- The LA Times have picked up on the feud between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.
- Meanwhile Tymoshenko and Lytvyn are proposing a new coalition between her BYuT bloc, Lytvyn’s bloc and Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine –People’s Self-Defense bloc.  No word yet from Yushchenko’s bloc.
- Some people are finally catching on why Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament of the 90’s wasn’t such a great idea.
- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has reneg’d an invitation to meet with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko – citing conflicts and other issues are in the way.
- Russian propoganda is spewing again in the most unlikely of places, the French news agency and its syndicates are giving a small minority way too much press. The article cleverly balances itself out after some boring history and tidbits hoping you’ve turned to another story by now. It’s an old trick. (Edit: The story’s hitting home now – note the author)
- Moscow wants to keep its base in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Sevastopol even though its lease ends in 2017. That’s no surprise, since they’re handing out Russian passports in the region expect another Georgia-type conflict there soon.
- “I officially declare the coalition of democratic forces… in Ukraine’s parliament dissolved,” Yatsenyuk announced today in the Rada.
Category Archives: news
TDSB will have Holodomor materials, but will not include in curriculum
Trustee Mari Rutka’s motion passed last night, but it wasn’t what the Ukrainian Canadian community was fighting for last June when it tried to include the Holodomor into the new CHG38M – Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity class this Fall.
Paraphraising the motion:
1) To establish the fourth Friday of each November as a day of remembrance and recognition of Holodomor within TDSB schools
2) To develop a secondary teaching guide and curriculum materialsfor social studies courses covering the 1930s within TDSB secondary schools and to distribute this guide and these materials to all TDSB secondary schools by September, 2009
The distributed course materials will be available for any students who want to study the Holodomor – as an independant study. How many students do extra course work on top of their course load already? While this is a step in the right direction, efforts must continue to put the Holodomor into CHG38M. Unfortunately, the course material won’t be revised again until 2011, but we’ll be there.
Ukrainian news round-up – Sept 8 2008
- “The United States fully supports the right of Ukraine to build ever-stronger ties of cooperation and security throughout Europe and across the Atlanticâ€Â – Dick Cheney in Kyiv urging Ukraine’s leaders to unite against the threat posed by Russia  (some videos)
- Ukraine’s trade with the EU is worth more than half as much as its trade with Russia.
- In the Paralympics in Beijing: Alla Malchyk took the bronze in Women’s Discus, Roman Pavlyk won the gold with a Paralympic record of 12.25 seconds in Men’s 100m dash, and Oxana Boturchuk won the gold in 12.38 seconds in the Women’s 100m dash.
- The Ukrainian supreme Rada rejected recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. Out of 450 MPs, only 167 voted for the recognition.
- Yulia Tymoshenko has been summoned by prosecutors for questioning on a treason charge.
- Ukraine’s place is in EU, says Kyiv’s ambassador to Moscow.
- Analysts are saying the political feud in the coalition is hindering NATO and EU bids, as the EU-Ukraine summit will not invite Ukraine to be a member of the EU.
- Ukraine is getting ready to give its arguments to International Court of Justice in Hague regarding the Black Sea continental plateau dispute with Romania.
Ukrainian news round-up – Sept 1, 2008
- I won’t be vacationing in Russia anytime soon – an anti-Kremlin blogger was taken into police custody and shot dead! His site responded with allegations that the Russian government was cracking down on Ingushetia, a small Muslim region trying to succeed from Russia. First regarded as ‘an accident’, now the official story is the website’s owner tried to wrestle a gun away (while in custody?) and then was shot in the temple.
- Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska was given a lifetime ban on Friday after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at the Olympic Games – she was given the stiffest punishment because it was her second doping offence.
An ammunition depot near Lozovaya caught on fire causing 6500 people to be evacuated in the area, lighting up the sky. The explosions did not spread out past the base, despite the neighboring forest fire that caused the incident. Luckily no casualties were reported. - A Ukrainian minister warned that if the European Union did not flash positive signals on Ukraine’s membership soon, it would send a message to Russia that it could influence policy by military actions. President Yushchenko warns ‘any country could be next‘.
- Meanwhile the EU has claimed it will give ‘support’ to Ukraine’s territorial inviolability and sovereignty, but have provided no real prospect for EU membership.
- Dick Cheney is coming!
- A Ukrainian window washer’s death in New York has re-sparked debate about the profession’s safety there.
- Ukraine and Romania have taken their dispute over their maritime border to the World Court and the UN to divide an estimated 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and oil reserves under the Black Sea.
- Dima “DIMAGA” Filipchuk has gained in popularity, narrowly beating veteran Eugin “Strelok” Oparyshev in Kyiv at World Cyber Games Ukraine 2008.
- The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council was expelled from the opposition Party of Regions on Monday after disputing the party’s support for Russia’s recognition of Georgia’s rebel regions.
Ukrainian news round-up – August 11, 2008
- I haven’t been able to keep up to date on the Georgia-Russia conflict, luckily Cyber Cossack hasn’t missed a beat. There has been a lot of news coverage despite the Olympics.
- Ukraine picked up its first medal – Roman Gontiuk won the bronze in Judo (Men’s 81kg). Sergiy Derevyanchenko advanced in boxing but others are not favouring so well due to the alledged bias of officials.
- Ukrainianization is flourishing!
The number of schools using Russian as the language of instruction is rapidly diminishing even in Russian-speaking areas, and higher education is conducted in Ukrainian… Â Ukrainian state television only broadcasts in Ukrainian, and the presence of Russian in radio and television is minimal, though many still rely on broadcasts from Russia... The progressing Ukrainianisation of the country has left many Russian speakers uncomfortable, but for several decades it was Ukrainians who complained of language discrimination, and only slowly has the Slavic language begun to erase the ‘peasant language’ tag.
- Last week, a Ukrainian Catholic Church in Utica, NY was broken into where the thieves broke the tabernacle to steal a gold plated chalice and incense burner. There have been no leads in the investigation (video)
- Thirty Ukrainian orphans arrived in the Orange County in hopes of being adopted by American families and educating them on their plight.
- Tufts University graduate students have launched the Child’s Right to Thrive Student Group leading a grass-roots effort to improve the lives of children living in congregate care in Ukraine among other countries.
- Kindness in Action, a nonprofit from Severna Park, MD, that sponsors an orphanage in Lviv, delivered 17 quilts during a visit from June 13 to July 3.
- This week’s Nash Holos (Vancouver) and Ukrainian Time (Montreal) radio shows are available to download.
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