Month: October 25, 2019 6:00 am

STAMFORD, Conn. – Ukrainian folk art is not only beauty and richness; it carries a unique code that has come down over the centuries in the ancient symbolism of ornaments and colors.
In her colorful collection “Code U. Related Millenniums,” Ukrainian American artist Oksana Tanasiv demonstrates her own fascination with folk art. Taking its patterns from a decorative context, the author zooms in on them as if under a magnifying glass, analyzes their rhythms, harmony and encrypted messages of their ancestors. She translates them into the language of contemporary art.

The Greek Orthodox Church has essentially recognized the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which in January was granted autocephaly, or independence, from Moscow by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a move that angered Russia and caused what some termed the greatest Christian schism since 1054.
On October 12, the Council of Hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Church convening in Athens adopted a proposal of its primate, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos II, to ratify a previous decision of the Synod of this Church proclaiming “the canonical right of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant autocephaly, as well as the privilege of the primate of the Greek Church to further pursue the issue of the recognition of the Church of Ukraine.” According to a report by Ukrainian broadcaster TSN, 80 hierarchs of the Council voted in favor while seven asked to postpone the decision.

KYIV – On October 10, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set a new world record for the longest press conference ever given by a head of state – 14 hours – in a free-ranging live exchange with some 300 journalists rotating in turn to take on the Ukrainian leader.
The novel interaction with the news media in a Kyiv food court provided many insights into Mr. Zelenskyy’s thinking and plans concerning both domestic and foreign affairs. But observers said it also raised almost as many questions as the president answered.
Was this a professional showman employing a new communication gimmick, or was this a novice politician suddenly finding himself in trouble and trying to extricate himself from it? Was this a display of self-confidence and openness, or a defensive over-reaction to mounting criticism about the lack of proper contact with the news media and, in light of a wave of protests connected with perceptions of his approach to seeking peace, failure to get his messages across?

Among the topics discussed by President Zelensky were those highlighted on the website of the Presidential Office of Ukraine. Following are excerpts from the Presidential Office’s reports.
– About his mission: “I want to remind you which president the society elected – they elected a president who will end the war. That is my mission for five years.”
– Speaking of Ukrainians living on the occupied territories of the Donbas: “This part of the people who feel themselves Ukrainians should know: we do not leave them, we do not abandon them, return them together with the territory. This is our plan A. And plan B, if we have a long history, a long way with the return of the territories, people will still be a priority, and we must provide them with the opportunity to be here.”

Addressing European lawmakers in Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko has said Kyiv seeks to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but not at any cost.
“Ukraine is now and will stay a unitary state. We are not talking about a forceful federalization of Ukraine,” Mr. Prystaiko said on October 14 in an address to the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET).
“A second red line is that we are not changing our Constitution the way Russia wants it,” he added.
Mr. Prystaiko said Kyiv was ready to grant the areas held by Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions “some sort of self-determination within the process of decentralization,” which he said “is ongoing in Ukraine anyway.”

Zelenskyy visits troops on frontline
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked Ukraine’s Defenders Day holiday with a visit to troops deployed on the frontline in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for more than five years. Mr. Zelenskyy, who rose to the presidency earlier this year on promises to end the conflict, on October 14 thanked Ukrainian troops for their “bravery” in defending the country in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014. The Ukrainian president also presented state awards to several Ukrainian soldiers and got acquainted with the situation along the line of contact, according to the presidential website. In Kyiv, tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Independence Square, chanting nationalist slogans and decrying as “capitulation” a peace plan for eastern Ukraine that would include a pullback of heavy weaponry. Mr. Zelenskyy’s embrace of the plan, known as the Steinmeier formula, has drawn opposition from right-wing groups, some veteran groups and activists in Ukraine. Since 2015, the October 14 anniversary of the creation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) has been marked as the Defenders Day public holiday. The UPA was founded in western Ukraine during the Nazi occupation and fought against both Soviet and Nazi forces during World War II. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP)

As hundreds of thousands of people across the country marked Ukraine’s Defenders Day holiday, dozens of protesters assembled at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, calling on the country’s diplomatic corps to take measures for the release of a former National Guardsman who has been convicted in Italy for his role in the deaths of an Italian photojournalist and his Russian interpreter.
Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, a former political prisoner who was released from Russian captivity last month, joined the rally to call for Vitaliy Markiv’s freedom. After leaving an appeal at the ministry, the group of demonstrators marched to the Italian Embassy and deposited a similar note.

Kyiv has co-signed with Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR) a commitment to: a) accept the holding of “local elections” in that Russian-controlled territory of Ukraine and b) accept the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) monitoring and assessment of the democratic validity of such “elections.” Under those documents, signed on October 1, the OSCE’s validation of those “elections” would qualify the Donetsk-Luhansk territory for a permanent “special status,” as originally prescribed by the Russia-dictated Minsk armistice (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, September 17, 24, 25, 26, October 3).
For the first time in the history of Russia-orchestrated conflicts, the OSCE now declares itself prepared to observe and evaluate elections in a territory occupied or controlled by Russia – in this case, in Ukraine’s Donbas. The OSCE is thereby breaking with its own practice of refusing to take notice of such elections.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov says the future status of Ukraine’s Donbas should be like what Moscow has proposed for Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria, Vitaly Portnikov reports. That would mean the permanent federalization and neutralization of Ukraine ensured by the continued presence of Russian troops.
The author of this plan, Andrey Yermak, a deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, has been in active contact with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian commentator says.
This idea is now in active competition with two others: the first is one that Vladislav Surkov, an aide to Vladimir Putin, has long been associated with – the preservation of “the peoples republics” as quasi-states, as levers on Ukraine and an instrument for the profit of the Russian political elite; and the second, that of Dmitry Kozak, who wants “the incorporation” of these republics into Ukraine but with the preservation of their “state infrastructure” and of course the Russian military presence.

The photo above was taken at the 1961 annual meeting of the Ukrainian National Association’s Supreme Assembly, which was held at Soyuzivka on May 22-26. It is a historic photo because at the annual meeting Joseph Lesawyer was elected supreme president to succeed Dmytro Halychyn, who had died of head injuries following a serious accident on March 26, 1961. Supreme Vice-President Lesawyer had been acting president of the UNA since Mr. Halychyn’s death and now he was unanimously elected to serve the remainder of his term. Since the VP post was no longer held by Mr. Lesawyer, Stephen Kuropas, who was secretary of the Supreme Auditing Committee, was unanimously elected vice-president. Supreme Advisor John Kokolski was unanimously elected to fill Mr. Kuropas’s position as auditor.

On October 12, an accomplished, effective and respected institution in our midst celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding with a special reception and program in Philadelphia. It also marked 75 years of its impressive activity in helping Ukrainians worldwide. The United Ukrainian American Relief Committee traces its beginnings to the Second Congress of Americans of Ukrainian Descent, i.e., the convention of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America that took place on January 22, 1944, when a resolution was passed calling for the establishment of a Ukrainian war relief committee. Three fraternal organizations, the Ukrainian National Association, the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics and the Ukrainian National Aid Association, were behind the idea of creating a separate non-political humanitarian aid organization to assist Ukrainian refugees.

Fifty years ago, on October 25, 1969, Canadian Sen. Paul Yuzyk explained to the Niagara Falls United Nations Club that Russia was exploiting the United Nations with a deceitful plan aimed at smashing capitalist countries so the Soviet Union could conquer the world.
U.N. platforms have been used by the Soviets to spread communism and inflame colonial people and underdeveloped nations against Western powers, particularly the United States, he said.
Jim Cullen of The Evening Review said that the paradox is that, while imperialism and colonialism are disappearing throughout most of the world, it is the Soviet Union that has emerged as the world’s greatest imperialist power.