Author: Zenon Zawada

KYIV – Many of us from the Third Wave diaspora community simply can’t enjoy Kyiv the same way our American counterparts do. Our parents and grandparents were from a Ukraine of a different era, when Russian was strictly the language of the enemy. It was entirely foreign to us. So when we visited the capital...

KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament approved several historic bills on April 9 that take unprecedentedly decisive steps to part with the country’s Soviet legacy, which is widely blamed for the inability to reform and strengthen Ukraine despite more than two decades of independence. One of the bills recognizes on the state level all those who fought...

KYIV – It’s been four months since Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s second Cabinet of Ministers took over, and there’s no denying they’ve continued down a path of unprecedented reforms. Never has Ukraine been independent of Russia for natural gas, shifting to cheaper European sources (for the same Russian gas, no less). Revenue from sin taxes...

KYIV – A struggle involving armed fighters erupted in Kyiv on March 19 for control of Ukraine’s biggest oil producer, Ukrnafta, between its majority stakeholder, the Ukrainian government, and Igor Kolomoisky, the billionaire who controls the largest minority stake through the Privat Group empire in which he’s a partner. The standoff lasted until March 24,...

KYIV – The Ukrainian government unleashed a new round of criminal investigations and arrests in recent weeks against Yanukovych administration functionaries, among them “the three odious judges” – as they’ve been widely labeled – who were involved in illegal rulings that drew global attention. They join two other Yanukovych functionaries of a higher profile –...

KYIV – Mykhailo Chechetov, a key functionary in the Party of Regions most famous for leading the January 2014 vote in the Verkhovna Rada for what was dubbed the dictatorship laws, was found dead on February 28 outside a Kyiv high-rise building. He fell from his 17-floor apartment in what was determined by police to...

KYIV – Fistfights aren’t anything unique for Ukraine’s Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, but National Deputy Yegor Sobolyev of the Samopomich party and Vadym Ivchenko of the Batkivshchyna party put on a special show in its halls on February 12. Their bloody exchange of fists – dramatic enough to make them possible candidates for the professional...

KYIV – Ukraine’s armed forces suffered their latest military defeat on February 18 when Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced their retreat from the key railroad hub of Debaltseve, about 47 miles northeast of Donetsk after the fiercest battle of the Donbas war so far that raged since mid-January. Rather than adhering to the February 12...

New leader orders restructuring of Procurator General’s Office KYIV – Ukraine’s top law enforcement officer, Procurator General Vitaliy Yarema, submitted his resignation on February 9 amid mounting criticism of his failure to prosecute any officials in the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych for alleged economic crimes, violence against the historic Euro-Maidan protest and separatism in...

KYIV – A second attempt at a ceasefire in Ukraine’s east was brokered on February 12 in Minsk by the heads of state of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine after Western leaders warned it was the last chance to avoid an escalation in violence in the Donbas war, particularly with the U.S. leadership considering providing...

BUKOVEL, Ukraine – It’s amazing that I’ve lived in Ukraine for 10 years and had yet to visit Bukovel, what I would call the jewel of the Carpathians, until the weekend of January 16-18. I think I was intimidated. As Ukraine’s most-hyped ski resort, I imagined unaffordable hotels anad ski lifts to diamond-level slopes, dominated...

KYIV – The war in Donbas escalated in recent weeks as Ukrainian forces suffered defeat at the ruined Donetsk airport. They regrouped and two weeks later thwarted Russian forces in what was described as the fiercest battle yet at the Donetsk regional railroad hub of Debaltseve on February 1 and subsequent days. Evidence has surfaced...