Month: August 28, 2020 5:09 am

Dear Editor:

The European Union has declared that the presidential elections in Belarus “were neither free nor fair” and “credible reports of domestic observers show that the electoral process did not meet the international standards expected of an OSCE participating state.”

In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated his Belarusian counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, for the announced outcome of the election. Not surprising, considering how Mr. Putin clings to power in Russia.

It is by no means accidental that Russia is working actively to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president of the United States. Among the reasons is Mr. Biden’s strong, demonstrated support for Ukraine throughout his long political career. And I have no doubt whatsoever that as president he will remain a committed supporter of Ukraine, understanding that Ukraine is the lynchpin of European security. Mr. Biden will most certainly not be afraid to stand up to Vladimir Putin and hold him accountable, in contrast to Donald Trump, whose persistent obsequiousness towards the dictator boggles the mind.

The following statement was released on August 20 by the Washington-based Central and East European Coalition, of which the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Association are member organizations.

The Central and East European Coalition (CEEC) expresses deep concerns regarding the fraudulent elections in Belarus held on August 9, 2020, as well as the violent crackdown against unarmed and peaceful protesters throughout that country. This is yet another tragic mark in the long record of systematic human rights abuses by the dictatorial regime of Alexander [Alyaksandr] Lukashenka.

The Ukrainian National Association has a long-standing tradition of assisting students in their pursuit of higher education. Despite the challenges of the coronavirus, the UNA continued that tradition in 2020. The UNA Scholarship Committee met on June 26 to review all applications for scholarships and awards.

There was a total of 54 applicants from 26 different UNA branches. The number and quality of applicants this year was truly exceptional, with a number of students applying for more than one scholarship for which they were eligible.

PHILADELPHIA – The Pennsylvania anthracite coal region town of Shenandoah is some 4,550 miles, as the crow flies, from the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine. And Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, is some 4,750 miles from Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. Yet despite time and distance, these towns and cities have a unique relationship, which has its beginning in the latter half of the 19th century.

As immigrants from Eastern Europe came to the United States in the 1880s, a large number of Ukrainians settled in the northeastern Pennsylvania coal region. In the Schuylkill County town of Shenandoah, these new arrivals to America established in 1884 the first Eastern Catholic Church in the United States. From this Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish, the Church experienced rapid growth as more immigrants from Ukraine arrived and, with the arrival of Bishop Soter Ortynsky in 1907, Philadel­phia became the home of this developing Church.

SOUTH BOUND BROOK, N.J. – Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox League (UOL) of the U.S.A. gathered via teleconference for its annual convention on July 25 that was held via Zoom. This was the 73rd annual convention for the Senior UOL and the 59th annual convention for the Junior UOL. Plans to gather in the Philadelphia area for this event were cancelled in the spring due to COVID-19 concerns.

Senior UOL President Karen Ferraro welcomed the approximately 60 attendees to the abbreviated single-day virtual event that included combined senior/junior, junior- and senior-only sessions. The UOL was honored to have both Metropolitan Antony and Archbishop Daniel present for the entire day, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

NAPLES, Fla. – Ukrainians in Naples, Fla., set aside masks and social distancing just long enough to take a group photo while celebrating Ukrainian Independence Day on the evening of August 24 at Tartine and Tartelette Restaurant. Owners Halyna Nester and Sergiy Horyslavsky, who is the executive chef, prepared a delicious array of classic Ukrainian dishes. A good time was had by all with singing of the Ukrainian anthem and many versions of “Mnohaya Lita.”

TROY, N.Y. – Despite the uncertainty and wariness about public gatherings that accompanies today’s COVID-19 environment, New York Capital District residents assembled at Taras Shevchenko Place in Troy, N.Y., for a flag-raising ceremony marking Ukraine’s 29th Independence Day. Under a bright and sunny sky, Father Mykhailo Myschuk, pastor of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Watervliet, N.Y., read a prayer for the Ukrainian Nation by Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in 1901-1944. Everyone joined together to sing Ukraine’s national anthem as the flag was raised. On this special day of joyous remembrance, the simple act of people gathering together to recall the many decades of trials and tribulations by tens of thousands who sacrificed to build the nation-state of Ukraine provided comfort and hope to Ukrainians as they boldly face the future.

KYIV – Since the beginning of massive protests in Belarus that began after presidential election results considered to be falsified were announced, declaring that incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka was the winner, Belarusian and Ukrainian activists have gathered almost daily in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv.

Protesters in Kyiv have expressed their solidarity with demonstrators in Belarus and have demanded that the results of voting conducted at the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv be published. That has not happened. However, Belarusians who live in Ukraine’s capital say that votes from the Kyiv polling station are mostly in favor of opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave Belarus in the aftermath of the election’s conclusion on August 9.

OTTAWA – As a journalist, and as a woman, Chrystia Freeland would have relished the opportunity to write about the appointment of the first female finance minister in Canadian history. But as a politician, it is 52-year-old Ms. Freeland who has made history as that person – with the added point that she is the first Ukrainian Canadian to serve in that role and now unquestionably the second-most powerful and influential member of the Canadian government after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It was the prime minister who, on August 18, added the finance portfolio to the Cabinet responsibilities of Ms. Freeland, already Mr. Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, following the sudden resignation, the day before, of Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who has been embroiled in a controversy over his ties to the WE Charity.

WASHINGTON – “As the U.S. Government’s dedicated center for countering foreign disinformation and propaganda, the Global Engagement Center (GEC) at the U.S. Department of State has a mandate to expose and counter threats from malign actors that utilize these tactics. In this field, Russia continues to be a leading threat.”

These are the opening sentences of the report issued by the U.S. Department of State in early August titled “Pillars of Russia’s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem.” The State Department’s 70-page report is replete with details about the Russian propaganda machine, precisely enumerating and highlighting the effective use of disinformation.

PART I

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed former President Leonid Kravchuk as chairperson of Ukraine’s delegation to the Minsk Contact Group, the forum that negotiates solutions to Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine. Concurrently, Mr. Zelenskyy has appointed former Prime Minister Vitold Fokin as a member of this delegation. Messrs. Kravchuk and Fokin are 86 and 88 years old, respectively.

Mr. Kravchuk replaces former President Leonid Kuchma, who has retired from the position of delegation chief, citing fatigue. Mr. Kuchma was 76 when then-President Petro Poroshenko appointed him in 2014 to head the Ukrainian delegation to the Minsk Contact Group. While Mr. Kuchma could draw on solid international diplomatic experience for this assignment, Messrs. Kravchuk and Fokin are basically Ukrainian parochial figures.