The Ukrainian Weekly, 2020

INSIDE: l POWs tortured for defending Ukraine – page 6 l Travelers enjoy “Adriatic Dream Cruise” – page 9 l Who was the inspiration for “Rocky”? – page 14 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXXVIII No. 23 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2020 $2.00 Activists demand justice in Sheremet case Looting in Chicago reaches Ukrainian Village neighborhood Four years after murder, case has yet to be solved by Roman Tymotsko cameras. According to the investigation, Ms. Duhar photographed the cameras on the KYIV – On July 20, 2016, Belarusian-born eve of the murder, while Dr. Kuzmenko Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sheremet was planted an explosive under the car together driving to work when his car exploded. with Mr. Antonenko. There were reports that the explosion was The court decided to detain Dr. caused by a car bomb, and former Prose- Kuzmenko and Mr. Antonenko until the trial cutor General Yuriy Lutsenko described it as ends. Ms. Duhar was placed under house murder. Among the versions voiced almost arrest. However, both the news media and immediately was that Russian intelligence the suspects’ lawyers found numerous services were involved. The determination inconsistencies in the investigators’ report, of who was behind the assassination was including a difference between the height of declared a priority by Prosecutor General the suspects and the people who were Yuriy Lutsenko, President Petro Poroshenko recorded on video at the scene of the crime. and Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov. Mr. Antonenko’s defense claims he is Nearly four years later, the murder case taller than the killer. Ms. Duhar’s lawyers has yet to be solved. insist she has an alibi confirmed by docu- Mark Raczkiewycz Sheremet lived his last years in Kyiv, ments and witnesses, and that the exami- A mural depicting two women – an African American and a Ukrainian – is featured where he worked for the online news out- nation on which suspicion is based is on the side of Mr. Brown’s restaurant and lounge, one of two black-owned businesses let Ukrayinska Pravda and hosted a radio incomplete and biased. Dr. Kuzmenko also in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood of Chicago. program. The New York Times described criticized the investigation as being flawed. sold liquor, except for a cell phone store him as “known for his crusading reports According to the defense, at the time of by Mark Raczkiewycz and gas station that was struck two consec- about political abuses in Belarus” and “a Sheremet’s murder, Ms. Duhar was not CHICAGO – The looting that accompa- utive days. Two businesses – a fresh fruit thorn in the side of [President Alyaksandr] acquainted with the other suspects; Dr. nied protests over the death of a black sus- and vegetables grocery and a liquor store – Lukashenka’s autocratic government.” Kuzmenko and Mr. Antonenko had commu- pect while in police custody in Minnesota remained shuttered as of June 4. Those On December 12, 2019, President nicated with each other only a few times. spilled over to the Ukrainian Village neigh- businesses were not owned by Ukrainians, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mr. Avakov, who On May 25, the court decided to extend borhood in Chicago on May 31-June 1. remains the internal affairs minister, took the detention of Mr. Antonenko and Dr. The establishments that were looted all (Continued on page 5) part in a National Police briefing on the Kuzmenko, as well as the house arrest of Sheremet case. The police announced at Ms. Duhar. Veterans and civil society activ- that briefing that they had detained musi- ists gathered that day in front of the cian and veteran Andriy Antonenko, mili- Presidential Office to demand justice for tary medic Yana Duhar and cardiac surgeon the three after almost a half a year of pre- Yulia Kuzmenko as murder suspects. trial detention and house arrest. UNICEF calls for ceasefire in eastern Ukraine Representatives of the police reported According to the protesters, President that they had made more than 800 seizures Volodymyr Zelenskyy is politically respon- of information during the investigation, sible for the investigation into the Sheremet U.N. agency says children “urgently need peace” interrogated more than 3,700 people, pro- murder after he joined a briefing by the cessed 80 million telephone connections Ministry of Internal Affairs in December RFE/RL Children and families in eastern Ukraine, and information on 44,000 phone users, where the conflict has killed more than and reviewed recordings from 221 video (Continued on page 14) The United Nations children’s agency is 13,000 people since April 2014, “urgently calling for all parties to the deadly conflict need peace,” she added. in eastern Ukraine to commit to a ceasefire There have been 10 conflict-related child and end more than six years of fighting, as casualties since the beginning of this year – an increase in shelling has resulted in double the number of child casualties com- numerous child casualties and damaged pared to the same time period last year, schools since the beginning of the year. UNICEF said in a press release on May 22. UNICEF said the surge in attacks com- During the first week of May, six children bined with restrictions of movement were wounded at home after their villages imposed to stem the spread of the corona- came under shelling. Three young girls, two virus is “making life even more unbearable” of them sisters, age 7 and 10, and the other for the approximately 430,000 children a friend, also age 7, were severely injured in caught up in the fighting between one incident. Ukrainian government forces and Russia- The U.N. agency also mentioned nine backed separatists. attacks on schools, including five in April. In “It is unconscionable that children and one of them, a 17-year-old girl was wound- families in eastern Ukraine are not only ed by shrapnel while in her schoolyard. having to cope with the strict lockdown “Emotional trauma” measures all families are struggling with across Europe, but also the constant threat The attacks occurred despite the fact Vladyslav Greziev that their homes could come under attack,” that Ukraine in November 2019 became Protesters gathered by the Presidential Office on May 25 demand justice for suspects said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s regional direc- detained in the Pavlo Sheremet murder case. tor for Europe and Central Asia. (Continued on page 15) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2020 No. 23 NEWS ANALYSIS Kyiv and Moscow square off Calls grow for dismissal of Avakov capital is linked to corruption among Kyiv city and regional authorities. Mr. Avakov A 26-year-old woman was brought to a wrote on Twitter that 10 people were over legal arrangements for Black Sea police station in the central Ukrainian town arrested and more are expected to be of Kaharlyk, where officers told her she ing of the West in this “hopeless” and “ille- apprehended for their involvement in the by Paul Goble would be questioned as a witness to an gal” effort. Moreover, they critiqued shooting incident on May 29. “The shootout Eurasia Daily Monitor alleged theft. But according to the State Ukraine for its use of the word “concilia- in Brovary this morning is an echo of cor- Bureau of Investigation, two policemen Moscow’s continuing efforts to reduce tion,” transliterated from English, which, ruption with regard to the definition of covered her face with a gas mask and hand- the Black Sea to the status of a de facto they pointed out, does not exist in Russian quotas for transportation services and the cuffed her, fired a gun over her head and Russian lake (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, (Politnavigator.net, May 4). involvement of gangs in the war for passen- then raped her several times on the night of January 23) have forced Ukraine to seek But other Russian specialists were less ger routes... Executive authorities of Kyiv May 23. A week later and just 90 kilome- increasingly inventive means of pushing dismissive, noting that the Black Sea does and the region... something is rotting,” Mr. ters north, in a residential suburb of Kyiv, back. Recently, some Ukrainian commenta- need to be delimited between Russia and Avakov tweeted. Earlier in the day, Mr. some 100 gunmen from two rival criminal tors have begun calling for a Timor Sea- Ukraine and that “the more than 40” Avakov’s deputy, Anton Herashchenko, gangs engaged in a shoot-out in broad day- type resolution for the territorial delimita- rounds of talks in the 1990s failed to reach wrote on Facebook that three people were light. The melee, a video of which went tion of the Black Sea that would involve any agreement. At the same time, they wounded in the shootout, which he called viral, left several people wounded and Georgia and other littoral states as well as expressed doubts that any movement in “a criminal settling of scores” between the Russian Federation (Svpressa.ru, May this direction was possible at the moment. spawned comparisons to the anarchic, businesses providing transportation servic- 8). UNCLOS rules do allow for arbitration, but hyper-violent video game “Grand Theft es with the involvement of local officials. Additionally, some have called on Kyiv to before they can be applied, Kira Sazonova Auto” on social media. The incidents high- “The [transportation] routes must be dis- come out strongly in favor of the position, of the Russian Academy of Economics and light what critics of Ukraine’s formidable tributed legally and in a fair way, not under floated by the Turkish government, that a State Service says, there will have to be internal affairs minister, Arsen Avakov, say the table or for bribes,” Mr.

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