Year: December 20, 2019 3:24 am

SILVER SPRINGS, Md. – Following the first of two showings in the Washington area of the new film “Mr. Jones,” describing the work of the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones in Joseph Stalin’s 1930s Soviet Union, the film’s screenwriter Andrea Chalupa discussed the story of what is now known as the Holodomor, and the hard work it took for Jones to gather the information and share that tragic history with the world. Jones secretly managed to visit Ukraine to witness and report to the Western world about the millions of Ukrainians starving to death as Stalin’s regime confiscated their wheat harvest and sold it to the West to finance his communist regime. In her hourlong discussion with the large audience on December 15 at the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Md., Ms. Chalupa (in front of the screen) also noted that she expects it to be very difficult to spread the two-hour-long historic film in theaters throughout the country.

As a longtime subscriber to The Hockey News and an admitted sports nut whose first love is ice hockey, this writer is well aware that one of its yearbook’s traditions is a ranking of the NHL’s top-50 players, compiled by the periodical’s writers, league GMs and scouts. Having digested still another of these annual features, your loyal hockey pundit decided to compile a ranking of the top 20 Ukrainian NHL-ers as the puck drops for 2019-2020.

KYIV – The results of the Normandy format summit that brought together the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on December 9 – for the first time in over three years – have been greeted with cautious optimism for having reactivated the stalled negotiations based on the Minsk accords of 2014-2015 to end Russia’s war in the Donbas.
Without giving way on fundamental issues, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy managed to secure agreement on an exchange of all prisoners, a commitment to a general ceasefire and a follow-up meeting within four months. However, many political issues related to the future of eastern Ukrainian regions now controlled by joint Russian-separatist forces remained unresolved.
The nervously awaited summit that took place in Paris was preceded by much speculation and concern in Ukraine and beyond about what it might produce, and mass rallies throughout Ukraine warned against “capitulation” to Russia.

The statement below was released by the Ukrainian World Congress on December 10.

On Monday, December 9, leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany took part in the Normandy summit in Paris. The eyes of the global Ukrainian community have been fixed on this meeting, and the society has been actively engaged in determining the demands of the agenda. The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has been supporting this peace process with a series of campaigns #StandwithUkraine #StopRussianAggression, and most recently held rallies and meetings in support of Ukraine in Paris under the leadership of Paul Grod, UWC President.

TORONTO – Patriarch Sviatoslav, primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), on December 8 presented the highest distinction awarded by the UGCC – the Order of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky – to the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies named after Metropolitan Andrey.
The Sheptytsky Institute is an autonomous academic unit of the Faculty of Theology of the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. The ceremony was held at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia.

On November 14, during the Third International Conference for Maritime Security, in Odesa, Ukrainian Navy commander Admiral Ihor Voronchenko said that a Russian Tu-22M3 (Backfire) had been observed simulating the launch of a missile strike on this coastal city (Dumskaya, November 14). Admiral Voronchenko added that Russian bombers had made several similar attempts during exercises on July 10, conducting a virtual airstrike 60 kilometers from Odesa.
The Ukrainian naval chief also stressed that the Russian Federation has dramatically increased its military presence in Crimea after having illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014. For example, the number of warships stationed there grew from 34 to 49, while the number of submarines increased from one to seven. Moreover, most of these Russian vessels are being modernized and armed with 3M-54 Kalibr-type (SS-N-27 Sizzler and SS-N-30A) cruise missiles.

Sentsov registers for military service Ukrainian filmmaker and former Kremlin political prisoner Oleh Sentsov has registered for military service. In…...

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov against any “attempts to interfere” in U.S. elections and “urged Moscow to resolve the conflict with Ukraine,” the White House said of their meeting in Washington.
Mr. Trump on December 10 emphasized supporting “effective global arms control” that includes not only Russia, but also China, the White House said.
He also asked Russia for support on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to ensure the denuclearization of North Korea.

The United Nations General Assembly on December 9 called on the Russian Federation to withdraw its military forces and end the occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
“The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a draft resolution urging the Russian Federation, as the occupying power, to withdraw its military forces from Crimea and to end its temporary occupation of Ukrainian territory without delay,” the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations said on Facebook.
The resolution calls upon all member states to cooperate with the United Nations “to encourage and support efforts to put an end to the Russian occupation of Crimea as rapidly as possible and to refrain from any dealings with the Russian Federation regarding Crimea that are inconsistent with this aim.”

Much hype preceded the Paris meeting of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, the first face-to-face talks between the current leaders of Ukraine and Russia on the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians feared Mr. Zelenskyy would make major concessions to Mr. Putin, particularly with European leaders eager for progress toward peace looking on.
But the modest agreements reached seemed to leave little room for concerns of “capitulation” to Moscow, making for a mix of relief at that result and disappointment about the obstacles that still loom large in a country torn by a five-year war in its east.

PHILADELPHIA – Ihor Alexander Shust, a Ukrainian community activist and a former senior vice-president of Wells Fargo, died peacefully at home on November 20 after a long illness. He was 87.
Born in Ukraine in 1932, he came to the United States as an adolescent and settled in Philadelphia. He graduated from Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently completed the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management at Harvard School of Business.

Recently, the Russian Duma passed and President Vladimir Putin signed a law withdrawing Moscow’s 1949 signature on the Geneva Convention concerning the defense of the civilian population during international armed conflicts, a convention the United Nations has accused Russia of violating on Ukrainian territory by changing the ethnic mix in Crimea. (The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties and three additional protocols.)
Russia’s withdrawal from this convention means that the United Nations cannot formally condemn Moscow for the violation of the rights of civilians during war by acting on the accusations the U.N. has made.