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Ukraine gets ‘positive’ sign for autocephaly from Ecumenical Patriarchate

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KYIV – Ukraine’s historical Orthodox mother church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, has started deliberation on whether to grant Ukraine its own self-governing church known as autocephaly. 

In a communiqué e-mailed to The Ukrainian Weekly on April 22, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople said “as its [Ukraine’s] true Mother Church,” that it has “decided to closely communicate and coordinate with its sister Orthodox Churches concerning this matter.”

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Poroshenko pushes for independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church

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KYIV – When President Petro Poroshenko called the leaders of parliamentary factions to his office on April 17 after their morning plenary session, political pundits began to speculate. 

Would Ukraine’s first wartime president finally deliver on creating a much-needed anti-graft judiciary? Push for establishing an independent financial crimes unit, perhaps call snap parliamentary elections or voice alarm over Russia’s post-Easter military escalation in the Donbas war?

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Moscow Patriarchate Church members investigated for anti-Ukrainian activity

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KYIV – The sprawling 11th century Monastery of the Caves, or Pecherska Lavra, was getting ready for Easter according to the Julian calendar. 

On the grounds utilized mostly by the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, monks, seminarians as well as gardeners were seen clipping tree branches, tending greenery and trim-painting the grounds on April 4, when The Ukrainian Weekly visited the UNESCO cultural heritage site. 

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Over 150 Russian envoys ejected worldwide after Skripal poison attack in England

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KYIV – In a unified policy decision, 27 countries and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) banished 151 Russian diplomats over the alleged assassination attempt of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England. 

Moscow has denied it was behind the March 4 attack in Salisbury that United Kingdom authorities suspect was committed using a lethal nerve agent developed by the Russian government. 

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Hero of Ukraine Nadiya Savchenko arrested on coup, terrorism charges

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KYIV – Nadiya Savchenko once embodied Ukraine’s courageous defiance before Russia – a far superior foe that historically has tried to subjugate the Ukrainian nation and eliminate any notion of statehood and cultural identity. 

As a prisoner in the Moscow-instigated Donbas war at its outset in 2014, Ms. Savchenko went on hunger strikes and endured 709 days of brutal Russian captivity that never broke her indestructible spirit.

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Chief EU envoy sees no “fatigue” in support for Ukraine during visit

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KYIV – The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, urged Ukraine to double down on anti-graft efforts and push ahead with reforms that include meeting policy commitments for the Association Agreement in her second visit in that capacity on March 12.

During separate joint briefings with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, she emphasized giving existing graft-fighting institutions the independence and “enough powers and resources to investigate, prosecute and eventually ensure the conviction of those responsible for corruption.”

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SBU: Accomplished POW swapper detained with cache of weapons

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KYIV – Authorities detained a decorated prisoner exchange negotiator with alleged ties to U.S.-sanctioned Viktor Medvedchuk on suspicion of preparing crimes and terrorist acts, as well as arms smuggling. Volodymyr Ruban, 50, was found to have been transporting a sizable arms cache hidden in furniture on March 8 inside a Mercedes Sprinter van at a government-controlled checkpoint north of Russia-occupied Horlivka. He rejected the accusations, saying he wasn’t aware the furniture contained weapons, the following day at a bail hearing in Kyiv during which he was remanded for two months without bail. In a brief exchange with journalists, he added: “there’s no greater enemy than Medvedchuk… He’s nobody to me… Stop associating me with Mr. Medvedchuk.”

In turn, Mr. Medvedchuk, through his Ukrainian Choice group, denied that the accused has ties to the organization. “First of all, it must be emphasized that Volodymyr Ruban isn’t and never was a member of the Ukrainian Choice civic movement,” the group said in a March 10 statement.

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Kyiv fends off renewed Russian gas war

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KYIV – Ukraine averted another full-blown natural gas war with Russia after a Stockholm arbitration court ruled in favor of energy conglomerate Naftogaz Group over its three-year dispute with Gazprom.

After the Russian government majority-owned company was ordered to pay Ukraine’s state-run Naftogaz $2.56 billion on February 28, Moscow refused on the next day to supply Kyiv with gas for which it had prepaid. 

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Polish law on Ukrainian nationalists, Volyn atrocities irks Kyiv

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KYIV – A controversial law in Poland that criminalizes the implication of Poles’ participation in Nazi war crimes and bans the ideology of Ukrainian nationalism has unnerved Kyiv, Washington and Jerusalem.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the law on February 7 and it came into force on March 1, according to Polish daily newspaper Wprost. 

The bill – known as the amendment to the act on the Institute of National Remembrance (known by its Polish-based acronym as IPN) – makes it illegal to deny the acts of Ukrainian nationalists in 1925-1950 towards Poles and specifically refers to the atrocities in Volyn during World War II as “genocide.”

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Poroshenko aims for EU, NATO membership for Ukraine in fourth public news conference

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KYIV – President Petro Poroshenko vouched to “anchor” European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership in Ukraine’s Constitution and indicated he is likely to run for re-election next year in his fourth news conference as the head of state.

“During a time when anti-European political forces raise their heads who strive for revenge, the amendments… could be insurance for any surprises and imperatives for the years ahead,” he said on February 28 at Kyiv’s Mystetskyi Arsenal cultural center.