10,000 Ukrainians protest 'pro-Russian' minister

LVIV, Ukraine - About 10,000 protesters formed a human chain in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Tuesday to demonstrate against a new education minister accused of being pro-Russian.


The mostly student protesters formed a human chain around four kilometres long in central Lviv, a city in western Ukraine considered a stronghold of Ukrainian nationalism, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Vancouver Sun

Yushchenko says Yanukovych has no legal muscle to cancel my Hero of Ukraine award to Bandera

Speaking March 23 to the 5-th Kanal TV, former Pres Yushchenko said Pres Yanukovych has no legal power to cancel the awards given by past presidents.

It is beyond Yanukovych’s legal powers to cancel my awards, like it was beyond my powers to cancel the awards given by all former presidents,” Yushchenko declared, saying the past awards are within the responsibility of the past presidents.“If Yanukovych cancels the awards] he will set a very dangerous precedent. What if a Communist president is elected after Yanukovych? He may cancel all decrees passed after the act on Ukraine’s independence in 1991,” Yushchenko argued. Click here to read more.

Source: Zik

Russian skater earns gold?????

Get over it you poor losers. There are more important issues your upside down country (Russia) needs, like feeding your poor!!!!

MOSCOW - Olympic figure skating silver medallist Evgeny Plushenko will get a "belated gold medal" from Siberian jewellers, Russian media reported on Wednesday.

Jewellers from Yakutsk said they planned to award a special medal weighing more than half a kilo of pure gold to Plushenko, who was controversially beaten into second place by American Evan Lysacek at last month’s Vancouver Olympics.

Most Russians, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, felt Plushenko should have won the gold in Vancouver. Putin sent Plushenko a telegram, saying: "Your silver is worth gold".

The 2006 Olympic champion himself said he was a victim of biased judging in Vancouver and felt he, not Lysacek, was the "true" champion.

Plushenko was forced to pull out of this week’s world championships in Turin with a knee injury.


Source: The Montreal Gazette

Yanukovych could lead Ukraine to West

Like Nixon and China. Analyst thinks hard-line leader is well-suited to create detente

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose February election was greeted with deep skepticism by western observers and Canada's 1.2 million-strong diaspora, could end up bringing his country much closer to the West, according to a European political analyst and historian.

Yanukovych, known as ideologically rigid, socially awkward and politically corrupt, could end up emulating the policy breakthroughs of a politician who shared the same three characteristics - the late U.S. president Richard Nixon.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Montreal Gazette

Take Zat!

The French have a head start with their conception of obnoxious Russians

Take Zat!

Russians are slightly up in arms about this French commercial. Wonder why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_4NRvYnbco

Signatures being collected in Lviv in support of dismissal of education minister Tabachnyk

Ukraine The Lviv branch of the For Ukraine! Party has started to collect signatures in support of the dismissal of Education and Science Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, the regional organization's press service has reported.

"Tabachnyk's appointment as education and science minister is destroying reforms in the education sector launched by [former Minister] Ivan Vakarchuk, and, first and foremost, the external independent assessment [of knowledge]. He will also try to review the assessment of history in textbooks. I think that the Ukrainian language will also be ousted from the sphere of education," branch leader Yaroslav Pitko said.

"He [the new minister] will harm our children through [his] absolutely different interpretation of historical events, and, consequently, their value. So we're demanding Tabachnyk's dismissal right now," he said.

The party's branch in Lviv called on Lviv city and regional councils to hold extraordinary sessions on this issue.

Source Kyiv Post

Bandera’s supporters ready for new battle

While there is no archival evidence to date that Bandera himself took part in pogroms against Jews, a brief alliance with the Nazis against the Red Army fueled Soviet propaganda which tainted him as a Nazi collaborator, and sparked widespread criticism of his movement by Jews. Supporters of Bandera see him as a hero, and are criticizing the European Parliament for siding with what they describe as a deliberate and anti-Ukrainian smear campaign.

Andriy Levus, who heads the service, said when the petition reaches 5,000 signatories, it will be presented to representatives of the European Parliament in Kyiv. The appeal has gained roughly 1,000 signatures a day since it was posted over the weekend and can be found on www.petition.org.ua/?action=view&id=251148.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Taras Shevchenko

I wonder what Taras Shevchenko would think of seeing the yanachar Yanukovych standing in front of his monument laying a reaf? Rumors have it that the newly elected President will take part in cermony honoring Ukraine's greatest poet?

My thoughts, my melancholy thoughts,
My children, tender shoots!
I nursed you, brought you up -- and now
What shall I do with you? ...
Go to Ukraine, my homeless waifs!
Your way make to Ukraine
Along back roads like vagabonds,
But I'm doomed here to stay.

There you will find a heart that's true
And words of welcome kind,
There honesty, unvarnished truth
And, maybe, fame you'll find ...
So welcome them, my Motherland,
Ukraine, into your home!
Accept my guileless, simple brood
And take them for your own!

Yanuk called the distinguished Russian writer, Anton Chekhov, a Ukrainian poet. I cetainly hope he doesn't confuse Shevchenko being a great Russian poet.....
Never know what will pop out of his mouth. Let's hope he does not go about reciting any poems either.

You can read more about Ukraine's poet, painter, bard, hero, Taras Shevchenko here. Just as Stepan Bandera and the many freedom fighters of Ukraine.

Ukrainians have right to honor their own heroes

Here’s the actual text of point 13 of this resolution approved on Feb. 25 “[The European Parliament] deeply deplores the decision by the outgoing President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, posthumously to award Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists which collaborated with Nazi Germany, the title of National Hero of Ukraine; hope, in this regard, that the new Ukrainian leadership will reconsider such decisions and will maintain its commitment to European values.”

But, at the same time, the deputies of the European Parliament – having no great knowledge of Ukrainian history – want to forbid us from having our own vision of our national past. The Russians are developing their own vision by creating a special federal committee. But at the same time, Ukrainians aren’t granted the right to have our own point of view. And if we do have it, it’s called fascism or Nazi collaboration.

E-mail the European Parliament and leave them your thoughts.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Also check out Bandera Bashing Déjà vu

Bandera Bashing Déjà vu

We were down this road 25 years ago. Then it was the Canada’s Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals presided over by Justice Jules Deshcenes. Then it was the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Canada-based Nazi hunter Sol Littman who decided that “Ukrainians, by reason of their large numbers and historic hatred of Poles and Jews, proved themselves particularly pernicious [Nazi] collaborationists.” It was in this context that he proceeded to drag the Bandera family name through the mud.

Visit Stephan Bandera's blog to read more...

Thank you Stephane for your on going fight for truth and freedom from the communist propagandists, who's days are running out. Roman Golash

Source: Kyiv Scoop

Lviv City Council to approve address to European Parliament over hero title award for Bandera

Lviv City Council will hold an extraordinary meeting on March 3 to approve an address to the European Parliament concerning a resolution it passed deploring former Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko's decision to posthumously award Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, the title of Hero of Ukraine.

The council's presidium took the decision on Mar. 2.

Lviv City Council's deputies think that this clause of the resolution has no legal and historical substantiation and will demand that it be cancelled.

They said that while passing such a resolution, MEPs had been "misinformed by anti-Ukrainian forces" and had not known who Bandera was.

In this connection, the address will contain a detailed biographical reference about Bandera, which will be drafted by historians. Lviv City Council is planning to pass the copies of this reference to all MEPs.

As reported, the European Parliament, in its resolution passed on February 25, said that it "deeply deplores the decision by the outgoing President of Ukraine, Viktor Yuschenko, to posthumously award Stepan Bandera, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany, the title of 'National Hero of Ukraine.'" In this regard, the European Parliament expressed hope that "the new Ukrainian leadership will reconsider such decisions and will maintain its commitment to European values."

Source: Kyiv Post

Russia picks a Fight with Canada

As the second week of the Vancouver Olympiad wound down, the Canadian press was consumed with a February 19 op-ed in Pravda which offered nuggets of Russian wisdom such as “Vancouver is not fit to hold the Winter Olympics” and referring to ”the abject cruelty shown by Canadian soldiers in international conflicts” and calling the Canadians “retentive” and “cowardly.” Then this: “Canada lives in the shadow of its larger neighbour to the south.” Then he accused Canada of having an “inferiority complex, born of a trauma being the skinny and weakling bro to a beefy United States and a colonial outpost to the United Kingdom, whose Queen smiles happily from Canadian postage stamps.”

To speak about any Olympic host this way, much less a docile, self-effacing place like Canada, is the act of a true barbarian, and Russia has humiliated itself before the world by doing so. It richly deserves to have this outrageous abuse hurled back upon it if the Sochi games actually go forward, and we know that if it happens Russia will play the innocent victim in a way that will even more vulgar and appalling than its crude insults to Canada.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: La Russophobe

Ukraine takes losing in stride, unlike Russia at the Olympics

International sport during the Soviet period served as a way of proving the superiority of the Soviet system. The victories of individual athletes were the collective achievements of the Soviet ideology and the Soviet people. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought an end to the powerful system built over decades that helped to nurture top athletes, and the poor performances in Vancouver are in part a result of that decline.

It’s telling that while Russian politicians this month were still yearning for the sporting glories of the Soviet Union, their Ukrainian counterparts barely gave as much as a nod to the winter Olympics, busy playing a completely different game.

Click here to read full story.

Source: Kyiv Post

PS Could not resist adding the photo again, especially on a Monday.....

Olympian food: Pass the perogies, please

Ukrainian House at 3150 Ash at the Ukrainian Catholic Centre. I don’t know if it’s even orbiting at this distance but you can get there on Canada Line. Hop off at Broadway/City Hall and it’s a 10-minute walk.

At the Olympic Ukrainian House, it’s a different ball game. The food is a narrow stereotype of Ukrainian cuisine (similar to the first-Friday-of-the-month Ukrainian supper deal at the Ukrainian Holy Trinity Orthodox Church at 154 East 10th Ave.), but it’s a bargain. An overflow plate of perogies, slices of kielbasa, one cabbage roll (the weakest part of the dish) and a big whack of coleslaw costs $11.

Read complete article here.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

Plushenko a contender for worst Olympics loser

It’s like any other village – full of honest burghers, a few catty fishwives and the odd idiot.

If anyone has earned the dunce’s cap inside Vancouver’s Olympic village, it’s Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko. His antics since failing to win a gold medal have launched Plushenko into the pantheon of poor Olympic sports, where he sadly has a fair bit of competition.

Plushenko’s crimes against dignity? First up, his hair. But that’s his stylist’s fault.
The Russian takes the blame for everything else. After falling to American Evan Lysacek on Friday, Plushenko wrapped himself in a blistering air of ill will.

Click here for complete story

Source: Toronto Star

Whining Russians

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was not to be outdone in the whining competition. He sent Plushenko a telegram — A telegram? No wonder they lost the Cold War — in which Putin, in his new, self-appointed role as Supreme Olympian, informed his soured countryman that his silver medal was “as good as gold” because Plushenko had “performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice.” Russian state media joined the parade, in tones that during the Andropov period had been reserved for denunciations of the warmongering arch-fiend Ronald Reagan.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this boorish behavior — to put it gently — has a lot to do with the fact that, as a political culture, Russia has never begun to come to grips with the legacy of 74 years of Communism. Lenin’s mummy — the ghastly relic of one of the 20th century’s greatest mass murderers — remains on display for the veneration of the obtuse and the confused in Red Square. Parades celebrating the birthday of Stalin, whose homicidal record topped Lenin’s, are not uncommon. The NKVD/KGB archives, briefly opened under Boris Yeltsin, are closed to researchers. Opposition journalists are murdered with impunity, while the state dominates the mass media. History is rewritten in order to mask, even deny, the horrors of the Gulag system (which, as Anne Applebaum demonstrated in her Pulitzer Prize–winning book, was not an accidental feature of Stalinism but an essential component of Stalinist “economics”).

Click here for complete article.

Source: National Review

Ukraine PM abandons poll challenge

A Ukrainian court has stopped considering a legal challenge to the result of February 7 presidential election after the prime minister decided to abandon her complaint.

Yulia Tymoshenko said on Saturday that she had decided to withdraw her attempt to overturn Victor Yanukovych's victory after losing confidence in the supreme administrative court.

"We do not see sense in further proceedings in the case," Tymoshenko told the court.

She later told reporters: "I faced a machine that works beyond justice."

"They want to sanctify the fraud and make it look legal."

After several hours of deliberations, Judge Olexander Nechitailo announced the court's decision to "leave the lawsuit by presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko without consideration".

Click here to read full article.

Source: Al Jazeera

Ukrainian court suspends presidential election results

A Ukrainian court said today it had suspended the results of this month's presidential election, pending a review of an appeal filed by the declared loser.

Ukraine's administrative court said in a statement that it has suspended the Central Election Commission's ruling announcing that Viktor Yanukovych won the election held on 7 February.

The results showed Yanukovych winning by 3.5 percentage points.

The court is to rule on the appeal from Yanukovych's rival, the prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, by next Thursday, which parliament has set as inauguration day for the new president.

Tymoshenko has refused to concede and is pressing to prove her claims of election fraud in court.

Source: Gaurdian

Ukrainians make Democracy look Bad

Poor people are capable of feats of bravery and revolution. They can storm the Bastille, overthrow the tsar or stage an Orange Revolution. But impoverished people are incapable of making sober decisions and voting responsibly in a popular election.

Click here to read full article.

Source: Moscow Times

Ukrainian president signs decree on recognition of UPA

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has signed a decree on the recognition of the ‘Ukrainian Rebel Army’ as a fighter for Ukraine’s independence, his press service reported on Friday.

The ‘Ukrainian Rebel Army’ (UPA) was created late in 1942 by a faction of the ‘Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists’ (OUN), headed by Stepan Bandera. UPA fought mostly against the Armia Krajowa of Poland, the Red Army and Soviet guerrilla fighters in Western Ukraine. The OUN-UPA men, whom people began to call the Bandera men, by the name of their leader, are guilty of numerous crimes. For example, they physically destroyed some 100,000 Poles, Czechs and Jews in the Western Volyn Region. Thousands of Ukrainians, who refused to cooperate with OUN, were also brutally murdered. For all those crimes, as well as for terrorist activities on the Polish territory before the war, Bandera is now regarded as a criminal and terrorist in Poland.

During the years of his presidency Yushchenko rehabilitated UPA veterans and conferred posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine to UPA commander Roman Shukhevich and to OUN leader Stepan Bandera.

Source: ITAR-TASS

Yushchenko's move on nationalist embarrasses rivals

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, in a move likely to embarrass the two rivals fighting to succeed him, onJan. 22elevated a controversial wartime nationalist leader to the status of hero of Ukraine.

Yushchenko issued a decree conferring the honour on Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist forces (OUN) which fought against both Nazi invaders and Soviet forces in World War Two and after.

Bandera continued to resist Soviet rule in Ukraine well into the 1950s. In the Soviet period he was the embodiment of anti-Sovietism and "bourgeois nationalism" and the very mention of his name was a post-war criminal offence in the Soviet Union.

He was assassinated in 1959 by a KGB agent in Munich.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Stepan Bandera becomes Ukrainian hero

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has conferred the rank of a Ukrainian hero to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

The head of state said this during ceremonies marking Ukrainian Unity Day in Kyiv on Friday, Jan. 22.

"I decree to confer the rank of a Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera and present a state order to him," Yushchenko said.

He said that the high rank had been conferred to Bandera for his "defending national ideas and battling for an independent Ukrainian state."

Bandera's grandson, also named Stepan, received the award from the president, an Interfax-Ukraine reporter said.

Source: Kyiv Post

Hat tip to Ukrainiana

Some oligarchs take sides, while others on sidelines

“Corruption, red tape, administrative obstacles of every kind – these are only things that serve the interests of those who today control the economy because they do not want competition. They are allergic to competition,” Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira of Portugal told journalists on Nov. 30. “The vast majority of Ukrainians cannot have employment, cannot have decent salaries, do not have a decent social system, because the country today is in many aspects like 20 years ago.”
Teixeira’s comments came against a backdrop of the nation’s slow European integration and incomplete attempts to shed its Soviet past.
And it is hard to identify the “reformer” in this race.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Yushchenko's place in history: A leader who failed his people?

Despite these initiatives Yushchenko lost virtually all credibility not only among Ukrainians but among Ukraine's loyal Russian citizens. Instead of arresting the rich and powerful guilty of rampant corruption, he gave them medals. Although this may have been motivated by a plan to co-opt former enemies and transform them into a "new national elite" nothing in the behavior of men like Kivalov ("seriozha pidrahui"), or Kyiv's mayor Chernovetsky suggests they have been thus transformed. Neither still can't even speak Ukrainian and historians will one day undoubtedly debate whether he, Batu Khan or Bogoliubsky did more to destroy Kyiv. Kyiv is turning into a vast filthy Calcutta-like slum.The initiative did, however, make a mockery of the awards system and the man who gave them.

Click here to read full article.

Source: Kyiv Post

International Center for Policy Studies: How to desovietize public administration in Ukraine

Ukraine’s political crisis is universally viewed as the only obstacle to the country’s integration into the European Union. Typically, only two main causes for the crisis are recognized: the “Ukrainian mentality” and a bad political leadership.
Click here for complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Ukrainian Christmas celebration in Montreal

Ukrainian Christmas celebration in Montreal presented by CTV news Montreal. Very nicely put together.

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/clip253103#clip253103

Veselych Sviat!!!

Source: CTV Montreal

Ukrainian Christmas 'not a generic holiday'

Wishing everybody celebrating Ukrainian Christmas smachnoyi kuti.
Click here to read article from The Standard in St. Catherines, Ontario.

Source: The Standard

Making a Little Fun of Russia’s Powerful

Ellen Barry writes from Moscow:It is not, from a purely technical standpoint, impossible to make fun of Vladimir V. Putin. His head is shaped a bit like a light bulb, with eyes that are heavy-lidded, as if to convey that he has just been reading your dossier. He has a needle nose, a prizefighter’s swagger and a fondness for posing shirtless. If all else fails, there is always the matter of height.

Read the story here.

Click here to view the clip, from great blog by Taras - Ukrainiana


Source: New York Times

Ukraine's leaders start ringing in the new year

President Victor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition Party of Regions chief Victor Yanukovych are polishing up their New Year's Eve speeches. Tymoshenko is expected on Kyiv's Independence Square.

Click here for story.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!!

Source: Kyiv Post

UCCLA: No "miracles" for a KGB veteran - Canada's Ukrainians and many others want for Christmas, frankly, is a Canada free of the KBG.

Canada's Ukrainian community is calling on federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, and the Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, to reject calls for "a Christmas miracle" that would allow a self-confessed veteran of the KGB, Mikhail Lennikov, to stay in Canada.

UCCLA was responding to Vancouver Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who at a Monday news conference suggested Christmas is a time for "giving and forgiveness, the season of generosity." Responding, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association's Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk said: "Why ignore Mr. Lennikov's admitted membership in one of the most notorious secret police forces the world has ever known? What mercy were the KGB's victims ever shown? It's remarkable how ignorant some MPs are of history."

Both the Immigration and Refugee Board as well as a judge of the Federal Court of Canada confirmed that it is against the law for former members of the KGB to immigrate to Canada and then ordered Mr. Lennikov's removal. He has since defied those decisions, claiming a (non-existent) "right of sanctuary". Mr. Lennikov even told a reporter from The Vancouver Sun that he will spend Christmas enjoying a yuletide dinner with family and friends in the Lutheran Church where he now sits, evading Canadian authorities.

"Did Gulag prisoners have it that good?" wondered Dr. Luciuk. "Mr. Lennikov was ordered deported by a federal court judge and yet, inexplicably, he remains here. Why isn't the Canada Border Services Agency doing its job? They have a judge's order and they know where he is. While we agree that Canada should give haven to real refugees we certainly shouldn't to those who, indirectly or directly, were responsible for the enslavement and mass murder of millions of innocents between 1917-1991. What Canada's Ukrainians and many others want for Christmas, frankly, is a Canada free of the KBG."

For more on the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association go to www.uccla.ca

The War on Christmas: It’s a Commie Thing

Indeed, today’s secularist war on Christmas (yes, the one that, like God, many liberals deny exists) was waged, in large part, when Communists began attempting to supplant the deity of Christ (and His associated Judeo-Christian principles) with the false deity of the State.

Ronald Reagan once spoke to this noteworthy historical factoid during a Christmas radio broadcast about the Ukraine’s war on Christmas. The great Gipper noted: “When the Ukraine was free and not under Soviet bondage, Christmas was, of course, the religious event that it is in the Western world.”

But as part of an effort to suppress the Gospel message and the spread of Christianity in Soviet Russia, Communist leaders secularized a favorite Ukrainian Christmas carol, “Nova Radist Stala” (Joyous News Has Come to Us).

One verse originally began: “The joyous news has come which never was before. Over a cave above a manger a bright star has lit the world, where Jesus was born from a virgin maiden …”

“Now, of course,” continued Reagan, “[public Christian expression] was neither fitting nor permitted under Communism. Still the commissars were a little leery about an outright ban. They chose to allow the song after some rewriting.”

Click here for complete article.

Source: Canada Free Press

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!!

Pickled herring, porridge and perogies make a Merry Christmas for Vancouver Canucks

A Christmas wish to our followers who celebrate December 24-25. Here is an article I came across that has some international flavor.

Hordichuk, the Canuck winger from the Ukrainian-Russian town of Kamsack, Sask., was accustomed to big family gatherings at Christmas.

“Everything revolved around the family and we had a huge family,” he said. “There were a lot of Hordichuks. Christmas Eve we’d go to church — Ukrainian Catholic. We’d have a big family Christmas.

Click here to read complete story.

Source: Vancouver Sun

Nato fails to gain Russia aid in Afghanistan

Analysts say the atmosphere between the alliance and Moscow has improved recently. Earlier this month, the Nato-Russia Council convened for the first time since the Georgia conflict.

During this visit, issues such as missile defence, Iran and a joint review of new security challenges were expected to be on the agenda.

The expansion of Nato remains a sensitive issue between the two sides, with Russia firmly opposed to any move towards membership by Ukraine or Georgia.

Mr Rasmussen has previously said they would become Nato members as and when they satisfied the necessary criteria, but emphasised that Moscow should not see that as a threat.

Click here for complete story.

Source: BBC

&^*&_*^)&%)&@#_&*+@

To whomever has been trying to post comments on the UKEMONDE blog, the text is not deciphered and is garble. Our blog is mostly in english we do have people submiting text in cyrilic and it comes through fine. I am simply deleting these messages since they are not clear. If you are the Russian troll? Oh well sorry your comments certainly won't be posted either.

Roman

Feds' witch hunt isn't punishing real war criminals

All major Nazi war criminals have been convicted or have died. Only small fry are left, and evidence is frail that any are war criminals.

Ukrainians conscripted as teenagers by Nazis have tended to be branded as suspect war criminals by the media, which overstates their "crime."

Anyway, Oberlander is once again a Canadian citizen, and with luck his ordeal is over.

For those interested, there's no shortage of recent crimes against humanity that warrant investigation, exposure and retribution.

Click here to read comple article by Peter Worthington of Toronto Sun.

Source: Toronto Sun

Accessory vs. Perpetrator

Many of us may not understand what the legal notion of ‘accessory’ stands for. An ‘accessory’ is a person who assists in the commission of a crime, but who does not actually participate in the commission of the crime as a joint principal. Bearing that in mind. I wonder what Demjanjuk’s court case is there to serve? Clearly geriatric Demjanjuk is not a danger to society. He is neither blamed for being a murderer nor accused of being a mass murderer. Being an alleged ‘accessory’ he is not exactly the story of the Shoa either. If the Holocaust is an account of a racially driven industrial homicidal crime, a Ukrainian POW serving as a German guard while being a prisoner is not exactly a story of a principal executioner. If this court case is aimed at perpetuating the message of the holocaust, all it really does is spread the opposite message.

Click here for complete article.

Hat tip to Cybercossack

Source: Dissident Voice

Women people's deputies of Lviv to send tie as present to Putin

A new shirt would also compliment a tie that is being sent by women's union of Lviv!!!! RG

The union of women people's deputies of Lviv region is to give a present of a tie to Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Emilia Podliashetska, a people's deputy of Lviv regional council, has told journalists on Wednesday.

"The women of Lviv region will give a present of a tie to Vladimir Putin so that he will have something to do after the elections in Ukraine," she said.

Click here to read complete article.

And we won't even question his questionable homosexual tendities?.

Source: Inter-Fax

EU cautious on integrating Ukraine

Good for the EU to show Ukraine that enough is enough. While they were used to the best of two world at their earlier stage of independence, very little has been done to show that they are worthy of being axcxcepted.

But on Friday there was no such agreement to sign. Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, the EU's top official in Ukraine, said the government in Kiev had simply not kept its side of the bargain, and that very little progress had been made in the areas where the EU wants Ukraine to reform.

"In particular in creating an environment to start reducing corruption; red tape; administrative burdens of all kinds in terms of the business in Ukraine, of attracting investment. There are a number of issues that indicate that in fact very little progress has been achieved."

Click here to read full article.

Source: BBC

Russia's Putin calls for balanced assessment of Stalin

Today at 15:08 | Reuters MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for a balanced assessment of Soviet leader Josef Stalin on Dec. 3, saying his legacy was not all positive or all negative.

Asked for his views on Stalin amid an ongoing debate in Russia over his legacy, Putin praised Stalin for industrialising the Soviet Union and winning World War Two but condemned his repression which destroyed the lives of millions.

Source; Kyiv Post

I can give a balanced assessment of Stalin Russia's that Putin is calling for but we don't want to get NASTY!!! :-)))

December 1 is the happiest day of my life. On this day I killed the Soviet Union.

December 1 is the happiest day of my life. On this day I killed the Soviet Union.

I am not a violent person. But on December 1, 1991, I voted in a referendum on the independence of Ukraine, along with more than 90 percent of Ukrainians.

This was the end of the USSR. I am saying this not because my life immediately became better. In fact, for many of my fellow Ukrainians life became worse, or at least more difficult.

Nor am I trying to challenge Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who said that the demise of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. God forbid! He may have his own reasons to feel this way. I just want to share my happiness and explain it.

I never liked the Soviet regime. From early childhood one had to learn to be a liar, a hypocrite, to stop being oneself in order to make a career or even to survive. But it was not the kind of regime one bravely stood up to, as you would to a foreign occupation.

Click here for complete story.

Source: RFE/RFL

1932-33 Holodomor has become part of the world drama owing to James Mace

Sad-eyed old men and women were the first to come to the Holodomor Memorial to offer up prayers for the dead. It was hard for them to discuss the subject and they were scared by their memories. Everyone held a lit candle decorated with wheat ears. Behind them were the shadows of thousands, millions of fellow countrymen tortured to death, slaughtered, killed by famine, who were denied the right to speak their mind, even to pray. “The mute shall start so speak,” wrote Taras Shevchenko prophetically. On these days of remembrance people did speak, shared their memories, and wept.

Click here to read complete article about James Mace from The Day English version paper.

Source: The Day

Demjanjuk trial shows double standards, lawyer says‏

A lawyer for John Demjanjuk, accused of helping to murder 27,900 Jews at a Nazi death camp, has accused German prosecutors of double standards. Mr Demjanjuk, 89, denies he was a guard at Sobibor camp, in wartime Poland.

As the case began in Munich, his legal team said in previous cases Germans assigned to the camp had been cleared.

The Ukraine-born accused, who was extradited to Germany from the US in May, was twice carried into court, first in a wheelchair then a stretcher.
Doctors have said Mr Demjanjuk is in poor health, and asked that hearings be limited to two 90-minute sessions a day.

Over 60 years after the end of World War II, this may be Germany's last big war crimes trial.

Click here for complete story.

Source: BBC

Ukraine leader calls '30s famine Soviet genocide

Standing before a monument dedicated to the millions who perished from the Great Famine of the 1930s, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko marked the famine's anniversary with a fresh appeal for the world to recognize the tragedy as an act of genocide by then-Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

The ongoing effort by Mr. Yushchenko to revive a history long suppressed by the Soviet Union, and still dismissed by many in Russia, could well define his presidency.

"We did almost the impossible," the leader told a large crowd on Saturday gathered near the memorial on an overcast day. "We saved and returned to the people the truth about the Great Famine of 1932-33. We returned it from the abyss, from the precipice, from that which fails to return."

Ukraine's Soviet-era archives, opened to the public by Mr. Yushchenko, has allowed historians to take a fresh look at the Holodomor, or death by hunger. It refers to the famine that killed between 3 million and 7 million Ukrainians, mostly from the country's central and eastern regions, in 1932 to '33. Some estimates of the toll run as high as 10 million.

Mr. Yushchenko and scholars say Stalin ordered the famine as a way of breaking the Ukrainian people and its leadership. Both had serious disagreements with the Soviet leader over his collectivization policies and were unwilling to meet quotas that he had set for the agriculturally rich Ukraine.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Washington Post

Remembering Ukrainian genocide - Lubomyr Luciuk

This year, Nov. 28 - tomorrow - is the date on which the Holodomor's victims will be hallowed. Thousands of postcards bearing Lemkin's image and citing his words have been mailed to diplomats
worldwide, asking them to acknowledge what was arguably the greatest crime against humanity to befoul 20th-century European history. There is no doubt that Lemkin knew the famine in Soviet Ukraine was
genocidal. If the world chooses to ignore what he said than what this good man fathered - the word "genocide" - will lose all meaning.

This was article written by Lubomyr Luciuk and was published in Montreal Gazette on November 27, 2009. Click here to read full article.

Kyiv decides to light 30,000 candles near memorial to victims of Holodomor on Nov. 28, 2009

The Kyiv city state administration has decided to light 30,000 candles on the bank vault in Glory Park near the Memorial to the victims of Holodomors on Sichnevoho Povstannia (Mazepy) Street. Anatolii Holubchenko, the first deputy head of the Kyiv city state administration, announced this to the press.

"There are 30,000 candles," he said.

According to the first deputy head of the city administration, the Kyivzelenbud municipal company on Friday started setting saucers for the candles and will start lighting the candles at 09:00 on Nov. 28.

Ukraine observes the 76th anniversary of the Holodomor famine on Nov. 28, 2009.

According to various estimates, the Holodomor artificial famine killed between three million and seven million of innocent people in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 alone.


Source: Kyiv Post

This was the last part of our six part series, this is the bare minimum which we, as Canadians, should do not only for the millions of victims, but more importantly, for our descendants who must always remember the Holodomor and heighten the international community's sensitivity to the reoccurrence of similar tragedies.

All Canadians are invited to join the Ukrainian community in remembrance.

Let's reveal the truth about the Holodomor to the world!

The Famine as Genocide/Quebec

On Wednesday, November 25, 2009 The Quebec National Assembly unanimously accepted the introduction of a Bill recognizing the 1932-1933 Famine as Genocide. The bill was introduced by Louise Beaudoin, P.Q. MNA for Rosemont riding. It was received with applause by all parties and official gallery observers!

UCC Montreal has been assisting on this historic presentation of a Bill with Louise Beaudoin since August 2009, after Hon. Louise Beaudoin declared her intention to have the Famine recognized as Genocide at the UCC's annual Independence Banquet. She was invited as a special guest to Banquet in August.

Special thank you to Roman Karpishka, Prof. Roman Serbyn, Zorianna Hrycenko-Luhova, Hryhorij Kowryha, Yourko Kulyckyj, Marta Bilyk for all their tremendous work! This could not have have been achieved without their continuous hard work.

140 special information packages about the 1932-33 Famine-Genocide for members of The National Assembly of Quebec as well as for members of the press, were prepared in advance, and delivered by car to Quebec. It included a covering letter by Marika Putko, president.The package also included a French-language DVD copy of the award-winning documentary Harvest of Despair. (The UCC National Holodomor Awareness Committee assisted in receiving appropriate materials.)

Wednesday 7am, a bus left from Montreal to Quebec with 57 members of the Ukrainian community to witness and support the historic event. Caisse Ukrainienne Desjardins helped cover rental of the bus for which we gratefully thank them. Roman Karpishka coordinated the organization of the bus delegation. A special presentation of the just released book titled Raphael Lemkin:Soviet Genocide in Ukraine (with Lemkin's article in 28 Languages), was also presented by Prof. Roman Serbyn in Quebec.
Several articles have already appeared in the press about this event.

Again, I wish to sincerely thank the KYK Committee for working so hard to make this happen.

Marika Putko, President
UCC Montreal/Quebec

Statement by the President on Ukrainian Holodomor Remembrance Day

Seventy six years ago, millions of innocent Ukrainians – men, women, and children – starved to death as a result of the deliberate policies of the regime of Joseph Stalin. Tomorrow, we join together, Ukrainian-Americans and all Americans, to commemorate these tragic events and to honor the many victims.

From 1932 to 1933, the Ukrainian people suffered horribly during what has become known as the Holodomor – “death by hunger” – due to the Stalin regime’s seizure of crops and farms across Ukraine. Ukraine had once been a breadbasket of Europe. Ukrainians could have fed themselves and saved millions of lives, had they been allowed to do so. As we remember this calamity, we pay respect to millions of victims who showed tremendous strength and courage. The Ukrainian people overcame the horror of the great famine and have gone on to build a free and democratic country.

Remembering the victims of the man-made catastrophe of Holodomor provides us an opportunity to reflect upon the plight of all those who have suffered the consequences of extremism and tyranny around the world. We hope that the remembrance of Holodomor will help prevent such tragedy in the future.

I was chosen by your dead - Legacy of the Famine: Ukraine as a postgenocidal society (James Mace)

The perpetrators' motive was simple, and all the documents and later research have not changed the overall portrait of the events I first presented in 1982 International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide in Tel Aviv. I remain convinced that, for Stalin to have complete centralized power in his hands, he
found it necessary to physically destroy the second largest Soviet republic, meaning the annihilation of the Ukrainian peasantry, Ukrainian intelligentsia, Ukrainian language, and history as understood by the people; to do away with Ukraine and things Ukrainian as such. The calculation was very simple, very primitive: no people, therefore, no separate country, and thus no problem. Such a policy is GENOCIDE in the classic sense of the word.

Click here to read the complete article written by the late James Mace in 2003. One of my favorite articles that I came accross. In the late 1980s, Prof. James Mace was executive director of the US commission that collected evidence and eyewitness accounts from survivors, who survived the Golgotha of Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s. This is PART V of the six part series dedicated to the memory of the victims of Ukrainian Holodomor 1932 - 33.

Welsh hero of Ukraine recognised

Ukraine now uses Gareth Jones's ground breaking reports in its efforts to secure international recognition of the famine, known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor, meaning genocide.

Jones's reports of expropriations, famine and deaths at a time when the West was buying cheap Soviet grain and other foods did not change their minds.

Despite his reports having little impact, Jones was accused of espionage and banned from the Soviet Union. He went to the Far East and, according to his family, was murdered in suspicious circumstances in Inner Mongolia in 1935.

He was just 30 years old. It wasn't until decades later, in 2008, that he and Malcolm Muggeridge were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order Of Freedom medal in a ceremony at Westminster Central Hall in London.

Click here to read complete story about Gareth Jones - "Hero of Ukraine"
This is PART IV of our six part series dedicated to the tragic history of Ukrainian Holodomor which was perpetrated by the Stalin Soviet machine.

SOVIET GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

FAMOUS ESSAY by Rafael Lemkin, New York, NY, 1953 [Text was probably originally composed for Lemkin’s address at the 1953 Ukrainian Famine commemoration in New York. Later Lemkin added it to the material he was gathering for his elaborate History of Genocide which was never published. Ed, Roman Serbyn.] "Holodomor Studies" Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Winter-Spring 2009, Pages 3-8 Charles Schlacks, Publisher, Idyllwild, CA

These attacks on the Soul have also had and will continue to have a serious effect on the Brain of Ukraine, for it is the families of the clergy that have traditionally supplied a large part of the intellectuals, while the priests themselves have been the leaders of the villages, their wives the heads of the charitable organizations. The religious orders ran schools, took care of much of the organized charities.

The mass murder of peoples and of nations that has characterized the advance of the Soviet Union into Europe is not a new feature of their policy of expansionism, it is not an innovation devised simply to bring uniformity out of the diversity of Poles, Hungarians, Balts, Romanians – presently disappearing into the fringes of their empire. Instead, it has been a long-term characteristic even of the internal policy of the Kremlin – one which the present masters had ample precedent for in the operations of Tsarist Russia. It is indeed an indispensable step in the process of “union” that the Soviet leaders fondly hope will produce the “Soviet Man,” the “Soviet Nation,” and to achieve that goal, that unified nation, the leaders of the Kremlin will gladly destroy the nations and the cultures that have long inhabited Eastern Europe.

Click here to read complete article. This is PART III of our six part series dedicated to the 10 million victims of Ukrainian Holodomor

Bill 390 - An Act to proclaim Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day

Bill 390

An Act to proclaim Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day

Introduced by - Madam Louise Beaudoin (Member for Rosemont)


EXPLANATORY NOTES

The purpose of this bill is to proclaim the fourth Saturday in November in each year Ukranian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day.


Bill 390
AN Act TO PROCLAIM UKRAINIAN FAMINE AND GENOCIDE (HOLODOMOR) MEMORIAL DAY

AS the Holodomor is the name given to the famine and genocide that occurred in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933;

As millions of Ukrainians perished as victims of a famine deliberately induced by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin to quash the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a free and independent Ukraine;

AS the President of Ukraine issued a Presidential Decree on 26 November 1998 establishing the fourth Saturday in November as a National Day of Remembrance for the victims of this mass atrocity;

AS, in recent years, a number of countries have in various ways acknowledged the Holodomor in Ukraine as historical fact;

AS there is a Ukrainian community in Québec;

AS our fellow citizens of Ukrainian origin care deeply about commemorating the victims of the Ukrainian famine and genocide of 1932 and 1933;

AS Quebecers are committed to defending democratic values and human rights and as they reject intolerance and ethnic exclusion;

THE PARLIAMENT OF QUÉBEC ENACTS AS FOLLOWS:

1. The fourth Saturday in November in each year is proclaimed Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day.

2. This Act comes into force on (insert the date of assent to this Act).

Source: National Assembly of Quebec

Ukrainian genocide will be commemorated in Quebec

QUEBEC — Members of the Quebec provincial legislature voted unanimously to approve on first reading a bill to commemorate the Ukrainian genocide in the 1930s, when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin withheld food from Ukraine, leading to millions of deaths.


The bill was presented by Parti Quebecois member Louise Beaudoin.


Once the bill receives final approval, the fourth Saturday in November will be designated to commemorate the Ukrainian genocide, known as the Holodomor.


If passed, Quebec will be the fourth province to mark the genocide. Alberta passed similar legislation in October 2008.


Also, in May 2008, the Harper government said it would recognize the Holodomor as genocide.


The genocide, in 1932 and 1933, was Stalin's attempt to subdue the Ukrainian people by systematically starving them and restricting travel beyond their villages. The exact number of victims remains unclear.


With files from Canwest News Service

Source: Montreal Gazette

HOLODOMOR – THE UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE

The “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide” provides the most authoritative definition of genocide, which has been integrated into national and international laws. The document acknowledges that genocides occurred in all periods of history, and in times of war and peace. Article II defines genocide as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious groups, as such.”

Genocide does not imply total destruction or only physical extermination. Article II lists three lethal actions: killing, causing bodily harm, and imposing conditions of life leading to physical destruction. Two measures are non-fatal: preventing births and transferring children. Ukrainians were victims of all these atrocities, and the deportation of divided Ukrainian families to Russia falls under the last heading. There are no quantitative criteria for genocide, but it is assumed that the victims form a significant part of the target group. The extinction of the Ukrainian population did not suit Stalin: Ukrainians comprised over 20 percent of the Soviet workforce and inhabited a strategic region. A partial extermination would suffice. Since there is consensus that several million Ukrainians perished, quibbling over the number of victims becomes irrelevant and only diverts attention from fundamental issues.

Click here for PART II of six part series, article by Professor Roman Serbyn.

LEMKIN: HOLODOMOR 'CLASSIC' GENOCIDE

We start our 6 part series dedicated to the inncocent victims of Ukraine’s Holodomor.

Rafael Lemkin who coined the term ‘genocide,’ called the Holodomor a classic case of Soviet genocide.

Only seven people came to bury him. He rests beneath a simple stone in New York’s Mount Hebron cemetery, the sole clue to his historical importance an inscription incised below his name - “Father Of The Genocide Convention.”

As a graduate student I was obliged to read his book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress, frankly more door-stopper than page-turner. Nowadays, with advocates for “humanitarian intervention” shilling the notion of a “duty to intervene” whenever and wherever necessary to “stop genocide,” Dr. Raphael Lemkin’s name and words are better known. After all he fathered the term “genocide” by combining the root words –geno (Greek for family or race) and –cidium (Latin for killing) then doggedly lobbied United Nation member states until they adopted a Convention on Genocide, on Dec. 9, 1948, his crowning achievement.

Click here to read complete article by Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk

Russian News Agencies Spread Saakashvili’s Response to Putin’s Joke

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili took Putin’s joke as an outrage of Georgian and Ukrainian people.
According to Russian TV-channels, Mikheil Saakashvili made the corresponding statement on the Ukrainian TV-channel.
‘Putin was threatening to hang me with a part of my body which I can’t name publicly, though which is very important for every man and even woman, especially for politicians. Now he is talking about my necktie. It’s good news. He has moved up to a necktie and I feel more secure now’, Saakashvili said.
According to him, Russian Prime Minister Putin’s statement outraged Ukraine and Georgia.
Mikheil Saakashvili stated Georgia and Ukraine are following the way of European development and Russia wouldn’t be able to return these countries back to the Soviet Union.
According to Russian news agencies, at a press-conference, held in Yalta on 20 November, Vladimir Putin advised his Ukrainian counterpart not to put on a necktie at the supper with Mikheil Saakashvili, indicating to the BBC video shot in August, 2008.

Click here to view video: Putin lampoons 'Saakashvili tie' at gas talks with Ukraine RT

Source: The Georgian Times

Lemkin: Holodomor ‘classic’ genocide

Likewise overlooked were Lemkin’s views on Communist crimes against humanity. In a 1953 lecture in New York City, for example, he described the “destruction of the Ukrainian nation” as the “classic example of Soviet genocide,” adding insightfully:“the Ukrainian is not and never has been a Russian. His culture, his temperament, his language, his religion, are all different...to eliminate (Ukrainian) nationalism...the Ukrainian peasantry was sacrificed...a famine was necessary for the Soviet and so they got one to order...if the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated [then] Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation...This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation.”
For complete article, click here.

Source: Kyiv Post

*INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN RECALLING GENOCIDAL GREAT FAMINE LAUNCHED*

UCCLF - International campaign recalling genocidal great famine launched

(Ottawa, 16 November 2009)

An educational campaign recalling the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine, known as the Holodomor, was launched today. Thousands of postcards are being sent to embassies and consulates internationally, urging governments to officially recognize that this famine was an act of genocide perpetrated by the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Canada is one of the few countries that has already recognized the Holodomor as genocidal.

Drawing upon the writings of Dr. Raphael Lemkin, the "father of the [UN] Genocide Convention," who described the "destruction of the Ukrainian nation" as the "classic example of Soviet genocide," the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and partner groups around the world are mailing postcards featuring a pastel drawing of Lemkin and an excerpt from his 1953 speech "Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine," an effort timed to coincide with the annual day of mourning for the Holodomor's victims (28 November).

Commenting, Professor Lubomyr Luciuk, editor of Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine, said:

"Many millions of men, women and children suffered agonizing deaths in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933 during what was arguably one of the greatest acts of genocide to befoul 20th century European history. To this day there are Holodomor-deniers attempting to obfuscate what happened, continuing to cover up this Communist crime against humanity. This educational effort is therefore aimed at reminding governments everywhere that the father of the United Nations Convention on Genocide was personally convinced of the genocidal character of Soviet rule in Ukraine. We are also calling upon countries that believe in upholding the relevance of the UN Genocide Convention to officially recognize the truth of what happened during the Holodomor."


To contact Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, please e-mail: luciuk@uccla.ca

House of Bears - Orysia Dawydiak's first novel.

Everyone is invited to the launch of House of Bears, a new novel by Orysia Dawydiak.

WHEN: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 7-9 p.m.
WHERE: Haviland Club, 2 Haviland Street, Charlottetown

House of Bears is Orysia Dawydiak's first novel.
http://www.acornpresscanada.com/book/house-bears
When Luba Kassim reluctantly returns home to Northern Ontario, the strained relationship with her traditional Ukrainian mother only heightens her feelings of alienation and isolation. A family crisis reunites her extended family and reignites old rivalries and the pain of long-held family secrets. Slowly, Luba begins piecing together her family’s unspoken past, starting in the 1930s in Ukraine, followed by emigration to England and settlement in Canada. In the process, she uncovers some startling truths about her own identity, and learns that she and her mother have much more in common than she thinks.

Orysia works at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, and lives on a small farm on Prince Edward Island's north shore where she raises sheep and dogs. She writes books on livestock protection dogs, and has also written award-winning fiction for children and young adults.

Author reading and signing - Music - Refreshments
Everyone welcome!

For more information, call (902) 892-8151
Published by Acorn Press, Charlottetown
acornpresscanada.com
ISBN 978-1-894838-34-4 / 6 x 9 / 320 pp / 2009 / pb / $22.95

1930s journalist Gareth Jones to have story retold

The story of Jones, a devout, non-comformist teetotaller from Barry, often has elements of Indiana Jones and Zelig.
Rory Finnan, a lecturer in Ukrainian studies at Cambridge, called him "a true hero"."He is a remarkable historical figure and it is also remarkable that he is not well known. Jones was the only journalist who risked his name and reputation to expose the Holodomor to the world."
Click here for complete story.

Also visit these fabulous sites:

UKEMONDE - Gareth Jones, hero of Ukraine

Ukrainian Canadian - True extent of Ukraine famine revealed in British journalist’s diaries


Gareth Richard Vaughan Jones - Hero of Ukraine (1905 -1935) A Man Who Knew Too Much...

Source: The Guardian

Medvedev calls for economy reform ????

The Russian president gave a bleak assessment of the current situation and there was much in the speech that implied deep criticism of Mr Putin, reports the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow. Click here for full story.
Does this mean the KGB apparatchiks working for Putin will start plans on elimination of Mr. Medvedev, as they have to reporters and anyone who stands up against his (Putin's) corrupt regime?

Source: BBC

'Russian King Lear' did the world a huge favour

Twenty years later, the world owes Gorbachev an enormous debt of gratitude for ending the Cold War, and freeing Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. Thank our lucky stars Gorbachev was in power when the Soviet Union met its inevitable collapse -- or we could have faced World War III. - Another great article by Eric Margolis, click here to read it in its entirety.

Kremlin's Russifying “internationalists”

Another great article I came across was in The Day newspaper. All those Kremlin Politburo “internationalists” were outright demagogues and chauvinists who utterly hated the ethnic sentiments of the peoples that made up the USSR, with Ukraine probably topping the list. Click here to read the complete article.

Source; The Day

Does Ukraine stand a chance?

Ukraine, regrettably, failed to use its chance. One can come up with a long list of reasons, including historical and political traps concealed in latter-day history; questions like whether the Europeans knew Ukraine for what it was all about; an analysis of our mistakes and ways to correct them.

Read full article here.

Source: The Day

And the wall came tumbling down ...

This process has not been without its painful moments, and there will be more to come. But the enlargement of Europe remains the most obvious consequence of the fall in November 1989. Looked at from the point of view of those former Soviet states that still yearn to breathe free of Russian hegemony, such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, this enlargement is both seductive and incomplete.
Click here to read full article.

Source: FT

Flu panic stoked by political malpractice

Very interesting article in Kyiv Post about the politics behind the swine flu pandemic in Ukraine. Click here to read the article. Also CBC had done a similar piece on this, click here for the article.

Sources: Kyiv Post://www.kyivpost.com & CBC

Ukraine Flu Epidemic Day 6

You can get the latest about the HINI flu crisis in Ukraine by visiting Greetings from Ukraine Blog Michelle Knisley is a missionary serving with CrossRoads Foundation. Her Blog also has links to other news sources regarding the flu pendemic.

Seventy-one people die of flu

While her slogan for the Presedential Elections in 2010 is "I am the only on working" it seems people in Ukraine are dying of H1N1, with reports of over 70 dead so far. How prepared was her government to face this pandemic? Does not look to well. And people want to elect her Predident? First her incompetent government handling of the World Finacial Crisis, now this.
Here is a recap of stories on the crisis in Ukraine:

Seventy-one people die of flu, acute respiratory infections - Interfax Ukraine
Panic in Ukraine over swine flu - BBC News
Swine flu hits Ukrainian election campaign - EurActiv
Ukrainian Hospitals To Distribute Tamiflu For Free - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Ukraine provides PACE with Holodomor proofs

Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko has met Mevlut Cavusoglu, the PACE Vice President and rapporteur for problems on the famine in the former Soviet Union, the SBU press-service reports.

Nalyvaichenko, by authorization of an investigator, informed the PACE official about the progress of investigation into a criminal case on genocide in Ukraine in 1932-1933. The Ukrainian investigation established that genocide was committed by way of creating an artificial famine using such mechanisms as isolation of Ukraine's territory by special armed military units; inscription of districts and localities into the so-called 'black boards', blockade by troops, ban on people's movement outside the bounds of these areas, full seizure of foodstuffs and seed stocks, trade ban; restriction of free movement of peasants with the aim of looking for foodstuffs. In the course of the investigation, Ukraine received absolute evidences of committing crimes against humanity by the USSR top officials. Genocide in Ukraine in 1932-33 is proved by 3,685 Soviet classified documents, including with Joseph Stalin's signature, and many other papers, as well as 933 mass burial places of genocide victims. The SBU official also said that in order to collect proofs of genocide of Ukrainians in other countries, in full compliance with the international law, the SBU investigators have submitted petitions on providing legal assistance to law enforcement agencies of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Italy, the United States, Germany, Austria and Poland. According to different estimates, the Great Famine (Holodomor) took from 7 to 10 million lives in Ukraine, including around 4 million children, which was 25% of the country's population at that time.

Source: NRCU