Author: Mark Raczkiewycz

Russia, in turn, attacks additional civilian targets in Odesa CHICAGO – Ukraine continued to strike Russian oil refineries over the week to hinder Moscow’s economy and limit its military pre-deployment capabilities. Drones struck refineries owned by state-run Rosneft in the Voronezh and Ryazan region overnight on May 1, according to anonymous sources at Ukraine’s Defense...

CHICAGO – The Kyiv-based chef who spearheaded a project to get the Ukrainian beet-root soup of borscht as an “intangible” part of his country’s heritage at the Paris-based United Nations’ Agency for Culture, Science and Education (UNESCO) is releasing his second English-language recipe book. Its scheduled release date is on May 14 and his second...

Multiple reports suggest Kyiv previously received long-range ATACMS CHICAGO – The Pentagon is rushing about $1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine following a period of more than six months in which it did not deliver aid to the war-ravaged country. The move came as a result of the passage of a bill in the...

Delegates meet with Zelenskyy to better coordinate assistance CHICAGO – A summit in the Romanian capital of Bucharest held by the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), the main worldwide advocacy group of Ukrainians, was held over the past weekend for three days to address the war-ravaged country’s urgent needs. More than 200 delegates from 55 countries...

CHICAGO – Chess runs in the veins of Ukrainians. There is evidence that chess – considered to be one of the oldest board games in the world – was played in the 10th-century kingdom of Kyivan Rus’. A group of Ukrainian historians tracked the spread of the game through trade routes from India and ancient...

Britain’s Cameron ‘snubbed’ during lobbying visit to Washington CHICAGO – Following a two-week Congressional recess, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has not budged on moving a bill that previously cleared the Senate and includes over $60 billion in desperately needed military aid for Ukraine. If he does bring the bill, which has sat idle...

CHICAGO – The intricate art of decorating eggs for Easter was practiced during two workshops at the second oldest branch of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (CYM) on April 7 as part of the scouting group’s series of events to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Called pysanky, which in Ukrainian means to “write,” the ancient pagan...

CHICAGO – A Ukrainian government institution founded to implement state policy on restoring and preserving the nation’s memory designated writer Mikhail Bulga­kov, who was born and reared in Kyiv, as someone who represents “Russian imperialistic policy.” An expert committee of the Kyiv-based Institute of National Memory (UINP) on April 3 called the ethnic Russian and...

CHICAGO – Ukraine has struck all Russian oil refineries within 620 miles of its border over the past two months, prompting Moscow to suspend exports for the first quarter of the year and even start moving oil from countries such as Belarus, which has been an ally of the Kremlin and its full-scale war on...

Pro-Kyiv Russian paramilitary units claim to wreak havoc and take over towns in cross-border raids CHICAGO – Up to 900,000 barrels of Russian oil refining capacity have been put offline due to ongoing Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries. The figure was provided by JPMorgan Chase bank this week and logistical specialist Gunvor stated also...

CHICAGO – When a group of Ukrainian immigrants established the Selfreliance Federal Credit Union (SFCU) in 1951 in the wake of World War II, it was done to provide loans and other financial services to political and war refugees who were being rejected at American banks based on their ethnicity and lack of English-language knowledge....

European countries step up security assistance to Kyiv CHICAGO – Three separate units of Russian soldiers opposed to the Kremlin and Moscow despot Vladimir Putin have for three consecutive days been conducting cross-border raids into the neighboring Kursk and Belgord regions. One unit, the Freedom of Russia Legion, has claimed to hold at least one...