Browsing: Must reads/In the Press

“The Shoals of Ukraine,” by Serhii Plokhy and M. E. Sarotte Foreign Affairs, January/February 2020:

At first, it might seem surprising that Ukraine, a country on the fringes of Europe, is suddenly at the turbulent center of American politics and foreign policy. ...
In fact, that Ukraine is at the center of this storm should not be surprising at all. Over the past quarter century, nearly all major efforts at establishing a durable post–Cold War order on the Eurasian continent have foundered on the shoals of Ukraine. For it is in Ukraine that the disconnect between triumphalist end-of-history delusions and the ongoing realities of great-power competition can be seen in its starkest form.

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The “Morning Briefing” newsletter e-mailed by The New York Times on November 22 reported: “This week, The Times adopted a new spelling for Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, the Romanization of the Ukrainian Київ. The previous version, Kiev, is a transliteration from the Russian: Киев.”
The newspaper went on to say:
“The Times is rarely an early adopter in altering place names, waiting until there is a sense that most readers would be familiar with the new word. For instance, the paper quit using Bombay only in 2004, almost a decade after the Indian authorities officially recognized the city as Mumbai.

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On October 31, the NATO-Ukraine Commission met in Kyiv in the presence of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here is a look at the main statements by Messrs. Stoltenberg and Zelenskyy.
Statements by president of Ukraine
On Ukraine and NATO’s security: Mr. Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine is actually located on the southeastern flank of the alliance and is an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic security space, where it “is not just consuming, but has been also supplying security for many years.”
On the Enhanced Opportunities Program: The president suggested that NATO consider allowing Ukraine to join the Enhanced Opportunities Program. He said he is convinced that Ukraine is already embracing this type of cooperation. At the press conference held after the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, he said he had proved that Ukraine is ready to become NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partner. He added that a renewed Comprehensive Assistance Package was agreed at the meeting.

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NEW YORK – On Saturday, November 16, Ukrainian Americans and invited guests will gather at midtown Manhattan’s historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the annual National Observance Commemorating Ukraine’s Holodomor, the Famine-Genocide of 7 million-10 million Ukrainians in 1932-1933.
Organized for over two decades by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the largest representation of Ukrainians in America, this annual commemoration regularly attracts hundreds of attendees from across the tri-state metropolitan area. The ecumenical requiem service (panakhyda) will begin at 2 p.m. and will be concelebrated by the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic Churches in America, with responses sung by the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York. Following the service, guests and dignitaries will deliver a series of brief remarks.

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In the story headlined “Archbishop mounts pressure for papal visit to Ukraine, says Moscow getting in the way” (Crux, a news site that covers the Catholic Church, September 5), senior correspondent Elise Harris reported: “Archbishop Borys Gudziak, one of nearly 50 Ukrainian Greek-Catholic bishops in Rome this week, says he and his fellow prelates are pushing harder than ever for a papal visit to Ukraine – a trip that he said is crucial to ending conflict in the country, but which is being held up by fear of potential reprisal from Russia.” Speaking of the war in eastern Ukraine, Metropolitan Borys said: “Almost every day someone is killed. This has been going on for five years. It’s like a terrorist act in your country every day. This is thousands of terrorist acts.” He added, “We believe that if the pope came to Ukraine, the killing would, if not stop, would lessen,” explaining that an invitation for a papal visit was issued a long time ago.

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“Can We Please Talk About How Ukrainians Feel About This?” by Alyona Getmanchuk. The New York Times, September 24:
…Ukrainians consider the United States, along with Poland, our primary ally in the world.
And so it is bitter to learn that under Donald Trump, it appears that the leadership of the United States has now joined the list of those who would use Ukraine to pursue their own narrow ends, and do so in ways that hinder our own efforts to improve our country. It is especially painful that this is happening at a moment when the new Ukrainian leadership desperately needs a functional partnership with Washington.…

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“Macron is ‘renewing trust,’ ” by Vitaly Portnikov, espreso.tv (translation by Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing), September 9:
…Presidents [Emmanuel] Macron and [Vladimir] Putin spoke on the phone and allowed that a summit of the leaders of the Normandy Format [Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia] may take place in the coming weeks. And this is in the context of Putin’s recent remarks that such a meeting could only take place if it produces a “concrete result.”

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PARSIPPANY, N.J. – The Associated Press Stylebook on August 14 notified users of its style and usage guide that the name of the capital of Ukraine would now be spelled Kyiv, not Kiev.
In a tweet and a post on Facebook, the AP Stylebook wrote: “AP has changed its style for the capital of Ukraine to Kyiv, in line with the Ukrainian government’s preferred transliteration to English and increasing usage. Include a reference in stories to the former spelling of Kiev. The food dish remains chicken Kiev.”

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“Ukraine has an extraordinary chance to turn things around,” editorial, The Washington Post, July 26 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/ukraine-has-an-extraordinary-chance-to-turn-things-around/2019/07/26/e2dda3ac-ae2d-11e9-bc5c-e73b603e7f38_story.html?utm_term=.c24e3ccc1f8e): Ukraine’s political elite has…...

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“Oligarch’s Return Raises Alarm in Ukraine,” by Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, May 16, (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/europe/ukraine-zelensky-kolomoisky.html?smtyp=cur& smid=tw-nytimesworld):…The Ukrainian government took over … PrivatBank, [co-owned by Ihor Kolomoisky] in the course of a $5.6 billion bailout at a time when lending by the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the United States was propping up the government.

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… A monitoring report by the media watchdog Detector Media has found a high focus on Ukraine in over half of Russia’s TV talk shows, with most pushing the idea that the imminent presidential elections will be rigged.… DM journalist Yaroslav Zubchenko was able to report that Ukraine was discussed in 60 percent of three Russian mainstream talk shows between January 14 and March 17, 2019. Three messages were most often pushed:

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“Why Do So Few Presidential Candida-tes Support NATO and EU Member-ship?” by Taras Kuzio, Ukraine Alert blog, Atlantic Council, March 4

Out of 42 candidates who are running for president in the Ukrainian elections on March 31, only 11 support NATO and EU membership. This represents a lower proportion of supporters than the over 300 deputies who voted on three occasions to change the Constitution to include those two goals. Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and the Radical party voted for those constitutional changes, but neither Yulia Tymoshenko nor Oleh Lyashko – who lead these parties, respectively – include NATO and the EU in their election programs. …

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