This section features the noteworthy events and people of 2015 that defy easy classification (or could fit under more than one of our Year in Review categories).
• Bishop Borys Gudziak, who is based in Paris and serves as bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Switzerland, was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honor. The order was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is the highest decoration in France. It is awarded to those who “have served France or the ideals it upholds,” and seldom presented to a non-French national. The president of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Bishop Gudziak is globally recognized for his scholarly achievements and pastoral inspiration and has helped make the university an exemplary educational institution. News of the award was repored in February.
• Mustafa Nayyem – journalist, democracy activist and member of Ukraine’s Parliament – on February 12 received the 2014 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award for his efforts to establish a true democracy in Ukraine. In April 2013, Mr. Nayyem, along with several journalist colleagues, established Hromadske-TV, Ukraine’s first Internet television platform. Via a post on Facebook near the end of 2013, Hromadske was instrumental in helping launch the mass protests on the Maidan. Elected to the Verkhovna Rada in the 2014 elections, Mr. Nayyem focused his attention on working to eliminate corruption – the topic of his keynote remarks at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ 10th annual Ion Ratiu Democracy Award Workshop. The workshop topic this year was the opportunities and threats to the development of democracy in Ukraine since the Euro-Maidan.
Yaro Bihun
Mustafa Nayyem, the recipient of the 2014 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award (left), answers questions after his presentation about “Ukrainian Democracy after the Maidan: Threats and Opportunities.” Seated next to him is Christian Osterman, director of the Wilson Center’s Global Europe Program.
• “Pavlo’s Taste of Ukraine,” a Denver-based food truck owned and operated by Ukrainian American Pavlo Makolondra, was featured on March 9 on KDVR Fox 31’s “everyday Colorado” segment. Completing his culinary education in Minneapolis, Mr. Makolondra returned to Denver in 2014 to start Pavlo’s Taste of Ukraine, basing his selections on guidance from his Ukrainian-born grandmother. Menu items include Ukrainian favorites such as varenyky, holubtsi, kovbasa and borshch.
• Ukraine Today, an Internet television news channel in English was formally introduced on March 27 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington. The channel was created to provide the world with objective information in English about what is happening in Ukraine. Dr. Lada Roslycky, the station’s director of strategic communications, said that, in addition to providing truthful information about Russia’s war against Ukraine and the international response to it, Ukraine Today will also focus on economic reforms in Ukraine, its business and investment opportunities and risks, and on its society and culture.
Facebook/Daniel Berehulak
Daniel Berehulak
• Daniel Berehulak, an Australian photographer and photojournalist, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on April 20 for his feature photography work on the Ebola breakout in West Africa for The New York Times. Mr. Berehulak spent 67 straight days capturing images of those on the frontlines of the disease – from doctors to gravediggers, taking extreme precautions to protect himself from infection. A native of Sydney born to post-World War II Ukrainian immigrant parents, Mr. Berehulak is based in Barcelona and New Delhi. He was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of the 2010 floods in Pakistan, and has been awarded three World Press Photo awards, the John Faber award from the Overseas Press Club, and been named the Freelance/Agency Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International.
• Serhii Plokhy, the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, on April 21 was presented the 2015 Lionel Gelber Prize for his book “The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union.” The literary award is given to “the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues.” Anne Applebaum called the book “an indispensable guide to the tensions and rivalries of the present,” while the Wall Street Journal said it had “uncanny parallels to the present day.” Prof. Plokhy had previously been a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize in 2011 with his book “Yalta: The Price of Peace.” Later in the year, on November 14, Prof. Plokhy received the 2015 Omelan and Tatiana Antonovych Foundation award for his work as a historian and author of history books that insightfully analyze Ukraine’s past and present and shed light on what may be in store for its future Ukraine’s Ambassador Valeriy Chaly noted that Prof. Plokhy’s work “has helped us to understand better our contemporary reality and predict further developments,” while Dr. Marta Bohachevsky-Chomiak said “he has been able to… present so that others may read and understand the critical role of Ukraine as a cultural, intellectual and political player.”
Oksana Zakydalsky
At the Lionel Gelber Prize awards ceremony (from left) are: Patricia Rubin, chair of the prize board; author Serhii Plokhy; and Stephen J. Toope, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs.
• Nadiya Savchenko on April 22 became the 2015 laureate of the Light of Justice Award – established by a Canadian of Ukrainian background, Anastasia Shkilnyk, in honor of her father, Dr. Mykhaylo Shkilnyk, and given in recognition of “moral, spiritual and ethical leadership.” Because Ms. Savchenko remains illegally imprisoned by Russia, her sister Vira, who conveyed words of gratitude on Nadiya’s behalf, accepted the award. Previous winners of the award have included human rights advocate and former Soviet political prisoner Yevhen Sverstiuk and Crimean Tatar leader and rights activist Mustafa Dzhemilev.
• An Austrian court on April 30 denied a request by the U.S. to extradite Dmytro Firtash for trial on criminal charges including bribery and racketeering. Mr. Firtash, a Ukrainian natural gas trader, magnified his wealth with his tight connections to the Yanukovych administration. Mr. Firtash has told reporters that he plans to return to Ukraine, but President Petro Poroshenko has made it clear that Mr. Firtash would be subject to his campaign to reduce the influence of oligarchs.
• Razom for Ukraine’s Kobzar Project incorporated two definitions of “kobzar”: the bard who traveled from village to village, and Taras Shevchenko’s collection of poems. The project began with Ruslana bringing Shevchenko’s “Kobzar” to the ATO zone in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian soldiers, volunteers and average people passed the book from town to town, many writing a note in the book to future readers. Andrii Gorobets, originally from Donetsk and now a post-doc fellow at Michigan State University, traveled the U.S. in late spring/early summer as part of the Kobzar Project, bringing the book to Ukrainian American communities.
• Marta Iwanek of Toronto was the 2015 winner of the Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award, presented by the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) and The Canadian Press at the CJF gala on June 3. The award offers a six-week paid internship at the Canadian Press head office in Toronto. Although Ms. Iwanek went to Kyiv in November 2013 to make a film with Nove Pokolinnia (the organization known in Canada as Help Us Help the Children), she stayed for three months covering the events on the Maidan as a freelance photographer. Her photos were published by Maclean’s magazine as “The Maidan Story.”
• Roman Borys received an honorary Doctor of Music degree on June 12 from Carleton University in Ottawa in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a musician of international renown, an educator and a leader in bringing together some of Canada’s most talented artists to perform on the international stage. Mr. Borys is a founding member of the two-time Juno Award-winning Gryphon trio, and the artistic director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society, overseeing all aspects of programming its summer Chamberfest and its fall-winter concert series.
• Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk of the Department of Political Science at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, was honored on June 25 with a Royal Ontario Volunteer Service Award for 50 years of community activism, at a ceremony sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade. Dr. Luciuk’s most recent book, co-edited with Declan Curran and Andrew G. Newby, is “Famines in European Economic History: The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered.” He also recently oversaw publication of “ ‘Tell Them We Are Starving’ – The 1933 Diaries of Gareth Jones.”
• In a decree dated July 11, President Petro Poroshenko granted Ukrainian citizenship to Dr. Ulana Suprun and Marko Suprun. Dr. Suprun and Mr. Suprun were instrumental in providing international-level individual first aid kits (IFAKs) to Ukrainian military officers and training the officers in tactical medicine. The Supruns also participated in the training program for the new Ukrainian Police Patrol Service. The Supruns moved to Ukraine a week after the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity, having visited many times since the early 1990s on various missions. Dr. Suprun volunteered with the medical service and was at the Maidan. As part of the Patriot Defense volunteer project, which the Supruns founded, over 19,000 solders and over 2,999 cadets have completed the tactical medicine training program, and the army has been provided with over 16,500 IFAKs.
Presidential Administration of Ukraine
President Petro Poroshenko presents passports of Ukraine to Dr. Ulana Suprun and Marko Suprun.
• Andrew Fedynsky of Cleveland, received the 2015 Freedom Award presented by the American Nationalities Movement at the annual Captive Nations Dinner on July 16. The award was given in recognition of Mr. Fedynsky’s “magnificent lifetime achievements: …talent as a scribe publishing outstanding articles supporting human rights for freedom loving people” and “exceptional sensitivity and efforts supporting his rich Ukrainian heritage as director of the Ukrainian Museum-Archives and for support of the goals of the Nationalities Movement.”
• A memorial gravestone and plaque for Ukrainian American Markian Paslawsky (“Franko”) was unveiled at Askold’s Grave in Kyiv on August 19, on the one-year anniversary of Mr. Paslawsky’s death. Hundreds of people, including many members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, came to honor the late Mr. Paslawsky, who was killed in action while serving in a Ukrainian Donbas volunteer battalion near the town of Ilovaysk. Plast Ukraine chief Yaroslav Yurchyshyn and Plast U.S.A. Board of Directors Chair Dr. Christine Kochan posthumously presented Mr. Paslawsky the Iron Plast Cross awarded by the worldwide Conference of Ukrainian Plast Organizations – Plast’s highest honor bestowed on individuals active in the defense of Ukraine. Mr. Paslawsky’s mother, Orysia, received the award.
• On the 24th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, President Petro Poroshenko awarded 14 foreign citizens for their “contribution to strengthening the international authority of Ukraine, popularization of its historical heritage and modern achievements.” Among the honorees were Tamara Olexy, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and Roma Hadzewycz, editor-in-chief of The Ukrainian Weekly. Both women were awarded the Order of Princess Olha, third degree. Ms. Olexy received her award on September 26 in New York.
• Rear Adm. Boris D. Lushniak, deputy surgeon general of the United States, retired from the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps in a full-honors retirement ceremony on September 3 after 27 years of service as an officer. The son of post-World War II Ukrainian immigrants and a dermatologist, preventive medicine specialist and family physician by training, Rear Adm. Lushniak deployed for several national and international missions throughout his career, including Bangladesh, St. Croix, Russia, Kosovo and New York. His most recent deployment was to Liberia, where he was assigned as the commanding officer of the USPHS Commissioned Corps Ebola response, commanding a team of specialized officers who managed and staffed a 25-bed field hospital dedicated to providing care to health care workers infected with Ebola. He was appointed deputy surgeon general in 2010 and acting surgeon general in 2013, serving in that capacity for 18 months, during which time he released the “50th Anniversary of the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health” and launched the first “Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer.” He served as deputy surgeon general from December 2014 until his retirement.