INSIDE: Conclusion: Interview with Ambassador Chaly – page 9 Anniversaries marked by Plast Spartanky and Sitch – centerfold 2019-2020 UNA Scholarships – page 16-17 TheThePublished U by thekrak Ukrainianra Nationalin Association,ian Inc., celebrating WWeekly its 125th eanniversaryekly Vol. LXXXVII No. 35 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 $2.00 Lviv celebrates 28th anniversary Kyiv attracts attention as it marks of Ukraine’s renewed independence Independence Day with a different focus This weekend Ukrainians celebrated Independence Day. Twenty-eight years ago, Ukraine’s Parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on August 24, 1991. Since then, an annual massive celebration has been held on August 24. However, after the Russian annexation of Crimea and occupation of some parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, the value of independence is consid- ered differently. We have visited some events of the celebration in Lviv – the largest city in the west of Ukraine – and asked people on the streets about their thoughts on Ukraine’s independence in view of recent events. by Roman Tymotsko and march on our streets. We have a peace- ful sky and we sleep in peace.” “I am a peer of Ukraine’s Independence In Lviv events dedicated to because I was born in 1991. It is very valu- Independence Day started a day earlier. able for me as a citizen of this country. Local authorities commemorated heroes of From the very beginning, our country is the Heavenly Hundred at the Lychakiv fighting for the Independence and many Cemetery and went to the city center to worthful people sacrificed their lives for it,” hold the opening ceremony of the says Yulia, who we met next to the newly Memorial of the Heavenly Hundred. The opened Memorial of the Heavenly Hundred event started with a minute of silence. Serhiy Chuzavkov, UNIAN in the city center. “We want to be free on Mayor Andriy Sadovyi welcomed the fami- A long blue-and-yellow banner is paraded during the March of the Defenders of the land that is given to us by God, speak lies of the heroes of Heavenly Hundred who Ukraine. our language and appreciate our traditions. came to the opening ceremony. “People president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would At the same time, we are respectful to our with different moods will come here, but by Bohdan Nahaylo neighboring countries and their culture. impose his new style on proceedings, and they all will leave this place with a good KYIV – On August 24 Ukraine celebrated what the reaction would be. Celebration of our Independence is even mood – their sorrow will pass,” said Mr. more important due to recent events. First the 28th Independence Day anniversary There were indeed plenty of surprises Sadovyi. As it was the Day of the National and although festivities were held all and innovations in what turned out to be a of all, it is gratitude for our soldiers at the Flag of Ukraine, the culmination of the war front. Thanks to them we have this around the country, attention was focused colorful yet poignant symbiosis of the new possibility to wear our traditional clothing (Continued on page 12) on the capital to see how the country’s new and the old. And the occasion was not without controversy, or wonder, either. On July 9, shortly after winning the pres- idential election, Mr. Zelenskyy declared: “Usually, on August 24, on Independence New Peace Corps volunteers arrive in Ukraine Day, we have a military parade. It’s pomp- ous and definitely not cheap. It seems to me that this year, instead of holding a parade, it is better to give this money to our heroes....” He explained that instead of hold- ing a costly parade, the state would allocate 300 million hrv (nearly $12 million) for bonuses to military servicemen,” and pro- pose a surprise new form of celebration. The president’s decision immediately generated controversy. His political oppo- nents accused him of disrespecting the mil- itary and war veterans and undermining national pride. They insisted that they would go ahead and organize a march of veterans, their family members and sup- porters. A compromise was worked out. On July 30, the Head of the President’s Office Andriy Bohdan announced that the tradi- tional parade would be replaced by a March of Dignity. A separate procession, to be called the March of the Defenders of KYIV – U.S. Chargé d’Affaires William Taylor welcomed and swore in nine new Peace Corps volunteers who will be serving Ukraine, would also be held by Ukrainian across Ukraine. Addressing the new group of volunteers on August 9, Mr. Taylor said, “I think that the Peace Corps in Ukraine war veterans. Later, as the details of the cel- is one of the best things that Americans do here. I was here as ambassador from 2006 to 2009, and I have the great honor ebrations were finalized, it was made clear and the great opportunity to come back leading the U.S. mission here in Ukraine.” Noting that this is the largest Peace Corps that participants could carry patriotic ban- program anywhere in the world, Mr. Taylor underscored: “…this program allows Americans to live with Ukrainians, and it ners and other symbols, but should refrain allows Ukrainians to understand the United States better. It also will allow — and this is a charge to Peace Corps volunteers from displaying purely political ones. when they go home, back to the United States, to explain Ukraine to Americans.” Source: U.S. Embassy Kyiv (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 No. 35 ANALYSIS Ukraine’s petroleum-sector challenges: Oleksiy Honcharuk confirmed as PM People lacks. For Ukrainians, abolishing immunity has consistently been one of the Ukraine’s President Volodymyr most desired anti-corruption measures, Raising domestic output, cutting corruption Zelenskyy confirmed the Verkhovna Rada’s according to public opinion polls. For a appointment of Oleksiy Honcharuk as the The first four rounds of bidding for 26 time, it was a condition for a visa-free travel by Rauf Mammadov country’s next prime minister during the onshore blocks underscored Ukrainian deal with the European Union, but the Eurasia Daily Monitor first session of Parliament following elec- companies’ stranglehold on the industry. demand was dropped after a report by the tions that swept his Servant of the People Volodymyr Zelenskyy inherited formi- All four of the winners were domestic con- EU’s legal counsel advised against it. The party to an unprecedented mandate. The dable challenges when he was elected cerns. State-owned UGV won the right to draft resolution showed that Vadym decision was backed by 290 MPs registered Ukraine’s sixth president this spring, explore 13 blocks, the oligarch Rinat Prystaiko will be nominated as foreign out of 450 seats (not all the seats are filled, including a Kremlin-backed war with “sep- Ahmetov’s DTEK, Yedina and Burisma each affairs minister, Andriy Zagorodniuk as because Russia occupies Crimea and the aratists” in the east, deep-rooted corrup- won one block. The bidding on 10 of the defense minister, and Ruslan Ryaboshapka conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk tion and an ongoing natural gas dispute available blocks ended with no licenses as Prosecutor-General. Between 30 and 100 oblasts). Mr. Honcharuk, a 35-year-old dep- with Russia. Ukraine is now responding to being awarded (Goukrainenow.com, legislative bills will be considered, Servant uty head in the Presidential Office, was cho- the gas discord by trying to negotiate an accessed August 9). sen as the candidate by Mr. Zelenskyy, of the People deputy Yuriy Kamilchuk told extension of a long-term contract with The government was also disappointed according to a parliamentary draft resolu- the 112 Ukraine channel. “There is a chance Russia, filling its storage tanks in case in its failure to attract lucrative bids on the tion at the August 29 inaugural session, that we’ll adopt more than 30, and maybe Russia cuts gas shipments to it this winter, one offshore block it put up – the where the former comedian-turned politi- up to 100 draft laws,” he said. (RFE/RL with and trying to increase domestic produc- 9,500-square-kilometer Dolphin oil and cian is to deliver a state-of-the-nation reporting by UNIAN, Interfax, 112 Ukraine, tion. gas field (Oil and Gas Journal, April 15). It address where he will outline his political and Ukrayinska Pravda) The contract under which Russia had hoped that the Dolphin field in the and economic goals, along with key Cabinet exports natural gas to Ukraine and on to northwestern Black Sea would attract Death toll at eight in building collapse posts. Mr. Honcharuk has spent much of his Europe via Ukrainian pipelines expires on European or North American oil and gas career as a lawyer, eventually becoming a The number of people killed in the col- January 1, 2020. Russia’s Gazprom had majors. Instead it only received bids from lead partner at a firm that specializes in real lapse of an apartment building in western hoped to complete its Nord Stream 2 pipe- one smaller United States-based company estate development. In 2015 he ran the Ukraine rose sharply to eight, including one line by then so it could transit gas to and Russian- and Azerbaijani-affiliated EU-funded nongovernmental organization child, the Ukrainian state emergencies ser- Europe without going through Ukraine. enterprises. BRDO, which focused on reforms and vice said on August 29. Most of the apart- This gas transit pipeline would double the The U.S. concern, Frontera Resources advised Stepan Kubiv, the first deputy ment building collapsed in the small town annual capacity of the already-existing (headquartered in Houston), already has prime minister during ex-President Petro of Drohobych in the Lviv region the previ- 55-billion-cubic-meter (bcm) Nord Stream projects in Moldova and Georgia.