In Canada, a discussion of vanishing Jewish heritage in Ukraine ...

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THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2010
No. 18
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NEWSBRIEFS
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Black Sea Fleet in Crimea until 2042 means
that Ukraine’s foreign policy in the nearest
future will be formed only based on the
Kremlin’s wishes, which are becoming more
important than our own priorities, the expresident
emphasized. (Ukrinform)
Clinton comments on fleet deal
MOSCOW – Commenting on the deal
reached between Ukraine and Russia that
extends the basing on Ukrainian territory of
the Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to the
Baltic nation of Estonia, on April 22 called
the lease extension evidence of Ukraine’s
“balanced approach to its foreign policy.”
While on a visit to Estonia, Secretary
Clinton said Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych had pledged to U.S. President
Barack Obama to “improve and deepen”
relations of Ukraine with the United States.
“At the same time he has made it clear that
he will continue to work together with
Russia. Given Ukraine’s geographic position,
that balancing act is a hard one, but it
makes sense to us,” she said. (Associated
Press)
Minister: deal protects national interests
KYIV – Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs
Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko said on
April 26 that the base-for-gas deal between
Ukraine and Russia is aimed at protecting
Ukraine’s national interests. He said the
agreements reached in Kharkiv by
Presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry
Medvedev will protect Ukraine’s national
interests via strategic partnership relations
with Russia. He added that he believes that
the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) has never
posed and will not pose any threat to
Ukraine. He emphasized, “These agreements
were concluded for us to have a normal
budget, based on the real price of gas
and partner relations with Russia.”
(Ukrinform)
Lukashenka on Russia’s bases
MINSK, Belarus – Belarusian
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on
April 25 berated Russia for not paying for
its military bases deployed in his country
and lashed out at Russia’s gas-for-base
deal with Ukraine. “I want to congratulate
my Ukrainian colleagues on this victory –
they have saved a few billion dollars by
signing this deal,” Mr. Lukashenka told
reporters. “If someone has forgotten,
Russia has two military bases on
Belarusian land,” Mr. Lukashenka said.
“And Russia pays us zero rubles, zero
kopecks and zero dollars for these bases.”
He said one of the bases was part of
Russia’s national ballistic missile early
warning system, while the other provided
communications with Russian submarines
in the Atlantic. Russian officials say
Moscow does not pay Minsk for the bases
because Belarus gets Russian oil and gas
at low prices, while Belarus says the lack
of payment is due to a close military and
political partnership between the two. Mr.
Lukashenka has also criticized Moscow’s
prompt support of Kyrgyzstan’s opposition,
which came to power after a bloody
revolt this month. Ousted Kyrgyz leader
Kurmanbek Bakiev is now sheltered in
Belarus. Mr. Lukashenka threatened to
not attend an informal summit of the
Moscow-dominated Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO) set for May
8 in Moscow unless the issue of
Kyrgyzstan’s “coup d’état” is included on
the agenda of the meeting. Belarus and
Kyrgyzstan are members of the CSTO
along with Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. “What sort of
organization is this one, if there is bloodshed
in one of our member-states and an
anti-constitutional coup d’état takes place,
and this body keeps silent?” Mr.
Lukashenka said. (Reuters, RFE/RL)
Chornobyl anniversary is marked
KYIV – Ceremonies were held on April
26 in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia to commemorate
the 24th anniversary of the
Chornobyl nuclear accident. The April 26,
1986, explosion at the Chornobyl nuclear
power plant caused severe radioactive contamination
of some 145 square kilometers in
Europe, mostly in Belarus and Ukraine. The
total number of people killed by the explosion
and exposure to radiation afterwards is
a matter of some controversy. A United
Nations report released in 2005 said that
some 4,000 people could eventually die
from radiation exposure as a result of the
Chornobyl disaster. But it said the accident
had been responsible for the deaths of about
50 people by 2005. Other organizations
claim that many thousands of people have
died from radiation exposure due to the
Chornobyl disaster. Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych said in a nationwide
address that more than 2 million people – at
least one-quarter of whom are children – are
suffering from radiation-caused diseases in
areas that were affected by the Chornobyl
accident. He pledged to provide better care
for victims and those who still suffer from
related diseases. He said the Chornobyl
nuclear reactor remains a serious threat to
Europe. Mr. Yanukovych laid flowers at the
memorial to Chornobyl heroes and liquidators
near the northern gate of the Chornobyl
plant. He emphasized that the main goal
today is to ensure that similar catastrophes
cannot be repeated in the future, and he
thanked the plant’s employees for their
work. In Belarus, a commemoration march
took place in the capital, Minsk. Reports say
that in the city’s heavily policed central
square, about 2,000 demonstrators held aloft
opposition flags bearing slogans such as
“Dictatorship is like another Chornobyl.”
Viacheslav Grishin, the leader of the nongovernmental
organization Russian
Chornobyl Union, said at a commemoration
at Moscow’s Mitin cemetery that some
250,000 people from Russia took part in the
clean-up effort at Chornobyl and that about
30,000 of them have since died. He charged
that the Russian government does not pay
enough attention to the needs of the
Chornobyl veterans and those who still live
in the affected territories. In St. Petersburg,
activists and Chornobyl veterans laid flowers
at a monument to the disaster on the
Chornobyl Veterans Alley. A special concert
called “Through the Ashes of Chornobyl”
was held in the town of Kronstadt near St.
Petersburg. (RFE/RL, Ukrinform)
Court strips Shukhevych of title
KYIV – The Donetsk Administrative
Court of Appeals on April 21 declared as
illegal former Ukrainian President Viktor
Yushchenko’s decree of October 12, 2007,
to award the Hero of Ukraine title to Roman
Shukhevych, the commander of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The court ruled
that the president had no right to confer this
title on Shukhevych, because he had died in
1950 and, therefore, had not lived on the territory
of independent Ukraine (after 1991).
Consequently, Shukhevych was not a
Ukrainian citizen and the title could not be
awarded to him. In October 2009, lawyer
Volodymyr Olentsevych, on behalf of Dr.
Anatolii Soloviov, filed a lawsuit in Donetsk
Circuit Administrative Court to declare the
decree on awarding Shukhevych the Hero of
Ukraine title as illegal and cancel it. On
April 2, the Donetsk Circuit Administrative
Court, on the basis of the suit filed by Mr.
Olentsevych, cancelled President
Yushchenko’s decree on awarding the Hero
of Ukraine title to Stepan Bandera, the leader
of the Organization of Ukrainian
Nationalists, as Bandera was not a citizen of
Ukraine. (RFE/RL)
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