Author: Staff

Thirty years ago, on April 26, 1989, Ukraine commemorated the third anniversary of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power station disaster with an official rally in Kyiv at the Dynamo soccer stadium that attracted an estimated crowd of tens of thousands. 

Kyiv: Russian terror group thwarted Ukrainian authorities say they have arrested seven people they claim were sent by Russian security services to carry out political killings and other “terrorist” acts, including the slaying of Ukrainian intelligence agents.

Just last week we published our annual section devoted to Ukrainian Debutante Balls. Featured on full-color pages were five debutante balls – from New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York – thanks to stories and photos sent in by their organizers. (Incidentally, all these organizers had advertised their debutante balls in our newspaper, so we knew they were taking place and made sure we had their reports in our special section.) 

Twenty-five years ago, on April 15, 1994, Presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Boris Yeltsin signed an agreement to divide the Black Sea Fleet, with each country gaining 50 percent of the flotilla and Ukraine was to receive 25 percent of all other property associated with the Sevastopol fleet.

Canada’s largest airport says it’s K-Y-I-VToronto Pearson International Airport has changed the transliteration of the Ukrainian capital according to the national standard: Kyiv. The correct transliteration is now featured both on the arrival/departure board as well as on the airport website. Toronto Pearson International Airport is the largest airport in Canada and the only one in country that has direct flights to Ukraine. In 2018, the airport served nearly 50 million passengers and became the 30th largest in the world.

Well, Ukraine’s presidential election is already one for the history books – even though it’s not yet over. On March 31, 62.8 percent of eligible voters – close to 18.9 million people – cast their votes. That’s higher than the turnout for the 2014 presidential election, which was 60.29 percent. Citing Central Election Commission information, the UNIAN news agency reported that the highest voter turnout was in the Lviv region (68.88 percent), the Volyn region (68.33 percent) and the city of Kyiv (67.99 percent). The lowest turnout was registered in Zakarpattia (46.99 percent), followed by Chernivtsi (56.07 percent) and Ukrainian-controlled districts in Luhansk region (56.77 percent).

Thirty-five years ago on April 11, 1984, the Orchidia Restaurant – a 27-year-old New York landmark featuring Italian/Ukrainian offerings – closed its doors due to a 526 percent rent increase.

First ever voting in EdmontonUkrainians in 72 countries, including Canada, cast their votes in 101 polling locations on March 31 for the president of Ukraine. Three of those polling stations are in Canada: Ottawa, Toronto and, for the first time ever, Edmonton. The Edmonton Consulate is the first that Ukraine has opened since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression in the Donbas in 2014. It serves the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

It’s that time of year: our Ukrainian credit unions, or “kredytivky,” in the United States are holding their annual meetings to report back to the members and communities they serve and to elect board members. Perhaps you’ve noticed some of those meetings advertised in your area, or you’ve received an announcement because you are a credit union member. We encourage readers to attend to learn more about these institutions.

Fifteen years ago, on April 5, 2004, President Leonid Kuchma signed into law a series of bills on presidential elections that had been overwhelmingly passed by the Verkhovna Rada in March. The bills reduced the presidential campaign period from 180 to 120 days and lowered the threshold for registering a candidate from 1 million to 500,000 signatures.

UWC cites disinformation threatDisinformation is one of the most serious threats to a free democratic electoral process, noted Eugene Czolij, the head of Ukraine World Congress International Observation Mission to Ukraine’s 2019 Elections (UWC Mission) and former president of the UWC. He held a press conference at Ukraine Crisis Media Center in Kyiv on March 26 to present the UWC’s interim report.

March 18 marked the fifth anniversary of the Russian takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Why March 18? That was the date when Russian President Vladimir Putin, with great fanfare in Moscow, signed a treaty that made Crimea part of the Russian Federation. That spectacle followed the March 16 “referendum” in Crimea, which purported to show that nearly 97 percent of voters in Crimea favored “reunification” with Russia – no matter that the voting took place under conditions of military occupation, literally at gunpoint.