"But I am asking you, veterans, I am taking my hat off and begging you to offer your hands to each other. This is necessary for the future of Ukraine. This is necessary for us to show that everything is all right in Ukrainian society. We have put a full stop in our history."
BBC Monitoring Service, UK
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has called on Soviet veterans to offer their hands to those who fought for independence in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army against both the German and Soviet armies. Addressing veterans outside the World War II museum in Kiev, he said that Russian and German veterans came to Moscow today to shake hands. He asked them to forgive each other for the sake of their grandchildren...
TBILISI, Georgia -- For 60 years the word "Yalta" has meant betrayal and abandonment. The diplomatic accord reached between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States in that sleepy Black Sea resort relegated millions of people to a ruthless tyranny.
As President Bush said last week in Latvia: "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable."
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations commemorated victims and victors of World War Two on Monday, with speakers paying tribute to Allied sacrifices but also recalling Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's actions in eastern Europe.
The session was initiated by Russia, which also organized larger ceremonies in Moscow, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe and the subsequent founding of the United Nations. The international body was formed with a mission to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."
May 9 marked the beginning of Poland's second occupation
COMMENTARY: By Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz Analyst of Polish-Russian relations Financial Times, London, UK
For Wladyslaw Swarewicz, a Polish second world war veteran in his 80s, the significance of May 1945 does not lie in the victory over fascism. He was in a Soviet prison camp when the allies defeated Nazi Germany 60 years ago.
He was arrested in August 1944 as he tried to get to Warsaw with his partisan detachment to help in the Polish capital's uprising against the Germans. The uprising was the finale of the country's resistance against Hitler and lasted 63 days before the city fell, drowned in a sea of blood...
By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer Mon May 9, 3:17 AM ET
MOSCOW - The Russian capital's massive ceremonies commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany shine a spotlight on one of the Soviet Union's great successes, but they also illuminate many of the problems now plaguing post-Soviet Russia.
Amid their words of praise for the Red Army's bravery and sacrifice, officials have appeared defensive in scrambling to preserve Russia's declining regional influence, deflect criticism of Russia's commitment to democracy and protest Western support for pro-democracy uprisings in ex-Soviet states...
While Canada commemorates the sixtieth anniversary of victory over Nazi tyranny and the contribution of over 40,000 Ukrainian Canadians who served in its military forces, we should remember that not all who fought for freedom achieved it in 1945. Among the countries for which victory rang hollow was Ukraine--the principal battlefield of World War II in Europe, where 607 German divisions were destroyed. Red Army casualties in Ukraine in 1943-44 amounted to some 3.5 million, with Ukrainians accounting for 50-70 percent of them. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians also fought in other Allied armies...
Associated Press (AP), Paris, France, Sat, May 7, 2005
PARIS - Russian President Vladimir Putin said NATO enlargement has not necessarily improved world security, and warned in a television interview broadcast Saturday that bringing Ukraine into the alliance could pose problems.
Ukrainian officials say they want their country to join NATO eventually, but Putin said Russia would not keep sensitive weapons in Ukraine if the alliance had a military presence there...
Opponents of the Belarussian president look to George Bush to step up pressure on the regime in a tour of the region this weekend
Nick Paton Walsh in Minsk Friday May 6, 2005 The Guardian
"Today Ukraine - tomorrow Belarus," cried Igor Guz as he marched with hundreds of protesters in Minsk, the Belarussian capital, on last month's 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It wasn't much of an outburst by the Ukrainian town councillor, but it led to his arrest by riot police. Yesterday he was still in jail and on hunger strike with 12 others, including four of his countrymen.
"They were not the first such arrests in Belarus, and they won't be the last," said Artur Finkevich, 20, the organiser of the protesters, who complained of the state's poor healthcare response to Chernobyl.
The arrests, for an "unsanctioned rally", have sparked furious protests from Kiev and the Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko. It has also fuelled calls for a Belarussian version of the "Orange revolution" that led to the electoral defeat of neighbouring Ukraine's authoritarian government last December...
In response to The Globe and Mail story, "Debate over war crimes gets heated," by Kirk Makin, 25 April 2005, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association has issued the following statement:
" Canada should not be a haven for any war criminals. There should be no statute of limitations on bringing any war criminals found here, or anywhere else, to justice. We have recently launched an international campaign asking Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, himself a second generation Holocaust survivor whose father was a prisoner at Auschwitz, to set up an official Commission of Inquiry on Soviet War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Ukraine...
Congressman Kurt Weldon has been noted among the company's friends US-backed multinational said thwarting Russian giant's Turkmen gas deal
REPORT: By Nikolay Raborov Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian 21 Apr 05 BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Apr 24, 2005
During all of last week, rumours circulated throughout the Moscow business community to the effect that the Turkmenistan authorities were conducting closed negotiations on the dissolution of Turkmenistan's long-term agreement with Gazprom on deliveries of natural gas to Russia. Cited as the main lobbyist force was the Ukrainian leadership, which intends to buy Turkmen gas directly with the aid of its own operator - which, as many believe, may be the ITERA company. The last visit by Gazprom Director Aleksey Miller to Asgabat seemed to resolve the problem: Turkmenistan had confirmed its obligations to Russia, including in regard to the price aspect. However, questions remained...
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UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO ONCE AGAIN CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION OF SOVIET AND NATIONALIST VETERANS
