- “Either we get the money or hold onto the ship. And if attacked, we will fight back to the bitter end.” is the word coming from the Somali-hijacked Ukrainian ship. Russian warship, Neustrashimy, which is scheduled to arrive off the Somaliacoast any time now, and seeking approval to launch a strike to repossess the Ukrainian ship. Meanwhile relatives of the passengers on the ship are raising money to pay off the hijackers.
- A European Parliament resolution on Thursday called the Holodomor “cynically and cruelly planned” by Moscow but stopped short of calling it a “genocide”.
- With the world facing an economic crisis, everyone has been coming out of the woodwork to blame Ukraine’s financial struggle on Yushchenko. The Hryvnia has sunk to a new low at approx $6 USD and inflation is up at 20%. Many Eastern European countries are on the verge of collapse.
- With Russia gaining a naval fleet in Georgian territory (Ochamchire base on the Abkhazia) after their conflict, they are looking yet again to extend their other Naval fleet lease in the Crimea.
- A Ukrainian warship, the Ternopil, will join the NATO-led Operation Active Endeavor naval antiterrorism exercise in November.
- A new Ukrainian government must be formed before January 1,2009, President Viktor Yushchenko. This was said after Tymoshenko supporters blocked a parliamentary session on the president called on economic crisis funding.
Category Archives: news
Holodomor Remembrance Flame barred from Russia
From Newswire:
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) condemns the recent and blatant abuse of human rights by the Russian government which has banned events planned in Russia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor – famine genocide in Ukraine of 1932-33.
Prior to the arrival of the International Remembrance Flame in Russia, the Ukrainian Embassy received notice on October 6 from Russia’s Foreign Ministry that ommemorative events must fall in line with the Russian position on the famine or be cancelled. Russia continues to claim that the Holodomor was not a genocide and that Ukraine’s effort to secure such recognition is “a political matter that is aimed against Russian interests.”
It has been confirmed by the Ukrainian World Congress that Ukrainian community activists in Orenburg, Tumen, Ufa, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar have been subjected to undue pressure and scare tactics by government officials in the region resulting in the cancellation of planned events.
Ukrainian news round-up – Oct 16 2008
- Pirates aboard the hijacked Ukrainian weapons carrying ship moored off the coast of Somalia have withdrawn their threat to blow up the ship if ransom is not paid.
- Ukrainian authorities pumped more money into the shaken banking sector as they prepared for talks with the International Monetary Fund about getting help with the country’s financial troubles. Yulia Tymoshenko said Thursday the IMF is ready to lend up to $14 billion only if the President abandons plans for early parliamentary elections. Will it really help though or just devalue the currency for regular Ukrainians?
- Meanwhile Tymoshenko said she would accept any conditions set by the President and is team to salvage the ruling coalition and avoid early parliamentary elections, and she also refused to provide funds for it.
- More sad EuroCup 2012 news as an Austrian company has pulled out of a project to build a new stadium, which has come at the worst possible time.
- Ukrainian cinema is on the rise, after having its first pavillion ever at the Cannes film Festival“Illusion of Fear” by Alexander Kiriyenko will be Ukraine’s entry for the best foreign-language film Oscar race. A special kind of press conference took place Tuesday as the first Ukrainian soiree at MIPCOM was unveiled.
- The 38th annual International Film Festival Molodist kicks off Saturday in Kyiv, while International Film Festival Pokrov 2008 wrapped up in the same city.
- Chernivtsi, the capital of Bukovnya celebrated its 600th anniversary. Many of the Ukrainian diaspora come from this region, as well as Halychnya.
Prime Minister turncoat?
From Reuters:
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin has struck a tactical alliance with its former foe Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko designed to help her become the next president and help Russia rein in Ukraine’s drive to embrace the West.
Tymoshenko and the Kremlin have put aside years of mutual suspicion to unite against Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the driving force behind Kiev’s ambitions to join NATO and Tymoshenko’s rival in a bitter struggle for power.
Is this for real? Not a lot of news has been generated, but this is definitely something to look out for.
Ukrainian news round-up – Sept 29 2008
- Olena Shurkho finished second in the women’s race of the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
- While President Yushchenko attended the 63rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in NYC this week, Ukraine withdrew its resolution recognizing the Holodomor as genocide – Russia was pleased.
- Pirates holding a Ukrainian arms ship off the Somali coast are demanding 20 million dollars for its release, one of the crew members has died. Defense Minister Yuri Yekhanurov says the delivery of armaments to Kenya complied with Ukrainian laws.
- Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer does not think that Ukraine will join the NATO Membership Action Plan in December if early parliamentary elections are called in the country.
- Western media keeps pumping out pro-Russian Crimea stories.
- McCain and Obama in their first Presidential debate both supported NATO memberships for Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s economy and public finances won’t be hit by the global financial crisis, the country’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Friday.
- Viktor Yuschenko meets with President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday, he already met with John McCain last week.
- Talk Is Free Theatre (TIFT) from Barrie, Ontario will be presenting excerpts of their English-language production of Bulgakov’s early 1930s play Molière, or League of Hypocrites at the Bulgakov International Art Festival in Kyiv. Bulgakov, the Kyiv-born playwright, author and doctor best known for his novel The Master and the Margarita, had plenty of reason to be disconsolate during his lifetime when his satires were banned in the Soviet Union. But is Bulgakhov, who spent most of his career in Moscow, to be celebrated as a Ukrainian writer or a Russian writer? It’s a question that has re-emerged since Ukraine’s independence.
- Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko, who fled his country after losing a power struggle and settled in a Bay Area mansion, won reversal of six of his 14 criminal convictions Friday but failed to persuade a court to overturn charges that he laundered more than $20 million through U.S. banks.
- Yulia Tymoshenko said on Friday a gas price of $400 per thousand cubic metres, as has been suggested by Russia’s Gazprom, would be an ‘absolute shock’ for Ukraine’s economy.
- With 40% of global wood production coming from illegal timber operations, your furniture might be coming from timber in Chernobyl.
- BYuT hopes for a deal with pro-presidential political forces on a new “orange” coalition to prevent early parliamentary elections, a senior bloc member said on Thursday.