Month: September 25, 2020 3:09 am

BLOOMINGDALE, Ill. – Taking into consideration the regulations and recommendations of local, state and federal agencies regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation – USA Inc. invited the Ukrainian community of Illinois and beyond to participate in a virtual ecumenical memorial service in memory of the more than 10 million victims of the genocidal Holodomor.

The service was livestreamed on Sunday, September 20, on the Facebook page of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral – Orthodox Church of Ukraine and on the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral–OCU YouTube channel.

JENKINTOWN, Pa. – This year’s summer camps of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization were very different from prior years due to COVID-19 and the quarantine measures limiting and restricting the number of overnight campers.

Under the direction of Plast U.S.A.’s head of camps, Roman Lewyckyj, leaders of all three Plast campsites organized a one-week virtual camp for their cub scouts (novatstvo) and scouts (yunatstvo).

Over 350 participants, comprising campers and their counselors, took part in the organized online camps hosted by the individual campgrounds, which culminated in an online weekend bonfire that was open to anyone who wanted to participate.

YONKERS, N.Y. – The Ukrainian American Veterans (UAV) 73rd annual National Convention will be a virtual one, to be held November 5-7. The recipients of the UAV Scholarship Awards are announced at the annual convention. The UAV National Scholarship Committee selects and awards scholarship money to matriculated undergraduate college students. The purpose of the scholarship awards is to help students pay for tuition, books and/or school supplies.

Students are required to write an essay (400-500 words) about a current military or related topic. The topics for this year included: the war on terrorism, human rights, the negative effects of wars on American veterans, Russian aggression on sovereign countries, and Ukrainian Ameri­can veterans’ contributions to America’s wars. Students chose one of these five topics to write their essay.

KYIV – The administration of the National Sanctuary Complex “Sophia of Kyiv,” together with patrons of the historic preserve’s renovation, on September 16 presented a project to drain the foundations and walls of St. Sophia Cathedral and adjacent monasteries of excessive moisture, thus saving them for future generations.

The process is to be implemented with innovative Swiss equipment, called the BioDry system, that is used for natural restoration of a proper level of humidity. The equipment will help restore the microclimate in the cathedral buildings and eliminate excessive moisture. Similar technology is used to preserve cultural heritage sites around the world.

KYIV – The unexpected peaceful but dramatic revolution in Belarus against the Lukashenka dictatorship is about to enter its seventh week. It has not only become a turning point in the country’s history and profoundly changed Belarus, but is also impacting in different ways on its diverse neighbors, including Ukraine in the south.

For Ukraine, the new and evolving situation, rife with uncertainty as to the direction it will take and the eventual outcome, is replete with challenges, threats and dangers, but also potential new opportunities and possible significant changes for the better.

The United States says it has imposed sanctions on a Ukrainian lawmaker behind leaked telephone records of Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, as well as three other “Russia-linked” individuals accused of attempting to influence the U.S. electoral process.

The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement on September 10 that it had blacklisted Andriy Derkach, who has been helping President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani find compromising information on Mr. Biden.

Narratives devoted to the ongoing political turmoil in Belarus fall into two basic categories: emotional and analytical. Attempts to mix both genres do not succeed. “Even if the Belarusian revolution ends in defeat, it will still go down in history and will have a huge impact on the further development of the country,” wrote Valer Karbalevich of Radio Liberty, only to be rebuked by multiple comment posts to the effect that “by no means will the revolution be defeated” (Svaboda.org, September 10).

Nevertheless, narratives of both kinds are warranted, each in their own right. And when looked at together, they form a much more complete and objectively truer picture of what is now happening on the ground in Belarus.

Sanctions upheld on Russian energy firms

The European Union’s top court has upheld restrictive measures adopted by the 27-nation bloc against Russian oil and gas companies in connection with Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice announced on September 17 that it had upheld a judgment by a lower EU court dismissing an action against the sanctions slapped on companies that are part of state oil giant Rosneft, saying the measures “have been duly justified and are suitable for putting pressure on Russia because of its role” in the Ukraine crisis. Beginning in July 2014, the European Council adopted restrictive measures on the Russian bank and energy sectors in Russia in response to its annexation of the Crimean peninsula and its support for militants fighting in eastern Ukraine. Those measures include prohibitions on the export of certain products and technologies to the oil and gas sector and restrictions on the access of certain operators in that sector to the EU capital market.

Belarus is not Ukraine either now or should Moscow try to annex it, Russian analysts are warning. It is far more integrated as a society than Ukraine is, with far fewer regional, linguistic or even religious divisions than exist in Ukraine; and it is far more European because so many of its people have visited Poland and other neighbors or even gone there to work for a time. As a result, Moscow has little hope of repeating the strategy it used in Ukraine to play one region or linguistic group against another (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, August 13; Krizis-Kopilka, September 9; Sovershenno Sekretno, August 30).

That argument accounts for much of the Kremlin’s present halting approach toward Belarus, where it has not been able to use the playbook Vladimir Putin employed in Georgia in 2008 or in Ukraine since 2014. And it also helps to explain why a growing number of Russians fear that, while Moscow could annex part of Ukraine more or less successfully, it would face disaster if it sought to annex Belarus as a whole.

The following statement was released by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress on September 16.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) resolutely condemns Russia’s escalating, systematic persecution of the Crimean Tatar People.

The UCC calls on Canada and the international community to respond strongly and swiftly to Russia’s violations of basic human rights and implement sanctions against the Russian officials responsible.

WILMINGTON, Del. – Peter Serba, a loyal activist of the Ukrainian National Association and a branch secretary since 1954, passed away peacefully on the morning of September 12 at his home in Wilmington, Del. He was 96.

He was born on June 10, 1924, in Nakvasha/Mykyty in the Brody region of Ukraine. The youngest child of Josaphat and Maria Serba, he had one brother and two sisters.

In the midst of World War II, in 1942 and 1943, Mr. Serba completed specialized training to lead young forces against the enemies of Ukraine. A select few people were chosen from the Brody region for such responsibility. When the Russian front advanced, his forces were attached to what became the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought the Russian Communist forces in that region of Ukraine. To avoid capture, Mr. Serba and another UPA member escaped via a nearly frozen river; Mr. Serba almost died during that episode, but survived after a lengthy recovery.

People who have visited Ukraine know that throughout the country there are many streets and plazas named after famous individuals known for their endeavors in a variety of fields, whether that be politics, the arts, science, or other fields. In addition, there are countless buildings that bear plaques commemorating someone of historical note, a statesman, a public figure, a writer, etc., who lived or worked there. In Kyiv, there are streets named in honor of poets, war heroes, hetmans, architects, pianists, educators, design engineers, philosophers. The list is long, and it contains Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians.