EU Warns Kyiv November Deadline Is Firm by Zenon Zawada November, Or It’S Sent to the Archives
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INSIDE: l UCC meets with minister of international cooperation – page 4 l A story of rescue: Dutch officers and the UPA – page 9 l Community Chronicle: Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXI No. 7 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2013 $1/$2 in Ukraine EU warns Kyiv November deadline is firm by Zenon Zawada November, or it’s sent to the archives. And I think histori- Special to The Ukrainian Weekly ans of international relations will be able to study at length the text of the published pact as an example of an interest- KYIV – This year will likely bring events that will be the ing project that never came to be.” most pivotal since Ukraine’s declaration of independence Moves in recent weeks by the administration of in 1991 as both the Russian Federation and the European President Viktor Yanukovych have led some observers to Union (EU) step up pressure on the Ukrainian government believe it’s leaning towards the Moscow-led Customs Union. to make a decision on its civilizational course. President Yanukovych was set to travel to Moscow in The European Union’s Commissioner for Enlargement mid-December 2012 to sign documents that would have and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule raised the sealed Ukraine’s fate before he called off the trip on its eve, ante during his February 7 visit to Kyiv by setting a November reported the Kommersant-Ukrayina newspaper. deadline for the Ukrainian government to fulfill its obliga- He was reportedly ready to make significant conces- tions for signing the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement. sions – such as joining its precursor organization, the “We can’t wait. The E u r a s i a n E c o n o m i c window of opportunity Community (EurAsEC) – is open now,” he told the Ukraine’s Euro-integration hopes but balked when the Cabinet of Ministers of have reached the do-or-die stage. Kremlin required that such Ukraine. “Because if we, a step guarantee full Ukraine and the EU Customs Union member- allow the November deadline to pass, there won’t be any- ship in the long term. thing similar. There won’t be a December deadline or Vice Prime Minister Yurii Boiko is currently negotiating January 2014 deadline.” with Gazprom Board Chairman Aleksey Miller to create a Instead, he said the Association Agreement would be bilateral natural gas consortium – excluding the European shelved for no earlier than 2016. Mr. Fule reflected a widely Union – to manage Ukraine’s distribution system. In held view among the EU players and advisors that Ukraine’s exchange for letting Gazprom get involved, Ukraine’s oli- Aleksandr Sinitsa/UNIAN Euro-integration hopes have reached the do-or-die stage. garchs would get a gas price of $280 per thousand cubic The European Union’s Commissioner for Enlargement “It can be signed in 2013, or never,” Oleksandr Sushko, meters of gas instead of the current price of $460. and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule (left) director of the Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Institute, told a On the domestic front, state prosecutors – with President visited Kyiv on February 7, stressing that the deadline Yanukovych’s permission – have pursued new criminal for the Ukrainian government to fulfill the require- Kyiv roundtable discussion in mid-December. “Either steps ments to sign the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement in are made now in the direction of signing this initialed November. He is seen above with Prime Minister agreement, with the maximum date of its signing in (Continued on page 4) Mykola Azarov. Veteran diplomat Rotary leader promotes culture of philanthropy in Ukraine Hennadii Udovenko by Anna Mostovych “Here I was the son of ‘bourgeois nationalists,’ a former enemy of the people,” he said. “I had an official ID with my CHICAGO – Unlike many developing countries, Ukraine photo and a hammer and sickle on the cover.” Mr. Hewko dies at age 81 does not have a literacy problem nor does it suffer from and his wife, Margarita, settled in Hotel Kiev (as it was endemic water and food shortages, noted John Hewko, spelled at the time) and he began working with a group of general secretary of Rotary International. However, the talented advisors that included the international financier country continues to be crippled by very high levels of George Soros; Mark Lalond, former minister of Justice in corruption, a legacy of the Soviet era that he believes only Canada; Lester Thurow, former dean of the MIT Sloan a thriving civil society and civic organizations such as School of Management; Baroness Shirley Williams; and Rotary International can counterbalance. others. Mr. Hewko shared his insights at a presentation spon- Events moved quickly and on August 18, 1991, when the sored by the Chicago Business and Professional Group in Hewkos were attending the Chervona Ruta rock festival in December. Named top executive at the global philanthrop- southeastern Ukraine, word came of the attempted coup by ic organization in 2011, he dates his appreciation of the conservative Communist leaders in Moscow. Several days challenges faced by Ukraine to his stint in Kyiv in the early later, in an emergency session on August 24, the Ukrainian 1990s. Parliament prepared to vote on articles of independence. A multilingual speaker and a Harvard-trained attorney “These were my 15 minutes in the sun,” Mr. Hewko specializing in international corporate law, Mr. Hewko ini- remembered as he recounted his critical role in photo- tially had been sent to Moscow by the global law firm copying some 450 individual copies of the various decrees during the night of August 23 by using his personal copier Hennadii Udovenko in a 1998 photo. Baker & McKenzie to help establish the firm’s Moscow and a box of paper that had been shipped from the Baker office. Some two years later, at the urging of Bohdan PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Hennadii Udovenko, perhaps & McKenzie office in Moscow. Havrylyshyn, director of the Institute of Management in best remembered as Ukraine’s ambassador to the Despite the euphoria that greeted the declaration of United Nations at the time the country declared inde- Switzerland, Mr. Hewko took a leave of absence from the independence and the subsequent independence referen- pendence on August 24, 1991, died in a Kyiv hospital firm and moved to Kyiv to head up the advisory council dum in December, Ukraine’s path has been rocky, Mr. on February 12 at the age of 81. The cause of death that was helping the Verkhovna Rada create the legal Hewko admitted. “I didn’t realize how difficult it would be was not reported. infrastructure for self government. Though still a Soviet to get out of the Soviet era.” (Continued on page 7) republic, Ukraine had adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty in July 1990. (Continued on page 10) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2013 No. 7 ANALYSIS The Munich shadow over Yushchenko expelled, reinstated Ukraine in Council of Municipalities KYIV – The Kyiv city organization of the KYIV – Ukraine has become a member Our Ukraine party excluded party leader of the Council of European Municipalities the U.S.-Russia post-reset and former President Viktor Yushchenko in and Regions (CEMR), it was reported on February 1. The decision to admit Ukraine The chances for success, however, a decision that was overturned hours later by Pavel K. Baev by the party’s political council, it was was unanimously approved at the council Eurasia Daily Monitor appear less than slim – and not only because Mr. Putin has developed an reported on February 9. The Kyiv city meeting in Paris. The president of the The traditional Munich security confer- unhealthy obsession with the hypothetical branch said in a statement that Mr. Ukrainian Association of District and ence on February 1-3 had a particular and U.S. anti-missile “shield,” but also because Yushchenko’s decision to replace members Regional Councils, Kharkiv Oblast Council very different meaning for U.S. Vice- this deadlock is extremely convenient for of district committees in southern and Chairman Serhiy Chernov, said: “The President Joseph Biden and Russian blocking any serious negotiations on non- eastern parts of Ukraine during last year’s Ukrainian Association of District and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who had an strategic nuclear weapons, which Russian parliamentary elections had “caused dam- Regional Councils was admitted to the hourlong face-to-face meeting in addition strategists want to keep out of any arms age to the prestige of the party. By taking Council of European Municipalities and to delivering their keynote speeches. control limitations (Nezavisimoe Voennoe such actions, Yushchenko betrayed the Regions. Representatives of 37 member Mr. Biden had good reason to be proud Obozrenie, February 1). ideas of the party.” The Kyiv city organiza- countries and more than 50 associations of of his “reset” policy initiative, presented at Nor is there any intention to re-institute tion said Mr. Yushchenko was guilty of “sys- local and regional government took part in that conference in 2009, and he sought to Russia’s participation in the Conventional tematic violations of the party’s regula- the meeting, which was held at the Paris explore new opportunities for keeping the Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, particularly tions” and had tried “to usurp the party’s City Hall. The council members unani- “reset” going without becoming naïve as Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is so leadership.” Our Ukraine’s political council mously voted for Ukraine’s membership in about the depth of current discord busy with sorting out the military reform later confirmed Mr.