Top news stories about Ukrainians, Ukraine and beyond!

• An update from last week, opposition activist Vadim Charushev who was confined against his will to a mental hospital, will remain in the facility after a St. Petersburg court ruled in favor of his compulsory treatment Saturday.
• Talk about Ukrainian influence: Salo is making a comeback and Gucci’s Fall fashions were inspired by the Pysanka.

Economy

• RosUkrEnergo said Ukraine’s state gas company Naftohaz could again have trouble finding the money to pay for the higher gas prices Russian Gazprom is now charging ($360 per 1,000 cubic metres in the first quarter up from $179.50 in 2008). But with a $16.4 billion IMF loan programme still on hold due to unresolved issues surrounding a large budget deficit, the government’s financial and gas reserves are dwindling. Naftohaz says the main problem it faces is non-payment by Ukrainian consumers, mostly in utilities. Tymoshenko has asked Russia for a $5 billion loan, a possible life-line that would give Moscow more leverage over Ukraine ahead of presidential elections which constitutional experts say must take place by late January 2010.
• “The modernisation of Ukraine’s gas pipeline is vital if the former Soviet republic is to achieve its goal of joining the European Union”, President Victor Yushchenko said Saturday in an interview.

Continue reading Ukrainian news round-up – Mar 23 2009 →

Top news stories about Ukrainians, Ukraine and beyond!

• Are the Ukrainians the Irish of the East, or are the Irish the Ukrainians of the West? Much in their histories and struggles are common. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Abroad

• The New York Times is shedding some light on the Holodomor – but CyberCossack reminds us who helped cover it up in the first place.
• US President Barack Obama should stop encouraging Georgia and Ukraine’s bids to join NATO in order to improve relations with Moscow, a bipartisan commission recommended in a report Monday. Led by former senators Gary Hart (D) and Chuck Hagel (R) who were received last week by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the commission took aim at NATO’s eastward expansion.
• French defence minister Herve Morin said any future NATO enlargement must take Russia into account. Any expansion of NATO to include countries such as Georgia and Ukraine cannot happen without consultation with Russia, Mr Morin said, ahead of a parliamentary vote on France’s return to the alliance’s military structures. NATO has so far maintained that Russia does not have a veto over the alliance’s enlargement policy, despite the visible influence it has on some of its members, such as Germany and France, who last year blocked further steps in Georgia and Ukraine’s accession process. At US insistence, they were however promised they could become NATO members at some undefined point in the future.
• The Obama administration has proposed to triple the IMF’s resources from their current level of about $250 billion to salvage emerging markets, including Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that does not enjoy the political benefits of E.U. membership, the stakes are especially high. There, industrial production has plunged by almost a third since the beginning of the crisis; living standards for 46 million people are starting to collapse. The weaker and more chaotic Ukraine becomes, the likelier it is that Russia will attempt to reassert hegemony over it. A Putinized Ukraine would be a disaster for that country, Europe and the United States.
• Pictures have been released of the Ukrainian MV Faina getting hijacked of Somali pirates.

Continue reading Ukrainian news round-up – St. Patrick’s Day edition 2009 →

Top news stories about Ukrainians, Ukraine and beyond!

Economy

• Ukraine told 17 banks not to buy or sell the currency at a weaker level than the exchange rate set by the central bank in a bid to help stabilize the hryvnia. Ukraine’s economy may rebound “relatively quickly” next year after a sharp contraction in 2009, helped by exports.
• Lytvyn has said that he doubts that Ukraine soon would be able to fulfill recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to receive a second tranche of the standby credit from the fund. Ukraine has received $4.5 billion — the first installment of a $16.4 billion credit — but hasn’t complied with IMF demands to receive a second $1.8 billion credit.

Continue reading Ukrainian news round-up – Mar 10 2009 →

Politics

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and Polish President Lech Kaczynski have started a working visit through Lviv region. Then they attended the events to commemorate the victims of a tragedy 65 years ago in Brody.

Russia issued a DVD and a thick book of historical documents to dispute claims that the Holodomor was genocide. Out of the 90 major news agencies that picked up the story, all but one didn’t actually mention the Holodomor. No one’s really accepting this story anyways, well unless you’re Russia.

Russia cancelled a 1992 agreement on sharing radar information last year, saying the systems were outdated and that it would be “unthinkable” to have such installations in a country aspiring to join NATO.

Economy

Some private companies are not paying their staff salaries, which prompted Yulia Tymoshenko to threaten them with nationalization.

March 7th is the deadline for Ukrainian Naftohaz to pay their $400 million USD debt to Russian Gazprom, and the company warned last week it may default on their loans. The shakedown has been made very clear to me: Russia could demand that Ukraine pay the debt by allowing Gazprom to purchase a share of the Ukrainian gas pipeline to Russia. “Gazprom has sets its eyes on our transportation pipeline to the EU for years,” a Ukrainian official told New Europe, talking on condition of anonymity. Naftohaz has asked Gazprom to allow Ukraine to buy less natural gas this year than previously agreed. The Tymoshenko cabinet plans to nationalize regional heating utility companies which fail to pay the price stipulated by the gas agreements in Moscow.

The IMF said it is willing to adjust Ukraine’s loan program, to include a higher budget deficit and reflect worsening economic conditions. The IMF froze a second installment of the loan earlier this month after Tymoshenko refused to cut spending, prompting downgrades from rating agencies. Opposition Party of Regions refused to sign a letter to the group.

Viktor Yushchenko has signed a law providing national publishers of Ukrainian language literature will not be required to participate in rental tenders of state or municipally owned facilities.

Yatseniuk said that the Pension Fund’s deficit is Hr 17 billion. National Bank of Ukraine is saying that Ukraine’s GDP is down by 20%. Ukrainian State Statistics Committee has informed that average wages fell by 16.8% in January 2009 to UAH 1,665 per month. Things aren’t looking better soon.

Around the World

It turns out wealthy business oligarch Viktor Pinchuk paid the (now) $4 mil USD ransom for the safe return of the crew of the Faina hijacked by Somali pirates.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed emphasized the importance of maintaining strong U.S.-Ukrainian relations, in a speech presented Tuesday at a forum hosted by the Ukrainian Foundation for Effective Governance (FEG) and The Hill.

The Greek authorities have released the Vasyl Bozhenko vessel owned by the Kyiv-based Ukrrichflot shipping company, which they arrested on February 25 for the debt for fuel.

North America

• What happens when the Washington Times get a pro-Soviet freelance journalist to write about the Crimea? You get a letter from the Ambassador of Ukraine, that’s what.
• Prof. John-Paul Himka, a professor with the department of history and classics who specializes in the Holodomor takes a dim view of Canadian efforts to help prevent famines and has no lack of front-page new stories to help make his point. He has a special interest in how governments use food as a political tool to coerce civilians and enfeeble political opponents. “The blockade around Gaza is about resources as are many of the political conflicts in the world right now.”
• Obama’s Foreign policy adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski: “We should work so that Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan do not become victims of US-Russia dialogue. If we sacrifice these republics, Russia’s integration into the world will slow.“
• Exotic and cheerful community gathered at the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington, D.C. for the 10th annual celebration of the International Mother Language Day on Feb. 21. Bangladeshi saris, Ukrainian embroidered clothing, African golden dresses, and Russian red sarafans represented the diversity. The Ukrainian community actively participated in the event. The multicultural audience applauded Solomia Dutkewych, singing the songs Rodymyi Krayu (My Beloved Homeland) and U Sadu Vyshnevomu (In the Cherry Orchard).

Europe & Africa

• Nick Lajszczuk received the Ukrainian President’s Service Medal for his work in Keighley, Britain – the first council in the country to recognise the Holodomor. He arranged for the “Torch of Remembrance” to pass through the town.
• Oles Yanchuk has won the first prize of Henri-Langlois (the European nomination) for his film Famine-33 (Holod-33) at this year’s Vincennes Cinema Festival in France on February 3.
• The number of Eastern Europeans looking to move to Britain is down 40% as the credit crunch takes its toll, the vast majority are younger than before – 78% fall into the 18-34 age group – and travelling alone – only 11% of applicants reported bringing dependents with them.
• The ‘Faina’ ship that was hijacked in the waters of Somalia was finally returned, cargo untouched and crew members alive.  The ship owner paid 3.2 Million USD for the ship’s return.
• All five crew members died when a South African-owned airplane crashed in Egypt on flight from Uganda to Ukraine.  Two Belarusians, a Russian, and two Ukrainians were aboard.
• NATO defense ministers sought Friday to find ways to keep the door open to Ukraine’s membership, despite opposition from Russia over the alliance’s perceived encroachment into what Moscow considers its historical sphere of influence.

Politics

• Ukrainian officials claim Russia is rapidly distributing passports in the Crimea peninsula. Many influential Russian politicians, such as Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, believe Khrushchev’s decision was illegal and Russia is duty-bound to repossess Crimea. It is estimated that about 200,000 people – or nearly every 10th resident – has dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship, although it is prohibited by law. “(Russia is) trying to do the same thing they did with Abkhazia and South Ossetia – establish legal grounds, at least in the Russian legal system, for intervention, whether that be economic, political or military”.
• Ukraine’s top intelligence official announced that a significant part of the country’s secret archives would be made public. But Ukraine has never undergone a lustration process, o weeding out of government officials who collaborated with the Soviet-era intelligence services, they made a smooth transition from the Soviet era to an independent Ukraine and remained in power. How much of the former KGB’s most secret legacy even remains in Ukraine in documented form is also in doubt.
• An explosion of traffic and comments came to a blog that described what a “Russophone Ukrainian nationalist” is.
• EU foreign ministers on Monday considered increasing economic and other aid to Ukraine and four other ex-Soviet republics to try to counter Moscow’s continuing influence. The proposed partnership does not promise EU membership — something Ukraine, in particular, wants. The plan is expected to be formally approved at a mid-March meeting of the 27 EU leaders.

Economy

• Ukraine’s hryvnia tumbled, closing at a record low against the dollar. It has lost more than 50 percent against the dollar in the past six months as reduced demand for exports and a lack of foreign credit causes Ukraine’s first economic contraction in a decade.
• The IMF says there is no risk of a payment default in eastern and central European countries hardest hit by the global financial crisis. Defaulting is highly unlikely for Ukraine. Ukraine is likely to weather this financial crisis as it has taken the right steps earlier on”.  Are the crisis fears overblown?
• Ukraine’s state-run natural gas company Naftohaz is warning it may again default on payments for Russian gas imports, because of what it calls the “catastrophic” effects of the global financial crisis. Naftohaz officials said their latest warning is aimed at collecting hundreds of millions of dollars owed it by regional Ukrainian gas companies.

Sports

• Tottenham striker Darren Bent is expecting a very tough game when Harry Redknapp’s side take on Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup on Thursday. The round of 32 first leg clash is expected to take place in freezing conditions in Ukraine but Bent is looking forward to having a rare opportunity to show Redknapp what he can do.

Other news

• Viktor Yushchenko is now on Twitter! In case you didn’t know, so are we!  Edit: JNW adds there is one also for ex-chief of Parliament Arseniy Yatsenyuk
• The latest Ukrainian edition of Maxim has a poor photoshopped cover.