The Ukrainian Weekly, 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INSIDE: l A century of U.S. congressional support for Ukraine – page 9 l Dallas community remembers Holodomor with exhibit – page 12 l Candle of Remembrance ceremonies in our communities – pages 16-17 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVI No. 42 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2018 $2.00 Philanthropist/activist Ronald S. Lauder Moscow severs ties with Constantinople receives Metropolitan Sheptytsky Award over Ukraine Church’s independence by Mark Raczkiewycz KYIV – The Russian Orthodox Church is severing its relationship with the spiritual authority of the Orthodox Christian world following a Synod, or assembly of church hierarchy, that was held in Minsk on October 15. The decision could signal the widest rift in the religious world since the 1054 schism that divided western and eastern Christianity or the Reformation of 1517 when Roman Catholicism split into new Protestant divisions. It was in response to the move by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople four days earlier, after it also held a Holy Synod and announced it will proceed with UJE the process of giving Ukraine its own fully Mark Raczkiewycz 2018 Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Award laureate Ronald S. Lauder, president of self-governed church. Archbishop Yevstratiy Zorya, spokesper- the World Jewish Congress (center), with James C. Temerty, board chairman of the Moscow reacted swiftly with Russian son for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (left), and Borys Lozhkin, president of the Jewish President Vladimir Putin convening an – Kyiv Patriarchate, stands at the Confederation of Ukraine. emergency meeting of the Security Council entrance to St. Michael Cathedral in on October 12. Kyiv on October 15. by Natalia A. Feduschak his support of Ukraine’s Jewish community “In the event that the events which are ward. “This is an absolutely grounded and and his promotion of Ukrainian-Jewish developing take the course of illegal activi- NEW YORK – Ronald S. Lauder, philan- absolutely understandable position.” cooperation. He is the fourth recipient of ties, then of course, just as Russia defends thropist, activist and president of the World the award, which is conferred by the Jewish Russian vows to “protect Orthodox the interests of Russians and Russian Jewish Congress, received the Metropolitan Confederation of Ukraine (JCU) and the believers… sounds like déjà vu all over speakers – and Putin has spoken about this Andrey Sheptytsky Award for 2018 at a Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE). again, since Russia used the same pretext in many times – Russia will defend the inter- ceremony at New York’s Ukrainian Institute In presenting the award, UJE Board 2014 when it started the conflict in eastern of America on September 27. ests of the Orthodox,” Dmitry Peskov, the Ambassador Lauder was recognized for (Continued on page 12) Russian president’s spokesman, said after- (Continued on page 11) New UNA General Assembly holds first meeting by Roma Hadzewycz KERHONKSON, N.Y. – The Ukrainian National Association’s General Assembly convened its first post- convention meeting here at Soyuzivka Heritage Center on Friday through Sunday, October 12-14. It was the first meeting of the General Assembly elected for the 2018- 2022 term at the UNA convention held in May. The General Assembly comprises the UNA’s executive officers, auditors and advisors – 20 members in all. As is UNA practice, during a convention year the General Assembly holds a special meeting, not an annual meeting, whose agenda is somewhat abbreviated. An update on the UNA’s finances and activity were deliv- ered by the three executive operating officers of the UNA: President/Chief Executive Officer Stefan Kaczaraj, Chief Operations Officer/National Secretary Yuriy Symczyk and Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer Roma Lisovich. Other General Assembly members, as well as the editor- in-chief of the UNA’s official publications, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, submitted brief written reports and had an opportunity to address the meeting. The reports were brief, as some members are newcomers to the General Assembly, while others had recently submitted lengthier reports, covering a four-year period, at the UNA Convention on May 18-20. Roma Hadzewycz Members of the Ukrainian National Association’s General Assembly for 2018-2022 at their special meeting on (Continued on page 5) October 12-14 at Soyuzivka Heritage Center. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2018 No. 42 ANALYSIS Agreements that ended 19 killed in rampage in Crimea could find,” she said, seeming to choke back tears at times. Journalist Yekaterina Keizo Russian authorities say 19 students and told RFE/RL that when she got to the scene Cold War are disintegrating faculty members at a college in Crimea have at about 12:30 p.m. local time, “they were been killed, many of them teenagers, in a carrying the injured out of the building.” She by Pavel Felgenhauer new capabilities to deter and “take out” the bomb-and-gun attack they say was carried said that eyewitness told her that “two men” Eurasia Daily Monitor violating missiles. Her statement seemed to imply the possibility of pre-emptive strikes, out by a student who fatally shot himself had entered the college and that “one blew after the assault. It was not clear whether The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s which the U.S. ambassador later somewhat himself up in the cafeteria” while the other Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) was proba- walked back, clarifying that she only meant the death toll included the alleged attacker. “walked around the rooms and shot every- bly the alliance’s most important and secre- Russia must comply with the INF or face At least 50 others were injured in the body indiscriminately. He just shot everyone tive institution during the Cold War. the same class of weapons being deployed October 17 attack at a polytechnic college in he saw.” In other harrowing accounts, sever- Notably, it worked out NATO members’ in the West (Militarynews.ru, October 2). the city of Kerch, the only major outbreak of al students spoke of gunfire at the college joint strategy and tactics for using non-stra- U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis told violence in Crimea since Russia seized the but not a bomb blast. The Russian newspa- tegic nuclear weapons in a possible all- journalists in Brussels the NATO NPG Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. per Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted student European war with the Soviet-led Warsaw intensely discussed Russia’s “blatant viola- News of the bloodbath unfolded quickly and Semyon Gavrilov as saying he woke up to Pact. Such a confrontation seemed all too tion” of the INF. Gen. Mattis supported chaotically, with some initial reports saying the sound of shooting after falling asleep in possible – and sometimes almost inevitable Hutchison’s comments but refused to go it was a gas blast and authorities later say- a lecture and then saw a young man firing at – during acute crisis situations that brought into detail on what the US response would ing that it was a bomb and that they were people with a rifle. “I locked the door, hop- the Cold War opponents to the brink in entail if the alleged Russian INF Treaty vio- treating it as a terrorist act. But Russia’s ing he wouldn’t hear me,” the paper quoted 1949, 1956, 1962, 1973 and 1983. lations continue. According to Gen. Mattis, main investigative agency later said authori- Gavrilov as saying. He said he saw dead In the last of the aforementioned crises, all U.S. allies agreed that Russia had violat- ties believe an 18-year-old student at the bodies on the floor and charred walls, pre- tensions spiked as the United States ed the INF. He declared that he would college rampaged through the building with sumably from a fire or explosion, after deployed nuclear-tipped land-based cruise report this situation and all possible a rifle, shooting students and faculty mem- police arrived about 10 minutes later to missiles as well as medium-range Pershing responses to the White House. Russia must bers. Investigative Committee spokeswom- evacuate people from the building. The II ballistic missiles on the territory of sever- stop its cavalier attitude, the secretary of an Svetlana Petrenko said authorities regional Emergency Situations Ministry al European NATO allies to counter the defense insisted (Interfax, October 4). believe the suspect, fourth-year student declared a state of state of emergency in threat of the deployment of hundreds of Moscow angrily rejected the accusations Vladislav Roslyakov, fatally shot himself Crimea and said security was being Soviet SS-20 nuclear intermediary missiles of having violated the INF and in turn after the attack. She said investigators had increased. A three-day mourning period known in Russia as Pioneer. The Soviets accused the West of violating the treaty. recategorized the probe into the attack as a was announced by the Russian authorities produced over 800 Pioneer missiles, and Last December, President Vladimir Putin case of murder rather than terrorism. There who control the Black Sea peninsula. each carried a heavier payload than the told the media, “Russia will never unilater- was no immediate word on a possible Meanwhile, residents of Kerch started to lay Pershing IIs; but their U.S. counterparts ally abandon any treaty,” but the U.S. has motive. Most or all of the victims appeared flowers at the site of the attack and a memo- were stealthier and much more accurate. already “factually abandoned” the INF by to have died of gunshot wounds, according rial service for the victims took place in the By 1987, the Soviet military/political building an essentially dual-use missile to Ms. Petrenko, who also said that a shrap- Crimean capital of Simferopol, TASS news leadership became so terrified of the so- base in Romania: capable of launching both nel-packed bomb exploded at the college.