Part 2 of THE YEAR IN REVIEW pages 7-15 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association, Inc., celebrating W its 125th anniversaryEEKLY Vol. LXXXVIII No. 4 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2020 $2.00 Australia’s Ukrainian community Prime minister submits his resignation, raises $67,000 for bushfi re relief president gives him a second chance Sonia Ramza/AFUO Presidential Office of Ukraine During the presentation on January 18 of a check to the Australian Red Cross encom- At a meeting with Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk on January 17, President passing donations collected among the Ukrainian community by the Australian Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “I have decided to give you and your government a Federation of Ukrainian Organizations. Since that day, the amount raised has grown chance if you resolve some things that are very important today and are of concern to to $67,000. our society.” focus, and succeeded in raising $67,000 dur- by Stefan Romaniw by Roman Tymotsko minister of finance and others. News about ing the relatively brief Christmas period. the leak was followed by the presumption MELBOURNE, Australia – In reaction to On Saturday, January 18, in Hobart, KYIV – The internet was abuzz with that the prime minister would be resigning. the bushfires that have ravaged Australia, where the smallest Ukrainian Australian speculation about Ukraine’s Prime Minister In subsequent days, Messrs. Zelenskyy the Australian Federation of Ukrainian community was celebrating its 70th anni- Oleksiy Honcharuk on January 15. The first and Honcharuk played what seemed to be Organizations (AFUO) put out a call during versary of settlement in Tasmania, the splash of activity came after an unknown a heavily scripted performance, which the Julian calendar Christmas for the AFUO held a national meeting with the source leaked a recording on which Mr. started with a statement by the prime min- Kolyada for Australia Bushfire campaign, community and presented a check for the Honcharuk is allegedly heard discussing ister and ended with the president giving whose target was $50,000. funds raised (at that point, the amount was the economic incompetence of President him a second chance. The audience for this The Ukrainian Australian community Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a senior execu- demonstrated its unity of purpose and (Continued on page 17) tive of the National Bank of Ukraine, the (Continued on page 22) Litynska becomes second Ukrainian woman NEWS ANALYSIS in history to climb Earth’s Seven Summits Th e quest for unity: then and now by Bohdan Nahaylo Mr. Zelenskyy and his critics are address- by Roman Tymotsko ing in their respective ways. KYIV – On January 22, Ukraine cele- The Ukrainian president returned to KYIV – Lviv-born Oksana Litynska brated the 102nd anniversary of the accomplished one of the most advanced his vision of how national unity should Ukrainian National Republic’s declara- climbers’ feats – she climbed the highest be promoted in an interview published tion of independence and the 101st of peaks on each of the seven continents. The by The Times of Israel on January 19. the proclamation of the unification of all last one on her list was Mount Vinson (4,892 “It’s a question of how people with differ- Ukrainian lands. President Volodymyr meters) in Antarctica, which she successful- ent history, with different attitudes, can ly ascended on December 28, 2019. Zelenskyy used the occasion to reiterate live together in practice,” he explained. In May, she reached the world’s highest what in recent weeks has become a leit- “It is a very complicated and sensitive point, Mount Everest (8,848 meters), and motif for him: the need for national con- issue,” Mr Zelenskyy stressed. “There are became the third Ukrainian woman to do solidation and unity. heroes who are honored in the west and so. Now she is a part of an exclusive club of He had emphasized this theme – the in the center of Ukraine; and there are around 70 women in history who achieved urgency of constructing a modern other Ukrainians that have their own the Seven Summits program. Ukrainian political nation based on heroes and think otherwise. And I under- Climbing to the summit of the highest shared democratic values rather that eth- stand the different feelings. And that’s mountains of each of the seven continents nocentric ones – in his unconventional why I’ve said several times, very clearly: is regarded as a major mountaineering televised New Year’s address. When we have so complicated a history, challenge, first achieved on April 30, 1985, The publication on the eve of the let’s build a common history. Let’s find by Richard Bass. Completing the Seven January 22 celebrations of the results of a those people whose names do not cause Summits and additionally reaching the new survey on attitudes regarding controversy in our present and in our Courtesy of Oksana Litynska North and South Poles has been called the national identity also provided an oppor- future. Let’s name the monuments and Oksana Litynska on Mount Vinson in Explorers Grand Slam. tunity to take stock of where things stand Antarctica, her final peak in the Seven and to better understand the context that (Continued on page 21) Summits challenge. (Continued on page 18) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2020 No. 4 ANALYSIS Normandy process developing Kyiv celebrates Day of Unity Russia-backed separatists, other combat- ants in the Donbas conflict, families of fallen Hundreds of Ukrainians have joined soldiers and volunteers. The defense of the against Ukraine’s interests together to form a human chain across the Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk International Dnipro River in Kyiv to mark the 1919 by making it look like a mediator, rather Airport lasted 242 days, from May 26, 2014, by Vladimir Socor Unification Act of the Ukrainian National than a direct participant in the conflict to January 22, 2015, and ended after two of Eurasia Daily Monitor Republic and the short-lived Western (Ukrinform, December 18, 2019). its terminals as well as the dispatch tower Ukrainian National Republic. In a statement A ticking clock and a shutting trap seem were completely destroyed. Its defense to mark the Day of Unity on January 22, appropriate metaphors for the predica- Parliament prolonged the existing law on a became an emblem of the fighting spirit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr “special• Special regime status:of local self-governmentThe Ukrainian in Ukrainians; its defenders, both regular sol- said that in the modern world the feeling of Zelenskyy and his team hoping against certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk diers and volunteer fighters, became known a nation as a whole arises not only through hope for “peace” with Russia. oblasts” (special status law) on December as “cyborgs,” a moniker given to them by common traditions, culture and religion, but The Normandy Four leaders’ (Russia, 12, 2019, and President Zelenskyy promul- Russia-backed separatists for their resil- also because of the values that are “accept- Germany, France, Ukraine) summit in Paris, gated it on December 18. This law exists on ience. Ukraine’s military says 101 soldiers able to every corner of Ukraine.” The state- on December 9, 2019, started the clock paper since 2014 and is being prolonged were killed and 440 wounded while defend- ment said: “To be strong, one must become ticking toward the April 2020 summit in on an annual basis, but it never went into ing the airport. Nine combatants are still one. To become one, one must be strong. We Berlin. There, Mr. Zelenskyy is expected to effect. This time, however, Kyiv has accept- missing. Volunteers from the Right Sector, report to the same conclave about ed Moscow’s demand to incorporate the need to keep that in mind.” Mr. Zelenskyy’s Dnipro-1, Karpatska Sich and other such Ukraine’s fulfillment of commitments he Steinmeier formula into this law in 2020. statement comes amid efforts to reinvigo- formations also took part in defending the has confirmed in the French capital. The Steinmeier formula is about bring- rate the moribund peace process with airport. More than 13,000 people have been The shutting trap consists of Kyiv’s uni- ing the special status law into effect in con- Russia, which has created uncertainty and killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since lateral concessions to Moscow (to legalize junction with “elections” in Donetsk- division within Ukraine. “On Ukrainian it began in April 2014. The Kremlin officially the Steinmeier formula, to accept a perma- Luhansk. The pro-presidential Servant of Unity Day, we call on Russia to respect denies that it is a party to the war and nent “special status” for the Donetsk- the People party, holding an absolute Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integri- describes the events in the Donbas as “an Luhansk territory under Russian control). majority in the Verkhovna Rada, ensured ty within its internationally recognized bor- internal Ukrainian conflict.” The Donetsk Moscow extracted this price for agreeing to smooth passage, and it can easily do so ders, including Crimea and the Donbas, airport was built ahead of the 2012 hold the December summit, which Mr. again for the Steinmeier formula in 2020, extending to its territorial waters,” the U.S. European soccer championship that Zelenskyy’s team was avidly seeking even as has been agreed first with Moscow and Embassy in Kyiv wrote in a post on Twitter. Ukraine co-hosted with Poland. Its estimat- if it had to pay this heavy cost. then at the Normandy summit (Ukrinform, Mr. Zelenskyy, Deputy Chair of the ed cost was $860 million. (RFE/RL’s To stop the ticking clock and to pry the December 18, 22, 2019).