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Global rallies for release of Sentsov held ahead of World Cup in Russia

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KYIV-OTTAWA-CHICAGO – A worldwide campaign to call for the release of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov from a Russian penal colony spanned at least three continents with over three dozen cities taking part on June 1-3. 

Led by a coalition of advocacy groups like Let My People Go and Save Oleg Sentsov, thousands took the streets to draw attention to the plight of the 41-year-old Crimea native who opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea and is currently on a hunger strike while serving a 20-year prison sentence on what human right groups say are trumped-up charges of terrorism. 

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Ukraine enters cultural diplomacy with founding of Ukrainian Institute

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KYIV – France has the Institut Français, Germany has the Goethe-Institut, now Ukraine is getting its own international culture and language center. 

On June 12, Volodymyr Sheiko will take the reins as the head of the newly formed Ukrainian Institute (UI) whose vision he said is to promote the country “internationally through culture, science, education and language.”

Culture/Arts

Renowned Canadian architect’s church designs on exhibit in Kyiv

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KYIV – If churches are the symbolical embodiment of God’s eternal existence, then the design of Ukrainian ones “reflect cultural identity in contemporary form,” said Radoslav Zuk, a renowned Canadian architect.

At a visual show titled “The Artistic Path of Radoslav Zuk” on May 24-31 at the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, the award-winning designer spoke of the 10 Ukrainian churches he helped build over the course of his illustrious career in North America and Ukraine. 

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Kyiv hosts global following of soccer in Champions League final

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KYIV – Some 50,000 fans from every corner of the world made Ukraine’s capital their destination to watch Liverpool FC and Real Madrid play for top honors in Europe’s most prestigious soccer club tournament on May 26. 

Four city blocks of the host city’s main thoroughfare, the Khreshchatyk, was transformed into a fan zone on May 24-27, complete with on-stage entertainment, exhibition five-on-five soccer matches, food and beverage venues, autograph sessions and chances to take pictures with the Champions League trophy. 

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Dutch-led investigators name Russian military unit in 2014 downing of MH17

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KYIV – A Dutch-led international probe has concluded that a sophisticated anti-aircraft Buk missile system that was used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, came from Russia. 

It allegedly originated at a Russian military base in Kursk, some 216 kilometers from Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, and belonged to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, Dutch prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said on May 24 in the Utrecht province city of Bunnik during a briefing. Dutch authorities led the Joint Investigative Team (JIT) because the flight nearly four years ago to Kuala Lumpur originated in the country’s capital of Amsterdam and 63 percent of the passengers who perished were from Holland. Investigators from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine also comprise the JIT. “The JIT is convinced that the BUK-TELAR that was used to down MH17, originates from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, … a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. The JIT reached this conclusion after extensive comparative research,” The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said on its website. 

According to the Associated Press, “Mr. Westerbeke said the JIT is not yet ready to name suspects, but added: ‘I can say that we are now entering the…

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Kyiv moves on Russian media outlets suspected of treason against Ukraine

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KYIV – Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officers and prosecutors raided at least two Russian government-controlled media outlets on May 15 and detained one bureau chief in Kyiv on suspicion of high treason. 

Local RIA Novosti head Kyrylo Vyshinsky was taken a day later to a pre-trial detention center in Kherson, 340 miles south of Kyiv, where he will face a hearing on whether he will be jailed, placed under house arrest or released on bail. Since most of his alleged anti-Ukrainian activities were based in Crimea, jurisdiction falls under the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office, which moved to Kherson after Russia illegally annexed the peninsula in March 2014.

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Donbas war veterans to go coast to coast in North America to raise awareness

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KYIV – After World War II, the freedom fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out a series of “raids” to break through Soviet-occupied areas and reach Western Allied forces to tell them they’re fighting for independence. 

The operations led to huge losses. But the UPA partisans who made it to U.S. or British-held territory succeeded in establishing ties and relaying their cause. This led America and Britain to eventually devise a plan and parachute exiled UPA fighters and supplies into western Ukraine. 

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BELLINGCAT REPORT: Russian officers led 2015 attack on Mariupol, killing 30 civilians

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KYIV – Nine Russian officers led a shelling operation of Mariupol on January 24, 2015, that killed 30 civilians and injured over 100 more, United Kingdom-based Bellingcat investigative group reported on May 7. 

The open-data sleuths identified one Russian general, two colonels, and three lieutenant colonels who allegedly “instructed, directed and supervised” the rocket attack. 

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As new phase of Donbas war begins, Ukraine starts training with Javelins

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KYIV – Official command-and-control authority of the Donbas war in Ukraine’s far eastern region was transferred to the armed forces on May 1, following a presidential decree. 

It is now called the Joint Forces Operation (JFO), and its headquarters has authority over all law enforcement bodies located in the two easternmost oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, in addition to military branches.