Month: January 22, 2021 11:04 am

KYIV – Ukraine commemorated Donetsk Airport Remembrance Day on January 16 and honored the soldiers who – outnumbered, and for eight months – withstood superior Russian-led forces in the Donbas War.

Known as the second battle of the now-destroyed airport – named after Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev – the siege lasted 242 days from May 26, 2014, to January 20, 2015.

Despite dogged efforts to defend the strategic site’s two terminals, including the Ukrainian air traffic control tower atop which steadfastly stood a Ukrainian flag, the airport soon became a symbol of Ukraine’s struggle to defend itself amid Russia’s unprovoked aggression.

The new year has gotten off to a good start for Ukraine, at least in the realm of external relations. Official Kyiv has welcomed the change at the helm in Washington and is hopeful that the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will be better not only for Ukraine, but for Europe and international affairs generally.

Already buoyed by a number of significant foreign policy achievements during 2020, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s team is looking forward to building on these accomplishments knowing that, if the country can deliver on reforms and combat corruption, it can rely on more consistent forms of support from the U.S.

Russia’s “hard power” activity in the  Azov Sea has increased significantly since May 2018, when the authorities officially opened the Kerch Strait Bridge they had been building since the illegal annexation of Crimea (UNIAN, May 15, 2018). Immedia­tely, experts identified Moscow’s bridge building project as, in part, a deliberate “access limitation” operation. Moreover, both during the construction phase and since completion, it was accompanied by frequent freedom-of-navigation restrictions (“access denial” – see below), including systematic Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Coast Guard boarding and inspections of merchant vessels traveling through the Kerch Strait to and from Berdyansk and Mariupol, the Ukrainian ports in the Azov Sea. Some of these incidents occurred only 5-7 miles from the Ukrainian coast and lasted up to 28-57 hours before the vessels were allowed to depart on their way (see EDM, June 11, 2018; Blackseanews.net, December 15, 2020).

The United States has imposed sanctions on a Russian vessel in a bid to stop completion of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would carry Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea.

The sanctions against the Russian pipe-laying ship Fortuna and its owner, KVT-RUS, is a departing salvo against Nord Stream 2 as former President Donald Trump leaves office after hotly contesting the pipeline.

The U.S. government and several EU members want to prevent the pipeline from being completed, saying it will strengthen Russia’s energy hold on Europe and undercut Ukraine’s role as a transit country for Russian gas.

House arrest denied in Sheremet case

A Ukrainian court has rejected a request by a jailed suspect in the high-profile 2016 killing of journalist Pavel Sheremet to be transferred to house arrest. Kyiv’s Shevchenko district court on January 19 ordered Andriy Antonenko to be remanded in pretrial detention. Mr. Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who had made Kyiv his permanent home, was leaving his apartment to head to the studio where he hosted a morning radio show when an improvised explosive device planted under his vehicle exploded on July 20, 2016, killing him.  Mr. Antonenko and two other suspects, Yulia Kuzmenko and Yana Duhar, were arrested in December 2019. Ms. Duhar and Ms. Kuzmenko were later transferred to house arrest.

In my last column, I wrote I would be commenting on the election.  I had no idea how much there would be to consider, both pre-November 3 and post.  So, this column will be actually two.  And by the time it’s published and distributed, it may well be superseded by rapidly advancing events.  But here goes.

I supported Joe Biden from the very beginning of the campaign.  I believed his vast experience, moderate approach to politics and record of achievement set him up to be the best leader for America.  As a House staffer in the 1980s, I worked with Mr. Biden’s Senate office and became aware of his life-long association with Ukrainian Americans and his deep commitment to Ukraine.

I admit that I was provoked or encouraged by recent events in the United States. However, my observations apply to more than one country and transcend simple party politics. Cost cutting and small government Republicans have driven the national debt to an all-time high and progressive Democrats have totally changed colors on foreign policy in this case for the better. America is upside down. But so is the world. The Pope proclaims that women may read in Church but not serve as priests. For that he is applauded. How generous and progressive!

Mine is neither a lamentation nor a condemnation. It is simply an observation. Whether it’s a conclusion of good or bad depends on one’s perspective. The question is what role does ideology or principle play in politics today. The answer is a very small one, at best. This is not an American phenomenon.

Dear Editor:

All of us have been through some anxious times in the last year or so. COVID-19 has been a major cause of our worries. For those of us fortunate enough to live in the United States, that concern will diminish as the various vaccines become available and their distribution becomes more efficient. This is not the case for our families and friends in Ukraine. You may be aware that Ukraine had been negotiating with Pfizer and other Western suppliers when an executive order by the now former administration stopped all vaccine exports.

Not even a pandemic could stop Ukrainians, especially Ukrainians in the U.S. The year 2020 began like any other year, but then things changed, and the community adapted with events, meetings and other activities moved online. Major events and milestones, like the 95th anniversary of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, were commemorated, some events were postponed, and others had to be cancelled. But, as an editorial in The Weekly reminded readers, “Hope is not cancelled.”

Filmmaker and writer Oleh Sentsov visited the United States on January 25, with a stop at the Ukrainian National Home in New York hosted by Razom for Ukraine, to discuss his observations since his release from Russian imprisonment in December 2019 after his arrest in Crimea in May 2014 by Russian occupying forces. Mr. Sentsov focused his remarks to the nearly 300 in attendance on the political prisoners held in Russia, those held by the Russia-backed militants in the Donbas, and the political situations in Ukraine and Russia.

Virtual. That would be the best word to characterize the activity of the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora during 2020 as the novel coronavirus spread. In-person events were few and far between, but there were plenty of official statements laying out the diaspora’s positions regarding developments in Ukraine and issues related to Ukraine.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations (AFUO), which comprises 24 community organizations throughout the country and acts as the spokesperson on matters concerning relationships within the Ukrainian community and between Australia and Ukraine, was active also in humanitarian issues and COVID-related concerns. At the beginning of 2020, Stefan Romaniw, the federation’s co-chair, reported that the Ukrainian Australian community had raised $67,000 – well over the stated goal of $50,000 – for relief efforts related to the huge bushfires that ravaged Australia.

From fund drives for existing church properties in the U.S. and the construction of a new church in Palatine, Ill., to the consecration of new bishops around the globe and moves made in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was certainly an eventful year for our Ukrainian Churches. Following, in chronological order, are major developments of the year.

In the January 5 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, readers learned about the ASC Capital Campaign, a fund drive launched in August 2019 for All Saints Camp in Emlenton, Pa., which is owned by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. (UOC-U.S.A.). The drive aims to make necessary upgrades with the camp’s approaching 50th anniversary in 2028, to allow the camp to grow, so that a safe and fun encampment facility can continue to offer programs for all ages.

KYIV – The U.S. Treasury Department on January 11 sanctioned several Ukrainian individuals and entities linked to a Verkhovna Rada lawmaker that a Washington intelligence agency says is a Russian agent who allegedly attempted to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Joining lawmaker and suspected Russian agent Andriy Derkach, who does not belong to a political party, on the department’s “Specially Designated Nationals List” is Oleksandr Dubinsky, who leads the party Servant of the People.