Month: January 29, 2021 10:38 am

KYIV – On January 27, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it had secured an arrest warrant for Dmytro Neskoromnyi, a former first deputy head of the agency, on suspicion of conspiring to murder a serving SBU general.

Mr. Neskoromnyi, a former SBU colonel, allegedly plotted the assassination with currently serving Col. Yuriy Rasiuk of the SBU’s Alpha anti-terrorist unit.

KYIV – On January 22 Ukrainians around the country and the world celebrated Unity Day, the day on which in 1919 the nation first declared itself a free and independent state of one united Ukrainian people.

KYIV – Ukraine last year gained three points and ranked 117th out of 180 countries in the Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International’s (TI) yearly Corruption Perceptions Index released on January 28.

Ukraine’s former national security chief, Oleksandr Danylyuk, has called the election of Joe Biden “excellent news” for Kyiv but said the new U.S. administration will lay down strict preconditions for cooperation, including pushing out corrupt officials.

The role of Cossack organizations in Russian life will likely grow in 2021, as last month’s Presidential Council for Cossack Affairs (PCCA) meeting demonstrated. The council’s deputy chairman and presidential adviser, Anatoliy Seryshev, outlined concrete steps in the 2021-2030 strategy to develop Cossack formations after the meeting. Among the important tasks for 2021 are drafting a bill regarding Cossacks’ service, the consolidation of Cossack societies and public organizations, attracting young people to Cossack formations and forming a personnel reserve of the All-Russian Cossack Society (Kremlin.ru, December 8, 2020).

Mourning after deadly nursing home fire
Authorities in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv have declared January 22 a day of mourning for 15 people killed in a fire at a nursing home.

On January 27, the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, we honor the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

Over 6 million Jews, and millions of other victims – Ukrainians, Poles, Roma and many others – were murdered by the Nazi German regime. May the Memory of the Victims Be Eternal. Вічная пам’ять.

On International Holocaust Remembr­ance Day, January 27, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) and the global Ukrainian diaspora honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims executed and tortured by the Nazi regime, among whom were 1.5 million children.

On January 27 the non-governmental organization “Ukraine-2050” stands united with the world in honoring the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew gave an interview to the Greek newspaper “To Vima tis Kyriakis.” The translation of the full text was posted on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (www.goarch.org) on January 13. Below is an abridged version of the interview, focusing on Ukraine, the Tomos of Autocephaly that was presented to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2019 and relations with the Moscow Patriarchate.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., representing Metropolitan Antony of the UOC-U.S.A., visited Kyiv on a humanitarian mission. Amid the backdrop of the festive Nativity season, there was misery and great need.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Archbishop Daniel, while on his way back to New Jersey during his archpastoral visitations as ruling hierarch of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., made a brief stop in Detroit to distribute backpack care packages to the homeless. Having just celebrated the Nativity according to the Julian calendar on January 7, it was fitting to bring peace, solace and comfort to those in need.