The Ukrainian Weekly, 2018
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INSIDE: l Annual meetings of top Ukrainian credit unions – page 9 l Book note: contemporary Ukrainian literature – page 10 l ‘Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine’ – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVI No. 15 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2018 $2.00 Smear campaign against Freeland linked Moscow Patriarchate Church members to Russian diplomats’ expulsion, says Trudeau investigated for anti-Ukrainian activity by Christopher Guly “The four have been identified as intelli- Special to The Ukrainian Weekly gence officers or individuals who have used their diplomatic status to undermine OTTAWA – The Canadian government’s Canada’s security or interfere in our expulsion of four Russian diplomats in late democracy,” the statement read. March was partly based on a 2017 online One of the diplomats sent back to Russia smear campaign against Foreign Affairs was the Embassy’s 32-year-old spokesman, Minister Chrystia Freeland in which allega- Kirill Kalinin, who was revealed to have sent tions were made that her late maternal photos and links to stories about Ms. grandfather was a Nazi collaborator, Freeland’s Ukrainian-born grandfather, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Michael Chomiak, to Canadian news outlets. Following an April 4 meeting in Ottawa “Expelling someone for voicing an alter- with North Atlantic Treaty Organization native-opinion or giving a different analysis (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, of a situation is very un-Canadian,” Mr. Prime Minister Trudeau was asked to elab- Kalinin recently told the Ottawa Citizen in orate on his government’s decision to expel an exclusive interview. He reportedly left the Russian diplomats, and recalled “efforts Canada on April 5. by Russian propagandists to discredit our The Globe and Mail, a national Canadian minister of foreign affairs through social daily newspaper, recently reported that media and by sharing scurrilous stories three of the four Russian intelligence opera- about her.” tives removed from Canada were “conduct- Earlier, he said that Canada had ejected ing cyberactivities out of the Montreal Mark Raczkiewycz the four diplomats in response to “Russia’s Consulate aimed at discrediting the World The sprawling Kyiv Monastery of the Caves (Pecherska Lavra), a UNESCO cultural illegitimate attacks in Salisbury in the Anti-Doping Agency and spreading disinfor- heritage site, which consists of an ensemble of monastic buildings and churches used United Kingdom” against former Russian mation about Canada and its closest allies.” mostly by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate. double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daugh- Mr. Kalinin, reported the Globe, sent ter, Yulia. “The actions by Russia in chemi- Canadian reporters material “circulated by by Mark Raczkiewycz grounds on April 4, when The Ukrainian cal warfare or chemical weapons against Fancy Bear, a Russian hacking group Weekly visited the UNESCO cultural heri- civilians of another country are absolutely believed to have links to Russia’s military- KYIV – The sprawling 11th century tage site. unacceptable,” Mr. Trudeau explained. intelligence unit, GRU,” and which, citing Monastery of the Caves, or Pecherska Allegedly, the 54-acre spiritual commu- On March 26, following the Skripal inci- past reporting by the Associated Press, “had Lavra, was getting ready for Easter accord- nity and museum compound, which dent, Global Affairs Canada – the depart- used phishing e-mails – designed to trick ing to the Julian calendar. includes a hotel for pilgrims and other visi- ment Minister Freeland heads – announced targets into allowing access to their com- On the grounds utilized mostly by the tors, was also home to Russian paramilitar- that Canada was expelling four members of puters – to attack Russian opposition lead- Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox ies and Ukrainian collaborators before Russia’s diplomatic staff at the Russian ers, Ukrainian politicians, U.S. intelligence Church, monks, seminarians as well as gar- Moscow annexed Crimea and invaded the Embassy in Ottawa and the Russian deners were seen clipping tree branches, Consulate General in Montreal. (Continued on page 3) tending greenery and trim-painting the (Continued on page 14) Ukraine’s security priorities topic of conference in Washington by Andrij Dobriansky The conference coincided with several additional UCCA Ukrainian events in Washington, including a gathering at the Holodomor Memorial, a commemorative event at the WASHINGTON – The National Press Club in Washington Taras Shevchenko Monument in honor of the poet’s 204th recently hosted the ninth U.S.-Ukraine Security Dialogue – birthday, as well as the first Ukrainian Day advocacy event the latest collaborative effort by the Center for of the year on March 7. Many participants of the latter U.S.-Ukrainian Relations (CUSUR), the American Foreign event, organized the by the UCCA’s Ukrainian National Policy Council (AFPC) and the Ukrainian Congress Information Service (UNIS), remained in Washington to Committee of America (UCCA). Titled “Identifying attend the security conference, which was also Ukraine’s Security Priorities,” this full-day conference on livestreamed by UCCA on Facebook, allowing for an even Thursday, March 8, was presented free of cost for partici- larger international audience to participate in the event. pants, as part of a continuing effort by the organizers to The conference was made possible by the generous con- bring the best and latest information about Ukraine’s tributions of the Jurkiw Family Fund, as well as the Self National Security Strategy into the mainstream conversa- Reliance New York Federal Credit Union, the Heritage tion about international affairs in the United States. Foundation of First Security Federal Savings Bank and the Two dozen senior U.S. and Ukrainian strategists, as well as Toronto-based Buduchnist Credit Union. defense and security experts, held forth in a series of panel Walter Zaryckyj of CUSUR welcomed the conference discussions and focus sessions dedicated to determining attendees shortly after 9 a.m. In his abbreviated summary Ukraine’s security priorities in four critical areas of concern: of the previous U.S.-Ukraine Security Dialogues, Dr. maritime security, cybersecurity, national security strategy Zaryckyj distinguished the state of Ukraine’s national secu- and information warfare. Foremost among the themes Andrij Dobriansky rity before and after 2014, with the first five dialogues touched upon by the conference presenters was the current Oksana Syroyid, member of Samopomich and vice- Russian-Ukrainian war that has been waged since 2014. chair of Ukraine’s Parliament. (Continued on page 8) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 2018 No. 15 FREEDOM HOUSE REPORT “Dramatic change” as democracy Kyiv to participate in G-7 meeting She insisted that Ukraine relied heavily on income from transit fees. In an interview Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister has with German business daily Handelsblatt on undermined across Europe, Eurasia been invited for the first time to a meeting April 9, Mr. Poroshenko urged Berlin to ruption reforms, attacks on civil society and of the foreign ministers of the Group of abandon plans to build Nord Stream 2, say- by Eugen Tomiuc Seven countries, which will begin in RFE/RL the media have seen Ukraine’s democracy ing it would enable an “economic and energy score declining for the first time since 2014. Toronto on April 22, Ukraine’s Ambassador blockade” against Ukraine and blasting it as Contempt shown by governments for “It was a relatively small decline, but it to Canada Andriy Shevchenko has told the “political bribe money for loyalty to Russia.” independent institutions and civil society, was meaningful, and the main cause of the Ukrainian Internet newspaper Yevropeiska He accused Russia of being an “extremely attacks on the political opposition and decline is very aggressive pressure on the Pravda. He confirmed that Ukrainian unreliable partner” as a gas supplier, citing independent media, as well as an incessant civil society and on the independent media Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin had state-owned energy firm Gazprom’s refusal push to blend the ruling party with the from government, from leading politicians. received an invitation to the meeting from to pay Ukraine billions of dollars after shut- state, are becoming the new normal in It’s becoming unfortunately quite normal his Canadian counterpart, Chrystia ting off supplies in the middle of winter. post-Communist Europe and Eurasia, U.S.- and standard in Ukraine to accuse civil Freeland. “The time has come for serious, Poland and the Baltics oppose Nord Stream based democracy monitor Freedom House society actors, NGOs, to accuse media of strategic decisions on Ukraine and Russia... 2, and U.S. officials have spoken out against warns in its latest report. being anti-national and unpatriotic,” Mr. We are happy that Ukraine will be able to it. In Warsaw in January, then-Secretary of The spread of illiberal politics across the Schenkkan told RFE/RL. join the difficult but critically needed con- State Rex Tillerson said that “the United region in countries such as Hungary and In the other four countries, informal versation, and we hope to make a valuable States opposes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline,” Poland has been eroding the region’s foun- political and business leaders who control contribution to future joint decisions,”