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WASHINGTON – On July 1, Yakiv Smolii, the highly respected head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) whose leadership has been praised as key to the country maintaining financial stability and investor confidence, resigned from his position. He cited pressure from certain politicians and business interests aimed at altering what has been the institution’s responsible approach as the reason.

This move was received by observers as another sign – among many in recent months – that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is wavering in his commitment to expand upon the reform accomplishments of the Poroshenko administration and the Yatsenyuk and Groysman governments in the first five years of the post-Maidan era.

CHICAGO – Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who represents the 8th Congressional District of Illinois, joined the Congressional Ukraine Caucus on May 26. His district includes an area northwest of Chicago that is home to many Ukrainian Americans, their churches and community centers. Congressman Raja, as he is popularly called, serves on the House Oversight Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

In an interview conducted by this writer on May 25, the congressman indicated his strong support for sanctions against Russia and Russian leaders as a result of the invasion and occupation of Crimea and Ukraine’s Donbas territory, and he pledged to support the U.S. position condemning Russia’s occupation of Crimea as an illegal act in violation of international law.

WASHINGTON – Freedom House on June 19 awarded the 2019-2020 Mark Palmer Prize to Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland for her tireless work championing democracy through advocacy, journalism and policymaking.

The Mark Palmer Prize, given in honor of the late U.S. ambassador and foreign policy innovator Mark Palmer, recognizes diplomats and civil servants who have gone beyond their normal course of duties to promote democracy and human rights.

On June 11, the U.S. Congress approved a military assistance package worth $250 million for Ukraine for 2020, and Ukraine received over $60 million in military aid from the United States, which includes Javelin anti-tank missiles.

“U.S. security assistance and cooperation efforts with Ukraine during #COVID19 continue! Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy’s Office of Defense Cooperation received more than $60 million of equipment to transfer to our Ukrainian partners, including radios, ammunition and Javelin anti-tank missiles,” the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said on Facebook on June 17.

“The United States stands strongly with Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression,” the Embassy said.

WASHINGTON – The Congressional Ukraine Caucus (CUC) Co-Chairs Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), in addition to caucus member Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), on June 8 sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concern regarding Russia’s efforts to circumvent Congress­ional sanctions on Nord Stream 2, and urging Mr. Pompeo to urgently apply sanctions on Russian entities STIF and MRTS and any other firms should they engage in pipelaying or provide technical support, as mandated under section 7503 of the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019 (National Defense Authori­zation Act of 2020; PL. 116-92; 22 U.S.C. 9526 note).

A copy of the letter was also sent to Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

NEW YORK – The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the representative organization of nearly 2 million Americans of Ukrainian descent, on May 14 convened an extraordinary session of UCCA’s National Council, UCCA’s highest ruling body. The purpose of the meeting, held over the Zoom video and audio conferencing platform for the first time, was to discuss the planned XXIII Congress of Ukrainians in America, UCCA’s quadrennial convention. Scheduled to coincide with U.S. presidential election years, the XXIII Congress of Ukrainians will elect the UCCA’s executive officers and guide UCCA’s plan of action until the next convention.

Presided over by National Council Chair Stefan Kaczaraj, the President/CEO of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), the extraordinary session ratified a proposal from the Presidium of the UCCA’s Executive Committee to schedule the XXIII Congress of Ukrainians for October 2021. This was done in accordance with a ruling from UCCA’s By-Laws Committee, authored by its chair, Bohdan Shandor, president of the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA).

President Donald Trump on May 1 announced his intent to nominate a retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army as ambassador to Ukraine.

The announcement released by the White House noted:

“Keith W. Dayton currently serves as the director of the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, a position he has held since 2010. He also serves concurrently as Senior United States Defense Advisor to Ukraine. His current service follows a four-decade career in the United States Army, retiring in 2010 with the rank of lieutenant general.

WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Ukraine Found­ation (USUF) on April 24 hosted an online streaming event featuring the film “The Russian Woodpecker.” The panelists for the webinar were Chad Gracia (the film’s author, producer and director), Nadia K. McConnell (president of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation), Ambassador John Herbst (director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia’s Center), and Kateryna Pavlova (head of the Department for International and Public Relations at the State Agency of Ukraine for Management of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone).

They discussed the significance and relevance of the film vis-à-vis today’s realities, including the Soviet government’s reaction to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 and the consequences Ukrainians and people all over the world faced as a result of the tragedy. They also drew parallels between the lack of transparency on the part of the Soviet government regarding the Chornobyl catastrophe and the situation with the Coronavirus pandemic that is taking so many lives today.

WASHINGTON – In the aftermath of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government shake-up on March 4 that brought to power a number of ministers with questionable reform credentials, observers were concerned that Ukraine would be backtracking on the progress that had been made by the previous Cabinet of Ministers.

Unexpectedly, the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing global economic crisis have forced Ukraine to demonstrably recommit to reform efforts in order to access major loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which have again become critical to the country’s stability. That funding comes with strings attached – conditionalities requiring that Ukraine stay on track with reforms, particularly through the passage of a banking legislation banning the return of nationalized banks to previous owners and a land market law that allows for the sale of farmland.

Kristina Rak Brown is a corporate lawyer with over 20 years of experience. She is currently practicing as senior counsel at the law firm of Brown, Moskowitz & Kallen, P.C. in Summit, N.J. As part of her practice on behalf of the firm, since the COVID-19 outbreak she has been tracking and writing about the federal funding programs and advising clients on how to navigate the programs and application process.

We publish this information as a public service to our readers and our community.

On March 27, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) went into effect in the United States. The CARES Act offers several loan and grant programs for qualifying small businesses, independent contractors and self-employed individuals who are suffering the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak disaster. The two largest programs are the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, each of which is administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Both the PPP and the EIDL Program have limited funding and applicants are served on a first-come, first-served basis.

WASHINGTON – In mid-March, the United States Congress witnessed a unique briefing dedicated to the plight of Ukrainian veterans who served on the frontlines in defending Ukraine against Russia’s aggression.

The honorary co-hosts of the event were the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and the Senate Ukraine Caucus, while sponsors included the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), Pylyshenko Family Foundation, United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC), Embassy of Ukraine in the U.S.A., Ukrainian American Community Foundation of the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union Foundation and OliaFilm.

Recent events in the United States have propelled Ukraine and Ukrainians to unimaginable levels of notoriety. The consequences of this notoriety can be considered, in the best of cases, a mixed blessing.  Be that as it may, this experience has underscored the importance of active participation in the political process. The upcoming November 2020 elections present opportunities and challenges for our community.

We present here data developed by the Center for Demographic and Socio-economic Research of Ukrainians in the U.S. (center for short) at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York (society for short) that may be useful during the primary process and the November elections.