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The Ukrainian Weekly 2014, No.30

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The Ukrainian Weekly 2014, No.30 www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE: Our community’s reaction to the downing of MH17 – page 5 Generation Uke focuses on post-Maidan Ukraine – pages 8-9 A conversation with Kateryna Yushchenko – page 10 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXII No. 30 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2014 $2.00 BREAKING NEWS U.S. says Russia ‘created conditions’ Cabinet of Ministers resigns, Rada coalition collapses for Malaysian airliner tragedy by Zenon Zawada KYIV – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers submitted its resignation on July 24, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced, blaming the government’s col- lapse on the failure of Parliament’s pro-European Union factions to support emergency measures to finance the state budget and conduct serious natural gas reforms. Earlier that day, the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) led by Vitali Klitschko and the Svoboda nationalist party led by Oleh Tiahnybok, declared that they were abandoning the parliamentary coalition, after they failed to vote in support of tax code amendments and just before other bills were on the agenda. (Continued on page 4) Vladimir Andreev/UNIAN The solemn ceremony in Kharkiv on July 23 when the first bodies of passengers killed aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 were sent on their way to the Netherlands. Ukrainian soldiers load coffins onto a Dutch transport plane. FOR THE RECORD RFE/RL missile crew was trained in Russia. However, the officials added, the Russian military has WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence officials said on July 22 been training the rebels at a large base in Rostov on vari- President Obama’s statement that they believe pro-Russian rebels probably shot down ous weapons, including air defense systems. the Malaysia airliner over eastern Ukraine “by mistake.” But it was unclear if the Russians trained the separatists on the situation in Ukraine U.S. intelligence officials said the passenger jet was likely on the SA-11 missile batteries, officials said. downed by an SA-11 surface-to-air missile fire by the rebels. On July 21, President Barack Obama said the Malaysia Following is an excerpt related to Ukraine from While saying there was no direct link so far to the Airlines plane with 298 onboard “was shot down over ter- President Barack Obama’s July 21 statement on the sit- Kremlin, the officials said Russia had “created the condi- ritory controlled by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine.” uation in Ukraine and Gaza. It was released by the tions” for the downing of the plane. He also said Russia has both trained the separatists and White House, Office of the Press Secretary. They said they didn’t know if any Russians were present at the missile launch, and they wouldn’t say whether the (Continued on page 4) “…it’s now been four days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. Over the last sev- eral days, our hearts have been absolutely broken as we’ve learned more about the extraordinary and beauti- Parliament votes to liquidate Communist Party faction ful lives that were lost – men, women and children and by Zenon Zawada than 23 deputies currently remain loyal. They will all infants who were killed so suddenly and so senselessly. remain in Parliament despite the faction’s dissolution, KYIV – The Ukrainian government succeeded this week Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with their enjoying the prosecutorial immunity that all deputies enjoy. in liquidating the parliamentary faction of the Communist families around the world who are going through just It was the second time since Ukraine’s re-establishment Party of Ukraine (CPU) as part of a broader campaign to unimaginable grief. I’ve had the opportunity to speak of independence that the Communist Party, responsible for outlaw the party after ample evidence surfaced that it has to a number of leaders around the world whose citi- the genocide of millions of Ukrainians, was removed from cooperated with the Russian government in its annexation zens were lost on this flight, and all of them remain in Parliament. The first attempt occurred on August 30, 1991, of Crimea and the war in the Donbas. a state of shock but, frankly, also in a state of outrage. when the party was outlawed altogether shortly after A parliamentary majority of 232 national deputies voted Our immediate focus is on recovering those who Ukraine’s declaration of independence. on July 22 to approve legislation that creates a membership were lost, investigating exactly what happened, and Its current chair, Petro Symonenko, led the effort to get quota for factions and enables their liquidation if it’s not putting forward the facts. We have to make sure that the party renewed, helping to organize its first congress in met. The new rule directly applied to the Communist fac- the truth is out and that accountability exists. Donetsk in June 1993. He also succeeded in gaining a tion, which has been hemorrhaging national deputies since Now, international investigators are on the ground. Justice Ministry ruling in October 1993 registering the the Russian invasion began in March. They have been organized. I’ve sent teams; other coun- Communist Party of Ukraine on the legal basis that its pro- “Its deputies have run away from it, people in the coun- tries have sent teams. They are prepared, they are orga- gram and statutes don’t violate any laws. try have turned their backs on them,” National Deputy nized to conduct what should be the kinds of protocols The ruling has been criticized ever since as illegal, Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the bill’s sponsor, told the Verkhovna and scouring and collecting of evidence that should fol- because it ignored the Communist Party’s program, which Rada before the vote. “That’s why we’re now simply low any international incident like this. And what they has been argued as violating Ukraine’ s laws and required to fulfill this formality and give the parliamentary need right now is immediate and full access to the crash Constitution. Renewing the party after its ban also created head the ability to simply introduce regulatory order.” site. They need to be able to conduct a prompt and full a legal pretext to distance the structure from its previous President Petro Poroshenko signed the bill the same day, and unimpeded as well as transparent investigation. And crimes, although that has also been contested. and it became law on July 24, when it was published in the recovery personnel have to do the solemn and sacred After the ruling, the Communists immediately re-estab- Parliament’s newspaper, enabling Verkhovna Rada Chair work on recovering the remains of those who were lost. lished their presence in the Verkhovna Rada, finishing in Oleksandr Turchynov to declare the CPU faction’s liquida- Ukrainian President [Petro] Poroshenko has first place in the 1994 parliamentary election, and have tion from the seventh convocation that morning. been a major force in Ukrainian politics ever since. declared a demilitarized zone around the crash site. “It is a historic event,” he said. “I hope that there won’t be any Rather than representing Ukraine’s working classes, As I said before, you have international teams already Communist factions in the Ukrainian Parliament anymore.” however, Communist Party members helped set up Week by week, the Communist parliamentary faction has (Continued on page 4) been losing national deputies to the point where no more (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2014 No. 30 ANALYSIS Ukraine as a battlefield Putin blames Ukraine for crash operated by a crew of Russian citizens. (RFE/RL) KYIV – In a televised statement on July 17, for Putin’s new world order Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Poroshenko to U.N.: condemn terrorism Ukraine bore sole responsibility for the crash Mr. Lukyanov accused Poland of harboring by Pavel Felgenhauer of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), a KYIV – President Petro Poroshenko had a training centers of Ukrainian radical nation- Eurasia Daily Monitor “disaster” that he said would not have telephone conversation with United Nations July 3 alists on its territory and expressed hope Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on July 19. that attempts to use the Ukrainian crisis to occurred if Kyiv had not resumed its military campaign against pro-Russian separatists. Mr. Ban called the crash of Malaysia Airlines President Vladimir Putin made a major consolidate the West and NATO shall fail Flight 17 aircraft shocking and unaccept- foreign policy statement in Moscow on July 1, eventually (RIA Novosti, July 2). “And without doubt the government of the territory on which it happened bears respon- able. He stressed the need to figure out all while speaking to a worldwide gathering of The Kremlin apparently believes the time the circumstances of this tragedy, and sup- Russian ambassadors and permanent diplo- is ripe for a decisive drive to undermine U.S. sibility for this frightening tragedy,” he said, before adding that he had urged Russian ported the actions of the Ukrainian side matic representatives. According to Mr. Putin, influence and power worldwide and hit at towards an open and independent interna- the West did not give Moscow a choice, but to authorities to do everything possible to help the trans-Atlantic link to undermine NATO, tional investigation. The U.N. secretary gen- move to annex Crimea last March to defend investigate the incident. (Foreign Policy) while the White House is occupied by the eral called on President Poroshenko to use Russians and Russian-speakers “that consid- Obama administration, seen by Moscow as OSCE team denied full access to site all possible international instruments, er themselves part of the wider Russian ineffective and indecisive.
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