, controlled by Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky), tried to prepare legislation (unsuccessfully) to create legal status for national PMCs (Ipress.ua, April 4, 2015).

Agreement on pre-Easter prisoner swap

Ukraine and Russian-backed militants in the east of the country have agreed to another prisoner swap ahead of Julian calendar Easter. The Russian and Ukrainian sides in the so-called Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) made the announcement late on April 8 following a video conference. The talks led to “fundamental agreements on the lists for the mutual release of detained persons” no later than Orthodox Easter on April 19, according to a statement on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s website. Russia’s envoy to the TCG, Boris Gryzlov, said Kyiv and “separatists” in the Donbas region had “principally coordinated the lists of detained persons for exchange.” It was not immediately clear how many prisoners the two sides would exchange. The last prisoner swap in December 2019 involved 200 people. During the video conference, held in keeping with recommendations against in-person gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic, the sides also discussed demining and negotiations on the disengagement of troops in the Donbas region.