Month: May 22, 2020 3:44 am

May 18 is commemorated as a memorial day of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. On that day in 1944, Joseph Stalin began an operation to deport the entire population of Crimean Tatars who survived the German occupation of the peninsula. Over 200,000 Tatars, baselessly accused of collaborating with the Nazis, were expelled in just two days. In packed and locked railroad cattle cars and with few provisions and water, they were sent on an arduous journey to remote rural locations in Central Asia and Siberia. Over 46 percent of the Crimean Tatar people perished during the trip and in the first two years of the exile due to the harsh conditions. A year after the deportation, when World War II ended, demobilized Crimean Tatar soldiers were sent from the Soviet Army directly into exile too.

Ukraine’s lawmakers have finally ratified an important international document that can help counter Russia’s barbaric and ongoing destruction of places of huge historical and cultural heritage like the Khan’s Palace, or Hansaray, in Bakhchysarai, Crimea.

The bill on ratifying the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict 1999, was supported by all members of the majority Servant of the People party present, and passed with a healthy 321 votes. Although no national deputies voted against it, the failure of some deputies from other factions who were present to vote at all is baffling, since the only question over this bill should really have been why it took so long.

Dear Editor:

In Bohdan Nahaylo’s news analysis “After one year, is Zelenskyy running out of steam?” (May 3), there is no mystery. Mr. Zelenskyy shares with both President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump a serious flaw that is common to democracies and revolutions. All three are products of social frustrations, anxieties and upheavals that are apt to bring to the fore inexperienced (though often well-meaning) leaders who greatly overstate their abilities to bring change and improvement, and who fail to understand the complexities and difficulties they would face.

Dear Editor:

When I hear that there’s a well-run government program, I become suspicious. And so it was when I read Marco Levytsky’s column “Canada’s publicly funded health care” (March 29). As Mr. Levytsky clearly states, Canada’s health care is paid for by taxes. What I find annoying though is the ubiquitous use of the word “free” in most publications when referring to a government-run health-care program. It’s a clever way of disguising the fact that the consumer actually pays for this service via his taxes.

The upbeat joint statement issued by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 25 was both baffling and alarming. Released to mark the 75th anniversary of the meeting between Soviet and U.S. troops on the River Elbe in the final days of World War II, the statement hailed the spring 1945 event as “an example of how our countries can put aside differences, build trust, and cooperate in pursuit of a greater cause.”

Given the tense current state of bilateral ties, the conciliatory tone of this statement is hard to understand, let alone justify. Indeed, it is difficult to see how Washington can “build trust” with Moscow, as suggested in the Elbe statement, given the long and everexpanding list of hostile actions undertaken by Russia over the past six years of hybrid warfare against the entire Western world.

The beginning of the 20th century was a turbulent time in the history of Ukraine, and indeed, all of Europe. The Great War of 1914-1918 convulsed the continent, and was followed by the nearly complete collapse of the Old Order. The German, Austrian and Russian empires were no more. The Ottoman Empire was soon to follow. New states and new nations were being born. Others were indeed born, but their statehood killed in their infancy. Revolutions and more wars followed. Nation fought nation, and one social class confronted another. Various forms of nationalism were opposed by various forms of socialism, and the new and frightening specter of militant Communism raised its scarlet head. Amidst it all, individuals and families strove merely to survive.

The European Union and several of its member states may break the bloc’s own guidelines on contacts with de facto authorities of the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula by participating in a Moscow-backed videoconference on the situation in the region.

Two diplomats from EU member states, who were not authorized to speak on the record, told RFE/RL that representatives at various levels from up to 19 out of 27 EU member states, as well as the EU’s delegation to the United Nations, planned to participate in the event on May 21.

TORONTO – The global coronavirus pandemic has created an urgent need to provide information to the public regarding its effects and coping mechanisms. Although there is plenty of information circulating on the Internet about the effects of COVID-19 on people’s physical health and the economy, there is a lack of information in the Ukrainian language on how it may affect mental health.

As a result, an online educational information series in the Ukrainian language has been created by Yana Kreminska and Adriana Luhovy. Focusing on the effects of COVID-19 and quarantine on mental health, the project is called “Coping with the effects of COVID-19.” Filming began on April 15, with the first video viewable online on April 29.

KYIV – May 9 is one of the most controversial dates in Ukraine’s modern history. For decades, Ukrainians were obliged to celebrate the Soviet holiday of Victory Day. During the first 20 years after Ukraine regained its independence, the country was an information battlefield: Russia continued spreading myths about the Red Army’s glorious victory in World War II without mentioning the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and downplaying the roles of all Soviet republics, except Russia.

Creating a celebration on an occasion when the rest of the world mourned and remembered was powerful propaganda that polarized Ukrainians no less than the issues of language or religious denomination. The difference in approaches to World War II can be compared by looking at the mottos used in the West on May 8 and in Moscow on May 9: “Never again” as opposed to “We can do it again.”

SOMERSET, N.J. – The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., in partnership with the non-profit SALT Foundation, has been distributing food to those in need as a result of the coronavirus pandemic at the “Community Love Pop-Up Drive-Thru Food Pantry” that has been set up at the Spiritual Center of the UOC-U.S.A. in Somerset, N.J. The most recent distribution was held on May 13.

The drive-through service follows strict adherence to preventive measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including social distancing, wearing masks and gloves, and using sanitizer. Food bags are loaded by Archbishop Daniel, clergy and seminarians of St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Seminary, as well as volunteers from the SALT Foundation, into the trunks of vehicles to minimize contact and exposure.

KYIV – While attention for most of the first half of May remained focused on combating the coronavirus pandemic and on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, there have been other important developments in Ukraine that deserve to be noted.

The most significant was the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada on May 13 of the bitterly contested and consequently long-delayed critical banking law that prevents the return of nationalized banks to their former owners. That removed the last remaining hurdle for the country to receive am estimated $5 billion stand-by deal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help offset the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating impact on Ukraine’s fragile economy.

The celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory (always with a capital “v”) in the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany was supposed to be the pivotal political moment of the year, marked by an extravagant parade on Red Square and multiple public shows. The arrival of the shockingly severe COVID-19 pandemic derailed these plans, and only symbolic air parades were organized in Moscow and several other cities, weather permitting (Newsru.com, May 9). President Vladimir Putin emerged from his self-isolation to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at the Kremlin wall, and to make a televised address.

These curtailed official ceremonies left much empty space for Russians to reflect upon the meaning of this event, sacred for many families but converted by the regime’s pervasive propaganda into a glorified assertion of Russia’s “greatness.”