Category: Uncategorized

On January 27, the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, we honour the memory of the millions of victims of the Holocaust. Over six million Jews, and millions of other victims – Ukrainians, Poles, Roma, and many others – were murdered by the Nazi German regime. May the Memory of the Victims Be Eternal. Вічная пам`ять. The cruelty and barbarity of the Nazi German regime is a reminder to us all of human beings’ capacity for evil. It is a reminder of the need for us all to speak out and stand up forcefully in condemnation of anti-Semitism, racism and totalitarianism, wherever they may appear. It is in silence that hatred grows. Today, we pay tribute to the Survivors of the Holocaust, and their courage in…

Українські ЗМІ вже писали про бізнес-зв’язки глави Офісу Зеленського Андрія Єрмака з російським банкіром Рахамімом Емануїловим. Так, Рахамім Емануїлов і Єрмак є співвласниками ЗАТ «Інтерпромфінанс Україна» (директором є батько Андрія Єрмака Борис Єрмак) і ТОВ «М.Е.П.».Компанія «Інтерпромфінанс Україна» також пов’язана з компанією Емануїлова «Інтерпромторг», яка в свою чергу заснувала російський «Інтерпромбанк». А в раду директорів банку разом з Емануїловим входить такий собі Ніколай Єгоров, однокласник Володимира Путіна.Так от: цей Єгоров і його компанії (очевидно, включно з «Інтерпромбанком») є одними з головних інвесторів побудови палацу Путіна в Геленджику, що…

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it sees the consolidation of efforts of all Ukrainians as a powerful weapon to counter Russian aggression. “The consolidation of efforts of all Ukrainians is a powerful weapon to defeat [our] common enemy and restore [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity,” the ministry said in an official statement to mark Ukrainian Unity Day on January 22. “The Act Zluky [Unification Act signed on January 22, 1919] determined the further formation of the Ukrainian political nation and became evidence of the will of Ukrainians for self-determination and consolidation,” the ministry said. “Today, as then, the unification and unity of Ukrainians remain the fundamental values of Ukrainian statehood. It is these values that Ukraine defends today from…

Discussions of the reform, however, often overlook potential negative consequences, such as a greater degree of concentration of power in the hands of self-serving local elites. There are strong indications that some degree of ‘local elite capture’ has indeed occurred in a number of places. This article is based on the publication “Decentralization and the Risk of Local Elite Capture in Ukraine“ from the book “Regional Diversity, Decentralization and Separatism in Ukraine”, which was edited by Maryna Rabinovych and Oksana Shelest and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. The publication draws on 149 interviews held in 2017 and 2018 with representatives of the newly formed amalgamated territorial communities in the…

China built a great wall to protect against foreign invaders, but Russia is erecting a barrier that could weaken its position. On its western border from Finland in the north to Georgia in the south, Russia has pressured neighbors and caused NATO to deploy more military force close to Russia. The Kremlin probably did not intend to hand NATO this opportunity. Russia uses hard power – intimidation, coercion, disinformation – so often that the Kremlin may underrate the capacity or will of neighbors to resist. Seemingly aware of these risks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned of “NATO’s unprecedented plans to move toward our borders and involve neutral countries – like Sweden and Finland – in its military exercises.” Moscow’s pressure on neighbors has spurred…

Most presidential transitions offer opportunities to reexamine relationships between the United States and other countries. Despite the strangely friendly relationship between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the U.S.-Russian relationship is in abysmal shape. This has led to calls from some experts for the incoming Biden administration to increase dialogue with Moscow, appoint a special envoy to try to repair the relationship, and focus on solving problems between the two sides. That is a bad idea. To be clear, it was a bad idea before the recent disclosure that the SVR, Russia’s equivalent to the CIA, was behind the worst cyberattack in U.S. history. The hack breached U.S. government agencies, along with…

This coming spring marks seven years since Moscow, barely disguised behind the sheerest of veils, instigated an armed assault in the Donbas against its sovereign neighbor. This Russian adventure has cost more than 13,000 Ukrainian lives; we don’t know the number of Russian lives lost, as Moscow will not admit that its soldiers have died in Ukraine. Instead Russia has denied its involvement in eastern Ukraine to force a stalemate and create a frozen conflict. This is not a frozen conflict, however, but rather an active fight that threatens lives and livelihoods. Russia has funneled financial support to the self-styled “LPR/DPR authorities” that have no accountability to local populations and answer only to…

Amid a raging backdrop of far-right violence in the U.S., the Russia-based former leader and founder of a neo-Nazi terror group has turned his attentions to a new project: re-establishing secretive paramilitary training across the U.S. Rinaldo Nazzaro, 47, a former Pentagon contractor originally from New Jersey who is said to have worked on targeting operations with U.S. Special Forces, founded and led the Base until a nationwide FBI crackdown dismantled the organization and close to a dozen of its members were arrested for, among other things, an assassination plot and planning a mass shooting. While some of those members languish in jail, Nazzaro’s new training project is designed for a “system collapse”—neo-Nazi lingo for a potential second civil war—and…

In the wake of the Capitol riots two weeks ago, a number of large tech companies pulled support for Parler, a Twitter-like social network that Donald Trump’s supporters have increasingly favored since its launch in 2018. Apple and Google removed the Parler app from their digital stores, and Amazon Web Services cut the platform’s hosting services. After more than a week offline, the site is now partially backed up, in the form of a landing page that promises a full return. To get even this far, Parler has hired DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company, to defend it against the endless barrage of…

On 23 June 1978, a Soviet police officer came to the house of a Crimean Tatar Musa Mamut to escort him to a meeting with a prosecutor. Mamut was legally not allowed to live in Crimea, due to his nationality. In fact, he had just returned from prison, where he served a sentence for illegally repatriating to his homeland a few years prior. A meeting with a prosecutor meant that the government would continue persecution and would not let Mamut live in his Crimean home. This time, however, Musa Mamut was not ready to surrender. Under the premise that he needed to get dressed, he asked the officer to wait outside. Mamut came out of the house…

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported, “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has concluded that Ukrainian authorities committed a series of human rights violations during the pro-European Maidan protests in late 2013 and early 2014 that ousted Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. In a ruling on January 21 on five lawsuits filed by 33 Ukrainian nationals, the ECHR said that during the protests, there were multiple violations of the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. The violations deal with the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to liberty and security, freedom of assembly and association, the right to life, and the right to…

The video investigation by Russia’s leading opposition figure, that claims President Vladimir Putin spent illicit funds on an extravagant Black Sea palace, has reached more than 20 million people within a day of publication. Alexei Navalny’s team released it after he was jailed on his return to Moscow. The investigation alleges the property cost £1bn ($1.37bn) and was paid for “with the largest bribe in history”. The Kremlin denies the property belongs to the president. Claims that federal officials were guarding a vast palace complex on the Black Sea coast were “pure nonsense”, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The Navalny investigation describes the…

After President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20, some elements of U.S. policy toward Russia will change immediately. No longer will the president of the United States seek to befriend Russian President Vladimir Putin, as President Donald Trump did throughout his tenure. Biden will not hesitate to criticize Putin’s belligerent actions, especially those directed at the United States. The Biden administration will also incorporate liberal norms and democratic values back into the United States’ Russia policy, so Putin can expect more criticism of Russian autocracy and more support for human rights. And the White House’s rhetoric about the United States’ transatlantic allies will shift markedly; the era of berating NATO will end this week. That’s the easy and expected stuff. The harder task will be…

Lithuania is the latest country to announce that it has busted a Russian spy ring on its soil. The allegation that two of its citizens were spying for Russia comes a few weeks after the Dutch authorities rolled up another of the Kremlin’s “substantial espionage networks.” It’s been a tumultuous few months for President Putin’s overseas espionage operation, which keeps getting caught in the act. It is unclear if a string of recent arrests blowing up Russia’s overseas missions is merely a coincidence, or whether there has been some kind of leak from inside Russia’s notorious intel agencies. “There is some penetration,” Andrei Soldatov, one of Russia’s best-informed trackers of the security agencies, told The Daily Beast. “Whether it’s relatively new…

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made yet another baffling appointment, this time naming Oleksandr Kuksa head of a department within the Security Service [SBU]. According to Advocacy Advisory Panel lawyers, representing Maidan victims or their families, Kuksa was deputy to Oleksandr Shcheholev, who is currently on trial, accused of having organized and carried out the storming of protesters on Maidan via the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation’. The lawyers point out that Shcheholev’s own testimony suggests that Kuksa was directly involved in the events over which his former superior is facing charges. During the Revolution of Dignity, as the…

Today, 75 years on, we remember with respect the AUGB’s founding members, who at the end of the Second World War were dispersed far away from their homeland. These included: Ukrainians serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, some of whom had arrived in Great Britain in 1940; the first Ukrainian settlers from Ukraine, in Manchester, whose emigration to Canada had been prevented by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914; Ukrainians who had been deported to Siberia during the Soviet occupation and annexation of Western Ukraine (1939), Northern Bukovina (1940) and Transcarpathian Ukraine (1945), who together with Poles, as Polish citizens, reached the Middle East where the Polish Army’s II Corps was…

Sino-Ukrainian trade relations are heavily tilted in favor of the former. In 2019, Ukraine exported $3.59 billion in goods to China and imported $9.2 billion. Chinese direct investment in Ukraine does not match the expanding bilateral trade. Chinese companies remain largely reluctant to invest in Ukraine because of the country’s unfavorable business climate. Chinese lending practices are often non-transparent and result in hidden debt. Chinese companies focus mainly on large infrastructure projects in Ukraine, such as railways, ports, roads, etc. Beijing has been actively pursuing deepening ties within the defense sector. Ukraine is the second largest supplier of weapons to China after Russia. For several years now, Chinese Skyrizon has been…

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported, “The United States plans to sanction a Russian vessel as it seeks to stop the completion of a controversial natural gas export pipeline to Europe. The administration of outgoing President Donald Trump told government officials in Berlin and other European capitals on January 18 that the sanctions on the Fortuna ship would go into effect the following day under existing legislation known as CAATSA. The sanctions would punish any European company that helps Fortuna complete the Nord Stream 2 project, which is designed to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic seabed. The United States opposes the…

Президент України Володимир Зеленський указом призначив начальником Департаменту захисту національної державності СБУ Олександра Куксу. Спільнота юристів Адвокатська дорадча група, котра захищає інтереси родин Небесної сотні, звернула увагу на те, що цей офіцер СБУ причетний до справ Майдану. Зокрема, він є одним зі співвідповідальних за реалізацію в лютому 2014 року операції “Бумеранг”. Правозахисники нагадали, що під час Майдану Кукса був заступником Олександра Щеголєва. Його судять за організацію та здійснення силового штурму протестувальників на Майдані шляхом…

The recent decision to shut down many of US President Donald Trump’s social media accounts has sparked a heated debate over freedom of expression and censorship that has echoed far beyond America itself. The principles involved are nothing new, of course. Nevertheless, the current discussion has underlined the growing power of tech companies to control access to the information we consume, while also highlighting the need to establish transparent guidelines over the boundaries of free speech in the digital age. These issues resonate particularly loudly among Ukrainian audiences, who have been grappling for the past seven years with the challenges of balancing media freedoms with national security. Ever since Russian troops first…

When Rudolph W. Giuliani was treating his efforts to carry out President Trump’s wishes to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election as a payment opportunity — he proposed a daily retainer of $20,000 for his legal services from the burgeoning Trump campaign legal fund — the president dismissed it and responded by demanding to personally approve each expense. Nine weeks and another impeachment later, Mr. Trump began the day on Thursday by asking aides to erase any sign of a rift. Stripped of his Twitter account, Mr. Trump conveyed his praise through an adviser, Jason Miller, who tweeted: “Just spoke with President Trump, and he told me that @RudyGiuliani is a great guy and a Patriot who devoted his services to the country! We all love America’s Mayor!” White House officials are universally angry with…

Europe’s top human rights court agreed Thursday to look into Ukraine’s complaint against alleged human rights violations in the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula. The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, concluded that Ukraine’s case against Russia is backed by sufficient evidence and admissible for consideration. It wasn’t clear when the court would deliver a verdict. Ukraine has argued in its complaint that Russia was responsible for a variety of human rights violations in the Black Sea peninsula. Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea hasn’t been recognized by a vast majority of nations and drew U.S. and EU sanctions against Moscow. International human rights groups long have pointed at numerous rights abuses in Crimea, including…

Russia’s “hard power” activity in the Sea of Azov 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…

Днями перехідна команда Байдена-Гарріс оголосила, хто відповідатиме за російський напрямок у Раді національної безпеки і впливатиме на формування політики американського президента у відносинах з Москвою. Вибір команди нового президента впав на Андреа Кендалл-Тейлор – ексспівробітницю ЦРУ, колишнього офіцера розвідки, а нині – директорку одного з аналітичних центрів, що спеціалізується на питаннях безпеки. “Маю честь охоче долучитися до цієї неймовірної команди Ради національної безпеки. Стаємо до роботи!” – написала Кендалл-Тейлор у Twitter після оголошення про її призначення. Яким же є портрет чиновниці, що…

And what gives us all good hope is that the West is holding on to wise, serious politicians thinking way farther the tip of their own noses when it comes to strategic choices. James Bezan, Canada’s shadow minister for national defense, showed the best of himself in this situation with the pro-Russian propaganda this week of two so-called Canadian experts on Russia, Gilles Breton and Piotr Dutkiewicz, who published an article in a Kremlin mouthpiece calling for a thaw in relations between Ottawa and Moscow. On Jan. 11, the politician reacted to the article on his Twitter page saying the following: “I’m shocked these so-called experts want to “thaw” our relationship with Russia proving they are acting on Putin’s behalf. It’s appalling to think anyone wants to normalize relations when…

Today, the largest study of genetic diversity in Ukraine was published in the open science journal GigaScience. The project was an international effort, bringing together researchers in Ukraine, the US and China and is the first fruits of this collaboration to set up a new Central Europe Center for Genomic Research in Ukraine. Led by researchers at Uzhhorod National University and Oakland University in the US, the work provides genetic understanding of the historic and pre-historic migration settlements in one of the key intersections of human trade and migration between the Eurasian peoples as well as the identification of genetic variants of medical interest in the Ukrainian population that differ from other European populations. Two decades ago, after…

В рамках ініціативи було представлено базу даних осіб, причетних до політичних репресій. База розміщена на сайті https://pravotvorets.info. Засновниками “Правотворця” є ініціативи #FreeRiff, #FreeDrKuzmenko, Рух Опору Капітуляції, Фірма СЕНС Консалтинг, адвокатське об’єднання “OK LEGAL” і адвокат Тарас Безпалий. На момент презентації в базі є інформація про 65 переслідувачів: прокурори, працівники поліції, слідчі, судді і т.д. Вони причетні до політичних переслідувань у справах Андрія Антоненка, Юлії Кузьменко, Яни Дугарь, Андрія Денисенка, Тетяни Чорновол, Сергія Стерненка, Сергія Тамаріна, Юрія Каплі, Олександра Демидова. На розгляд “Правотворця” можна подати нову…

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Monday against seven Ukrainians — including two who assisted President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani — for being part of what it called “a Russia-linked foreign influence network” that spread “fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations” about President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. during the 2020 campaign. Mr. Giuliani relied on two of the Ukrainians who were penalized — Andrii Telizhenko and Kostiantyn H. Kulyk — as he sought to gather damaging information and force government investigations into Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, related to Ukraine. That effort, which had the president’s backing, led to Mr. Trump’s impeachment in 2019 by the House of Representatives. The sanctions announced on Monday stemmed from the…

The Ukrainian NGO “Security and Cooperation in Ukraine” has released a 225-page report titled Armed Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine, which offers the fullest-to-date compilation of the participation of the Russian army, irregulars, and paramilitaries in hostilities in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts during their hottest period, from March 2014 to February 2015. The report provides a legal assessment of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and outlines the organizational structure of the Russian military invasion force that had been involved in the fighting against Ukraine since March 2014. The force, the study shows, comprised regular and irregular units of the Russian Army, Don Cossack formations, and private military contractors. Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula, which…

Last week, as the smoke cleared from the shocking pro-Trump mob attack on the US Capitol, America’s global reputation as a stable, strong democracy emerged badly damaged. Now, many are questioning whether it can ever regain the moral authority necessary to lead the world’s democracies, fledgling or otherwise. From Beijing to Caracas to Moscow, governments, state-controlled media and online commentators reacted with schadenfreude, accusing Washington of hypocrisy and double standards. “The United States lost all the rights to pursue the democratic path and lost their rights to impose it on…

11 грудня 2020 р. апеляційний суд розглянув і залишив у силі вирок суду нижчої інстанції у справі відставного генерал-майора Віктора Назарова, який звинувачувався у службовій недбалості, виявленій ним у час його перебування на посаді начальника Штабу “антитерористичної” операції в Донбасі, у зв’язку зі збиттям 7 червня 2014 року українського транспортного літака ІЛ-76 військовими формуваннями під проводом росіян, яке призвело до смерті 9 членів екіпажу і 40 десантників. Одразу після проголошення цього рішення одночасно і незалежно одна від одної з`явилися дві реакції на нього, в яких висловлювалося серйозне занепокоєння тим значенням, що його може мати це рішення для безпеки України. 19 грудня 2020 р. понад сто українських старших офіцерів і випробуваних битвою…

On December 7, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) adopted the resolution “Problem of the militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov,” initiated by Ukraine (Mfa.gov.ua, December 16, 2020). The declaration indicates that the transformation of the peninsula into a huge Russian military base “represents a threat to peace and security well beyond the Black Sea region” (Un.org, December 7, 2020). This was the third year in a row that the UNGA raised such concerns; but this time, new key elements were included in the document. Solomiya Bobrovskaya, the secretary of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, mentioned that for the…

If you thought this week’s news cycle could not get any crazier, 2021 has thrown us a curveball as a reminder that in the upside-down world of Donald Trump’s pitiful presidency, all roads inevitably lead back to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A photograph was taken at Wednesday’s armed insurrection at the United States Capitol in which a notorious Ukrainian conspiracy theorist named Sergey Dubinin, who has deep ties to Putin and his billionaire henchmen, is captured elbowing with one of Trump’s sectarians – the dude donning Viking horns and furs, to be precise. Michael MacKay, an internationally-renowned political pundit, whose niche is the…

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network associated with Andrii Derkach. Russian agent Derkach was designated on September 10, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848, for his attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. “Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of…

Низка експослів США, авторитетних військових та експертів звернулися до України зі спільною заявою, у якій закликають на найвищому рівні переглянути рішення щодо покарання генерала Віктора Назарова у зв’язку зі збиттям бойовиками Іл-76 в аеропорту Луганська. Про це йдеться у тексті заяви, оприлюдненої 11 січня, інформує “Європейська правда.” Серед 16 підписантів документа – генерал у відставці повітряних сил США Філіп Брідлав, генерали США у відставці Веслі Кларк та Бен Ходжіс, експосли США в Україні Джон Гербст, Вільям Тейлор, Роман Попадюк та Стефен Пайфер, Александр Вершбоу – колишній заступник генсека НАТО та…

For anyone who has covered political turmoil across the wreckage of the former Soviet Union over the past three decades, the mob that stormed the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday looked shockingly familiar, down to the dress code and embrace of banners trumpeting seemingly lost causes. In fervor and style, the mob resembled the ragtag bands that seized control of the Parliament building in Moscow in 1993, clamoring for the revival of the Soviet Union. Much the same scenes unfolded two decades later, as self-styled militias stormed the regional assembly in Donetsk, a major industrial city in eastern Ukraine and now the capital of a secessionist, pro-Russian “people’s republic.” Ersatz military gear — camouflage jackets, old…

Ukraine entered the new year with a mounting constitutional crisis that will further test President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s resolve to reform a system he promised “to break” during his election campaign. Five days into 2021, the Constitutional Court issued a statement that said a presidential decree to suspend the court’s chief, Oleksandr Tupytskyi, “may lead to blocking the work” of the court and make it “impossible” to exercise “constitutional control in order to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution of Ukraine, assertion of human rights and freedom.” An attached legal opinion by the court’s Research and Consultative Council accompanied the…

James Kirchick, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, is author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age. This article is a co-publication with Eurozine. “Would somebody please help me out here: I’m confused,” read the email to me from a conservative Republican activist and donor. “The Russians are alleged to have interfered in the 2016 election by hacking into Dem party servers that were inadequately protected, some being kept in Hillary’s basement and finding emails that were actually written by members of the Clinton campaign and releasing those emails so that…

Russian officials on Thursday pointed to the storming of the US Capitol as evidence of America’s decline, with one saying it showed US democracy was “limping on both feet”. After the stunning events in Washington, many in Moscow said the United States was no longer in any position to lecture other countries on freedom and democracy. Under banners reading “Storm of the Capitol” and “Chaos in Washington”, Russian state television showed rolling images of mobs of Donald Trump supporters breaking down barricades and swarming the building, as security forces fired tear gas and police drew guns…

As a shirtless, horned man stood at the dais of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, the words Harvard Law School Prof. Yochai Benkler told Haaretz ahead of the 2020 election sprang to mind. Since the Cold War began, Soviet – and then Russian – information warfare campaigns have never been about pushing out a single message. Prof. Benkler, one of the leading authorities on disinformation online, explained that the primary role of Russian propaganda “is to create a world where nothing is true and everything is possible.” As the chaotic scenes played out on Capitol Hill, I also recalled what researchers at the Rand Corporation said after completing a massive study into disinformation efforts on Twitter ahead of…

As we await the inauguration of Joe Biden as the forty-sixth president of the United States, there are high hopes in Ukraine for fruitful cooperation with the incoming US administration. President-elect Biden will enter the White House at a time of mounting confrontation between the world’s democracies and the growing threat of resurgent authoritarianism. Nowhere is this struggle more immediately obvious than in the post-Soviet world. Ever since first achieving independence in 1991, Ukrainians have been seeking to complete their country’s transition from totalitarian past to democratic future. There has been…

Almost exactly one year ago, Ukraine launched independent gas transportation company GTSOU and concluded a five-year transit contract with Russia. Servicing the domestic market remains the foundation of GTSOU’s business, but our commercial viability comes from international activities, which account for 80% of GTSOU’s revenue. As we evaluate business priorities for the years ahead, it is clear that GTSOU must find a way to grow or maintain the current level of transit while increasing the range of services we offer to our international partners and introducing new technologies that will future-proof our infrastructure in light of the de-carbonization agenda. Ukraine’s transit system is currently capable of shipping massive volumes of gas from east to west and can easily cover three-quarters of Russian exports to Europe. However, should…

Observers around the world were stunned to see a violent mob storm the U.S. Capitol building in a desperate, violent bid to overturn a legitimate presidential election and secure a second term for outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump. But commentators from the far right of the political spectrum in Eastern Europe and the Balkans were in many cases encouraged by what they saw. Many took time away from marking the Orthodox Christmas holiday on January 7 to signal their solidarity with the U.S. rioters, many of whom waved flags of the racist Confederate States of America. Andreas Umland, who has written…

Despite the fact that Moscow retains de facto control over the Crimean peninsula, Russia’s influence in Crimea is no longer as strong as in previous years. This opinion was expressed in an interview with Krym.Realii by Eurasia expert and former US State Department analyst Paul Goble. According to the expert, the weakening of Russia’s position was influenced by three factors, one of which took place in the Crimea, the second – in Moscow, and the third is related to changes at the international level. “This does not mean that the Kremlin will act in accordance with international law and return Crimea to Kyiv’s control. Moreover, the trends observed may even portend an increase in Russian aggression. However, this does not change the…

Manipulating the protest moods, based, in particular, on patriotic and religious feelings is the key element to undermine Ukrainian society from within as part of the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. This is stated in the article on the website of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SZR) on the main external threats to Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reports. “Language and religious issues, problems of external governance of Ukraine are actively used, in particular, due to dependence on the IMF and other Western institutions and governments, provocations with attacks by alleged “nationalists” on representatives of “opposition” pro – Russian forces are being inspired and…

As details began to emerge in late 2020 of Russia’s massive cyber-attack on the United States, there was plenty of anger and alarm but little in the way of genuine shock. Instead, an air of inevitability accompanied news of the attack. This somewhat resigned response illustrates just how accustomed the Western world has become to the reality of a hostile Russia. It was not always this way. Just over eight years ago in October 2012, US President Barack Obama felt comfortable enough about Russia to mock his presidential rival Mitt Romney for calling the country America’s number one geopolitical foe. “The 1980s are now calling to ask fo…

Earlier this month in a small village in western Ukraine, a group of political pranksters met to declare self-government and to fly the country’s yellow-and-blue national flag upside down as their new symbol. The tiny group of misfits, led by a former plumber named Anatoly Balakhnin, was ignored by most Ukrainians; only Radio Liberty reported on the meeting, noting 10 people had shown up to it. Yet across the border, in Russian media, the new group was declared an “alternative state” and held up as an example of how Ukraine was supposedly facing “issues of separatism” in its western regions. It’s been…

The US Senate began 2021 by delivering a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin by passing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes sanctions designed to kill off the Kremlin’s strategically important Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. The geopolitical significance of this legislation cannot be overstated. It means almost certain doom for Putin’s most important energy project and prevents Russia from tightening its control over EU natural gas supplies. The new legislation imposes draconian sanctions that should permanently end construction of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas line…

Ukraine’s relationship with its Diaspora over the last almost thirty years has been manifestly positive, yet tangibly troubling. Meetings have been held on the highest levels, honors and trinkets bestowed, even joint efforts made in observances, celebrations and remembrances. Diaspora representatives have served in the Government of Ukraine with some latitude as to legal requirements and limitations for such service. Honorary and even dual citizenship to Ukrainians abroad has been suggested and discussed with little real result. The only thing lacking has been protection and assistance from the Ukrainian side. But that is what matters. The Diaspora itself can be…

On Election Day, General Paul M. Nakasone, the nation’s top cyberwarrior, reported that the battle against Russian interference in the presidential campaign had posted major successes and exposed the other side’s online weapons, tools and tradecraft. “We’ve broadened our operations and feel very good where we’re at right now,” he told journalists. Eight weeks later, General Nakasone and other American officials responsible for cybersecurity are now consumed by what they missed for at least nine months: a hacking, now believed to have affected upward of 250 federal agencies and businesses, that…

Інформаційний проєкт Єврокомісії EUvsDisinfo оприлюднив дайджест найбільш ганебних провалів кремлівських пропагандистів у 2020 році. Деталі: У цьому рейтингу першу позицію посідає ситуація з отруєнням російського опозиціонера Олексія Навального з подальшим викриттям ФСБ Росії у скоєнні цього злочину. Телефонне самовикриття одного з отруйників у розмові з Навальним стало важким ударом як по репутації ФСБ, так і по авторитету Кремля, вважає антифейковий проєкт. На другому місці – інформаційна атака російських пропагандистів проти вакцин від COVID-19. У інформаційній базі EUvsDisinfo за рік зібрано…

Відносини України з діаспорою за останні майже тридцять років були явно позитивними, але відчутно недостатними. Зустрічі проводилися на найвищих рівнях, почестях і дарованих бляшках, навіть спільних зусиль, святкуванням і відзначенням. Представники діаспори навіть служили в уряді України з певною гнучкістю щодо юридичних вимог та обмежень. Почесне і навіть подвійне громадянство українцям за кордоном було запропоновано і обговорено з невеликим реальним результатом. Єдине, чого бракує, це захист і допомога з сторони України. Але це те, що має значення. Саму діаспору можна…

The sprawling SolarWinds hack by suspected Russian state-backed hackers is the latest sign of Moscow’s growing resolve and improving technical ability to cause disruption and conduct espionage at a global scale in cyberspace. The hack, which compromised parts of the U.S. government as well as tech companies, a hospital and a university, adds to a string of increasingly sophisticated and ever more brazen online intrusions, demonstrating how cyber operations have become a key plank in Russia’s confrontation with the West, analysts and officials say. Moscow’s relations with the West continue to sour, and the Kremlin sees the cyber operations as a cheap and effective way to achieve its geopolitical goals, analysts say. Russia, they say…

The Soviet disinformation campaign to cover up the Holodomor is a precursor to the Russian Federation’s disinformation campaigns today, says a Pulitzer Prize winning author of a recent book on the 1932-33 famine. “The techniques of disinformation are different, but the instinct is very similar,” said Anne Applebaum, author of “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” during a virtual conversation streamed online by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta, November 28. When something embarrassing happens that goes against the regime’s picture of itself a disinformation campaign will be…

Коментар для українського радіo у Філядельфії частинно підготовлений на матеріялі професора Петра Кралюка з національного університету Острозька Академія і на основі історії ОУН. Матеріял підготовив Осип Рожка. Антиурядові протести в м. Хабаровську в Російській Федерації, на Далекому Сході, які тривали кілька тижнів, привернули увагу світу. “Путін! Нам потрібна гідна зарплата і пенсія, а не війна з Україною!!!” – читаємо на плякатах в часі антипутінської демонстрації в обороні арештованого хабаровського губернатора. Які висновки можна зробити з цього? Хто ті мешканці, що опротестовують Путінські рішення? Звідки взявся…

Congress delivered a stinging rebuke to President Trump on Friday, handing him his first veto override in the final days of his administration. The GOP-controlled Senate met during a rare New Years Day session and voted 80-12 to override Trump’s veto of a mammoth defense bill, underscoring the depth of disagreement between the two sides of Pennsylvania Avenue. The House voted earlier this week to nix Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which greenlights spending levels and lays out policy for the Pentagon. It caps off a chaotic session for Congress that…

After being dramatically forced out as prime minister of Ukraine after having served for fewer than six months, one could forgive Oleksiy Honcharuk if he wanted to simply wash his hands of Ukraine’s sometimes maddening politics and be done with it all. Honcharuk’s tenure as prime minister was cut short almost as rapidly as it began. When Volodymyr Zelenskyy went from playing a satirical president on television to become Ukraine’s real-life president in 2019, the populist comedian rode a tidal wave of public outrage and promised to finally reform the country and root out deeply embedded corruption. Honcharuk, then a…

The Second Edition has been thoroughly updated and vastly expanded with new data, documents and analyses divided into 10 Parts, which, among others, cover such issues as historical and political contexts of the Ukrainian famine, key Soviet documentation proving the intentionality of the Holodomor, Ukrainian demographic losses and impact of the genocide, and a comprehensive bibliography on the Holodomor. HOLODOMOR: THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-1933 is a hard cover publication of 320 pp., thoroughly and…

Повідомляємо, що уже вийшло друком друге видання англомовної книги-компендіума “HOLODOMOR: THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-1933.” Це видання книги значно доповнене новими даними, інформацією, документами і аналізами, що включає такі аспекти, як: історичний і політичний контекст Голодомору; основну совєтську документацію, яка виявляє планомірність Голодомору Москвою, з наміром задавити повстання в Україні проти совєтської окупації; демографічні втрати українців і наслідки геноциду; всебічну сучасну бібліографію про Голодомор. Книга “HOLODOMOR: THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-1933” – це науково-популярне видання…

Izvestia, the Russian news outlet formerly known as News of the Central Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies this Christmas published a pamphlet by Vladimir Putin entitled ’75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT VICTORY: SHARED RESPONSIBILITY TO HISTORY AND OUR FUTURE,’ writes Gary Cartwright. Whilst the title may sound like that of a forthcoming Borat movie, it is in fact based on an article written by the Russian President earlier in the year, written to call into question the credibility of the European Parliament’s ‘motion for a resolution on the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War and the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe.’ The motion, which was…

Сьогодні, 1 січня, на Львівщині вшанували пам’ять голови Проводу ОУН, Героя України Степана Бандери. Захід відбувся з нагоди 112-ї річниці від дня народження провідника. Керівництво області та міста поклало квіти до підніжжя пам’ятника Степану Бандері. «Степан Бандера казав: «Коли поміж хлібом і свободою народ обирає хліб, він зрештою втрачає все, в тому числі і хліб. Якщо народ обирає свободу, він матиме хліб, вирощений ним самим і ніким не відібраний». Наша боротьба триває. Тисячі молодих хлопців і дівчат сьогодні продовжують справу Степана Бандери, творячи наше майбутнє та відновлюючи історичну справедливість. Наші воїни відстоюють на Сході нашої держави найважливіші для кожного…

The Kyiv Post reported on December 31, “Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has claimed that he authorized the country’s security agencies to plot a secret operation to detain mercenaries working for the Kremlin-backed private military company Wagner Group who had fought in Russia’s war against Ukraine in the Donbas. The operation was reportedly supposed to take place in late July, already under the tenure of Poroshenko’s successor, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but was never carried out. Some allege that the President’s Office sabotaged the operation. Poroshenko made the surprising statements during a December 30 appearance on a talk show broadcast on Channel 5, which belongs to the…

After months of questions over the true scale of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia and the efficacy of a Russian-developed vaccine, the state statistical agency in Moscow has announced new figures indicating that the death toll from Covid-19 is more than three times as high as officially reported. From the start of the pandemic early this year, the health crisis has been enveloped and, say critics, distorted by political calculations as President Vladimir V. Putin and Kremlin-controlled media outlets have repeatedly boasted of Russian successes in combating the virus and keeping the fatality rate relatively low. The new data, issued on Monday by the state statistics agency Rosstat, would raise Russia from eighth to…

Ukrinform reported on December 29, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree suspending Oleksandr Tupytskyi as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine for two months, the President’s Office has reported. According to the report, Zelensky said he had signed the decree ‘for the sake of restoring justice and resolving the constitutional crisis.’ The decision was made after the President’s Office received and processed a petition from the Prosecutor General’s Office, signed by the acting prosecutor general, to suspend Constitutional Court judge Oleksandr Tupytskyi from office for two months. On December 28, Chairman of thе…

For many, this has been a challenging year, which brought not only a global pandemic but also an infodemic: an unprecedented flood of false or inaccurate information about the coronavirus. Unfortunately, pro-Kremlin media has actively contributed to fueling the infodemic in addition to finding many other opportunities to spread disinformation, amplify conspiracy theories and sow confusion, fear and distrust. Racial justice protests and the presidential election in the US, the Belarusians’ brave fight for their civic rights, the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny – these are some of the key events of this year that drew the attention and disinformation of the pro-Kremlin media. This year, EUvsDisinfo added over 3,000 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation to its…

From the earliest days of war in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, some bloggers and security experts noted key similarities between the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk and that of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and surrounding areas. In both cases, war had de facto created self-proclaimed and unrecognized republics, the separatists enjoyed quasi-unofficial support from a neighboring country, and popular desires have burned for liberating the occupied territories. Even the international platform for solving the Karabakh crisis—the Minsk Group under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)—superficially resembles the…

The Kyiv Post reported on December 28, “The High Anti-Corruption Court on Dec. 28 failed to arrest President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Deputy Chief of Staff Oleh Tatarov for the third time because the prosecutors did not show up for the hearing. The hearing was delayed until Dec. 30. Zelenskyy and his protege, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, have been accused of protecting Tatarov from prosecution ever since information on the investigation into him first surfaced on Dec. 1. Tatarov is among numerous influential suspects whose cases appear to be blocked by Venediktova’s office. The Prosecutor General’s Office and…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) finished the first round of talks with the Ukrainian government. The mission didn’t visit Ukraine and held the negotiations online. The talks will resume after the winter holidays. Ukraine hopes to renew the IMF’s loan program and get a $700-million tranche at the beginning of 2021. The negotiations themselves are a good sign for Kyiv. Still, there are a number of reasons to fear that, even after the positive decision, the long-term relationship could be spoiled by Ukrainian officials who try to find a compromise between the country’s obligations and their personal political interests. For now, we…

Першопочатковий мотив «культивування величі арійської раси з метою дестабілізації» був відкинутий самим слідством. Далі з’явилася версія, що Антоненко здійснив замах на Шеремета в змові з невстановленими особами з особистих мотивів для провокації численних акцій протесту. Ким можуть бути ці «невстановлені особи», ми від слідства не почули. Так само слідство не пояснило, чим «невстановлені особи» могли стимулювати Антоненка, Кузьменко чи Дугарь. Акціями протесту? Чи грошима? Про фінансову складову саме слідство не говорить. Отже, мотив просто вигаданий слідством і не доведений. Зріст фігурантів Головним речовим доказом…

Невеличка українська ікона – давня, але навряд чи високої ринкової вартості – стала джерелом гучного конфлікту, здатного підірвати російський вплив на Балканах. А ще вона змусила російську дипломатію вкотре визнати, що окупований Донбас – це Україна. Ця історія цілком здатна поставити хрест на подальшій кар’єрі одного з найбільш проросійських політиків регіону та вже зараз серйозно підірвала його вплив. Вона почалася під час візиту в Боснію і Герцеговину голови російського МЗС Сергєя Лаврова, який не задався від початку. Там було і свідоме порушення протоколу, і демонстрування жесту, який…

Despite the global coronavirus crisis that has had a catastrophic impact on all aspects of Ukrainians’ lives, 2020 still has its achievements. We can recall the establishment of the ceasefire that has saved the lives of many Ukrainian soldiers, the prisoner swap, the adoption of laws on reforms, including the launch of the land market as a major breakthrough. Ukrinform has decided to remind you of the most important milestones of 2020. 1. VERKHOVNA RADA OPENS LAND MARKET The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the launch of the land market at its special meeting on the night of March 30-31. A total…

The United States is ratcheting up the threat of sanctions against European companies in an effort to deal a death blow to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. The pipeline would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea. U.S. President Donald Trump, like his predecessor Barack Obama, has criticized the project because it would make Germany “captive” to Russia for its energy supplies. Trump has been especially critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, in opposition to the United States and many Eastern European countries, has doggedly pursued the pipeline project, which would funnel billions of dollars to Russia at a time that Germany is free-riding on the U.S. defense umbrella that protects Germany from…

As the Kremlin awaits what it fears will be a hostile Biden presidency, President Vladimir Putin is shifting course on two fronts — accelerating a drive to full-blown authoritarian control at home and escalating his defiant rhetoric against the West. Domestically, a grudging tolerance for opposition and protest has been all but abandoned, while internationally, the Kremlin is taking particularly sharp aim at the United States ahead of the change of administration next month. Russian-U.S. relations are going “from bad to worse,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday, adding that Russia doesn’t expect “anything good” from President-elect Joe Biden and suggesting it adopt a policy of…

In a series of events capable of stunning even veteran Russia watchers, Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was nearly killed with a rare nerve agent before he recovered from a coma and went on to trick one of his apparent assassins into confessing to the details of the plot on tape. As sensational as this is, we must keep the focus on the bigger picture: Russia, under strongman Vladimir Putin’s watch, has become a rogue regime apparently responsible, despite its loud denials, for a growing list of egregious crimes. Add assassinations of political targets at home and abroad — some with banned chemical weapons — to Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine and a hacking campaign of…

Ікона, яку голова Президії Боснії і Герцеговини Мілорад Додік подарував міністру закордонних справ Росії Сєргєю Лаврову, була вивезена з Донбасу через Росію та Сербію. Про це розповів колишній глава Асоціації ветеранів Армії Республіки Сербської Драган Савіч в інтерв’ю депутату від опозиційної Сербської демократичної партії (СДП) у парламенті РС Небойше Вукановичу, повідомляє “Європейська правда” із посиланням на Балканський оглядач. Вуканович опублікував розмову з Савичем в своєму блозі. Той розповів, що 29 травня 2018 року в Баня-Луці ікону Додіку, який тоді був президентом Республіки Сербської, подарував Душко Вукотич, голова Асоціації ветеранів Армії Республіки Сербської. “Вукотич привіз ікону з Донбасу через…

In a series of events capable of stunning even veteran Russia watchers, Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was nearly killed with a rare nerve agent before he recovered from a coma and went on to trick one of his apparent assassins into confessing to the details of the plot on tape. As sensational as this is, we must keep the focus on the bigger picture: Russia, under strongman Vladimir Putin’s watch, has become a rogue regime apparently responsible, despite its loud denials, for a growing list of egregious crimes. Add assassinations of political targets at home and abroad — some with banned chemical weapons — to Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Ukraine and a hacking campaign of unprecedented scope against the United States, and…

A network of activists that will fight pro-Kremlin disinformation has been formed in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. Similar networks already exist in other European countries, where they coordinate to push back against Russian disinformation and influence operations. What follows is a translation of the news release by UCMC. Elves are not only characters from fiction books. This network of activists, who have chosen a fantasy name to oppose Russian trolls, has long existed in the Baltic countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Since the fall of 2020, they have been operating in Ukraine as well. “Elven” trainings gathered people from many regions of Ukraine. These trainings were held, of course, in the mystical forests, but the lecturers were very real people with competencies in countering propaganda and…

As Ukraine goes into its eighth calendar year at war with Russia, about 5% of its annual defense budget is now in limbo following US President Donald Trump’s veto on Wednesday of America’s 2021 defense spending bill — a measure that includes $250 million in military aid for Ukraine. Returning the $740.5 billion annual defense bill to the US House of Representatives, Trump called the measure “a gift for Russia and China.” The move casts uncertainty over a wide swath of national security initiatives at a time when the US military is simultaneously preparing for a new era of great power competition against adversaries such as China and Russia, while also holding the radical Islamic terrorism threat at…

Низка українських військових, серед яких генерал армії Віктор Муженко, адмірал Ігор Воронченко, генерал-майор Ігор Гордійчук, полковник Михайло Драпатий, понад сотня інших учасників АТО/ООС виступили з спільною заявою щодо загрози національній безпеці через переслідування військових посадових осіб, які брали активну участь у відсічі збройній агресії Росії на Донбасі. Вони наголосили на цинізмі осіб, які «ініціюють, фінансують і супроводжують такі кампанії, полягає в тому, що вони, маніпулюючи невідворотною реальністю втрат у збройному протистоянні з Росією, аморально користуються почуттями і емоціями рідних і близьких загиблих військовослужбовців, налаштовують їх проти командирів, які безпосередньо виконують свій службовий обов’язок і з не менш глибокою скорботою переживають втрату…

The deplorable state of relations between Washington and Moscow has gotten so bad that the United States cannot get visas for American technicians to come repair malfunctioning elevators and fire alarms at diplomatic missions. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is understaffed and overstretched, as every individual diplomatic visa requires drawn-out negotiations that get snagged over minuscule matters. Senior diplomats are being tasked with basic tasks like shoveling snow and mixing disinfectants to supplement depleted cleaning crews battling the coronavirus pandemic. Even as President Trump has refrained from directly criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, the State Department has been outspoken in condemning Russian transgressions and pressuring the government to change its behavior and rhetoric. That has contributed to a “visa impasse,” as U.S. officials…

Russian government hackers have compromised Microsoft cloud customers and stolen emails from at least one private-sector company, according to people familiar with the matter, a worrying development in Moscow’s ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting numerous U.S. agencies and corporate computer networks. The intrusions appear to have occurred via a Microsoft corporate partner that handles cloud-access services, those familiar with the matter said. They did not identify the partner or the company known to have had emails stolen. Like others, these people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss what remains a highly sensitive subject. Microsoft hasn’t publicly commented on the intrusions. On Thursday, an executive with the tech giant sought to downplay the…

Фонд “Демократичні ініціативи” ім. І.Кучеріва звинувачує Офіс президента у маніпулюванні їхніми соціологічними даними. Джерело: професор НаУКМА, науковий директор фонду “Демократичні ініціативи” Олексій Гарань у блозі на “Українській правді” Деталі: Керівник фонду каже, що 21 грудня було представлено результати загальнонаціонального підсумкового опитування, проведеного спільно з Київським міжнародним інститутом соціології, а вже 23 грудня комунікаційники Офісу президента, посилаючись на це опитування, зробили “новину”: “Президентська ініціатива “Велике будівництво” стала головною позитивною подією 2020 року”. Мовляв, “згідно з опитуванням, такої думки дотримується переважна більшість респондентів (93%) “. Гарань наголошує, що насправді цю ініціативу відзначило лише…

Kremlin-friendly political forces are making headway in Ukraine, and their leader says the time is ripe for further gains. The advance may surprise those who watched protesters help realign the country — a frequent battleground between Russia and the West since communism collapsed — toward Europe just six years ago. The revolution prompted President Vladimir Putin to annex Crimea from his neighbor and foment the war on the two former allies’ border that rumbles on today. But with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy increasingly bogged down in a scrap against the murky political system he was elected to banish, there’s a window to tap into growing disillusionment. The popularity of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, which supports stronger ties with Russia, is the highest it’s been since…

Мені здається, що кожна віруюча людина, навіть не дуже то релігійна має особливого духовного натхненника про якого згадує може і не так часто, а навіть виїмково при більших нагодах чи святах. Для мене це великий діяч Української Греко Католицької Церкви Патріарх Йосиф Сліпий про якого я згадую хіба раз у році коли приходить Рождество Христове і кінчається Старий Рік з надією на Новий Рік з вказівками робити звідомлення у чому ми не здали іспиту з обіцянкою робити краще. У свойому Заповіті Блаженніший Патріарх писав: “І тому, переставляючись у світ вічности, благаю Отця Небесного, щоби Він прославив Сина свого у вас, аби ви спізнали Його, „Єдиного, Істинного Бога” і Ним „посланого – Ісуса Христа” /Ів. 17, 3/, і щоби Він дав вам „Утішителя, який буде з вами повік, Духа Істини, якого світ не може сприйняти, бо не бачить Його і не знає. Ви ж Його знаєте, бо перебуває…

Russian authorities have advanced measures to punish online libel, police the internet, and protect officials’ personal data since December 14, when international news websites published reports investigating the poisoning of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, according to human rights news website Mediazona and a media lawyer interviewed by CPJ. The joint investigation by Bellingcat and Russian news outlet The Insider, in cooperation with CNN and Germany’s Der Spiegel, alleged that Russian security services attempted to kill Navalny in August 2020. Russian officials dismissed the findings and denied involvement in Navalny’s poisoning, according to The Associated Press. On December 14, Dmitry Vyatkin, a member of the ruling United Russia party, proposed in the State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, a draft amendment to the Russian Criminal Code that would punish libel published on the…

Turkey is selling four locally made stealth corvettes to its littoral Black Sea neighbor Ukraine as part of a larger framework agreement to enhance bilateral cooperation in defense procurement. The agreement, signed Dec. 15, also involves the transfer of Turkish technology to Ukraine and co-production of Turkish-made armed drones. It was signed by Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Taran and Turkey’s top defense procurement official, Ismail Demir. The warship deal could be worth about $1 billion, a government source told Defense News on condition of anonymity. In 2018, Turkish state-controlled defense technologies company STM won a contract to produce and sell four MILGEM corvettes to the Pakistan Navy. STM pledged to deliver the first small, multirole warship by the end of 2021. The contract entails construction of two corvettes in Turkey, with the…

Serhii Koshman, head of the expert group on internal and humanitarian policy at the Ukrainian Presidential Office, has recently discussed a particular case of disinformation development. This piece is a short summary of this discussion, showcasing how even respected media may become involved in disinformation campaigns. The Economist published an article on December 12, 2020, focused on exploring the threats from the American far-right. This exploration features a striking number of 17,000 Westerners, including citizens of the USA, who partake in war in eastern Ukraine. “Most eagerly share conspiracy theories, including anti-Semitic ones”, writes Cynthia Miller-Idris, the author of “Hate in the Homeland” – a book that the…

On December 15, Ukrainian state prosecutors charged former MP, journalist, and political activist Tetyana Chornovol with premeditated homicide. Chornovol was a noted leader of Ukraine’s 2013-14 Maidan protest movement. Many see the charges against her as an attempt to put the entire protest movement on trial and undermine the credibility of the country’s efforts to shake off centuries of Russian domination. Tetyana Chornovol is a prominent figure in Ukrainian public life. In December 2013, she almost died following a beating from thugs linked to the regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. She now finds herself accused of a capital crime allegedly committed months later in February 2014 against a…

There is an old saying in America, that “if your friends won’t tell when you are making a mistake, they are NOT your friends.” Since the beginning of the Donbas War in 2014, the two us have had the unique opportunity to observe and interact with the Ukrainian Armed Forces of Ukraine. Hodges, as commander of U.S. Army Europe from 2014-2017, led American military assistance in training, supporting and equipping the Ukrainian military; Karber, invited by the government as an “front-line observer,” arrived in March 2014, and in 33 trips to the country spent 180 days in the combat zone. Despite viewing the conflict from different perspectives, our joint observations have a high correlation, and we consider it our honor to have witnessed first-hand the rebirth of the Ukrainian military, forged in…

A Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexey Navalny has revealed how he was poisoned in August — with the lethal nerve agent Novichok planted in his underpants. The stunning disclosure from an agent who belonged to an elite toxins team in Russia’s FSB security service came in a lengthy phone call following the unmasking of the unit by CNN and the online investigative outfit Bellingcat last week. In what he was told was a debriefing, Konstantin Kudryavtsev also talked about others involved in the poisoning in the Siberian city of Tomsk, and how he was sent to clean things up. But the agent was not speaking to an official in Russia’s National Security Council as he thought. He was talking to Navalny himself, who almost died after being poisoned in August. Navalny has long been a thorn in the side of…

A RAND Corporation study examined Russian-language content on social media and the broader propaganda threat posed to the region of former Soviet states that include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and, to a lesser extent, Moldova and Belarus. In addition to employing a state-funded multilingual television network, operating various Kremlin-supporting news websites, and working through several constellations of Russia-backed “civil society” organizations, Russia employs a sophisticated social media campaign that includes news tweets, non-attributed comments on web pages, troll and bot social media accounts, and fake hashtag and Twitter campaigns. Nowhere is this threat more tangible than in Ukraine, which has been an active propaganda battleground since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Other countries in the region look at Russia’s actions and annexation of Crimea and…

On October 7, in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was paying an official visit to the United Kingdom, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Andriy Taran and the UK’s Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace signed a memorandum on enhancing bilateral cooperation in the military and military-technical spheres (President.gov.ua, October 7; see EDM, October 29). An important aspect of this document was a funding pledge from the UK’s export credit agency in the amount of 1.25 billion pounds ($1.68 billion) for the construction of missile boats and new naval infrastructure in Ukraine. Missile boats and naval bases are critically important to Ukraine’s capacity to deter an enemy as well as respond in a crisis in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. These capabilities are crucial to Ukraine in this closed maritime theater considering Russia’s overwhelming superiority when…

A group of men and women in traditional embroidered dress took the stage at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 5, 1922 for a performance that the New York Tribune dubbed “a marvel of technical skill.” The New York Times called the music they made “simply spontaneous in origin and artistically harmonized.” The New York Herald described the costume-clad singers as expressing “a profound unanimity of feeling that aroused genuine emotion among the listeners.” The audience that cheered for encores and threw flowers on the stage didn’t know it at the time, but they had just heard what would eventually become one of the world’s most beloved and recognized Christmas songs: “Carol of the Bells.” Onstage was the Ukrainian National Chorus conducted by…

11-15 грудня 2020 року відбувся перший Собор Апостольського екзархату для українців-католиків візантійського обряду в Італії «Еміграція, поселення і глобальна єдність УГКЦ у посткоронавірусному світі». Обидві сесії Собору проводилися в онлайн-режимі через зум-платформу. Пропонуємо поглянути на основні теми, які порушувалися під час Собору. Владика Діонісій Ляхович, апостольський екзарх, розмірковуючи на тему «Богословські основи єдності», наголосив на тому, що Церква потребує різних дарів і харизм осіб, які становлять багатство Церкви та які перебувають у сопричасті любові. Але що саме руйнує єдність? «Це самолюбство, закриття в собі. Самолюбство ставить…

From the very beginning of his time in power, Vladimir Putin has viewed the 30 million Russian speakers living abroad as key promoters of Moscow’s interests abroad. In that, Rimma Polyak says, he has followed the Soviet tradition of putting his intelligence agency, the FSB, in charge of dealing with them. In a detailed article for Vestnik Civitas, an online project she heads, Polyak points out that in the ramified system of government and nominally private organizations, Rossotrudnichestvo, the Federal Agency for CIS and Compatriot Affairs and International Humanitarian Cooperation, is the most important (vestnikcivitas.ru/pbls/4248). That agency, she writes, is the successor of the Russian Center for International Scientific and…

Russia will not be able to use its flag or anthem at the next two Olympics or any world championships for the next two years after a ruling Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Lausanne-based court halved the four-year ban proposed last year by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in a landmark case that accused Russia of state-ordered tampering of a testing laboratory database in Moscow. The ruling also blocked Russia from bidding to host major sporting events for two years. Russian athletes and teams will still be allowed to compete at next year’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, as well as world championships including the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, if they are…

In 2014, Russia tried to bring Ukraine to its knees. Moscow’s confidence was rooted in the old adage that victors are not judged. However, things did not go according to plan. Ukraine resisted and survived. Russia’s failed blitzkrieg is now slowly becoming the Kremlin’s worst nightmare. On December 11, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague made an historic announcement. Prosecutors confirmed that they had found sufficient grounds to begin an official investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Crimea and the Donbas since 2014. Victors may not be subject to judgement, but failed aggressors most certainly are. To understand the importance of this…

Bosnia’s authorities opened an investigation Thursday into how a possibly stolen 300-year-old gilded icon from Ukraine ended up being given as a gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The presiding Serb member of Bosnia’s three-member presidency, Milorad Dodik, gave the religious painting to Lavrov during his visit to Bosnia earlier this week. The historic artefact is believed to be from war-torn eastern Ukraine which has been under the control of pro-Russian forces. Dozens of Serbs have fought alongside the pro-Russian forces in the conflict, which started in 2014. The Bosnian Serb Srna news agency carried photos of the icon, including its back that shows a stamp of its authenticity written in…

Кримінально-політичний суд над українським істориком і дисидентом Валентином Морозом відбувся 17 листопада 1970 року. Кілька дисидентів були викликані радянським урядом давати свідчення для обвинувачення проти підсудного. Серед них була дисидентка Шестидесятник художниця Алла Горська. Алла відмовилася свідчити так само, як і інші. Тим не менш, не даючи жодних доказів, що не було проблемою в радянських судових процесах, Валентин Мороз був засуджений за антирадянську агітацію і пропаганду з вироком до чотирнадцяти років. 28 листопада 1970 року Алла поїхала в село Васильків Київської області біля міста Фастів до дому свекра, щоб забрати…

Oleksandr Hryshchenko is a 60-year-old Luhansk veterinarian who lives in Kyiv. In 2014, he spent six months “in the basement,” aka an unofficial prison of the Russian proxy “Luhansk People’s Republic.” After his release from the basement, the man moved to Kyiv as soon as he could. Oleksandr tells his story of captivity, torture, and unexpected release in great detail. Sometimes there are tears in his eyes. He was five minutes away from his death. In the Ukrainian capital, Oleksandr takes odd jobs to get by. In Luhansk, he had specialized in large farm animals, while veterinary medicine in Kyiv mainly focuses on dogs and cats. That’s why he can’t get a job in his specialty. Oleksandr failed to…

The scope of a hack engineered by one of Russia’s premier intelligence agencies became clearer on Monday, when some Trump administration officials acknowledged that other federal agencies — the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and parts of the Pentagon — had been compromised. Investigators were struggling to determine the extent to which the military, intelligence community and nuclear laboratories were affected by the highly sophisticated attack. United States officials did not detect the attack until recent weeks, and then only when a private cybersecurity firm, FireEye, alerted American intelligence that the hackers had evaded layers of defenses. It was…

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported, “Tetyana Chornovol has been formally charged with murder during a Molotov cocktail attack on the ruling Party of the Regions headquarters on 18 February 2014. The anti-corruption investigative journalist, Maidan activist and later MP, could, if convicted, face a life sentence on charges which the former chief investigator into crimes during Euromaidan has said he sees no grounds for. Chornovol announced on leaving the State Bureau of Investigations on December 15 that the criminal investigation against her was now at an end and that the case was now to be passed to the court. Posting the indictment on Facebook, she…

Минув рік з моменту вручення підозр Андрію Антоненку, Юлії Кузьменко і Яні Дугарь та сумнозвісного брифінгу за участі керівництва Національної поліції, особисто глави МВС Арсена Авакова, ексгенпрокурора Руслана Рябошапки і президента Володимира Зеленського. З того моменту Андрій Антоненко перебуває за гратами, Юлія Кузьменко – під цілодобовим домашнім арештом із носінням електронного браслету, а Яна Дугарь – під заставою. Київський апеляційний суд 7 грудня відмовився задовольнити клопотання захисту зі зміни запобіжного заходу Антоненку, судді навіть не дозволили випустити Андрія з клітки, мотивуючи це тим, що «загальновідомими є факти заворушень». Також…

The criminal political trial of Ukrainian historian and dissident Valentyn Moroz was taking place on November 17, 1970. Several dissidents were called by the Soviet government to testify for the prosecution against the defendant. Among them was the dissident Shestydesiatnyk artist Alla Horska. Alla refused to testify as did the others. Nevertheless, with no evidence which was not a problem in Soviet trials, Valentyn Moroz was convicted of anti Soviet agitation and propaganda and sentenced to fourteen years. On November 28, 1970 Alla traveled to the village of Vasylkiv in the Kyiv District near the City of Fastiv to the home of her father in law to pick up a sewing machine. She did not return home. Her husband Viktor Zaretsky panicked and…

At about 9 a.m. on August 13, a 33-year-old Russian woman named Maria Pevchikh checked in for a flight from Moscow to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. She was not alone. Trailing her to Domodedovo airport that morning was a member of an elite unit of the Russian Security Service, the FSB. Oleg Tayakin, a slim, balding man with blue-green eyes, remained at the airport until Pevchikh left. Pevchikh was traveling in advance of a visit to Siberia by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, whose anti-corruption campaign she leads. The Navalny team is constantly watched by the FSB in Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union’s secret police force, the KGB. But Tayakin is no ordinary agent. He…

Нещодавно, 5 грудня українці згадували чергову річницю підписання Будапештського меморандуму. Вітчизняні політики дуже стримано шанують цю дату. Причина такої “холодності” проста: згаданий документ не зіграв визначної ролі в історії України, принаймні позитивної. З іншого боку, варто остудити голови деяких українських політиків та публічних діячів – альтернативи відмови від ядерної зброї у нас не було, з багатьох причин. Не будемо повторювати все, про що говорилось ці роки: про неможливість належного обслуговування, застарівання технологій, що ця зброя має свій ресурс давності. Україна не мала технологій, Україна не мала фахівців, необхідних матеріалів для…

On December 4, the TV channel NASH, owned by Yevhen Murayev, Ukrainian pro-Russian politician, the leader of Nashi (Ours) party and former member of the Opposition Bloc, aired a talk show about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. During the show, the channel provided floor (via video call) to Rodion Miroshnik, the representative of the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic” in the Trilateral Contact Group. Meanwhile, the channel did not ask any Ukrainian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group to join the talk show. Rodion Miroshnik was on the air for some twenty-five minutes. During this time, he spread several Kremlin propaganda narratives: 1.”Ukraine is the side of the…

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported, “The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court [ICC], Fatou Bensouda, has found reasonable grounds for believing that war crimes and crimes against humanity, falling within ICC jurisdiction, ‘have been committed in the context of the situation in Ukraine.’ Such crimes, in connection with the conflict in Donbas and with Russia’s ongoing occupation of Crimea, are sufficiently grave, she writes, to warrant investigation by the ICC. This is a long-awaited and very important move, one that human rights groups have helped to achieve by providing the Office of the Prosecutor with detailed information about enforced…

Федеральна служба безпеки Росії причетна до отруєння відомого російського опозиційного політика Олексія Навального речовиною “Новічок” в аеропорту Томська. Про це йдеться у спільному розслідуванні Bellingcat і The Insider у співпраці з Der Spiegel і CNN, повідомляє “Європейська правда”. За даними розслідування, ключову роль у замаху грав спеціальний підрозділ Інституту криміналістики ФСБ. У ході розслідування виявлено трьох співробітників ФСБ з цього підпільного підрозділу, які разом із Навальним їхали до Новосибірська, а потім поїхали за ним до Томська, де він і був отруєний. Ці оперативники, двоє з яких подорожували під прикриттям, – Олексій Александров, Іван Осипов (обидва лікарі) і Володимир Паняєв. Цих трьох…

On 27 October, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court ruled that the asset declaration system adopted by parliament in 2016 was unconstitutional. Eleven judges voted in favor, while four voted against. The declaration system obliges Ukrainian state officials to list all their main possessions. It enables the National Agency for Corruption Prevention to compare assets with income in order to identify and prosecute possible corruption. The declarations form the backbone of the fight against corruption, and are widely regarded as one of the central reforms introduced since the country’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity. The Constitutional Court ruling was greeted with widespread dismay in Ukraine. The country’s…

The Trump administration acknowledged on Sunday that hackers acting on behalf of a foreign government — almost certainly a Russian intelligence agency, according to federal and private experts — broke into a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments, and had free access to their email systems. Officials said a hunt was on to determine if other parts of the government had been affected by what looked to be one of the most sophisticated, and perhaps among the largest, attacks on federal systems in the past five years. Several said national security-related agencies were also targeted, though it was not clear whether the systems contained highly classified material. The Trump administration said little in…

The Soviet regime had a serious image problem in the 1970s and ‘80s. While the communist propaganda apparatus was trying to present Soviet Russia as a normal peaceful state, in the United States and other free countries, people of Ukrainian, Jewish and Baltic origin were working together to expose the repressive and imperialist nature of the communist dictatorship. They picketed Soviet embassies, provided the press with names of prisoners in the Soviet Gulag and demanded freedom for the peoples of the Soviet empire. The Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party assigned the KGB to solve this problem. The Soviet secret police and intelligence service had a long history of using disinformation to discredit political opponents. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Leonid Shabarshin, who formerly headed the First Chief Directorate (Foreign Intelligence) of the KGB, explained to the Moscow newspaper Trud that one…

As it became evident that German manpower was inadequate and that the Third Reich would probably be denied victory, Berlin began to create military units of nationalities other than ethnic Germans—contrary to earlier policy. Between 1943 and 1945, 24 non-German units were formed, almost all of them designated Waffen SS divisions. The Waffen SS was the military wing of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Although under the command of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, the Waffen SS participated in military, not police, actions. There were four Hungarian divisions; three Dutch (one of them included Danes and Norwegians); two each: Belgian, Italian, Croatian, Latvian, Russian, and Don Cossack; and one each: French, Estonian, Albanian, Bosnian-Herzegovinian, and Ukrainian. With some exceptions, all were…

U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced that the Senate-passed FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conference report includes $250 million in security assistance for Ukraine to fund additional training, lethal and non-lethal equipment, and advisory efforts for Ukraine’s forces. Additionally, $75 million of that $250 million is designated specifically for lethal assistance, an increase of $25 million from FY 2020. In addition, the conference report includes a Portman proposal to require DoD to develop a new, multi-year strategy to support the development of Ukraine’s military forces, increasing its capability and…

Following the recent Azeri success against the Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Ukrainian news media is abuzz with speculation that the Ukrainian army may be planning to reclaim the country’s eastern Donbas region controlled by Russia-backed separatists, using the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones believed to have been a game changer in the Azeri-Armenian war. Observers are asking whether Ukraine could repeat the Karabakh example to win back territories it lost to Russia and the separatists in 2014 and further escalate the conflict over the Black Sea Basin. Some reports went so far as to say that Ukraine might be planning to use these drones to…

The examples of disinformation from this week offer a 360 degree overview of topics connected to Russia and the USSR. Where an apology would be proper, there is no remorse, only accusations. A clear example of this is the poisoning of the Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Pro-Kremlin media writes that Germany violated the Chemical Weapons Convention by refusing to collaborate with Russia. In other words, Navalny is not the victim here, Russia is. As for the MH17 tragedy, the pro-Kremlin media moans that the purpose of the trial is not to establish the true culprits. This claim shows that while 298 people were murdered, there is only one victim in the eyes of the pro-Kremlin media – Russia. The same…

In the euphoria that surrounded Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea six years ago, most Russians were more than willing to spend money to integrate that region into the Russian Federation. But at that time, they had little idea just how much that process would cost. Not only did that aggressive breach of international law trigger Western sanctions against Russia, but the authorities in Moscow also never gave the public an honest estimate of just how much money would need to be spent, nor for how long, even after the Kremlin proclaimed the peninsula’s absorption an accomplished fact. Were the Russian economy doing well, that might not matter; but it is not, and the subsidies going to Crimea are, of course, unavailable to…

Since coming to power in May 2019, President Volodymyr Zelensky has made little headway in his pledge to thoroughly reform Ukraine’s corrupt judiciary. Corrupt judges appear to be so entrenched they are emboldened to destroy Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure. In October the discredited Constitutional Court dealt a blow to anti-graft institutions by eliminating Ukraine’s public asset declaration system. Zelensky pledged to fire all of its judges but has yet to find any solution. The same happened with judicial reform. In 2019, Zelensky signed into law a bill aimed at cleansing Ukraine’s discredited judicial governing bodies — the High Council of Justice and the High Qualification Commission of Judges. Since then, no…

After Ukraine’s loss of its War for Independence in 1918-1921, the country fell again under the control of neighbouring foreign powers, namely: Soviet Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. This set the stage for the emergence of a massive Ukrainian Liberation Movement spearheaded by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which during World War II directed its struggle against Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Ukraine became the main battlefield between those two totalitarian superpowers, and where their violence was especially and unprecedentedly extreme. As a renowned American journalist Edgar Snow noted: “The whole titanic struggle […] was first of all…

The same Russian spies who penetrated the White House and State Department several years ago and have attempted to steal coronavirus vaccine research have carried off another brazen hack, this time breaking into the servers of one of the world’s premier cybersecurity firms, FireEye, according to people familiar with the matter. The breach was disclosed by FireEye on Tuesday, though the firm did not attribute it to Russia’s foreign intelligence service. It was detected in recent weeks, said one of the people, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia said the hackers stole sensitive hacking tools that the company uses to detect weaknesses in customers’ computer networks and that could be turned back against the same customers or others. He said they primarily went after information related to certain government customers. “We are witnessing an attack by a nation with…

Secretary General Pejčinović Burić, the United States welcomes you in your second appearance here at the OSCE’s Permanent Council. The United States is pleased to welcome you because of our heavy involvement in this multilateral organization and we look forward to continuing to cooperate with the Council of Europe, another multilateral organization. We appreciate the overview of the Council of Europe’s work this year, and how the Council responded to the needs of its member states, particularly in light of the pandemic. As we are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the United States as an observer to the Council of Europe, we are proud to be full members of the…

Сімдесят два роки тому сьогодні Генеральна Асамблея Організації Об’єднаних Націй на сесії, яка відбулася в Парижі, Франція прийняла основний міжнародний документ під назвою Загальна декларація прав людини (UNDHR). З 58 країн-членів ООН на той момент 48 проголосували за, жоден проти, вісім утрималися і двоє не голосували. Значення сьогоднішнього ювілею полягає в тому, що UNDHR є основним і живим документом. Права, які вона відстоює, включає від основних прав свободи слова, совісті, зібрань, від страху і від злиднів до набагато більш, здавалося б, недосяжних прав на отримання безплатної освіти, хоча і на обмеженому рівні, безплатної медичної опіки і рівного захисту відповідно до закону. Досить сказати, що сьогодні сімдесят два роки потому немає жодної країни з нинішніх 193 країн-членів ООН, які…

Ukrinform reported on December 9, “The U.S. House of Representatives adopted by overwhelming majority the 2021 defense policy bill which provides for sanctions against Nord Stream 2 and security assistance to Ukraine. The document was supported by 335 congresspersons, 78 lawmakers voted against, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The bill has already been passed in separate versions by the House of Representatives and the Senate and unified into a single document to be re-approved by both houses of the U.S. Congress. The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act stipulates $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine provided within the framework of the security assistance initiative and aimed to assist Ukrainian Armed Forces. The $740 billion defense policy bill provides for…

The man accused of the savage killing in 2014 of Ukrainian journalist and Maidan activist Vasyl Serhiyenko was released from custody on 3 December despite protests from both the public prosecutor and civic activists. While it is certainly an indictment of the Ukrainian justice system that Volodymyr Vorontsov had been held for a very long time without having been convicted of a crime, his release seems part of systematic obstruction to ensure that nobody ever answers for another killing of a Ukrainian journalist. The case is particularly shocking, and not only because of the significant amount of evidence backing the prosecution’s charges. It is notoriously difficult to get those who commissioned the killing to face justice. In this case, however, it is increasingly apparent that there is no will to even convict the men suspected of carrying out the crime. Voronkov is the…

Natalya was detained in 2015, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, by Russia-backed separatists who accused her of “spying” for the government in Kyiv. Held in a building that had previously housed the regional headquarters of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), she later recounted, she was locked up, beaten, raped, and refused medical attention. “They brought me to one of the guards. I became angry, asking: ‘What is this? Is this some kind of joke? It’s impossible to stay in there,'” Natalya, 40, told a Ukrainian NGO. “‘Oh, is there something you don’t like?’ said the guard. ‘Give her to our boys and they’ll tear her apart.’ They brought me to this room where they were all drunk; there was such a…

With its history of aggression toward American allies in Europe, Russia is the Euro-Atlantic community’s most dangerous cyber opponent. The Kremlin is a committed, hostile, reckless, and inventive actor that will require coordinated, consistent, and committed trans-Atlantic cooperation to manage. The Russian government views the American-European partnership as a threat to its regional and global interests, and it has committed to an adversarial relationship with the United States and its European allies. Putin’s primary aims include the “preservation of his regime, the end of American global hegemony and the restoration of Russia as a mighty and feared force on the…

After Ukraine registered its first confirmed case of the coronavirus in early March 2020, the country’s government introduced quarantine measures; banned mass gatherings; restricted freedom of movement; closed educational institutions and sports, cultural, and entertainment venues; and limited the provision of healthcare, social, and administrative services. These measures were gradually lifted starting in May 2020. The government did not introduce a state of emergency, but many critical voices, including from civil society, questioned the constitutionality of the restrictions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected in April 2019 in a landslide victory, has continued to lose popularity. Public trust in him fell from 62 percent in December 2019 to 44 percent in July 2020, according to surveys by the…

With its political and economic ramifications, the schism within the Orthodox church is about much more than religion, and Cyprus has been caught up in the maelstrom. Once again, Cyprus was in the frontline of an international struggle last week – although this time, it had little to do with maritime boundaries, gas pipelines, or even Turkey. Nonetheless, the island was in the firing line of a major global struggle, running all the way from Paris to the Donbas via the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus. “To be blunt,” Professor Vasilios Makrides, from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Erfurt, told the Cyprus Mail, “there is now a global war going on between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In this, all churches are now…

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is now investigating reports about a group of deputies of the Siurte village in Zakarpattia singing a Hungarian national anthem while pledging allegiance following local elections. “In Zakarpattia, the Security Service of Ukraine, within its competence defined by legislation, is checking information on possible signs of law violations in the actions by deputies of the Siurte rural united territorial community,” the SBU press service reports. At the same time, the SBU confirmed that the incident, which was captured on the video that leaked on social networks and went viral across Ukraine on Monday, November 30, took place on Ukraine’s Day of Dignity and Freedom, November 21. The deputies performed the anthem at the session hall at the initiative of their…

Thousands still struggle to survive in the red zone near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where just collecting a pension is nearly impossible. “Not so long ago we were switching channels and one was showing news about Gaza and Palestine,” Svitlana says, comparing her plight with that of the Middle East. “And now I’m sitting on the couch, staring at the wall, and somewhere nearby a 120 mm mortar is firing, making this wall tremble. Let it hit, or something [I thought]. I’m tired of being afraid.” [Editor’s note: the names of persons who appear in this story have been changed for their protection.] Svitlana and her family live in the so-called red zone (area of active hostilities) of a newly appeared “country” – the…

Kyiv should prepare for Washington’s increased attention to reforms in all areas, especially in fight against corruption . Democrat Joe Biden, who de facto won the U.S. presidential election but has not yet been formally approved, has already begun forming his new cabinet. He stated that the new team will include experienced specialists who are ready to perform urgent tasks from the first day. Importantly, of the whole list of key ministerial posts, Biden began with the foreign policy and national security bloc. These two areas are the most important to Ukraine. Given the names of the candidates already announced, it is already possible to predict how the next administration in Washington will form the…

One Sunday in August, two weeks after Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko declared an implausibly decisive victory in presidential elections, I joined a crowd of around 100,000 people as it moved through central Minsk. Protest in Belarus was no longer the domain of a few hundred hardy opposition figures, and the homemade placards many people carried illustrated how broad the coalition had become: “Let’s drink to love, from the bartenders of Belarus”; “Teachers against violence”; “Working class, go on strike!” The previous fortnight had been a time of national awakening, as the country united around the goal of ending Lukashenko’s 26 years in charge. As grim footage of police violence circulated on the messenger app Telegram, large numbers came out to demand that their voices be heard. The enormous crowd began to…

У США незабаром з’явиться нова адміністрація. Питання відносин із Росією, Європою перебуватимуть у полі її особливої уваги. І проблематика «Північного потоку-2» буде не на периферії цієї уваги. Бо це не просто газопровід із Росії в Європу. Чи є Німеччина, Австрія, Франція країнами-спонсорами тероризму? Звісно, ні, — скажете ви і матимете рацію, бо до цих країн прикута увага різних терористичних організацій, а їхні уряди впродовж десятиліть ведуть боротьбу з тероризмом. Чи підтримують Берлін, Відень і Париж політику державного тероризму інших країн? Ваша відповідь знову буде негативною. Але в цьому випадку не будьте занадто категоричні. Звісно, про пряму підтримку терористичної діяльності з боку респектабельних країн Європи не йдеться. Проте є неусвідомлене непряме сприяння, яке…

A delivery of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to a new terminal in Croatia and Kremlin arm-twisting of the beleaguered Belarusian regime might seem to have little in common. But they are part of the same picture: Russia’s tactical successes stoke its strategic failures. Russia inherited an enviable legacy from the Soviet empire, as the provider of plentiful, inexpensive and reliable gas. Increasing resilience by diversifying supplies, increasing storage capacity, collecting better data, building new interconnector pipelines, and enforcing competitive ownership structures seemed like a waste of time. In March 2006 an article in the Wall St Journal mocked the “hysteria” of European energy ministers who had just…

It is becoming increasingly evident that Vladimir Putin’s regime is utterly inept in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. This is evidenced by the grim numbers of those infected and online videos depicting piles of bodies in hospitals and morgues of Russia’s largest cities, as well as by the regime’s religious leaders who are strangely categorically against Russia’s newest medical achievement, i.e. the Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik­-V that was ridiculously advertised by the Kremlin’s media outlets. Russians consider the vaccine a complete fake, and it just happens that the vaccine is named after the Kremlin’s notorious propaganda giant Sputnik. Interestingly, the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to actively “combat” Covid-19 using the…

Protracted economic stagnation and a much higher COVID-19 mortality rate than is being officially reported in Russia mean that President Vladimir Putin cannot base his regime’s legitimacy on quality-of-life improvements. This suggests that more censorship, propaganda, and foreign adventurism are to be expected. PARIS – In recent weeks, macroeconomic forecasters have presented new, more optimistic global predictions for 2020 and 2021. Given the rising second wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths in much of the world, grimmer forecasts are likely to replace them soon. But even the relatively sanguine current outlooks provide little hope for economies like Russia, which was stagnating well before…

З глибокою пошаною до наших батьків ідеології українського націоналізму Тараса Шевченка, Миколи Міхновського, Дмитра Донцова, Осипа Горнового та багато інших пишу хіба свою національну єресь, хоча на мою думку вона не заперечує на сто відсотків їхні пропоновані істини чи глибше філософічно політичне мислення, а радше впроваджує український націоналізм на більш гнучкий, а то і ліберальний світогляд. Боюся того слова бо в українській діаспорі слово лібералізм це червона плахта. Зрештою я повинен признатися, що правда я мав труднощі ще з студентських років з великою частиною ідеологічного насвітлення інтегрального націоналізму Дмитра Донцова і ці непогодження актуальні досі хоч я визнаю величезну роль Дмитра Донцова у розбудові української нації 1920-30 років. Кілька днів тому назад завітав…

Occupation forces are staffed by up to 80%. Some 35,500 of Russian-controlled military oppose Ukrainian troops in the occupied Donbas, the Ukrainian military intelligence reports. That’s according to Vadym Skybystky, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. Commenting on the latest mobilization readiness checks by the Russian occupation administration, Skybytsky noted that the rear and support units are seen as best staffed. “The issue with mobilization resources was reported during inspections of army corps 1 and army corps 2 by the Russian General Staff’s commission. The shortcomings revealed are being urgently eliminated,” the Ukrainian official added. Ukraine’s military intelligence says a…

Energy giant Naftogaz is the corporate governance poster child among Ukraine’s many state-owned enterprises. Since 2014, it has transitioned from fraud-riddled drain on government finances to a profitable business model complete with good governance. Along the way, Naftogaz also extricated itself from the Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who used it to enrich themselves, and signed an important gas transit contract with Gazprom after winning billions of dollars in court from the Russian company. “Naftogaz is a clean corporation. We have cleaned up corruption,” says Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev. “Five years ago, the Naftogaz deficit was USD 6.5 billion, which came out of the Ukrainian budget. Our contribution now…

The first time Jarno Habicht, head of the World Health Organization’s office in Ukraine, spoke with the Kyiv Post was back in mid-April. The COVID-19 pandemic was just taking hold around the world, and Ukraine was under strict lockdown imposed by the authorities proactively. At the time, the country had about 4,600 cases in total and 116 deaths. Now, as Habicht speaks to the Kyiv Post again seven months later, the situation is very different. Ukraine is still fighting its first wave of the pandemic. As of Nov. 30, there were over 732,000 coronavirus cases in the country and over half of them were active. The death toll is more than 10 times what it was in April, having reached over 12,300 people. Testing laboratories have…

For the past year, U.S. officials and Russia hawks on Capitol Hill have closely watched the peregrinations of a Russian ship, as it sailed from Russia’s Far East around Africa to the Baltic Sea. The vessel—a nearly 500-foot pipe-layer named the Akademik Cherskiy—is the sole Russian-owned ship capable of completing an $11 billion pipeline. Nord Stream 2 is designed to carry natural gas under the Baltic from Russia to Germany, but its construction has been stalled for a year by the threat of U.S. sanctions. As the Akademik Cherskiy shuttled between an anchor point off Russia’s Kaliningrad and the German port of Mukran, a staging point for the pipeline, in recent months, U.S. officials readied broader sanctions. Members of Congress agreed this month on measures intended to thwart the Akademik Cherskiy and bury Nord Stream 2. Should those sanctions prevail, it would likely foil a…

The twentieth century can be considered the most tragic period in human history. Besides World War One and World War Two, it has seen perhaps the biggest tragedies of humanity, some of which are well known to our human family, while others are less familiar or almost ignored. Among the latter, we should mention the Holodomor, the Great Famine in Ukraine which aimed to kill from seven to ten millions of pious Ukrainians through starvation during the most horrible years of the Soviet regime, from 1932 to 1933, and which we prayerfully commemorate on this day. The Ukrainian term Holodomor emphasizes the human-made famine, the diabolic project of the Stalinist system which had as its aim a…

With Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms finally beginning to produce results, the old elites have hit back. On October 27, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine declared unconstitutional the powers of the re-booted National Agency on Corruption Prevention to verify civil servants’ asset declarations. The ruling removes a vital link in the chain of anti-corruption institutions established following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and undermines Ukraine’s ability to investigate suspected illicit enrichment by officials. This dramatically raises the stakes in the battle currently taking place within Ukraine over the future direction of the country. It also poses the risk of grave short-term economic and political consequences. IMF and EU support for Ukraine is…

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Holodomor Memorial Day: “Today, we remember the millions of innocent people in Ukraine who suffered and died during the Holodomor. “From 1932 to 1933, the totalitarian Soviet regime launched a campaign of starvation across Ukraine. Millions died, and countless others were arrested, deported, or executed in a genocide designed to break their will. “In the face of these horrors, the people of Ukraine endured, protecting their language, their culture, and their identity. In 1991, after decades of Soviet rule and oppression, they gained their independence. “For too many years, the perpetrators of the Holodomor denied its existence and hid the…

There are numerous reasons that help explain the lack of awareness by the public of the Holodomor and why this genocidal famine remained relatively unknown and unacknowledged until the late 1980s. Soviet Cover-up during and after Stalinist times Outright denial: the Soviet government refused offers of international aid from the Red Cross and other groups on the grounds that there was no Famine. Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov, publicly denied the existence of Famine in the USSR in 1933. Discussion of Famine, or its causes were forbidden in the Soviet press, and once the Famine was over no references were made to it in Soviet historical accounts. Moreover, citizens of the USSR were forced into silence on this issue for over half a century. Disinformation: by camouflaging the…

Прем’єр-міністр Канади Джастін Трюдо виступив із сильною заявою у День пам’яті жертв голодоморів, закликавши співвітчизників вшанувати жертв Голодомору в Україні 1932-1933 років. Заява канадського прем’єра оприлюднена в суботу 28 листопада, повідомляє “Європейська правда”. “З 1932 по 1933 рік тоталітарний радянський режим Йосипа Сталіна створив в Україні жахливий голод – геноцид, покликаний зламати дух українського народу, стерти його ідентичність і зупинити його прагнення до свободи і незалежності. Мільйони померли від голоду, багато хто з них діти, інші були заарештовані, депортовані або страчені в рамках цієї жорстокої кампанії”, – заявив Джастін Трюдо. Перед обличчям такої жорстокості українці вистояли, підкреслив канадський прем’єр. “Вони твердо трималися своєї мови і своєї культури, не дивлячись на всі…

Reuters reported on November 26, “Norway’s risk management and quality assurance firm DNV GL has suspended work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project led by Russia’s Gazprom for fear of being sanctioned by the United States, it said on Thursday. Nord Stream 2 runs alongside the existing Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea and is designed to boost the amount of Russian gas that can be shipped to Europe without having to go through Ukraine. Washington wants to stop the project as it fears the pipeline would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economic and political influence over Europe. The United States also wants to boost its own gas exports to the continent. DNV GL said the United States had…

It took Azerbaijan just 43 days to win back its territory around the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh — seven districts of mountains and foothills that had been occupied by Armenian separatists since Baku’s humiliating battlefield failures of the early 1990s. Analysts say three factors explain why Azerbaijan was so successful in the battlefield this time: technology, tactics, and Turkey. Alex Melikishvili, a research analyst at IHS Markit Country Risk, says it was Turkish support for Azerbaijan that made the war “qualitatively different from all previous conflagrations.” Melikishvili says the presence of Turkish F-16 fighter jets at a military airfield in Ganca, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, was “tangible confirmation” that the…

On Nov. 28, the fourth Saturday in November, Ukrainians throughout the world will unite on Holodomor Memorial Day in remembrance of the victims of one of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century, the Holodomor-Genocide. The facts of the Holodomor can no longer be disputed. Scholars of many backgrounds have documented this genocidal murder of Ukrainians, which paralyzed a nation for decades. Survivors have bravely shared their stories, appealing to the world to keep the Flame of Remembrance burning bright. On this 87th anniversary, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) together with the Ukrainian diaspora reaffirms its commitment to respectfully honoring the past while working determinedly toward recognition of the Holodomor-Genocide by the…

Erin O’Toole, 47, was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in late August this year. Given his party’s position as the second-largest in the federal parliament, he also became the leader of the Official Opposition and one of the main contenders for the role of prime minister. Ukrinform talked to Mr O’Toole about Ukraine, Russia, sanctions, visas and other aspects of Canada-Ukraine relations. PUSH FOR LETHAL MILITARY AID FOR UKRAINE Question: For the past few years, Ukraine hasn’t been among priorities for Canada’s international assistance. Given challenges, facing Ukraine nowadays, shouldn’t Canada pay more attention to the country? Answer: Absolutely! From the Conservative…

Ukrainians marked the Day of Dignity and Freedom on November 21, continuing a seven-year tradition that seeks to place the country’s 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution in a broader historical context. This might also be something for the international community to consider. While Ukraine’s two people power uprisings are recognized as important milestones in the country’s post-Soviet journey, their impact on the wider region has yet to be fully appreciated. This lack of clarity is perhaps understandable. Indeed, few events in modern European history have been subject to quite so much deliberate distortion. Ever since the Euromaidan protest movement first…

Volodymyr Gorbulin, former secretary of Ukraine’s RNBO, has written a book How to Defeat Russia in a Future War, which may prove to have real consequences for his country. He has authored the following short summary. First step. The realization by the military-political leadership of the state of the fact that contemporary war is different in essence – very unlike the one for which the General Staff is preparing . In September 2019, after the use of only a dozen drones filled with explosives led to the halving of Saudi Arabia’s daily oil production, and a massive attack by Turkish attack drones in Syria at the end of February 2020 led to the destruction of the Syrian air defense, it became clear that the world…

James Bezan, Shadow Minister for National Defence and Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman, today issued a statement to commemorate National Holodomor Awareness Week: “Canadians take a moment this week to join Ukrainians around the world to remember and raise awareness of the victims of Holodomor, a man-made famine ordered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Ukraine in 1932-1933. “Holodomor is without any doubt the darkest chapter in Ukraine’s history, which took millions of lives and wiped out entire villages where national traditions and self-awareness were rooted. This horrific act of genocide was an attempt to destroy Ukrainian national identity by eliminating their…

As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials, there is much discussion about the legacy of the court, convened on the basis of the London Charter, issued on August 8, 1945 for the purpose of “punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries”. Far from being a mere detail of history, Nuremberg set important precedents that are valid to this day. The trials were to establish the legal definition of what actually constitutes a “war crime” setting a precedent for today’s war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which commenced its work on July 1, 2002. Vladimir Putin has commented on the anniversary, saying that the Nuremberg trials were important “to counteract the…

In the draft, Russia says nothing about the fact that among the results of the end of WW2 were numerous mass crimes, including genocide, deportation and repression by Stalin’s Soviet regime. Ukraine at the meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly voted against the draft resolution of the Russian Federation on the glorification of the Stalinist regime. That’s according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. “Ukraine voted against yet another draft resolution ‘Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance,’ which Russia traditionally submitted for consideration in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly,” reads the statement. Ukrainian diplomats noted that members of the anti-Hitler coalition are not ready to support Russia’s draft, including all EU member states and an absolute majority of European countries…

Decentralization, more transparency, and new people in politics are some of the results Ukraine reaped after the Euromaidan revolution. Ukraine has implemented half of the opportunities provided by the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement; is the time coming to consider a new, more powerful agreement? The 16th annual conference by Kyiv Dialogue, an independent German-Ukrainian platform for intensified dialogue between the countries, was held online on 2-3 November 2020. The conference was dedicated to the consequences of the Euromaidan Revolution seven years on, as well as ongoing political transformations in Ukraine. Local elections, completion of decentralization reform as well as the…

Seven years ago, the Euromaidan revolution started in Kyiv. Initially springing up against then-President Yanukovych’s foreign policy U-turn in the refusal to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, it grew into a protest against police violence and the corrupt regime itself. Since then, Ukraine has been on a rollercoaster of dreams and crushed hopes. What did Euromaidan achieve? Did it change Ukraine? We asked activists and public intellectuals, and here is what they answered. What was the place of Euromaidan in Ukrainian history? What has it achieved, and what was not reached? Euromaidan is one of the defining moments in modern Ukrainian history and, in my opinion, it is the most important of the three revolutions that have taken place since 1990. Before Maidan, the outcomes of both, the Granite and the Orange Revolutions. The main achievement of the Revolution of Dignity is its more…

January 5, 2021 is the magic date, Senate election runoff in the Peach State. Republicans need just one seat to control the Senate, Democrats need to win both. Under normal circumstances a Senate under the control of the party not in the White House would be a good thing for democracy. The Senate would then serve to check the power of the White House. However, these are not normal circumstances. So another four years or even less would be a disaster both for America and the Republican Party. The current Senate majority leader with immense power enhanced by the abrogation of filibusters in most proceedings has become not a legislator and, certainly not a monitor of the Executive branch but an obstructionist or enabler depending on who occupies the White House. Under President Obama Senator Mitch McConnell undermined all activity by the White House blatantly doing…

In late 2013, Ukrainians gathered on the Maidan to demand their government make good on its promises of Euro-Atlantic integration. Their dignified revolution, founded on the premise that Ukraine’s Western trajectory was a vital national interest, struck a powerful blow against entrenched interests who opposed that idea. Their dream remains as alive today as it was seven years ago. Americans are particularly sympathetic to the spirit of that dream. Like Ukraine, the United States only achieved independence after a long struggle of our own. Our nation was founded through the courage of people who stood for the same principles upon which today’s Euro-Atlantic institutions are based: democracy, respect for the…

Yesterday, Ukrainians around the world commemorated the Day of Dignity and Freedom, which recalled and paid tribute to the hopeful and inspiring days in late November 2013 that set in motion the long sought after ouster of Russian gauleiters from Ukraine. The Revolution of Dignity as it became known became another tree of liberty for Ukrainians as they struggled to cement their independence proclaimed in 1991 and on numerous earlier occasions. The visions of the multitude of Ukrainians standing in the cold on Maidan, the feelings of hope and anger, anticipation and desperation reverberated deep in the hearts, minds and spirits of Ukrainians. Twenty-two years after the latest Declaration of…

In the winter of 1932, Mendel Osherowitch went on assignment to the USSR for Forverts, a New York City-based Yiddish newspaper boasting a daily circulation of 275,000. Osherowitch had been born in Trostianets, in Ukraine, before the Great War, and spoke Yiddish, Ukrainian and Russian like the native he was. Over several months, he astutely recorded life under Communist rule and found it markedly dysfunctional – sometimes criminal. Hordes of peasants could be seen clambering onto trains, escaping into the cities in an anguished search for bread. Stories circulated about rural uprisings, brutally suppressed. Parents were haunted by worries that their children would betray them to the GPU, the…

On October 27, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) canceled the requirement for government officials and supreme judges to file electronic declarations of all their assets, including salaries, property and other sources of income. This was one of the key reforms implemented since the 2013/2014 EuroMaidan revolution and an essential condition set by Ukraine’s Western partners to secure their international assistance, including loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. At the same time, the Ukrainian high court’s decision in effect invalidated the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NACA), which heretofore had important supervision powers over judges (Zn.ua, October 30). Activists and…

Якийсь час з огляду на президентські вибори у США, моя увага була скеровна на події США, одначе завжди з точки зору потреб України. Українська людина повинна жити у такому навіть напруженому стані. Де я не жив би треба якось навіть мізерно допомагати своєму народові, а найкращим удосконаленням народного прагнення це його держава. Мені 68 років і хоч я не збираюся скоро відходити то все ж таки приходять моменти навіть ностальгії коли людина дивиться на життєвий пройдений шлях, може пишатися успіхами, уболівати невдачами, але напевно важливіше встановлює найважливіші моменти свого життя. Очевидно народження це найважливіше, але…

Next year, Ukraine will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the country’s independence. Despite being widely tipped in the early 1990s to emerge as the most economically successful of the former Soviet republics, Ukraine has struggled to make the qualitative leap forward from authoritarian empire to European democracy. Instead of transitioning to a new era, it often feels as if Ukraine is stuck in a state of permanent stagnation, living from crisis to crisis and revolution to revolution. Meanwhile, the population remains mired in poverty. There is no consensus about the exact reasons why success has eluded Ukraine for the past three decades. However, few would argue that the main obstacles have been the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been very, very busy lately playing geopolitical chess, as America plays checkers. In recent weeks, Russia has stepped up its military and propaganda campaigns around the world. Russian disinformation campaigns have actively sought to influence elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. In August, Putin’s rival, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned. Talks between the U.S. and Russia on a new arms control treaty reached a stalemate in October. And Putin is the only major world leader who hasn’t called Joe Biden to congratulate him on his victory. As the U.S. election campaign dominated headlines all summer and fall, millions more people were placed under the boot of Russia in…

Attention in Ukraine is currently focused on talk of a counter-revolution that is threatening to derail the country’s anti-corruption reforms. However, away from the headlines, progress is continuing on a new privatization drive that aims to replicate the anti-corruption success which helped transform nearby countries such as Poland and Latvia. Throughout Ukraine’s post-Soviet history, privatization has been a dirty word. These negative associations are rooted in past experience of bid-rigging by corrupt political leaders that all too often handed national assets to oligarchs, cronies, or family members for next to nothing. Perceptions of privatization in Ukraine may now be in need of an…

Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in the recent six-week war between the two countries looks to have ended decades of stalemate and transformed the geopolitical balance in the South Caucasus region. It has allowed Baku to regain control over parts of Azerbaijan that had been under Armenian occupation for over a quarter of a century, while forcing Russia to accept the reality of growing Turkish influence in the region. The renewal of full-scale military hostilities in Azerbaijan in late September marked a dramatic thaw in what was one of the former USSR’s oldest frozen conflicts, dating back to the early 1990s. The course and outcome of the war offer some potentially important lessons for Ukraine, which is home to the most recent of the many little wars to erupt amid the ruins of the Soviet Empire. Since 2014, successive governments in…

The Kyiv Post reported, “The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine has overturned its first-ever conviction of an official for graft after the country’s Constitutional Court struck down key pillars of Ukraine’s anti-corruption legislation. The decision to throw the conviction out represents a major blow to Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts. In 2019, the High Anti-Corruption Court found a retired judge guilty of failing to declare her 2015 income in accordance with the law. According to the Anti-Corruption Action Center nonprofit, the individual in question was Nadezhda Posunsya, an appeals court judge in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The conviction marked the court’s first ruling since it was established in September 2019. Posunsya was reportedly fined nearly $2,000. Then, on Oct. 28, the Constitutional Court ruled that Ukraine’s asset declaration system for…

The Capitulation Resistance Movement (CRM) was informed by reliable sources that law enforcement agencies, in particular the Security Service of Ukraine, are preparing searches, initiating investigations and possible detentions of co-coordinators and activists of the CRM. These punitive actions are to take place on the eve of the anniversary of the Euromaidan Revolution of Dignity – November 21 – and is a transparent repressive action directed against the Auto/Maidan-protest rally on Nov. 21, 2020 that will begin at European Square in Kyiv at 14:00. The purpose of these repressive actions is to intimidate, discredit and paralyze the work of CRM activists. Fear is always the main motive for…

If you’d even casually followed the twists and turns of President Donald Trump’s scandalous administration, you’d be forgiven for never wanting to hear about this perennially troubled former Soviet republic again. During Trump’s impeachment, Ukraine loomed over Washington like a noxious cloud. On Capitol Hill, countless hours of testimony described Trump’s apparent extortion of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, for help discrediting his rival Joe Biden. On Twitter and conservative airwaves, Trump and his allies ceaselessly hawked baseless claims that Biden tried to block Ukrainian efforts to investigate his supposedly crooked son. Already associated with political turmoil, corruption and bad governance, Ukraine provided an ideal playground for Trump henchman Rudy Giuliani to chase damning leads in service of his employer. As a result, it was…

The Kyiv Post reported, “Ukraine’s local election saga continued on Nov. 15, with seven cities holding mayoral runoffs. The second round of voting took place in the regional capitals Odesa, Kherson, Lutsk and Sumy. The eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk; Kamianets-Podilskyi, situated in western Ukraine; and Ukrainka, a town of 15,000 people in Kyiv Oblast, also held votes. Meanwhile, three weeks after Ukraine held the first round of the nationwide local election on Oct. 25, three regions are still uncalled as results are being contested in court. The second round of voting in the seven cities saw very low voter turnout – a mere 24%, according to the Central Election Commission. Not all the runoff results have been announced, forcing observers to sometimes rely on exit polls. In Odesa, a city of 1 million people located 500 kilometers south of Kyiv, incumbent…

In 2014 Ukrainians got so fed up with the grotesque corruption of their political class that they staged a revolution. Since then, reformers have been trying to build institutions to hold the country’s oligarchs and crooked politicians to account. One big victory was establishing an electronic asset-declaration system, an online registry where officials must list all of their main possessions. But on October 27th Ukraine’s constitutional court found a clever way to cripple this system: it struck down the anti-corruption authorities’ power to punish anyone for lying on it. Piquantly, four of the court’s 18 justices were being investigated by those same authorities. After the ruling, Schemes, an investigative news outfit, reported that the…

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will face tremendous challenges when he enters office, starting with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. When it comes to foreign policy, China will be at the top of the to-do list along with restoring and reinvigorating badly frayed alliances. Dealing with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin should be high on that list, too. Russia under Putin poses an existential threat to the United States and other countries of the West, Russia’s neighbors, and his own people. Biden seems to understand that, not least because he has been the target of Russian interference in the 2020 election, including a disinformation campaign tied to Russia that was designed to…

Imprisoned behind a 14-foot wall, not because of anything they had done but because of who they were, Ukrainian immigrants in Nanaimo’s WW1 internment camp had no idea when they would be released. When war broke out, the federal government began rounding up people it deemed enemy aliens — immigrants from enemy countries. Canada was at war with Austria-Hungary, which ruled large parts of Ukraine. Thousands were put in internment camps and forced into hard labour, such as clearing forests and building roads. “British Columbia was especially malicious for going after potential enemy aliens. They were actually faster at rounding people up than the federal government,” said Borys Sydoruk, chair of the…

Russia’s reaction to the announcement of Joe Biden’s victory in the US elections has been very muted. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has yet to officially congratulate the president-elect. Putin’s political opponent Alexei Navalny, on the other hand, was quick to tweet his congratulations, wryly observing that the free and fair election was a “privilege not available to all countries”. Russia’s silence stands in stark contrast to the visible enthusiasm that greeted Trump’s victory in 2016. Trump’s face decorated boxes of sugar, while the Army of Russia store offered a 10% discount for US citizens on the day of Trump’s inauguration. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, a far-right party, was pictured drinking champagne with members of his party in celebration of Trump’s election victory. Putin’s silence is unsurprising. During the…

Ukraine’s political problems have been building up since spring. In March, President Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly removed his first government, which had only been in office since late August. Like Zelensky himself, that government had many faces. But some ministers had done good things, such as working to complete the legal reforms that his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, implemented between 2014 and 2019. Today, Zelensky faces a full-on legal and constitutional crisis engineered by anti-reform forces in the country – local oligarchs and their proxies, as well as Russian propagandists. He has belatedly promised to fight back, to try and save what is left of his presidency. But his options are limited. Instead of just replacing the prime minister, Zelensky progressively removed all reformers from the…

The late Ukrainian Canadian poet Michael Gowda, who in 1907 enlisted in the Canadian Home Guard and sought to create a Ukrainian regiment to serve the British army, once wrote a series of verses addressed directly to his new homeland. Written from the perspective of an immigrant allowed to live in Canada primarily to colonize the prairie, as 170,000 Ukrainians did between 1891 and 1914, “To Canada” describes these new Canadians as in some sense merely “holders of thy soil.” To be recognized as fully Canadian, their people would have to fight and even die for Canada. It would take a blood sacrifice for their children to one day be “free to call thee theirs,” as the poem reads. It is an outmoded vision…

After the Revolution of Dignity, one of the changes that swept through Ukraine was the revival of Ukrainian filmmaking. Hundreds of films have been made since 2014, with many of them only appearing thanks to support from the Ukrainian state film agency, a new institution dedicated to providing financial support to Ukrainian filmmakers. The works of contemporary Ukrainian cinema artists can now be viewed on Takflix, the first Ukrainian web platform which allows watching Ukrainian films online. English subtitles are provided for the majority of films. About 30 films are now available on the platform including feature films, short films and documentaries, with further additions each month. We talked with Nadiya Parfan, the platform’s creator and a Ukrainian film director, who stressed that the platform is designed to broadcast Ukrainian art films that are not necessarily…

A winter of discontent is looming in Ukraine. After six years of imperfect progress following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the political climate in the country has changed dramatically. In recent months, the country has departed from the path of reforms and embraced many of the worst practices of the toxic past. The situation is now threatening to descend into the kind of corrupt chaos that marked the first twenty-three years of Ukraine’s independent existence. As one of the reformers who entered government in the tumultuous period following the historic events of early 2014, I recognize that we have now reached an ominous crossroads in Ukraine’s nation-building journey. We may not have entirely lost the war yet, but we have clearly lost a major battle. Over the course of the past six years, thousands of young Ukrainians interupted their careers for…

As Joseph Biden prepares to become the 46th president on Jan. 20, 2021, Ukraine by and large seems happy with the choice of the American voter. If nothing else, he’s a familiar face because of his six visits to the nation as Barack Obama’s vice president and point man on Ukraine policy. Facebook boomed with old photographs of Biden posing with Ukrainian politicians, analysts, economists, and civic activists on his visits immediately after the news about his victory broke. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Biden, a stark contrast to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s non-recognition thus far of Biden’s win over Donald J. Trump. But for Kyiv, it’s more than familiarity. Biden is seen as a genuine friend of Ukraine, a politician with a good understanding of the nation’s strengths and weaknesses. Biden led the…

The Pentagon recently announced that at the request of the Polish government more U.S. troops would be deployed to Poland and at the request of Ukraine’s government more military assistance would be rendered to Ukraine, including missiles, radar equipment as well as more joint military exercises. All of these are positive steps in the European and U.S. Relationship. What is missing in these recent announcements by the currently rudderless Pentagon has been in fact on the table since the Bucharest Summit in 2008. During his most recent visit to the United Kingdom, Ukraine’s President Zelensky raised this issue once again. Ukraine need a Membership Action Plan for NATO. In 2008 the U.S. under President George W. Bush was prepared to make that happen. It was stymied by France and Germany, two historically Russia friendly states. Eight months later in Brussels the issue was a mere mention in the…

Пентагон нещодавно оголосив, що на прохання польського уряду до Польщі буде розгорнуто більше американських військ і на прохання уряду України буде надаватися більше військової допомоги Україні, включаючи ракети, радіолокаційну техніку, а також більш спільні військові навчання та маневри. Все це позитивні кроки у відносинах між Європою та США. Чого не вистачає в цих останніх оголошеннях в даний час обезголовного Пентагон це справа яка давно наспіла ще з часів Бухарестського саміту в 2008 році. Під час свого останнього візиту до Великої Британії Президент України Зеленський порушив це питання. Україні потрібен План дій щодо членства в НАТО. У 2008 році США при президенті…

Громадська ініціатива “Деколонізація України” вимагає демонтаж пам’ятника Катерині в Одесі. Попередньо влада цензурувала 5 петицій до президента з вимогами її ліквідації. Сьогодні активісти вийшли на акцію протесту, щоб привернути увагу жителів та гостей міста, адже влада ігнорує. Водночас Росія продовжує свої атаки в гуманітарному фронті, а Катерина, кат українського народу, продовжує бути символом пропаганди та русифікації. Протестний настрій в регіоні зростає. Для проведення акції об’єдналися волонтери, ветерани, патріотичні громадські організації. Не обійшлося без атак ботів, вилитого бруду про замовлений конфлікт перед виборами. Боротьба з колоніальною спадщиною є…

Since the Cold War victory, every incoming administration believed it possessed the magic formula to turn Russia into a strategic partner. Every time, the administration has been misled by the Kremlin and ended up trying to contain a new act of aggression. A Joe Biden administration can avoid such pitfalls from the outset by devising a firmer policy to constrict Moscow’s ambitions and increase NATO deterrents. Throughout his presidency, Trump believed that he could establish cooperative relations with Vladimir Putin but was prevented by his national security team from capitulating to naivety. Fortunately, they understood that Russia was an adversary challenging American influence and…

Few countries are likely to benefit more from a Joe Biden presidency than Ukraine. Biden knows Ukraine very well, having been responsible for US policy on Ukraine as vice president. He is committed both to its defense against Russia and to the country’s domestic reforms. As vice president, Biden visited Ukraine no less than five times. As a result of this intensive engagement, he also has an excellent staff that know Ukraine very well, notably Dr. Michael Carpenter, who is likely to become his key staffer for Ukraine. Ukraine played a major, though unintended, role in Biden’s defeat of Donald Trump. The impeachment of Trump was based on his “perfect” phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in…

President Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. “Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States. Ukraine and the United States have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Nov. 7. Zelensky’s message came hours after ex-Vice President Biden was declared the winner by all major U.S. news outlets, including CNN and Fox News. European Council President Charles Michel and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, have also congratulated Biden on the victory. Ukraine-US relations under Trump The…

When Victoria Spartz won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives during the U.S. elections on Nov. 3, it was big news for the Republican Party and the state of Indiana, which she represents. But unlike most things that happen in Indiana, Spartz’s victory has resonated in the Ukrainian media. Spartz is an immigrant from Ukraine. Spartz was born on Oct. 1, 1978 in Nosivka, a city of 13,000 people in Chernihiv Oblast, some 100 kilometers northeast of Kyiv. She received bachelor of science and master of business administration degrees in Ukraine and moved to the United States in 2000. In the U.S., Spartz studied at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University — Purdue University Indianapolis – and…

Вже понад 300 днів перебуває за гратами Андрій Антоненко. Шевченківський районний суд відмовився змінити йому запобіжний захід 25 серпня, так само було програно апеляцію в Апеляційному суді Києва 6 жовтня. Запобіжний захід – це про ризики, які може нести зміна запобіжного заходу. Не було ризиків, дисциплінарних скарг на Антоненка тощо Нема прямих доказів – лише побічні: недіюча міна МОН-50, що за версією слідства схожа на «вибуховий пристрій», яким було підірвано авто Шеремета, місце мешкання Антоненка, що знаходиться недалеко від місця убивства, принти на одязі, схожість ходи з убивцею. Щодо експертизи ходи, то дисциплінарна палата Мінюсту ще 31 серпня визначила, що вона не може бути як мінімум основним доказом. Відомий британський військовий експерт Глен Грант, який був…

With gridlock on the country’s years-long anti-corruption reforms caused by Ukraine’s Constitutional Court that left no apparent legal way for both President and Parliament to resolve the issue, other significant developments related to the judicial branch of power remain mostly unnoticed. Pavlo Vovk is one of the best-known judges among Ukrainians. As the head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court, he was behind multiple controversial decisions and the national anti-graft watchdog suspects him of plotting the seizure of power. But instead of leaving office and being tried, the odious judge can boost his powers even more. Compared to other Ukrainian courts, the Kyiv District Administrative Court (KDAC) led by…

Amidst a brewing constitutional crisis that has increasingly alarmed Kyiv’s partners in Washington and Brussels and put the country’s visa-free regime with the EU in jeopardy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is doubling down on the bent for cracking down on graft which swept him to power. In particular, the comedian turned anti-corruption crusader is striking back against what he has described as an “attack” on Ukraine and its democratic values—a set of rulings by the country’s Constitutional Court that have frittered away anti-corruption legislation. Zelensky has characterised his tussle with the Constitutional Court in stark terms, calling it a “fight for the soul and the future of our…

Ukrainians went to the polls in local elections on October 25. While the final results are still being certified, it is already possible to speak in broad terms about the winners and losers of the vote. The biggest winners were the growing number of incumbent mayors who have established their own political parties at the local level. It is now clear that Ukraine’s post-2014 decentralization reforms have not only strengthened the country’s cities financially and in terms of autonomy; the process has also emboldened mayors to form their own largely independent political forces. It is no longer the case that mayors are forced to bow to Kyiv-based political parties and accept a national label, which may or…

On November 13, 2020, the Ukrainian people will honor Baturyn Memorial Day, remembering the heroic defenders of the town and its residents who gave their lives for the independence of Ukraine 312 years ago. For what do we have to know the tragic fate of the Hetman’s capital? Every Ukrainian has to understand the essence of the Russian state policy towards Ukraine by the example of Baturyn and always remember that the lines of our anthem are about this: «We will lay our soul and body for the cherished freedom. Cossack blood will raise the nation of the joyous people». The readiness of the Ukrainian people to defend their Motherland was formed in the heart of Hetmanshchyna, in Baturyn! Baturyn is the capital of Ukraine in Cossack times. Ukrainian state of Hetman Demyan Ignatovich, Ivan Samoylovich and Ivan Mazepa was established here. The…

13 листопада 2020 року український народ буде вшановувати День пам’яті Батурина, згадуючи героїчних оборонців міста та його мешканців, які віддали свої життя за незалежність України 312 років тому. Для чого знати про трагічну долю столиці нашої Гетьманської держави…? Кожен українець на прикладі Батурина має чітко усвідомити всю сутність російської державної політики по відношенню до України і завжди пам’ятати, що стрічки нашого Гімну саме про це: «Душу й тіло ми положим за нашу свободу і покажем, що ми, браття, козацького роду!». Готовність українців захищати Батьківщину формувалася у великій мірі саме тут, в самому в серці Гетьманщини, в Батурині! Батурин – столиця України козацьких часів. Саме тут стверджували…

The Kyiv Post reported, “Pavlo Vovk, a top judge charged with corruption, visited the Presidential Administration soon after Volodymyr Zelenskyy took office in May 2019, the Slidstvo.Info investigative journalism agency reports. On Nov. 3, Slidstvo.Info published the second part of its investigation into Vovk based on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (NABU) recordings of conversations from the judge’s office. The recordings suggest that Vovk, head of the very influential Kyiv Administrative District Court, was in close contact with Zelenskyy’s right-hand man Andriy Bohdan prior to the election. Soon after Zelenskyy became president in May 2019, Bohdan was appointed chief of staff. Days after the inauguration, Bohdan allegedly invited Vovk to meet him at the administration. The substance of their conversation remains…

During a divine liturgy on October 24 at the Chrysoroyatissa (Our Lady of the Golden Pomegranate) Monastery in Pathos, Cyprus, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, commemorated Metropolitan Epifaniy, primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The move officially recognizes the autocephaly of the OCU. The Orthodox Church of Cyprus thus joins the Orthodox Church of Greece, the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in its official recognition of the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The move is seen as a landmark event, since the Church of Cyprus holds a special position, belonging to the “ancient” rather than “new” autocephaly, and enjoys high authority among the Greek Churches and in the Orthodox world as a whole. The archbishop was at the monastery for the…

The conflict between Ukraine and combined Russian-separatist forces in Donbas (a region encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces), which erupted in 2014, has damaged one of the largest water delivery systems in Europe’s East. Water shortages and poor water quality are worsening an already difficult humanitarian, socio-economic and political situation in a war-torn area of Ukraine abutting the frontline territories. Constant shelling threatens access to safe water and sanitation for more than 3.9 million people (including 500,000 children) in eastern Ukraine. Every fourth resident near the contact line lacks a reliable source of drinking water. On September 16, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine adopted the…

Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky will this week seek to clear out his country’s constitutional court and reboot his drive to tackle corruption in what allies and analysts described as a pivotal moment for his troubled presidency. Mr Zelensky was forced to confront judges at the court after they struck down a compulsory asset register for public servants, a cornerstone of anti-graft efforts put in place following the Maidan revolution of 2014 at the behest of western donors. Activists say the ruling is part of a systematic attempt by the court to dismantle anti-corruption institutions driven by pro-Russian politicians and lawmakers allied to powerful oligarchs who want to wreck Kyiv’s relations with the IMF and EU. Draft legislation presented to parliament by Mr Zelensky to replace the entire constitutional court will be debated as soon as Tuesday, but the…

Вітаємо Віталія на Батьківщині та хочемо сказати «ДЯКУЮ!». За те, що на увесь світ продемонстрував, хто такі українці. Не секрет, що для Росії «справа Марківа» та його засудження італійським судом були принциповими: великі гроші й зусилля були кинуті на формування громадської думки італійців. Росіянам важливим було встановлення юридичного факту (рішення суду) щодо незаконності дій наших добровольців на прикладі Віталія на Сході України в 2014-му. І їм це вдалось: італійська журналістська спільнота волала «розіпни!», а місцевий суд виніс вирок як для жорстокого вбивці — 24 роки в’язниці. Адвокат Марківа зомлів прямо в залі суду. Але Віталій тримався. Не істерив, не волав «зрада!» протягом цих більш як трьох(!) років за ґратами. Вірив в Україну, своєю вірою…

The Kyiv Post reported on November 2, “In the last two weeks, Ukraine’s Constitutional Court has rebelled against the country’s anti-corruption institutions, threatening to eliminate years of progress in battling graft. Now, new information shows how compromised judges likely laid the groundwork for this judicial insurrection. Pavlo Vovk, one of Ukraine’s most controversial and influential judges, charged with corruption, allegedly coordinated with top power brokers to replace the chairman of the Constitutional Court in May 2019. The incumbent chairman, Oleksandr Tupytsky, spearheaded the court’s recent campaign against anti-graft institutions that put the country on the brink of a political and constitutional crisis. Vovk discussed appointing Tupytsky in tapes recorded by the…

Presidential elections come and go but Russia with its adventurism, aggression and subversion certainly remains the same. Preparing the December 2020 edition of The Ukrainian Quarterly, I came across another salient article from the inaugural edition of 1944 about the detrimental absence of an understanding of the essential mutual relationship between global peace and security and Ukraine. That gap existed then and sadly it still does today. The Ukrainian Quarterly was launched by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America toward the end of World War II, at a fateful time when the allies, confident in their victory over Nazi Germany, were wrestling over plans about a post-war global arrangement that…

In the first half of October, the Ukrainian leadership concluded a series of important international agreements, with significance not only for Kyiv itself but also for buttressing regional security more broadly. First, during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s October 7–8 visit to London, Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Andrey Taran and State Secretary for Defense of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Ben Wallace signed a memorandum on strengthening cooperation in the military and military-technical spheres (President.gov.ua, October 7). Reportedly, the deal will cover production of missile patrol boats for the Ukrainian Armed Forces that will be compatible with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) standards (Pravda.com.ua, October 7). Additionally…

Ukraine is under attack. Not just at its borders, but also at the heart of its democratic institutions. I want to reassure our international partners that we will fight back and prevail. Last week, Ukraine’s constitutional court issued a destructive ruling in an effort to dismantle our anti-corruption architecture. The judges declared that the National Agency on Corruption Prevention had no constitutional right to review and reveal the asset declarations made by public servants, and that filing false information would no longer be a criminal offence. The 2016 introduction of compulsory electronic declarations and liability for illicit enrichment were the first, and most important, steps in building a framework to eliminate corruption in Ukraine. It was…

The Torn Curtain • Russia’s invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine have caused a great deal of civilian death and destruction. Not only have residential buildings and churches been targeted by Russian artillery, but intense collateral damage has been experienced by the civilian population. This has only been exacerbated by covid-19. UN Human Rights Coordinator in Ukraine Osnat Lubrani earlier this month drew attention to the problems of 1.2 million vulnerable residents of Donbas who have been facing a lot of adversity due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. On International Day of Peace, Lubrani said in a statement: “I want to draw attention to the unnoticed suffering of 1.2 million vulnerable residents of Donbas who cannot get their pension payments, travel in order to take care of sick relatives, or reunite with their loved ones. How will they, those who have almost…

While the Turkish military was testing Russian-made S-400 missiles at the Black Sea coast on Oct. 16, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hosting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Istanbul for talks on advancing defense industry collaboration. A fresh set of accords signed at the meeting underscore how Turkey’s defense ties with Ukraine have flourished in recent years against the backdrop of its uneasy relationship with Russia that has alternated between cooperation and rivalry. Speaking after the signing ceremony, Erdogan said, “Turkey sees Ukraine as a key country for the establishment [of] stability, security, peace and prosperity in the region.” Zelensky said the agreements paved the…

On October 25, Ukrainians voted in local elections for city mayors, heads of village municipalities, local and regional councils. These elections were important for two reasons. First, they were the first ones to be held under the new Election Code, which made these elections a de facto test for long-awaited electoral reform in Ukraine. And second, the elections revealed that Zelenskyy’s approval rating has drastically fallen, while the local elites managed to retain their power. In addition, they showed that the ghost of a pro-Russian comeback in the country’s east exists, but stays stable, as the pro-Russian Opposition Platform for Life mostly came in second or third place in the town and regional councils closer…

Ukraine’s young new president Volodymyr Zelensky — hailed in the West as an ambitious reformer — is an enthusiastic social media user, deploying his popular Instagram and Facebook accounts to reach large audiences during his recent election campaign. He hasn’t stopped there. Months since his landslide election in April, Zelensky’s Facebook posts are still receiving tens of thousands of reactions and thousands of comments. His chief of staff even said that the president’s team “doesn’t need journalists” to communicate with citizens, because they can do so directly. The word “bot” is sometimes used to refer to inauthentic social media users, though the term should technically refer to automated accounts. In this story, the phrases “hired account,” “fake account,” or “troll” are used to refer to inauthentic accounts, since there are real human beings behind them. But according to a…

Ukraine’s constitutional court has ruled that basic powers of one of the top anti-corruption bodies are illegal, in a significant blow to Kyiv’s western-backed efforts to crack down on widespread corruption. In its ruling made public on Wednesday, the court said the National Agency on Corruption Prevention had no constitutional right to punish public servants for filing false information in their asset declarations or to review their declarations. The court also ruled that the declarations are not to be available to the public, prompting the agency to remove them from its website. The compulsory electronic asset register was set up in 2016 under pressure from western donors and was deemed an essential tool to combat bribery and…

Конституційний Суд України мав би захищати Конституцію, перевіряючи на відповідність їй закони та інші правові акти. Зараз судді КСУ захищають олігархів, корупцію та забезпечують кругову поруку. Зокрема, судді КСУ 2010 року дозволили узурпувати владу президенту-втікачу Віктору Януковичу; скасували у лютому 2019 закон про незаконне збагачення, внаслідок чого НАБУ було змушене закрити 65 кримінальних проваджень та винесли рішення на користь Запорізького заводу феросплавів, який належить олігарху Ігорю Коломойському. Останнім часом у ЗМІ неодноразово згадувалися наміри КСУ знищити антикорупційні інституції та інструменти. Сьогодні ці чутки…

The Kyiv Post reported, “The Constitutional Court on Oct. 27 effectively canceled penalties for lying in officials’ asset declarations, according to the Kyiv Post’s sources in the court. This court’s assault on anti-corruption institutions may disrupt lending from the International Monetary Fund and lead to suspension of visa-free travel with the European Union. The court ruled that Ukrainian laws on penalties for incorrect information in asset declarations and illicit enrichment, as well as on the publication of asset declarations and the confiscation of ill-gotten wealth, were unconstitutional, according to the Kyiv Post’s sources. However, sources cited by other media said the court canceled criminal penalties for …

One of the most dangerous traps into which political analysts can fall is to dismiss as outrageous and therefore irrelevant extremist ideas expressed in crude and radical ways by political leaders as somehow unimportant and unworthy of attention except perhaps as “playing to the base.” Observers repeatedly and sagely observe that notions ranging from locking up the leader’s political opponents to killing all the Jews to reconquering former empires are so radical that even those who say these things don’t really believe them and, in the end, won’t act upon them. But again and again over the past century in country after country, such notions which started at the marginal have gone mainstream and led to…

The coronavirus pandemic has weakened the church nomenklatura not only by infecting and killing so many of its members but by highlighting the sad reality that the Moscow Patriarchate has become little more than the branch office of the state and, unlike in Soviet times, has done so voluntarily, Mikhail Sitnikov says. In a commentary for Credo Press today, the religious affairs journalist says that many fundamentalists have drawn apocalyptic conclusions from the pandemic, seeing this plague as ushering in the last days, but far more Russian believers have come to recognize that they can be Christians without “the effective managers” of the hierarchy (credo.press/233657/). They have reached that…

Як червоний терор вплинув на розвиток української культури та що нового про митців можна дізнатися з офіційних документів спецслужб, розповіли в.о. директорки Центру досліджень визвольного руху Анна Олійник та директор архіву СБУ Андрій Когут. Центр досліджень визвольного руху спільно з колегами з Грузії та Чехії готує онлайн-виставку “Репресоване мистецтво”, яка покаже життя митців через призму агентурних документів. Широкий загал побачить архівні документи навесні 2021 року, але підготовка до запуску проєкту вже ведеться. Проєкт “Репресованого мистецтва” має привернути інтерес до архівних документів через історії митців, які потрапляли у поле зору комуністичних спецслужб. З чого ж все…

I write to you as a American citizen registered to vote in the 11th Congressional district of New Jersey. I am a retired attorney at law and this matter concerns a professional colleague, Sergii Vynnyk from the Russian Federation. This matter is not only of personal concern, it is also of great interest to the global Ukrainian and the Ukrainian American community. This case which has been developed since the beginning of 2019 against Mr. Vynnyk by the Russian government appears to replicate the well known and tragic case of Sergei Magnitsky. As you know the case against Mr. Magnitsky involved an egregious abuse of human rights and resulted in his untimely death. The United States has passed two statutes in his name, one for…

The Kyiv Post reported, “The Kyiv District Administrative Court has ordered the dismissal of Artem Sytnyk, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), two sources familiar with the matter told the Kyiv Post on Oct. 26. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press. One of the most controversial legal bodies in Ukraine, the Kyiv District Administrative Court is led by judge Pavlo Vovk, who is currently a suspect in a graft case investigated by NABU. It instructed the Ministry of Justice to register Sytnyk’s official dismissal based upon a Constitutional Court ruling according to…

Just days before Ukraine held local elections experts gathered under the auspices of the Transatlantic Task Force on Ukraine for an online discussion on the state of Ukrainian reforms and politics. Experts stressed that the stakes are high in this local election, as oligarchs and pro-Russian forces are seen re-entering politics and while promising steps for reforms were made in the first months of Zelenskyy’s presidency, current prospects for such crucial sectors as the judicial and anti-corruption reforms are uncertain. Oligarchs re-entrenching themselves back into politics In his opening remarks, Jonathan Katz, a Senior Fellow and Director of Democracy Initiatives at the German Marshall Fund, said that “this is obviously a high-stakes election for…

When Vladimir Zelensky visited London earlier this month, he was met by Richard Moore, head of Britain’s MI-6 intelligence service. In that meeting, Andrey Piontkovsky says, the Ukrainian leader was told London has convincing evidence that the head of the Kyiv leader’s office, Andrey Yermak, is a Russian agent. The US-based Russian analyst who has warned about this danger for some time tells interviewer Kseniya Kirillova that the British would not have taken the unprecedented action of having an MI-6 chief brief a foreign head of state unless it wanted to warn about something as important as this (politua.org/politika/95781-andrej-piontkovskij-predatelskie-dejstviya-ermaka-stavyat-ukrainu-v-polozhenie-neradivogo-shkolnika/). Piontkovsky sees this meeting as confirmation of his warnings and…

For many years, Eastern Europe has typically been singled out as the continent’s most difficult region in terms of liberalizing gas markets, establishing competition, and creating an integrated block of countries capable of trading with each other based on mutually accepted rules. There has been a range of reasons for these challenges. In some cases, they arose because individual states struggled to make a meaningful transition from centralised to deregulated economies. In other cases, energy sectors were simply too riddled with corrupt practices, often supported by Russia, which snuffed out any…

On October 25, Ukraine held nationwide local elections. The vote was important as an indication of the political climate in the country just over a year since President Zelenskyy acquired unprecedented power via landslide victories in Ukraine’s presidential and parliamentary elections. It also had considerable practical significance in terms of the enhanced power bestowed on local authorities thanks to a decentralization process that is widely recognized as one of the most successful reforms since Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Based on exit polls released following the election, there are four major outcomes. First, this was a vote in favor of local strongmen. Incumbent mayors look to have won virtually everywhere, regardless of whether they are considered corrupt or not. Second, participation was very low…

25 жовтня Рухом Опору Капітуляції було проведено всеукраїнську кампанію #БойкотЗе. Мета кампанії – документування фактів скоєння злочину у вигляді незаконного опитування, ініційованого Володимиром Зеленським, яке не регламентується жодним нормативним актом і суперечить Конституції та Виборчому Кодексу України. Для фіксації злочину було задіяно 25 автоекіпажів (мобільних груп) за участі активістів РОК та понад 1000 небайдужих громадян, що долучалися через соціальні мережі й особисто фіксували на фото та відео порушення та надсилали їх в чати у соціальних мережах, месенджерах і на електронну пошту. Загалом було…

For a speaker of either language, it may be hard to listen to the recording without wincing: An elementary-school art teacher in Odesa berates a pupil for responding in Ukrainian, rather than Russian, quickly driving her to tears in front of her classmates. Speaking mostly in Russian, the teacher orders the girl to stand up and singles her out, rebuking her for “daring to speak Ukrainian here and putting herself above others.” A parents association posted the audio recording and identified the teacher as Rayisa Pirohova. She was fired on October 12 for “amoral behavior that is not compatible with professional duties.” The incident in the Black Sea port city, where Russian remains the predominant language almost 30 years after Ukraine gained independence in the Soviet collapse, revealed…

A short while into Mr. Jones, a film by the Polish director Agnieszka Holland, the protagonist, Gareth Jones, who has come to Moscow to learn about Soviet collectivization efforts, says he has no agenda other than finding the truth. It is 1933, and two totalitarian powers are unleashing their competing visions of the world on the Eurasian continent. Jones’ interlocutor, Ada Brooks, a Moscow-based foreign reporter, asks Jones, with not a small touch of cynicism, whose truth he is seeking to uncover. He says that he is looking for “the truth. There is only one kind.” The question of truth is at the heart of the story Holland tackles—the deadly famine, engineered by Stalin’s regime, that swept through Ukraine, the Volga Basin, the Kuban and Don regions of the North Caucasus, and Kazakhstan in the winter of 1932-1933. In Ukraine alone, where it is known by its Ukrainian name of Holodomor and often referred to as the terror-famine, it took an …

With former-comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelensky losing support, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is well-positioned to assume political power. Ukrainians will go to the polls to elect mayors and city councilors on October 25. Normally this would elicit a shrug and a yawn from all but the most ardent of Ukraine nerds. But this go-around is different. Ukraine’s telegenic president Volodymyr Zelensky swept the presidential and parliamentary elections last year. Zelensky’s Servant of the People party is likely to be thrashed in the local elections. Of Ukraine’s four cities with more than one million people (Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, and Dnipro), Servant of the People likely won’t take a single one. As my colleague Brian Mefford put it, 2020 will be a…

Нинішній вільний світ – особливо т.зв. ліберально-демократичний захід – на жаль, не втішається великими провідниками. При помочі найновіших інформаційних і політичних технологій, до керівництва державами часто приходять негідні посади особистості, а радше пересічні політики, політикани, маніпуланти публічною опінією “популісти”, жадні влади різні негідники. А у деяких країнах “невільного” світу при владі сидять прямо бандити міжнароднього масштабу. Прикриттям для такого небувалого явища у політикумі світової арени слугують поняття “ліберальна демократія” (країни традиційного заходу), “народня демократія” (країни під комуністичним режимом) , а тепер ще й нове поняття “керована демократія” чи “неоліберальна демократія” (країни з авторитарним диктаторським режимом). Автором останньої концепції є ніхто інший як владар хижацької Московії – Владімір Путін. Тривожні прояви такого тривожно деградованого…

Earlier this year, in this Permanent Council, we marked the 45th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act. Its ten guiding principles formulated a ground-breaking approach to keep our populations safe—the concept of “comprehensive security.” Among these guiding principles are respect for sovereignty, the inviolability of frontiers, the non-use or threat of force, and the territorial integrity of states. For nearly half a century, the Helsinki Final Act has been our guide as we, collectively here at the OSCE, work toward advancing the goals of a peaceful, rules-based international order. Russia has repeatedly chosen to contravene foundational Helsinki principles, not least by its invasion and purported annexation of Crimea, and its ongoing aggression in eastern Ukraine. Russia’s contempt – or disregard – for the Helsinki Final Act principles has undermined security in Europe as a…

Evangelical preacher and erstwhile presidential candidate Pat Robertson recently revealed the content of his conversation with God during which God foretold that Donald Trump would be reelected president, chaos, civil disorder and even assassination would follow and then time as we know it would end. Given that Preacher Pat is 90 years old and probably somewhat hard of hearing, we can’t be sure if the preacher did not miss a simple word like “if” as in “if” Trump is reelected the following events would ensue. Either way the Robertson message, perhaps, contrary to his intentions, was subliminally more likely to encourage people to vote for Joe Biden if only to escape the chaos and continue our lives because life is the most precious gift from God. The final presidential debate was a…

Євангельський проповідник і колись кандидат у президенти Пат Робертсон нещодавно розкрив зміст його розмови з Богом, під час якої Бог сказав, що Дональд Трамп буде переобраний президентом, хаос, громадянський безлад і навіть вбивство буде слідувати, а потім час, як ми знаємо, закінчитьсяб тобто буде кінець світу. З огляду на те, що Проповіднику Пету 90 років і, ймовірно, дещо важко чути, ми не можемо бути впевнені, що проповідник не пропустив просте слово на кшталт “якщо”, як у “якщо” Трамп буде переобраним відбудуться наступні події. У будь-якому випадку послання Робертсона, можливо, всупереч його намірам, було підсвідомо більш імовірно, щоб заохотити людей голосувати за Джо Байдена, якщо б тількиб щоби уникнути хаосу і продовжувати наше життя, тому що життя є найдорожчим даром від Бога. Фінальні президентські дебати були…

In 2016 the Russian government and its proxies interfered in the U.S. presidential election in a “sweeping and systematic” fashion.1 Thanks to multiple bipartisan investigations and the work of researchers and journalists, rich detail about that operation—and the tools Russia’s disinformation agents used to execute it—are available to the public. In 2020 Americans are again preparing to elect a president. As the U.S. intelligence community assessed, and FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed in recent testimony before Congress, Russia is conducting a “very active” interference campaign.2 Since 2016, Russia’s interference activity in the United States, and elsewhere around the world, has not abated. That’s because elections are a flashpoint for Russian information operations, but not the start or endpoint of this…

Editor’s Note: United by Ukraine is a collaboration between the Kyiv Post and the Ukrainian World Congress. It offers special coverage that showcases the contribution of diaspora Ukrainians to their homeland. When Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn heard a story about a 15-year-old EuroMaidan volunteer whose face was badly injured as a result of a bomb blast, he knew he had to go to Ukraine to help. “He was a young patriotic boy with a devastating, life-changing injury. He was one of the main reasons that I decided I need to go to Ukraine to operate,” Antonyshyn said. The renowned Toronto surgeon was ready to put his life in Canada on hold to help his counterparts in Ukraine as they were dealing with the avalanche of patients with complex post-traumatic defects and…

Victor Medvedchuk, Vladimir Putin’s key ally in Ukraine and the leader of the pro-Russian “Opposition Platform For Life” party, has very likely been using a huge troll army on Twitter. UkraineWorld digs into his hidden brigades of online warriors. Victor Medvedchuk is a well-known name in Ukrainian politics. He was the head of the presidential administration (2002-2005) under President Leonid Kuchma. He is probably the closest Ukrainian to Vladimir Putin – in 2004, Putin became godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter, Darya. His public life goes way back — in 1980, he was the state-appointed attorney of Vasyl Stus, a prominent Ukrainian dissident poet and a symbol of Ukrainian resistance during Soviet rule. In his book about the process, Ukrainian journalist Vakhtang Kipiani argues that…

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported, “Controversial Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk cannot erase his shameful role as a Soviet state-appointed lawyer in the political trial of the great Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus, but he is trying to silence those who write about the part he played. The startling ruling by the Darnytsky District Court in Kyiv on October 19, prohibiting circulation of the book ‘Vasyl Stus Case’ by Vakhtang Kipiani, probably demonstrated Medvedchuk’s considerable influence in Ukraine, but only increased interest in the latter’s treatment of Stus, with all copies of the book sold out within an hour and a further 3,500 print run announced. The lawyer representing Kipiani is also…

Michel Chossudovsky is a University of Ottawa professor emeritus whose website has a Facebook following of more than 275,000. But ahead of the U.S. election, his website has come under renewed scrutiny as a source of Russian-aligned disinformation. As U.S. authorities guard against dirty tricks from foreign adversaries in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election, an unlikely source has come under new scrutiny as a major conduit of Russian-linked disinformation: a Montreal-based website run by a retired University of Ottawa professor. The platform, Global Research, features a Canadian domain name and offers an ever-expanding collection of conspiracy theories, such as the myth that the 9/11 attacks and COVID-19 pandemic were both planned in order to…

On Oct. 15, 2020, a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh returned an indictment charging six computer hackers, all of whom were residents and nationals of the Russian Federation (Russia) and officers in Unit 74455 of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. These GRU hackers and their co-conspirators engaged in computer intrusions and attacks intended to support Russian government efforts to undermine, retaliate against, or otherwise destabilize: (1) Ukraine; (2) Georgia; (3) elections in France; (4) efforts to hold Russia accountable for its use of a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok, on foreign soil; and (5) the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games after Russian athletes were banned from participating under their nation’s flag, as a consequence of Russian government-sponsored doping effort. Their computer attacks used some of…

До цього списку включені фахівці в області політичних технологій, які залучаються для реалізації різних завдань на кошти та з ініціативи Євгена Пригожина. Останні роки значна частина активності припадає на країни Африки, що знаходяться в зоні інтересів підприємця – зокрема, за наявними даними, пов’язані з ним компанії видобувають золото в ЦАР і ведуть його пошуки на території Судану. ЗМІ повідомляли, що Пригожин має інтереси як мінімум в 39 африканських країнах, при цьому принаймні в 20-и з них працюють пов’язані з ним політтехнологи. Серед отримавших найбільш широкого розголосу кампаній і заходів т.зв. «Африканського проекту» в першу чергу можна відзначити спробу впливати на…

Enemy Alien is an absorbing and revealing graphic novel looking at the daily life and brutal conditions inside one of Canada’s wartime internment camps where thousands of innocent migrants were placed during the First World War. Upon joining the war in 1914, the Canadian government quickly invoked the War Measures Act, and issued the Proclamation Respecting Immigrants of German or Austro-Hungarian Nationality. This legislation effectively suspended civil liberties and allowed law enforcement officials to begin arbitrarily arresting and detaining alleged “enemy aliens” — those persons of German or Austro-Hungarian descent who were suspected of aiding the enemy by way of espionage or…

The following material facts are not in dispute: The poet Vasyl Stus was arrested for the second time in 1980. His case was brought to trial in the same year. The Soviet Court appointed Soviet attorney Viktor Medvedchuk to defend him. Stus met with Medvedchuk and declined his representation. Nonetheless, the Court insisted upon Medvedchuk’s defense sometimes even in Stus’ absence. In his client’s defense Medvedchuk admitted all of the charges, but asked for clemency based on Stus’ productive work as a menial factory worker for the state in the period between his arrests. Stus died in prison in September 1985. In 2019 Ukrainian-Georgian journalist Vakhtang Kipiani specializing in history published a book entitled “The Case of Vasyl Stus Collection of Documents from the…

Такі матеріальні факти є не суперечливими: поета Василя Стуса заарештували вдруге в 1980 році. Його справа була доведена до судового розгляду в тому ж році. Радянський суд призначив радянського адвоката Віктора Медведчука захищати його. Стус зустрівся з Медведчуком і відмовився від його представництва. Тим не менш, Суд наполягав на захисті Медведчука іноді навіть за відсутності Стуса. На захист свого клієнта Медведчук визнав усі звинувачення, але попросив помилування на підставі продуктивної роботи Стуса як працівника фабрики для держави в період між його арештами. Стус помер у в’язниці у вересні 1985 року. У 2019 році українсько-грузинський журналіст Вахтанг Кіпіані, що…

Those who have been to war never truly leave it. Even in peace, the war is always there, like a chasing moon you can’t outrun. For some, the inescapability of war’s aftereffects leads to their destruction. For others, like Ukrainian veteran Oleksii Kachko, it leads to new heights they might not have otherwise achieved. “My dream was never to be a soldier, and I never imagined there’d be a war in my country,” Kachko, 25, says as we share a coffee in the back office of one of his six Veterano coffee shops in Mariupol, a port city about 10 miles from the entrenched front lines where Ukrainian troops have weathered Russian rockets, artillery, and sniper shots since 2014. “But war changed how I see life,” Kachko continues. “Before, I was just a normal guy. Now, I see that life is not black and white. I have so much experience now, and I understand that I have the power to change things and…

The Polish unit of the Dutch bank ING, ING Bank Slaski, for years allegedly helped Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs move huge sums of money out of ex-Soviet Union countries, according to the US Treasury’s fraud investigation department, FinCen. FinCen files were leaked to and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), BuzzFeed, and 110 journalists from 88 countries, including Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland. The context Russian money has since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 sought safe investment havens in the West such as in Swiss banks, London properties, and French yachts. With a deeply politicized legal process at home, and the tax office often used as a…

Oleksandr Kosmach, a photographer from Kyiv with a love for history, collects historical stamps issued by Ukrainian diaspora organizations in the XX century. A photo article about these stamps, which served as political propaganda for an independent Ukrainian state while it was part of the USSR, was published by The Guardian/The Observer, but subsequently deleted without explanation. Mr. Kosmach supposes that references to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and accusations of “Russophobia” were the reason for the censorship. Here we bring you information about the stamps, and Mr. Kosmach’s investigation into the fact of the…

A cross-party group of 29 Ukrainian MPs has issued the following joint letter raising the alarm over the international security implications of Russia’s unfinished Nord Stream 2 pipeline project: The Kremlin is on a roll. So far this year, it has used dubious means to entrench its rule, likely poisoned one of its main critics, and now works to suppress protests in Belarus—all while gaslighting the transatlantic intelligentsia regarding the aims of its fledgling economic weapon – the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. Russia’s state-owned Gazprom owns 100% of the project. The company has dumped billions of dollars to build these unnecessary pipelines, placing lavish orders with European suppliers. Will Gazprom ever get the…

As the presidential election draws nearer, who will be the next president of the United States is on almost everyone’s mind, not only in the United States, but throughout the world, and, in particular in Ukraine. President Trump’s lack of vocal affinity for Ukraine and Ukrainians while heaping praise on Ukraine’s enemy during his term of office is well known emphasized best perhaps by his comment that he likes Putin and Putin likes him. Even his surrogates have been less than congenial towards Ukraine among them his chief diplomat who if nothing else should at least have learned to be diplomatic. Secretary of State Pompeo’s statement that nobody cares about Ukraine was disgraceful. However, lest anyone…

Оскільки президентські вибори наближається, хто буде наступним президентом Сполучених Штатів, майже на думці кожного, не тільки в Сполучених Штатах, але і в усьому світі, і, зокрема, в Україні. Відсутність озвученої симпатії президента Трампа для України та українців та рівночасно похвали на ворога України під час його терміну повноважень добре відомі, а найкраще підкреслюється його коментарем про те, що йому подобається Путін і він Путіну. Навіть його сурогати не являються симпатичними по відношенню до України серед них його головний дипломат, який якщо ніщо інше повинен був хоча б навчитися бути дипломатичним. Заява держсекретаря Помпео про те, що…

The League of Ukrainian Canadians congratulates Eugene Czolij on his appointment as Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Montreal. Mr. Czolij signed the agreement to take on the role of Honorary Consul in an online ceremony. “It will be both an honour and duty for me to fulfill the obligations of Honorary Consul by promoting the interests of Ukraine in Canada and furthering the development of commercial, economic, cultural and scientific relations between the two countries,” stated Mr. Czolij. Eugene Czolij was an active member of the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM) and the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress from 1998-2004. He also was President of the Ukrainian World Congress from 2008 to 2018. Since 2019, he has been President of NGO “Ukraine-2050”. Mr. Czolij’s leadership, patriotism, experience and…

Turkey and Ukraine signed military cooperation agreements in Istanbul on Friday, deepening a defense partnership seen as an effort to counterbalance Russia’s dominance in the Black Sea region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan oversaw the signing of a “goodwill” agreement concerning the defense industry and a “military framework agreement,” officials said, although details of the agreements were not immediately known. “Turkey sees Ukraine as a key country for the establishment [of] stability, security, peace and prosperity in the region,” Erdogan said following the signing ceremony between the two Black Sea nations that have been enhancing military ties in recent years. Zelensky said the agreements pave the way for “new opportunities.” “Cooperation in the defense industry is important for the…

Ukraine’s latest national security strategy document is yet another step in the country’s decades-long struggle to uphold its sovereignty and territorial integrity. October has already been a busy month for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He attended an EU–Ukraine summit in Brussels (6 October), followed by a visit to the UK (7–9 October), including an interview with BBC HARDtalk, and hosted a visit to Ukraine of Polish President Andrzej Duda (12–13 October). Reforms, the rule of law, fighting corruption and national security dominated these meetings. The UK and Ukraine signed a historic ‘Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement’ based on the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement. The UK continues training Ukrainian forces and…

According to a statement by the Ukrainian government, Zelensky will sign a bilateral military cooperation agreement during his visit. This agreement aims to have a big impact on security and peace in the Black Sea region. Defense relations between the two countries have developed rapidly, with military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey’s defense industries carrying various mutual benefits. In early July, Ukraine’s National Defense Minister Andriy Taran voiced an interest in Turkish-made drones at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in Kyiv. Ukraine already purchased the combat drones Bayraktar Tactical Block 2 (TB2) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Turkey last year. The…

Disinformation works, and pro-Kremlin disinformation is often able to influence people’s opinions. This is the conclusion drawn from recent research on “online astroturfing”. The researchers investigated the psychology behind effective mitigation strategies and the effectiveness of three “vaccines” against online disinformation. The research by Thomas Zerback (University of Zurich) and Florian Töpfl (Free University of Berlin), shows that forged comments can change the political opinions of audiences online. Furthermore, it seems inoculation against manipulated messages only works when it debunks the exact fake argument. Sadly, the research also shows the effect only works for a short period and…

U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The intelligence raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to the president, the former officials said…

Over the last several years, the future of the European energy supply has become an increasingly geopolitical topic. It has become more and more linked to the questions of security, competing gas transportation routes, and continuously tense Ukrainian-Russian relations. In late 2019, Kyiv concluded a new and beneficial transit agreement with Moscow for the transfer of Siberian gas to the EU, in part due to fresh US sanctions against Russia’s off-shore pipeline projects. This 5-year deal is currently securing the continued use of a part of Ukraine’s large gas transportation system, and as long as Gazprom’s Nord Stream II pipeline through the Baltic Sea does not go forward, the Ukrainian gas transportation system will have some prospect, use, and income. These well-known confrontations and…

The Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center (UCRDC), which is involved in research on victims of the Holodomor and on the events of World War II in Ukraine, recently launched a new oral history project: interviews with the children of Holodomor survivors – persons who did not themselves live through the famine but experienced it through their family history. Something similar has been done in the Jewish community, where it has been established that trauma can be transmitted from Holocaust survivor parents to their offspring. Under the guidance of archivist Iroida Wynnyckyj, the project is ongoing at the UCRDC. Ms. Wynnyckyj and sociologist Vsevolod Isajiw developed a questionnaire and…

James Bezan, Shadow Minister for National Defence and Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman today issued the following statement on Defender of Ukraine Day: “Today, I join Ukrainian Canadians and Ukrainians around the world as we celebrate the fifth annual Defender of Ukraine Day. “Ukrainians have fought hard for their independence and sovereignty. To honour the contributions of every Ukrainian who fought for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Government of Ukraine established this new holiday five years ago, following Russia’s illegal occupation of the Donbas and annexation of Crimea. “I offer my thanks to all who have stood on the front lines, protested on the Maidan, and supported democracy and the rule of law. These are the…

The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission gave a pretty damning assessment of major elements in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s judicial reform bill last week, although many Ukrainians might be forgiven for thinking the opposite was true. Deliberate manipulation of the facts have prompted fears that plans are underway to push through the entire bill, claiming this to have received the green light from the European experts. In their report on the Venice Commission’s conclusions, Stepan Berko and Mykhailo Zhernakov from DEJURE, together with Halyna Chyzhek from the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, said that the first bill that Zelensky proposed almost a year ago on judicial reforms did raise some hopes, and…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s state visit to the UK in early October was probably the most consequential foreign relations act of his presidency to date. It resulted in a range of important agreements on trade, security and other areas, taking UK-Ukraine cooperation to a new and much higher level. “This is a new page for Ukrainian–British cooperation and an unprecedented event for Ukraine,” noted the Ukrainian leader. The visit began with an audience at Buckingham Palace, where President Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska were met by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. President Zelenskyy next traveled to the…

Since taking office in spring 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made ending the Russo-Ukrainian War his top priority. However, almost one-and-a-half years later, he has little to show for his efforts. A ceasefire introduced in late July has succeeded in reducing the death toll in eastern Ukraine, but the Russian occupation continues and genuine breakthroughs towards a lasting settlement remain as elusive as ever. Zelenskyy’s commitment to peace was central to his success in Ukraine’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections. Despite this focus, his administration has yet to demonstrate a clear strategy for ending the six-year conflict. Instead, Zelenskyy has adopted a scattergun approach that…

Ukrainian political analyst, journalist and writer Vitaliy Portnikov wrote for espreso.tv, “Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that some sort of national polling will be held during the local elections on October 25. This is one of the strangest ‘polling’ of the population that one has ever heard of. The head of state announced a poll, but he doesn’t say what questions Ukrainian citizens will be asked to answer. It seems we are talking about polling entirely for the sake of polling, that Zelenskyy and his circle are creating an illusion of democracy in conditions of domination by populists and corrupt officials. And the President’s team isn’t even capable of explaining to citizens what they’ll be ‘voting’ on. To them, this is entirely…

Дисциплінарна палата Міністерства юстиції України винесла дисциплінарну догану експертам КНДІСЕ Ірхіну і Семенцю. Підставою стала так звана експертиза, на якій будувалися практично всі докази слідства у справі Шеремета. Дисциплінарна палата постановила, що методики, використаних експертами, не регламентуються жодним документом Мінюсту. Більше того, було визнано, що методики, використані в «експертизі» є особистою думкою Ірхіна. Сам експерт відкрито відзначив, що методики, якою він користувався… ще немає, вона в процесі створення. Разом з тим, МВС продовжує дезінформовувати та дезорієнтовувати суспільство, написавши, що…

For the past few days, Ukraine has been experiencing massive wildfires on its eastern border, particularly in Luhansk Region. The fire has already claimed the lives of dozens of people and destroyed many homes. The fires have covered an area of more than 100 sq km. There is direct evidence that these fires were the result of deliberate arson committed by Russian aggressors or their mercenaries. This is a well-organized military operation. The fires were started in the gray zone and then reached the frontline positions and nearby rear areas of the Ukrainian forces. History knows many examples when fire was used as a weapon against the enemy. After all, fire is not only an element that destroys material objects, it is also important as an instrument of psychological pressure, as something that…

Western democracies have expressed concern and outrage, at least verbally, over the Novichok poisoning of Alexei Navalny—and this is clearly right and necessary. But much less attention is being paid to the case of Yuri Dmitriev, a tenacious researcher and activist who campaigned to create a memorial to the victims of Stalinist terror in Karelia, a province in Russia’s far northwest, bordering Finland. He has just been condemned on appeal by the Supreme Court of Karelia to thirteen years in a prison camp with a harsh regime. The hearing was held in camera, with neither him nor his lawyer present. For this man of sixty-four, this is practically equivalent to a death sentence, the judicially sanctioned equivalent of a drop of nerve agent. After an…

Andriy Yermak says unrest in Belarus means his country needs to strengthen defences. The UK is willing to provide a large lethal weapons contract to Ukraine and a £1bn loan to help Ukraine’s navy build new ships capable of use in the Black Sea, according to a senior aide to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Andriy Yermak, the head of office to Zelenksy also warned that the suppression of post-election unrest in neighbouring Belarus posed a potential direct threat to Ukraine, and said his country was seeking assurances from the European Union and the UK about helping to safeguard its security. An EU or Nato centre to combat Russian disinformation and counter propaganda based in Ukraine was…

Наспіває час, коли звичайна людина яка працює майже ціле своє життя в українській громаді у діаспорі приходить до сумного висновку, що дуже багато осіб котрі уважають себе громадськими діячами це фактично малі особи котрі керуються вузькими інтересами, а то і здебільша власними егоїстичними. Це явище фактично більш помітне сьогодні, тому що майже все наше “найкраще покоління” відійшло і залишилися здебільша маргінесові його представники та діти і онуки того покоління які в більшості позбавлені ідеології, а до принципів ставляться дуже гнучко. Мої батьки були зареєстровані американські виборці як Республіканці. Це були Республіканці Айзенгавера, Голдвотера і Рейгена. Їхня ідеологія яка керувала їхнім…

A series of crises in Russia’s neighbors is upending the Kremlin’s plans for deeper economic and defense ties with the former Soviet republics, leaving a vacuum for regional competitors such as China and Turkey to exploit. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long tried to strengthen economic and defense relations across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, from Belarus in the west to Kyrgyzstan in the east. Russia still has military bases in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, and there are strong commercial and cultural ties with those regions. But the chaos encircling Russia—including an upsurge in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan—together with subtle diplomatic and economic shifts is eroding…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hoped to use his October 6 summit with European Union leaders in Brussels to demonstrate his continued commitment to the reform agenda underpinning Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. However, events in Kyiv on the eve of the summit will only have served to amplify concerns over the country’s direction under Zelenskyy, as was evident in an anodyne joint summit statement highlighting “the importance of accelerating and reinforcing reform efforts.” On the day before this year’s EU-Ukraine Summit, the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) issued a reprimand and expression of no confidence in First Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova and Deputy Governor Dmytro Sologub, who…

In early September 2020, the United States imposed sanctions against Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach, who was identified as “a Russian agent for more than a decade, who coordinates his activities closely with Russian intelligence agencies.” Unfortunately, Derkach is far from the only Russian agent currently serving as a member of the Ukrainian parliament. There are dozens of MPs in today’s Ukrainian parliament who are actively spreading anti-Western propaganda and promoting Russian interests. They attack the independent state institutions that serve as pillars of Ukraine’s cooperation with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, while also working to discredit civil society activists and…

В продовження публічної дискусії навколо проектів Меморіалу і Музею Голокосту на території Бабиного Яру в Києві, звертаємо увагу на Звернення української культурної та наукової спільноти щодо меморіалізації Бабиного Яру (травень 2020): https://cutt.ly/Df0hDT0 та Звернення українських євреїв до громадянського суспільства України (вересень 2020): https://cutt.ly/nf0h9Wh Йдеться про протистояння двох проектів вшанування пам’яті жертв Бабиного Яру: російського та українського. Відповідно російський проект в основному фінансується підконтрольними путінському режимові російськими мільярдерами, які також фінансують проекти, що сприяють зміцненню воєнного…

The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan plunged into political chaos on Tuesday after opposition groups seized control of Parliament and released their imprisoned leaders in protests over parliamentary elections they called rigged. Under mounting pressure from the protesters, the country’s Central Electoral Commission annulled the results of the Sunday vote, a day after having awarded the majority of seats to two political parties with ties to the president, Sooronbai Jeenbekov. Overnight, a small group of protesters broke away from the main body and tried to gain entry to the White House, the main government building that houses the Parliament and the presidential administration in Bishkek, the capital. After the…

The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported, “A petition calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to help dissolve the notorious District Administrative Court in Kyiv (OACK) has already gained well over 10 thousand signatures, with the numbers in recent days rising rapidly. The President is the only person able to table a draft bill to dissolve a court which has lost any credibility following judicial corruption scandals and an endless stream of highly dubious rulings. The petition was initiated by journalist Danylo Mokryk on 30 July this year, following the publication by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau [NABU] of yet more compromising conversations held in the office of the head of the…

Charles Michel, President of the European Council, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Josep Borrell, Vice-President of the European Commission on behalf of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, met in Brussels today for the 22nd EU-Ukraine Summit and issued the following statement. We gathered today to reaffirm our continued commitment to strengthening the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the European Union, on the basis of the Association Agreement and its Deep and…

Комітет «Саду Праведників – Ґаріво» м. Мілан визнав митрополита Андрея Шептицького Праведником, вписавши його ім’я серед «Праведників Монте Стелла». Церемонія вручення відзнаки відбулась 7 жовтня у Саді Праведників Мілану. «Під час Другої світової війни український митрополит Андрей Шептицький прийняв в митрополичі палати та греко-католицькі монастирі сотні переслідуваних євреїв, рятуючи їх від смерті. Ризикуючи власним життям, він писав до Гітлера та Гімлера, завзято протестуючи проти винищення євреїв та забороняючи українцям брати участь в нацистських акціях», — йдеться в пергаменті відзнаки. Для отримання відзнаки Блаженніший Святослав, Отець і Глава УГКЦ, делегував владику…

The European Union on October 1 announced asset freezes on four companies and two individuals responsible for the construction of the Kerch Strait railway bridge. It also imposed visa bans on the two individuals, Alekandr Ganov and Leonid Ryzhenkin. Ganov is the director of the JSC TC Grand Service Express, which operates the railway service between Russia and Crimea, and Ryzhenkin is the deputy director for infrastructure projects at Stroigazmontazh, the firm that supervised the construction of the bridge. The following entities will have their EU assets frozen: Crimea Railway, the owner and operator of the railway tracks on the bridge; the First Crimean Insurance Company, which insured the…

Imperial ambition could again cost Russia. On Sept. 14 in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled that Russia was throwing its weight behind embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. But any move by Putin to enforce his will in Belarus with force could invite tougher Western sanctions and scare investors, exacerbating problems of the already flagging Russian economy. Since a fraudulent presidential vote on Aug. 9 which allegedly gave Lukashenko an 80% vote for a sixth term, hundreds of thousands of people have peacefully protested calling for an end to his 26-year dictatorship. Lukashenko appealed to President Vladimir Putin, who said he had created a police reserve in case…

The Kyiv Post reported on October 2, “After a wave of protests under the European Union and Ukrainian flags erupted on Kyiv’s Independence Square in November 2013, disinformation ran rampant about the motives and values of people who participated in the demonstrations. But in late December 2013, one piece of fake news particularly stood out. A video filmed on a mobile phone on Kyiv’s central Khreshchatyk Street, right next to the protesters’ camp, showed several women who presented themselves as sex workers and said they came to Independence Square to service clients among protesters. […] The story became memorable and was followed by a news article about thriving prostitution on…

The Battle of Ilovaisk lasted from August 7th to September 2nd, 2014, and six years later it remains the deadliest battle in Russia’s war against Ukraine in the Donbas. Ukrainian forces consisted of various volunteer regiments from different regions of Ukraine. Their mission was to capture and restore government control over the separatist-occupied city of Ilovaisk. Enemy forces were made up of various battalions from the Donbas People’s Militia supported by Russian ground forces and airborne troops, a fact which the Russian government continues to deny. The approximate number of Ukrainian troops deployed during the Battle of Ilovaisk was less than two thousand with hundreds of soldiers killed during…

Dear Mr Arakhamia, We heard you only reply to letters, so we wrote you one. We also heard that you consider the danger of losing the Visa-Free regime and financial assistance to be only “rumors”. Allow us to explain why that is not the case: The people of Ukraine have many true friends in the European Union and this is important to remember. We, the handful members of the European Parliament, consider ourselves to be a few of that many. Since 2014 alone, the EU invested over €15 billion in Ukraine. We share this rather unknown fun-fact with you, not to solicit your gratitude but to reaffirm that the fate of your country is very dear to us and we deeply care about its future. We also share it to remind you that…

Over the last decade Russia has managed to liquidate essentially any organized Ukrainian ethnic community in the Russian Federation, invade Ukraine, annex a portion of its territory by force and illegitimate referendum and forge a largely frozen conflict with only Russia disturbing the peace occasionally in two of Ukraine’s easternmost regions. The methodology employed in all instances has been quite simple. Lies, extortion, political pressure and overt fire accompanied by the willingness of some observers to believe have enabled Russia to proceed as planned despite pervasive global condemnation which Russia ignores. Russian lies are predicated on a disingenuous debate and the inability of Russia’s opponents to…

За останнє десятиліття Росії вдалося ліквідувати по суті будь-яку організовану українську етнічну спільноту в Російській Федерації, вторгнутися в Україну, силою анексувати частину її території нелегітимним референдумом і створити значною мірою заморожений конфлікт з тим лише, що час від часу Москва турбує мир у двох найсхідніших регіонах України. Методологія, що використовується в усіх інстанціях, була досить простою. Брехня, здирництво, політичний тиск і надмірний вогонь, що супроводжується з готовністю деяких спостерігачів вважати закономірним, дозволили Росії діяти так, як планувалося, незважаючи на всепоглинаючому глобальному засудженні, яке і так ігнорує…

Єдина Київська Церква в єдиному патріархаті, без взаємного поборювання, але з діленням тими дарами, які ми назбирали по дорозі до цієї єдності, є мрією Блаженнішого Любомира і його заповітом для усіх нас. Про це сказав Блаженніший Святослав, Отець і Глава УГКЦ, в рамках проєкту «Прилучитися до великого», розповідаючи про роль Любомира Гузара в розбудові УГКЦ та зміцненні Церкви в Україні. «Блаженніший Любомир назавжди увійшов в історію, як Глава Церкви, переслідуваної, гнаної, який повернувся зі своїм осідком до її витоків. Він повернув осідок Глави Української Греко-Католицької Церкви до Києва», – ствердив Блаженніший Святослав. Цей поворот…

After many months of delays, President Zelenskyy finally approved Ukraine’s new National Security Strategy in mid-September. This is the fourth Ukrainian security strategy document to be produced during the country’s nearly thirty years of independence, and follows the publication of similar documents in 2007, 2012, and 2015. Ukraine’s new security blueprint has little of the ambiguity or euphemistic language often associated with President Zelenskyy. Instead, Russia is repeatedly identified as an aggressor and NATO membership is frequently mentioned as Ukraine’s key national security objective. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the subsequent actions of the Zelenskyy administration will…

Україна у вересні відзначила 75-і роковини початку примусової депортації жителів Лемківщини, Надсяння, Холмщини, Південного Підляшшя, Любачівщини, Західної Бойківщини в 1944–1951 роках. Комуністичні режими СРСР та Польщі шляхом масштабниx репресій, терору та конфіскації майна виселили майже 500 тисяч жителів у різні регіони тодішньої УРСР. На Донбасі поблизу Бахмута в селах Званівка, Верхньокам’янське та Роздолівка оселилося 340 родин із Західної Галичини. За понад пів сторіччя вони зберегли культуру, віру та традиції. А нещодавно створили об’єднану територіальну громаду. Команда спільного проєкту Радіо Свобода та «Настоящего времени» в Україні зняла документальний фільм…

Наспіває час, коли звичайна людина яка працює майже ціле своє життя в українській громаді у діаспорі приходить до сумного висновку, що дуже багато осіб котрі уважають себе громадськими діячами це фактично малі особи котрі керуються вузькими інтересами, а то і здебільша власними егоїстичними. Це явище фактично більш помітне сьогодні, тому що майже все наше “найкраще покоління” відійшло і залишилися здебільша маргінесові його представники та діти і онуки того покоління які в більшості позбавлені ідеології, а до принципів ставляться дуже гнучко. Мої батьки були зареєстровані американські виборці як Республіканці. Це були Республіканці Айзенгавера, Голдвотера і Рейгена. Їхня ідеологія яка…

Russia is seeking to destabilise countries around the world by sowing disinformation about coronavirus vaccines that is shared rapidly across social media, the head of the armed forces has warned. Gen Sir Nick Carter, the chief of defence staff, said the propaganda tactic reflected a strategy of “political warfare” aggressively undertaken by Beijing as well as Moscow “designed to undermine cohesion” across the west. The senior general accused “autocratic rivals” of “manipulating the information environment” to exploit the Covid-19 crisis for strategic gain – including “pro-Russian vaccine politics” – in a…

An elderly lady friend of mine, who was a medical doctor in Ukraine and immigrated to America some fifteen years, brought my attention to a particular moment during the recent presidential circus debate where Donald Trump’s behavior was anything but presidential. There was a point which particularly impacted my friend since she lives emotionally in the land she left, when Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of being Putin’s puppy. Trump did not deny the accusation. Instead he interrupted and tried to go after Biden’s son at which point the moderator stepped in. The lack of a denial was not an oversight nor…

Моя старша за віком і досвідом знайома, яка була лікарем в Україні і приїхала в Америку десь п’ятнадцяти років тому, звернула мою увагу на особливий момент під час нещодавніх президентських циркових дебатів США, де поведінка Дональда Трампа була чимось інакшим чим пасувало б президенту. В один момент, який особливо вплинув на мого знайому, оскільки вона живе емоційно далі на землі, яку вона залишила, Джо Байден звинуватив Дональда Трампа, що він немов цуценя Путіна. Трамп не заперечував. Замість цього він перервав і намагався вдарити по синові Байдена, в який момент модератор вступив і перервав. Відсутність відмови…

One of the rare successes chalked up by the regime of Europe’s last dictator has been the establishment of a kind of East European Silicon Valley, which spawned a booming industry of Belarusian programmers and tech start-ups. The autocratic president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, now fears he has created a monster. An army of 30,000 tech-savvy professionals is turning against its creator. Coders and software engineers, many of whom are linked to the state-sponsored Hi-Tech Park in Minsk, have formed a hacking collective called Cyber Partisans which is wreaking havoc as Lukashenko tries to…

A Russian court has sentenced a historian who helped uncover Stalin-era mass graves to 13 years in prison, abruptly increasing his sentence by 10 years, in a highly unusual step that rights groups said was revenge for his work and part of a broader campaign to whitewash the dark chapters of Russia’s Soviet history. The case of Yury Dmitriyev attracted international criticism when he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison earlier this year on charges condemned by human rights organizations as fabricated. He had, however, been due to be released within weeks because of time served in…