The Ukrainian Weekly, 2018
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INSIDE: Photo report: Centennial of UOC-U.S.A. – centerfold Holocaust survivor praises Sheptytsky – page 15 Plaque honoring Lemkin to be unveiled at UIA – page 19 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVI No. 32 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2018 $2.00 UOC-U.S.A. celebrates its centennial with liturgy and banquet by Matthew Dubas SOUTH BOUND BROOK/SOMERSET, N.J. – More than 500 people, including more than 100 clergy members, cel- ebrated the centennial of the founding of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. on July 28 with a hierarchical divine liturgy led by Metropolitan Yurij of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. The feast day on July 28, according to the Julian calendar, is dedicated to Grand Prince Volodymyr the Great, who is credited with baptizing Ukraine into Christianity in 988. A procession, led by a cross-bearer who was joined by participants carrying church banners and flags of various church organizations, began the centennial celebrations as participants gathered to celebrate the centennial divine lit- urgy. From the steps of the Ukrainian Cultural Center, after snaking their way around the St. Sophia Seminary building, participants walked along Easton Avenue with the aid of local police who closed off a section of the road for the pro- cession. A large tent set up in front of St. Andrew Memorial Church for the outdoor liturgy provided shade for the faith- Matthew Dubas ful. Clergy were organized on one side of the central tent The procession of the faithful begins before the hierarchical divine liturgy marking the centennial of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. with their own canopy on the left; and on the right under their own canopy, the mixed choir of singers from more Patriarchate of Constantinople; Bishop Andriy, ruling hier- Eparchy of the UOC-U.S.A. and consistory president, was in than 12 area churches provided the masterful bilingual arch of the Eastern Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Ukraine as part of a delegation representing Ecumenical responses and hymns, under the direction of Dr. Michael Church of Canada; Bishop John of the Antiochian Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I for the celebration of the 1,030th Andrec, choir director at St. Andrew Memorial Church. Church of North America; Bishop Ilia of the Albanian anniversary of the baptism of Ukraine. The delegation Joining the celebration was Archbishop Demetrios, rul- Orthodox Diocese of America; and Bishop Saba of the included Metropolitan Emmanuel of the Greek Orthodox ing hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of New Georgian Orthodox Diocese of North America. York and an official representative of the Ecumenical Archbishop Daniel, ruling hierarch of the Western (Continued on page 12) Canadian Ukrainian’s 400-mile walk for orphans concludes in Carpathians by Mark Raczkiewycz and marched onward where 220 orphans of various categories and age groups were wait- VOROKHTA, Ukraine – Emotion over- ing to greet her along with Canada’s honor- powered Ruslana Wrzesnewskyj as she ary consul in Lviv, Dr. Oksana Wynnyckyj- approached this picturesque Carpathian Yusypovych, and members of the Canadian Mountain town in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Armed Forces, who are in-country to train situated 2,788 feet above sea level. Tears their Ukrainian counterparts. began to trickle down her cheeks that her After a series of hurrahs, Ms. black-rimmed sunglasses partially con- Wrzesnewskyj stopped to re-emphasize cealed just steps away from the Hutsul set- her call to “close down” the country’s “anti- tlement situated along the Prut River flow- quated” Soviet-era boarding homes and ing southward. schools where more than 106,000 orphans “We finally did it, we did it,” she said as reside, accounting for 1.5 percent of the tears kept dribbling while hugging the nine underage population. walkers with whom she entered the town, An organizer of summer and winter including Ukrainian-Swiss friend Patricia camps for orphans, as well as other out- Shmorhun who “gave me courage to con- reach programs, Ms. Wrzesnewskyj, 64, tinue.” said that “reform must start soon… there Ms. Wrzesnewskyj had endured a broken should be programs to keep children with arm along the way in June, but trekked on. their families as opposed to just dumping It was the culmination of a 56-day, 404- them in the orphanages.” She added that mile (650-kilometer) westward hike that Canada’s foster care model would be a good started in Kyiv to raise awareness for fit for adoption in Ukraine. Ukraine’s orphans, a cause to which the She was referring to what the Ukrainian Ukrainian Canadian realtor and activist has Mark Raczkiewycz government calls “social orphans,” who devoted a quarter century of her life. Canadian Ukrainian Ruslana Wrzesnewskyj (fourth from right) walks into the account for 95 percent of all children kept “Please forgive me,” she said during the Carpathian Mountain town of Vorokhta in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast after completing in 751 various boarding homes – called embrace as she regained her composure, a 56-day, 404-mile walk from Kyiv to raise awareness about the plight of Ukraine’s crossed arms again with her fellow walkers 106,000 orphans. (Continued on page 18) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2018 No. 32 ANALYSIS Baltic governments respond Sentsov’s condition ‘catastrophic’ Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service, with The condition of Ukrainian filmmaker reporting by AFP; Euromaidan Press) to growing Russian spy threat Oleh Sentsov, who has been on a hunger strike in a Russian prison for nearly three At Manafort trial: Ukrainian money ties by Paul Goble Some Latvians have asked why Estonia months, has worsened considerably, his A longtime business partner of President Eurasia Daily Monitor and Lithuania catch more spies than Latvia lawyer and his cousin say. Mr. Sentsov’s does. At a parliamentary hearing in April cousin, Moscow-based journalist Natalya Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman The governments of Estonia, Latvia and 2016, Ints Ulmanis, the deputy head of the Kaplan, wrote on Facebook on August 8 has detailed how he helped Paul Manafort Lithuania face an increasingly large espio- Seim (Parliament) Commission on National that she received a letter from him through hide millions of dollars that he earned from nage threat from the Russian Federation. Security, said that “to a large extent” a lawyer who visited him the previous day. Ukrainian clients. Rick Gates testified on Naturally, this threat includes the introduc- Latvia’s lag is the result of its failure to elab- “Things aren’t just bad, they’re catastrophi- August 6 in a U.S. court outside Washington tion or recruitment of Russian agents to orate the kind of espionage laws that cur- cally bad,” Ms. Kaplan wrote. “He wrote that that wealthy Ukrainian businessmen paid engage in classical espionage activities like rent Russian practice requires. Latvia’s the end is near – and he wasn’t talking Mr. Manafort millions of dollars for his polit- ferreting out classified information from antiquated spy statues often have so many about his release,” she added, suggesting ical consulting work in Ukraine through government sources. But it is particularly loopholes, he suggested, that those arrest- that he thinks he is close to death. Ms. wire transfers to accounts based mostly in dangerous in the Baltic states because ed for spying are not convicted. That has Kaplan also reported: “The lawyer has Cyprus that were set up for Mr. Manafort. some of these clandestine activities are happened six times since 2010 (Spektr, passed me a letter from Oleh, he almost Prosecutors allege that Mr. Manafort com- designed to lay the groundwork for poten- May 18). never gets up. …He is wondering whether mitted tax fraud by failing to report a “sig- tial diversionary attacks by Russian agents But he pointed to three other reasons as someone pays attention to his hunger nificant percentage” of the more than $60 against key local infrastructure targets. well: First, more Russian spies in Latvia strike as he doesn’t know because he million they say he received from his This kind of sabotage would seriously work out of the Embassy; and when they doesn’t receive any letters at all! He says Ukrainian clients. Mr. Gates testified about undermine the defense of these countries are caught spying, they are sent home with- that he lives in an information vacuum and the payment scheme he said Mr. Manafort by their own militaries and by the North out much fuss, lest that provoke Moscow to has no clue what is going on around. The directed him to use, saying that Mr. Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), thus respond. Second, Latvia expelled from its European Court of Human Rights is insist- Manafort had told him “the Ukrainian busi- helping facilitate a possible Russian security agencies those with a KGB past far ing on Oleh’s transfer to a public hospital, nessmen... had directed him to set up advance. earlier than did Estonia, and so has not closer to the place of his residence. Oleh Cyprus accounts” as cover for their pay- Not surprisingly, the three governments faced the problems Tallinn has. And third, has refused and says that he will not be ments. “At Mr. Manafort’s request, we did have stepped up their efforts to identify unlike either of its neighbors, Latvia has able to survive the transfer. At the same not disclose foreign bank accounts” to U.S. and neutralize such Russian agents, either not sufficiently recognized that most espio- time he says that the staff at the public hos- tax authorities, said Mr.