Author: Staff

The Ukrainian “koliada” tradition is alive and well. We know that’s true because this is the time of year that various groups visit the homes of their members and supporters with Christmas carols and greetings of the season. “Chy pryimayete vy koliadnykiv? (Will you welcome carolers?), they ask. And, once invited in, they give us the wonderful gift of beautiful and unique Ukrainian “koliadky” (carols). In turn, we thank them with monetary donations for their organizations’ valuable work. For many groups, it should be noted, the koliada is a major fund-raiser. 

Thirty-five years ago, on January 12, 1984, the West observed the annual Day of Solidarity with Ukrainian Political Prisoners. 

The annual event began with imprisoned Ukrainian journalist and dissident, Vycheslav Chornovil, on January 12, 1974, when he announced a hunger strike on the second anniversary of his arrest and the huge KGB crackdown on the Ukrainian intelligentsia that resulted.

Presidential campaign kicks off

Three months before votes are due to be cast, the Ukrainian presidential campaign officially kicked off on December 31, 2018. President Petro Poroshenko has not officially announced he will seek a second five-year term but is widely expected to. Billboards of Mr. Poroshenko dot cities across Ukraine, highlighting his position as commander of the country’s armed forces and his role in securing Ukraine an Orthodox Church independent of Moscow...

Twenty-seven years ago, on January 6, 1991, Patriarch Mstyslav issued a Nativity Epistle as primate of a united Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.  

As Ukraine was on the eve of its own political independence and as the world watched the onset of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Patriarch Mstyslav stated:

On December 15 – a date that will go down in the history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people – the spiritual divorce between Russia and Ukraine came one step closer to being finalized and another nail sealed the coffin of Russian influence on the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. 

U.S. congratulates new Church  The United States has congratulated Ukraine’s new national Orthodox Church on its autonomy from Russia, a move that has incensed Moscow and further heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. In a statement on December 17, the U.S. State Department said it sent its congratulations to the new Church’s leader, Metropolitan Epifaniy,...

As the 85th anniversary year of the Holodomor – the Great Famine that killed millions in our ancestral homeland – comes to a close, it is worth taking a few minutes to assess what has been done to spread awareness of this genocide.

Ten years ago, on December 19, 2008, the United States-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership was signed in Washington by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko.

We write these words as funeral services continue for the 41st president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush. There have been days of touching tributes to a man who was a patriot and public servant to the core, a man who was a decorated naval pilot during World War II, who served as a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations and to China, director of the CIA and vice-president. Many have commented that he was perhaps the most qualified U.S. president ever elected.

Four years ago, on December 13, 2014, the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014 was approved by both chambers of Congress. The Senate unanimously passed the bill (S. 2828) on December 13, and a similar bill (H.R. 5859) was passed on December 11 by the House of Representatives.

Fifteen years ago, on December 8, 2003, Ukraine announced it would dig a channel in the Kerch Strait near the island of Tuzla – which had received media attention earlier in 2003 after Russia began construction of a dike in September to link Tuzla Island to Russian territory.