The Ukrainian Weekly, 2021
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INSIDE: l Romaniw recounts the Revolution of Dignity – page 7 l Metropolitan Epifaniy celebrates second anniversary – page 8 l Ukrainian National Museum announces re-opening – page 11 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXXIX No. 8 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 $2.00 Rada resolution calls Euro-Maidan Parliament to consider bill on Western-backed a nation-building moment graft-fighting agency, threatening its independence Zelenskyy signs memoranda with UAE for $3 billion investment by Mark Raczkiewycz February 18-20, 2014, according to prose- cutors. Mr. Yanukovych subsequently fled KYIV – The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s office and in 2019 was convicted in absen- legislative body, on February 17 passed a tia and sentenced to 13 years for high trea- resolution saying that the pro-democracy son while in self-exile in Russia. Euro-Maidan uprising that culminated this In the aftermath, Russia invaded month seven years ago was a significant Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and eventual- nation-building moment in the country’s ly seized it in early March 2014. history. Simultaneously, Moscow started to orches- Referred to as the “Revolution of trate anti-Kyiv protests that spread Dignity” in the document, a solid majority throughout the north- and southeast – of 295 lawmakers voted to give recognition including in Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolayiv, to the nearly three-months of anti-govern- Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. ment protests against then-President Government and auxiliary buildings in Viktor Yanukovych’s increasingly authori- some of the cities were temporarily occu- tarian rule. pied by pro-Moscow protesters that “The Revolution of Dignity is one of the included Russian nationals in the ensuing key moments of Ukrainian state-building weeks of the revolution. and an expression of the national idea of This period of Russia’s overall attempt- National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine freedom,” the resolution reads. ed seizure of north-southeastern Ukraine Detectives of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine complete an investiga- Exactly 104 people were killed and was called by Ukrainian political analysts tion on September 30 involving $70,000 from which the head of the State Reserve Department had allegedly benefited in an embezzlement scheme. 2,500 injured as a consequence of the vio- the failed “Russian Spring.” lent clampdown by authorities against pro- by Mark Raczkiewycz thus, unlawful. testers, most of which occurred on (Continued on page 4) Mr. Sytnyk’s seven-year term is sched- KYIV – Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers uled to end in April 2022. this week registered a bill in parliament The agency and anti-corruption watch- that would prematurely dismiss the head of dogs said the draft law would essentially Justice or commemoration? As Maidan massacre a Western-funded graft-fighting agency to “destroy” it as an independent crime-fight- align it with a Constitutional Court ruling ing body and give the president “manual” from August that nullified his appointment control over it. anniversary approaches, both appear elusive less than six years ago. In a statement on February 18, NABU The bill stipulates new rules for appoint- said that there are a number of threats to ing the director of the National Anticorrup- its independence that affect the agency’s tion Bureau (NABU) and is aimed at adher- “real ability to counter and expose top-level ing to the court’s ruling that said the presi- corruption.” dent didn’t have the authority to appoint Artem Sytnyk to head the agency, and was, (Continued on page 11) Ukrainian station in Antarctica marks 25 years since its founding by Roman Tymotsko video call between Vernadsky Station and the Ukrainian president. Twenty-five years ago, the United Vernadsky Station is the only Kingdom handed over its Antarctic Ukrainian research base in Antarctica. It Serhiy Dolzhenko, EPA-EFE research station to Ukraine. On February operates year-round and its primary pur- People place flowers on February 18, 2020, at the memorial on Kyiv’s Independence 6, 1996, the Union Jack was replaced by pose is to carry out scientific research on Square dedicated to people who died in the 2014 clashes with security forces. the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag and climate change, the ozone hole, animals’ the British Faraday station became the and plants’ responses to climate change, by Dan Peleschuk atop Institutska Street, but investigators Acad emician Volodymyr Vernadsky among other topics. RFE/RL believe it may hold important clues to con- Station, named after the renown “Every great story is first and foremost clusively establish who gunned down doz- Ukrainian geochemist, mineralogist and about the people who made it possible. I KYIV – Nearly seven years after the ens of anti-government demonstrators crystallographer. thank the representatives of the Euro-Maidan protests in the Ukrainian cap- there on February 20, 2014. Celebrations on the 25th anniversary Ukrainian polar community present ital reached a bloody climax, the site where The last and deadliest day of the of this historic event included museum here, as well as all those who worked at protesters clashed with security forces months-long movement, it led to the top- exhibitions, the creation of a post stamp, the Vernadsky Station in different years,” remains a crime scene. pling of Moscow-friendly President Viktor presentation of state awards, the pre- There is no police cordon to give away miere of a music video, and the first live (Continued on page 9) the forensic significance of the vacant lot (Continued on page 14) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 No. 8 ANALYSIS Does the Normandy group have Crimean Tatar activists detained March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dis- Russian authorities have detained sever- missed as illegal by at least 100 countries. a future on the Russia-Ukraine conflict? al Crimean Tatar activists after their homes Moscow also backs separatists in a war were searched in Ukraine’s Russian- to “such terms as ‘conflict in Ukraine,’ against government forces that has killed Part 2 controlled Crimea region. The Crimean instead of ‘Russian war against Ukraine,’ more than 13,200 people in eastern Solidarity group told RFE/RL on February by Vladimir Socor because I am chairing the OSCE, a consen- Ukraine since April 2014. (RFE/RL’s 17 that the searches were conducted at the Eurasia Daily Monitor sus-based organization… There are times Ukrainian Service) when my statements as the OSCE’s Chair homes of Abdulbori Makhamadaminov, NATO delivers disinfectant to battle COVID-19 Kyiv is pinning its hopes on the new differ from my language as foreign affairs Azamat Eyupov, Timur Yalkabov, Ernest administration of United States President Ibragimov, Oleh Fyodorov, Lenur minister of Sweden, a member country of NATO says it is delivering over 9,000 Joseph Biden to help rebalance and restart Seydametov and Yashar Shikhametov in the European Union. But such are the liters of surface disinfectant to Ukraine in both the Normandy forum and the Minsk different towns and cities across Crimea. OSCE’s realities” (Ukraiynska Pravda, response to Kyiv’s request for international Contact Group (see Part One in EDM, The official reason for the searches remains January 20). assistance to combat COVID-19. Ukraine February 4). The Minsk Contact Group unclear. Ukrainian Ombudswoman That principle applies also to the Minsk started receiving the first delivery on operates at a level roughly equivalent to Lyudmyla Denisova said in a statement that Contact Group’s overall moderator, who is February 17, the alliance said in a state- the ambassadorial, below the head of all of the men were taken to the FSB’s appointed by the OSCE’s chair as its Special ment, adding that the donation was coordi- state/head of government or ministerial directorate in Crimea after the searches. Representative, subject to Russia’s consent. nated by NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster levels of the Normandy format. In the As the OSCE plays the mediator’s role “Such actions by so-called law enforcement Response Coordination Center and Latvia. established modus operandi, from 2014 between Kyiv and Donetsk-Luhansk, so the violated the presumption of innocence and onward, the Normandy forum (Ukraine, The statement said the surface disinfectant, Minsk Group’s moderator must be even- rights of freedom, personal security, legal Russia, Germany, France) provided guide- produced by a Latvian company, is to be handed between them. The holder of that assistance, as the searches were conducted lines for actions in the Minsk Group and distributed to “the State Border Guard position since 2020, Ambassador Heidi without court decisions, with no lawyers held the latter accountable for implemen- Service of Ukraine and its border guard Grau of Switzerland, has become a partici- present, and without handing out of any tation. Since 2020, however, Russia has detachments at border crossing points” pant in the Normandy forum’s meetings procedural documents,” Ms. Denisova said, “frozen” the Normandy forum and shifted across the Eastern European country. NATO (currently downgraded to the political adding that the detained Crimean Tatars the active negotiations into the Minsk said it will also send mobile X-ray units, advisors’ level – see Part One in EDM, may face long-term arrests. Since Russia Contact Group, where the West is unrepre- negative pressure chambers, bio protection February 4); she took part in the January seized Crimea in 2014, the Russian authori- sented while Moscow holds three chairs coveralls, and portable oxygen generators 12 meeting most recently (President.gov. ties have prosecuted dozens of Crimean to Ukraine in the “coming weeks.” Ukraine (its own and those of Russia-occupied Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut- Donetsk and Luhansk) and positions itself ua, January 12).