Month: June 10, 2021 11:29 pm

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s invitation to the White House in July comes as Kyiv is reeling from what it says is not reciprocal support from its Western partners, including from the U.S., amid escalating Russian belligerence and being shunned from the high-level summit in Brussels at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

U.S. President Joe Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit the White House this summer in a show of support for the Eastern European country.
Mr. Biden extended the invitation during a phone call with Mr. Zelenskyy on June 7, national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a press conference. It was the second call between the leaders since Mr. Biden took office in January.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Europe’s soccer governing body, UEFA, ordered Ukraine on June 10 to change its men’s national soccer team’s jersey based on a complaint from Russia that came a day before the month-long quadrennial tournament begins.

On April 12, amid escalating tensions along the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran expressed concern that “Crimea’s infrastructure is being prepared for potentially storing nuclear weapons” (Radio Svoboda, April 14). Even though Mr. Taran did not supply evidence for this claim, it is plausible to assert that such nuclear potential in occupied Crimea certainly exists.

The foreign affairs ministers of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing cooperation on European integration in Kyiv on May 17, forming a trilateral alliance called the “Association Trio.” The primary goal of the new alliance is to make a concerted move toward European integration, as the document outlines their EU membership goal. “[A]s European states, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine have a European perspective and may apply to become a member of the European Union,” the document stated (Mfa.gov.ua, May 17).

While attention this month has shifted to the foreign policy sphere, the unprecedented offensive recently launched by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy against Ukraine’s hitherto seemingly all-powerful oligarchs has intensified.

BRUSSELS – In advance of the 2021 NATO Allied Leaders summit on June 14 in Brussels, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls on global Ukrainian communities and friends of Ukraine to petition leaders of NATO-member countries to accelerate a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Ukraine. This summit takes place amid the unprecedented escalation of Russian aggression in the region clearly indicating that Russia is an imminent threat to Europe and all NATO member countries.

DETROIT – An earlier story in the May 30 issue of The Weekly noted that the Kobzarska Sich leadership team and the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus planned to hold a summer bandura camp at the All Saints Camp of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. in Emlenton, Pa.

SOUTH BOUND BROOK, N.J. – Members of the Ukrainian American Veterans (UAV) from locations in the Mid-Atlantic states gathered on Memorial Day, May 31, with dozens of supporters at the Ukrainian American Veterans National Monument, located in front of St. Andrew Memorial Church, to honor the memory of American soldiers of Ukrainian descent who died during their military service throughout the history of the United States of America.

Just days before Ukraine kicked off competition in the delayed Euro 2020 soccer championship, which was previously schedule to take place last year but was moved to June 11-July 11 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Andriy Pavelko, the president of the Football Federation of Ukraine, unveiled a new national team jersey on June 7 that featured a patriotic slogan and an outline of Ukraine that includes Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Seventy-five years ago, on June 15, 1946, the United States presented the Baruch Plan to the United Nations with the aim of international control of atomic weapons. The plan did not gain acceptance by the U.N., which resulted in the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

A set of guidelines, known as the Nuremberg Principles, were created by the United Nations’ International Law Commission at the end of the World War II. They were first utilized during the Major War Criminals Trials that began November 20, 1945, and ended on October 1, 1946. Of the 24 Nazis indicted, 12 were sentenced to death by hanging, one in absentia, and the rest given prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life behind bars. Ten went to the noose on October 16, 1946. Remarkably, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring managed to cheat the hangman by taking a cyanide pill the night before.