Month: May 22, 2020 4:17 am

KYIV – The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a decision introducing an adaptive coronavirus lockdown until June 22, while the second stage of the easing of lockdown restrictions will begin on May 22, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on May 20.

As part of the second phase of eased restrictions, it is planned that public transport, and urban and suburban land transport will be resumed. Authorities will permit sports competitions (limited to 100 people and without spectators) and the operation of hotels (though not hostels). At the same time, the operation of restaurants and swimming pools in hotels will continue to be banned.

This year was supposed to be the Kremlin’s “year of triumph,” one in which the life rule of Vladimir Putin would be confirmed, but instead, Liliya Shevtsova says, 2020 is rapidly becoming his Waterloo – a time when both he and his system have sailed into disaster.

All the plans he had only a few months ago must now be “thrown in the trash,” the Russian commentator says. The coronavirus pandemic has proved fatal “not only for the individual but also for his construction which was erected for another time”.

U.S. on suffering of Crimean people

The acting U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, Kristina Kvien, has called on Russia to “stop its legacy of inflicting suffering on the people of Crimea,” as Ukraine commemorated the victims of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s mass deportation of Crimean Tatars from their homeland in 1944. The chargé d’affaires issued a video statement on Twitter on May 18, which since 2016 has been marked in Ukraine as the Day of Commemoration of Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Tatars were deported en masse from the Black Sea peninsula in May 1944, after Stalin accused them of collaborating with Nazi Germany. Seventy years later, in March 2014, Russia seized Crimea after sending in troops and staging a referendum boycotted by many Crimean Tatars.

On April 24, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a first reading of the bill “On Inland Water Transport,” finally codifying important planned reforms pertaining to riverine transportation in Ukraine – in particular, on the Dnipro River (Mtu.gov.ua, April 24). This new law creates a framework regulating the functioning and development of domestic riverways as well as launches a liberalization of this sector. If the bill passes its second reading (following additional input from interested businesses – UNIAN, April 24), Ukraine will come into compliance with the obligations found in its Association Agreement with the European Union, at last opening its river transportation market to foreign companies, external investments and foreign-flagged ships (notably, including military vessels) (Rada.gov.ua, January 17).

The Ukrainian World Congress released the following statement on May 18.

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) pays tribute to the innocent victims of the deportation of Crimean Tatar people in 1944 and supports the call of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to the United Nations to recognize it as an act of genocide of totalitarian Soviet regime.

Seventy-six years ago, on May 18, the Soviet authorities began the planned deportation of over 200,000 ethnic Crimean Tatars from Crimea. The majority of these victims were women, children and elderly people. Almost half of them perished during the forced deportation because of starvation, illnesses, torture and slave labor in exile in deserted parts of Central Asia. The material and spiritual heritage of Crimean Tatars in Crimea had been destroyed. Libraries, schools and mosques had been closed, thousands of historic names were changed.

NEW YORK – Given the health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Executive Board of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (UAYA, which is also known by its Ukrainian acronym as CYM) said it had made the difficult decision to cancel in-person summer camps in Ellenville, N.Y. Summer camps are also canceled at other CYM campgrounds nationwide, including Beskyd in Baraboo, Wisc., Kholodnyi Yar in Fillmore, N.Y., and Khortytsia in Huntington, Ohio.

At every step of this decision, the UAYA National Executive Board and Camp Committee emphasized that they worked to keep the health, safety and enjoyment of campers and the community paramount.

NORTH COLLINS, N.Y. – Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization in the U.S.A. and its National Board of Directors announced on April 30 that its camps will be cancelled for the 2020 summer season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In its statement, Plast stated that its primary responsibility is to adhere to the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to protect all of its scouting members and prevent the spread of the virus. The cancellation of the 2020 Plast camp season includes the camps at Novyi Sokil in North Collins, N.Y., Pysanyj Kamin in Middlefield, Ohio, and Vovcha Tropa in East Chatham, N.Y., as well as its leadership camps Lisova Shkola and Shkola Bulavnykh.

WHIPPANY, N.J. – The Ukrainian Athletic-Educational Association Chorno­morska Sitch has announced it is cancelling its annual Sports School held during the summer camp season at Soyuzivka Heritage Center in Kerhonkson, N.Y.

The Chornomorska Sitch executive board voted on the decision in April at its monthly meeting (via telephone conference call), and the organization has committed its resources to the 2021 season, with hopes for the coronavirus pandemic to be under control by that time.

PHILADELPHIA – While waiting for the green light to once again share the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center with all of its members and friends, the UECC is proposing that all stay connected through Ukrainian music and film. Weekly offerings include a music, theater and film playlist, through an e-newsletter.

This is a token of thanks for community members’ support and simultaneously to keep them involved with the UECC. Links are provided on the UECC Facebook page (www.facebook.com/uecc.ukrainiancenter).

The following release was issued by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on May 18.

NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), never wavering in its commitment to represent the interests of the Ukrainian American community and support the independence of Ukraine, will be marking the 80th anniversary of its founding this month.

Although the original plans to celebrate this milestone had to be canceled due to these unprecedented times of Covid-19, the UCCA is rising to the challenge, as it has done throughout its decades-long history, and adjusting its strategy to celebrate this historic anniversary virtually.

May 24, 1940, is a historic date in the history of the Ukrainian community in the United States. On that day, on the initiative of the four Ukrainian fraternal benefit societies – the Ukrainian National Association, Ukrainian Workingmen’s Association, Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics and Ukrainian National Aid Association – 805 delegates from 1,425 organizations, large and small, met in Washington to establish a broadly based representation of Ukrainian Americans. The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America was born. Svoboda’s editorial commented: “The Ukrainian community in America …passed an exam of its political maturity. It manifested its relationship to America, the American government and its policies, as well as to the ideals that are the foundation of order in this country. Similarly, the community demonstrated its relationship to Ukraine and to the Ukrainian nation in Europe.”

Five years ago, on May 27, 2015, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, in a statement at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the U.S. should pursue cooperation with Russia on areas of mutual interest as long as it is not “asked to back off matters of principles” crucial to the “security and well-being” of Washington and its allies.

In his prepared remarks, Mr. Biden was critical of President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and its involvement in the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Mr. Biden called out “Russian aggression” and how it had “literally transformed the landscape of European security.”