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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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Four years after Euro-Maidan revolution, mother of slain protester still seeks justice

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KYIV – The first protester was mowed down by sniper fire on February 20, 2014,  exactly at 8:59:34 a.m. on Instytutska Street leading up towards Kyiv’s government quarter. Thirty minutes and 23 deaths later, another sniper shot killed Ihor Kostenko near the October Palace on the same street.

The death toll of Euro-Maidan protesters – known as the Heavenly Hundred – ended that day with 48 at 4:57:55 p.m., according to a joint investigation by Talionis and Censor.net that the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) corroborates with official statistics.

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Scholarly conference marks centennial of Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921

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NEW YORK – On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Ukrainian Revolution and the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, the Shevchenko Scientific Society in America, the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S. and the Ukrainian Institute of America sponsored a two-day conference held on January 20-21 in New York.

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As Kyiv skirts reforms, public faces higher borrowing costs

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KYIV – Ukraine must service more than $21 billion of debt over the next two years as it struggles to further unlock a $17.5 billion economic recovery lending program with the International Monetary Fund that has been hampered by compliancy issues. Kyiv has eschewed the principal demand of Western backers and lenders to create an anti-graft corruption court, among other requirements, in order to access cheaper credit. Meanwhile, Ukraine has the distinction of being the slowest performing economy in Europe in 2017. The country’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) reached $110 billion, climbing only 2 percent, in what economists and business associations attribute to official reluctance to strengthen the judiciary and instill the rule of law that would enable secure investments. An end-of-year survey by the local chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACCU) of 184 respondents found that the “most corrupt state institutions are the courts,” according to 71 percent of those polled.

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U.S. and Moscow envoys discuss U.N. peacekeepers for Donbas

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KYIV – The U.S. saw more “openness” from the Russian side, while Moscow said it was “quite doable” to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Ukraine based on America’s proposals, following talks on January 27 between the designated envoys of each country on the Donbas war. 

It was the fourth meeting since last July between Ambassador Kurt Volker and his Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov, who have similar mandates to find a lasting peace in the “hot war” as described by the veteran American diplomat. 

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Ukraine shows solidarity across nation on Day of Unity

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KYIV – Ukraine’s ages-long pursuit of stable statehood came into focus on January 22, when the country commemorated the Act of Unity proclaimed 99 years ago between Ukrainian lands that were part of the Austro-Hungarian and tsarist Russian empires.

Although short-lived, in 1919 the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) based in Kyiv, which stretched as far as the Kuban region to the southeast, united with the Western Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR) that comprised most of eastern Galicia, parts of Bukovyna and the Carpathian Mountain region.

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Controversial bill on war-ravaged Donbas passes amid human rights concerns

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KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament passed a controversial bill that pro-presidential lawmakers say aligns legislation closer to reality on the ground in war-torn Donbas.

Exactly 280 deputies – 56 more than needed – voted on January 18 for President Petro Poroshenko’s measures to name Russia as an aggressor state and designate areas Kyiv doesn’t control as “temporarily occupied territories” in a law that could potentially limit the human rights of residents in the two easternmost oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk.

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Freed Luhansk blogger talks about his love for Ukraine

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KYIV – In between comments and pictures of his beloved tabby cat on Facebook, Eduard Nyedyelaev, 46, would publish critical posts about the Kremlin proxies who have occupied Luhansk since April 2014.

He often employed deeply ironic language reminiscent of the style that Soviet writers used to avoid censorship. But the subtext was always clear: he didn’t care much for the Moscow-controlled authorities who were running his native city in easternmost Luhansk Oblast.

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Dismantling of oligarchic economy main goal for 2018, say experts

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KYIV – Ukraine can expect to see its economy grow only modestly over the previous year by 2.9 percent, or to $113 billion, if declared, albeit muted, reforms continue, say three Kyiv-based policy centers and an economist in Washington.

Despite Russia’s unprovoked war that Kyiv has managed to contain, the country’s biggest internal national security threat remains corruption from within, they say. It includes existing quasi-monopolies that the oligarch-economic machine has managed to preserve, and a disjointed judicial system that enables the takeover of businesses and land from their rightful owners, domestic or foreign.

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Anti-government protests end in violence

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KYIV – Tensions between Ukrainian politician Mikheil Saakashvili and erstwhile ally Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko were further strained after the former Georgian leader called on the president to resign in an open letter he published on his Facebook page on December 19.