Section: The Ukrainian Weekly (USA)
Ukraine Caucus members again urge Savchenko’s release
WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), members of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, continue to call on Russia to release Ukrainian fighter pilot and Member of Parliament Nadiya Savchenko. News of their latest statements on her behalf was released on January 13....
Support of Ukraine through political action
Recent events in Ukraine have underscored the importance of being able to influence U.S. foreign policy. Although concerted efforts to influence American policy regarding events in Ukraine have had some success, the results have been, at best, modest. The Ukrainian community in the United States will be able to influence the country’s...
Human rights in Crimea: “Dire” and deteriorating
NEW YORK – The human rights situation in Crimea is “dire” and will continue to deteriorate unless there is immediate action, was the urgent message of a series of programs in New York featuring international human rights activists, diplomats and lawyers, and the release of a new report on human rights violations in Crimea. “The […] …read...
Ukraine faces new set of economic challenges
KYIV – Ukrainians rang in the new year with unprecedented economic challenges. In response to the January 1 launch of the Ukraine-European Union free trade area, the Russian government in December imposed a trade embargo on food-related imports from Ukraine and nixed their free trade zone launched in 2011. In addition, changes introduced by...
Russian soldiers said to be involved in downing of MH17
AMSTERDAM – Dutch prosecutors are investigating a claim by a citizen-journalist group that at least 20 Russian soldiers were involved in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) over eastern Ukraine in 2014. The Britain-based Bellingcat group said it had identified up to 100 Russian soldiers who may have knowledge of the movements of the...
Odesa, Ukraine’s reform agenda faces crucial test
ODESA, Ukraine – To many of those living or doing business in this otherwise laid-back slice of southern Ukraine, even a whiff of the salty Black Sea breeze can’t mask the smell of corruption. It is a persistent problem that rankles Kyiv and figures prominently in the Ukrainian leadership’s Western-backed push for cleaner government...
More Crimean power shortages likely with end of Ukraine supplies
Residents of Crimea face several more months of power shortages as Russia appears to have ended a contract with Ukraine to deliver electricity to the peninsula it annexed in 2014. A Kremlin spokesman said on January 1 that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not renew the contract, which expired on New Year’s Day, as long […] …read...
Russian strategy seeks to defy economic decline with military bravado
Russia’s security is severely affected by the Ukraine crisis, and the National Security Strategy gives due attention to this disaster, putting the blame for supporting the “anti-constitutional coup” squarely on the U.S. and the EU, and asserting that Ukraine has become a “long-term source of instability in Europe and on Russia’s...
Three ambassadors on investing in Ukraine’s future
“Investing in Ukraine’s Future,” by John E. Herbst, Steven Pifer and William B. Taylor Jr., former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine, The New York Times, December 29, 2015 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/opinion/investing-in-ukraines-future.html?_r=0): …Appropriately funding efforts to improve Ukraine’s stability is a down payment on...
Russians, like Ukrainians, now view Ukraine as a separate country, commentator notes
Perhaps the most important development in the post-Soviet space in 2015 is that most Russians and nearly all Ukrainians view Ukraine as a separate country that will never return to Moscow in the fashion of some sort of “prodigal son,” according to Moscow commentator Leonid Radzikhovsky. Writing on January 3, he notes that in 2015 […] …read...
