INSIDE: l Interview: Anne Applebaum on “Red Famine” – page 9 l Carpathian Ski Club holds 65th annual races – page 14 l 1983 Famine symposium archives restored – page 15 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVII No. 10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 $2.00 OCU hierarch fears further persecution Looking back at the Battle of Debaltseve by Russian occupying authorities in Crimea by Mark Raczkiewycz Prelude and backdrop of battle Russian-led forces had repeatedly flout- KYIV – Four years and one month ago, ed the first Donbas war truce that was bro- the second of two major and decisive bat- kered in Minsk in September 2014 follow- tles took place in the Donbas war. In the ing the disastrous Ilovaisk battle. Fighting Battle of Debaltseve in Donetsk Oblast, escalated in the fall and winter of that year Ukraine’s army tested itself against regular and reached a crescendo in January 2015 and irregular units of the Russian military, as clashes persisted for the Donetsk including battle-hardened mercenaries Airport, in the Debaltseve bulge and from the Wagner private military outfit. around Shyrokyne, 30 kilometers east of As in the August 2014 Battle of Ilovaisk, the Azov Sea coastal city of Mariupol. Kyiv was overwhelmed by a superior foe Slowly, Moscow-led forces continued to that broke through thin defensive lines gain territory. with a heavy concentration of forces and This included the area around Debaltseve, modern weaponry. In the end, more than a city that had a pre-war population of nine towns and territory were lost in a 25,000. It was considered strategic to both pocket of land that was sandwiched sides, because it sits on the “nexus of multi- between Russian-occupied Horlivka to the ple highway and railroad lines that are criti- west and Alchevsk to the east. cally important,” read the U.S. Army report. Ukraine’s armed forces general staff, in However, this part is “overstated,” former pomisna.info an analysis of the battle published on British Lt. Col. Glen Grant, a defense reform Archbishop Klyment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was briefly detained by February 3, 2016, said that 136 personnel Russian occupying authorities in the Crimean capital of Symferopol on March 3. He expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the were killed and 331 wounded during clash- Future, told The Ukrainian Weekly on is seen above in front of the gate to the Ukrainian military compound in Perevalne in es on January 27-February 18, 2015. March 2014, at the time of Crimea’s occupation by Russian forces. February 27. The casualty figures don’t include volun- Because this swath of territory is what by Mark Raczkiewycz last onslaught on him. And he, of course, teer forces – namely the Donbas Battalion. the British expert called a “northern pincer can’t feel safe anymore.” Total Ukrainian losses were 300 dead and sticking into Russian territory,” Russia KYIV – On March 3, Archbishop Klyment “Although the Russian occupation regime 700 wounded, according to a report decided to take it over as a “bonus opportu- (Kushch) who heads the Crimean eparchy stopped short of imprisoning the archbish- authored by Maj. Amos Fox of the U.S. Army nity,” he said. of the newly formed Orthodox Church of op… this is a very dangerous new move in Fort Benning on September 14, 2016. It made no sense for Ukrainian forces to Ukraine (OCU), went to the bus station in Russia’s persecution of the Ukrainian “The battle for control of Debaltseve hold the pocket unless it was going to use it Symferopol to embark on a trip to visit a Orthodox Church and of Klyment himself,” destroyed the 128th Mechanized Brigade as a “ram to re-take more territory” or Ukrainian political prisoner in the Russian the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the Donbas Battalion as fighting forma- “heavily fortify it to make it impregnable,” city of Rostov-on-Don. said in a March 4 statement. “It comes only tions,” the U.S. Army reported concluded. said Mr. Grant, who also is a senior fellow at Instead, the high-ranking clergyman, weeks after Klyment was forced to appeal “The Russian and separatist losses are far the U.K. Institute for Statecraft. who also heads the OCU’s mission to assist more difficult to define as Russia continues victims of human rights abuses and detain- (Continued on page 15) to deny any involvement in the battle.” (Continued on page 16) ees, had his journey truncated at 11:45 a.m. in the peninsula’s capital, according to the OCU press service. It was 15 minutes before the bus’s scheduled departure for a destina- tion where 20-year-old Ukrainian Pavlo Poroshenko receives International Statesman Award Hryb is being held in a pre-trial detention center on what human rights groups say are by Ulana Baluch Mazurkevich trumped up charges of “terrorism.” Russian-occupying authorities took the PHILADELPHIA – President Petro archbishop into custody. Ostensibly, it was Poroshenko of Ukraine was honored with because Archbishop Klyment had stolen the International Statesman Award by the religious items from the church – OCU’s only World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. The house of worship in Symferopol, where he award ceremony, VIP reception and dinner serves – said his lawyer Mykola Polozov. He took place on Wednesday, February 20, at was released after several hours without the historic Union League of Philadelphia. charges pressed and didn’t provide a state- Past recipients of this prestigious award ment to the occupying police force. have included Mikhail Gorbachev, Yitzhak “The Great Fast [Lent] begins, and today Rabin and Anwar Sadat. we read the Gospel of mercy and compas- President Poroshenko arrived at the sion,” he said after his release through the Union League accompanied by Valeriy OCU press service. “Now you have clearly Chaly, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S; seen who is merciful, and who boldly Volodymyr Yelchenko, permanent repre- abhors all Christian norms. Therefore, we sentative of Ukraine to the United Nations; pray, keep the law of God and do our best Oleksii Holubov, consul general of Ukraine to alleviate the suffering of our boys.” in New York; and Pavlo Klimkin, Ukraine’s This is only the beginning of Archbishop minister of foreign Affairs. Klyment’s apparent persecution, his lawyer The president and his delegation were World Affairs Council of Philadelphia warned in a televised interview with welcomed on the doorsteps of the stately President Petro Poroshenko with Ulana Mazurkevich and Craig Snyder at the Ukrainian Channel 4. “This is only the start,” entrance to the Union League in Philadelphia. In the background is Ambassador Mr. Polozov said. “I don’t think this is the (Continued on page 11) Valeriy Chaly. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 No. 10 ANALYSIS Kyiv bans foreign military basing EU envoys approve more sanctions Latvia; Pavlo Klimkin, minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine; Sven Mikser, minister of European Union ambassadors have on the territory of Ukraine agreed to impose asset freezes and visa minister of foreign affairs of Lithuania; Jacek bans on eight Russians involved in the cap- Strikingly, Constitutional Court Judge Czaputowicz,foreign affairs ministerof Estonia; of Linasforeign Linkevičius, affairs of by Ridvan Bari Urcosta ture and jailing of 24 Ukrainian seamen in Mykola Melnyk suggested that by eliminat- Poland; Margot Wallström, minister of for- Eurasia Daily Monitor an incident near the Kerch Strait in ing this paragraph from the Constitution, eign affairs of Sweden; Anders Samuelsen, The Ukrainian Parliament adopted sever- Ukraine has inadvertently deprived itself of November 2018, according to several sourc- minister of foreign affairs of Denmark; al symbolic amendments to the Constitution the only legal means to allow NATO-member es familiar with the discussions. The sanc- Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs on February 7. The amendments, which countries to maintain longer-term presence tions backed by the ambassadors on March President Petro Poroshenko signed into law on Ukrainian soil. Consequently, the recent- 6 are measures that are expected to be for- foreign affairs of Romania; Jeremy Hunt, on February 19, aim to make Ukraine’s stra- ly adopted amendments de facto contradict mally approved next week, according to dip- Britain’sof Canada; secretary Teodor ofMeleşcanu, state for foreignminister and of tegic course toward the North Atlantic each other and Ukraine’s national interests lomats who spoke on condition of anonymi- Treaty Organization (NATO) and the in the face of pervasive Russian aggression ty because they were not authorized to dis- minister of foreign affairs of the Czech European Union irreversible (Ukrinform. (Justice.org.ua, December 6, 2018). cuss the issue publicly. After that, the eight Republic.Commonwealth According affairs; to them, Tomáš the events Petříček, that net, February 19). Mr. Poroshenko had per- Similarly, a former deputy head of the Russians will be added to the EU list of peo- unfolded in Crimea five years ago have once sonally submitted the draft law to the legis- Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Viktor ple and entities who have been hit with again taught that security and freedom can- lature on September 3, 2018. Trepak, openly questioned why Paragraph sanctions for undermining the territorial not be taken for granted and that the inter- One key amendment removes Paragraph 14 should be removed if, in its wording, it integrity of Ukraine. The list, which was cre- national law and individual and collective 14 of Section XV (“Transitional Provisions”) does not explicitly name Russia and could ated after Russia seized control of Ukraine’s security must be upheld. As noted, provid- of the Constitution (Rada.gov.ua, Septem- be reapplied to the country’s actual allies in Crimea region in March 2014 and backed ing help and assistance to Ukraine is crucial ber 3, 2018).