INSIDE: l The making of the Holodomor Memorial – page 4 l Ambassador Roman Waschuk is honored – page 5 l Our community: Palatine, Syracuse – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVIII No. 10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020 $2.00 First case of COVID-19 Shmyhal replaces Honcharuk is confirmed in Ukraine as Ukraine’s prime minister by Roman Tymotsko February 29, the man had symptoms of acute respiratory illness. As the informa- New Cabinet approved by Rada KYIV – On March 3, Deputy Minister of tion sheet suggests, he contacted his doctor. Health Viktor Liashko reported that the According to the algorithms, since during first case of the new coronavirus had been the past 14 days he had traveled to Italy, the confirmed in Ukraine. The patient was hos- doctor decided to hospitalize the patient. pitalized on February 29 after returning Transportation was carried out by a special from Italy, where he reportedly was infect- medical team. The symptoms the man has ed. Testing by the Public Health Center are fever and dry cough. The patient’s state showed a positive result. All exposed per- is stable, without complications,” Mr. sons are under surveillance by epidemiolo- Liashko reported at the briefing. gists, and samples were sent to the World The deputy minister also provided infor- Health Organization (WHO). mation on the health of the patient’s wife: Ukraine became the 73rd country where she did not have any symptoms of acute COVID-19 was confirmed. Ministry of respiratory illnesses, but was self-isolated at Health authorities reassured the public that home as a preventive measure, in accor- the situation is under control. dance with WHO recommendations. When Ukraine’s first coronavirus patient was the home address of the family was leaked to returning home by plane from Italy to the the media, the couple’s neighbors protested town of Suceava, Romania, and then contin- near their apartment building. They urged ued by car to Chernivtsi, a regional center local authorities to take the coronavirus Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the west of the country, with his wife on patient’s wife into observation so that they Denys Shmyhal speaks for the first time as the new prime minister of Ukraine on February 26. The couple underwent tem- wouldn’t live in the same building with her. March 4 in the Verkhovna Rada. perature screening at the border, and they At the briefing, Mr. Liashko also urged didn’t have any symptoms of acute respira- the public not to buy medical face masks by Roman Tymotsko Honcharuk was appointed on August 29, tory disease, according to Deputy Minister from pharmacies: “You should only use 2019. Because Mr. Honcharuk’s team had a of Health Liashko. masks if you have signs of an acute viral ill- KYIV – The Verkhovna Rada – gathered year of immunity dating from the appoint- “The system has proved its efficiency. ness, or if you are a doctor who works with at an extraordinary plenary session con- ment, the Parliament could not dismiss the While crossing the border, he had had no patients. Masks can create a false sense of vened by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy government without their acquiescence. signs of acute respiratory disease. The hus- safety... They won’t provide any benefit to on March 4 – voted to accept the resigna- That is why the prime minister wrote a let- band and his wife decided to self-isolate, you if you are healthy.” tion of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk. ter of resignation. according to the care and safety info they The youngest leader of a Ukrainian gov- had received,” Mr. Liashko said. “On (Continued on page 3) ernment in modern history, 35-year-old Mr. (Continued on page 16) Oleh Sentsov brings his soft-spoken courage to Canada by Christopher Guly A month later, a Russian court sentenced Special to The Ukrainian Weekly him to 20 years’ imprisonment. Last September, Mr. Sentsov was released as OTTAWA – Most film directors prefer to part of a prisoner exchange between tell their stories through their cinematic Russia and Ukraine after spending four creations and would much rather be years in prison – half of that term in behind the camera than in front of it. But a Russia’s northernmost prison in the west- real-time drama, filled with tragedy, con- ern Siberian region where, in 2018, he flict and a relatively happy ending, made went on a 145-day hunger strike. Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov the Some of the trauma of the time is cap- unwitting subject of what has become the tured by Russian filmmaker Askold Kurov greatest story of his life, thus far. in a 2017 documentary titled, “The Trial: Arrested at his home in Symferopol, The State of Russia vs. Oleg Sentsov,” which Crimea, in May 2014, Mr. Sentsov – who was screened at the Human Rights Watch three years earlier had released his first fea- Film Festival in Toronto on February 3. The ture-length film, “Gamer,” shot at a real com- 43-year-old defendant in that proceeding puter-game tournament – was charged, in was present, and he participated in a ques- part, with plotting a terrorist attack against tion-and-answer session with the audience railway bridges, power lines and public in which he has unofficially become the monuments, and was accused of being a prosecution against Russia. radical right-wing extremist. During his July He outlined his case during his trial in 2015 trial, speaking from the prisoner’s UCC which he declared that he did not recog- box, behind bars, Mr. Sentsov claimed the At a dinner with Ukrainian community leaders on February 2 in Toronto (from left) nize Russia’s annexation of Crimea or the charges against him were “fabricated and are: Ukrainian Canadian Congress Vice-President Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz; UCC Russian military occupation of land he con- political,” based on claims from “two sus- National President Alexandra Chyczij; Ukrainian World Congress Vice-President siders to be Ukrainian territory. pects whose testimony was obtained Anna Kisil; Oleh Sentsov; UWC President Paul Grod; UWC Vice-President Zenon through torture.” Poticzny; and Mariia Kupriianova, UWC executive director. (Continued on page 9) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2020 No. 10 ANALYSIS Baltics call for unified European ‘frontline’ U.S. to Russia: hand over MH17 evidence (RFE/RL, with reporting by Mike Eckel) With their trial set to start in a few days, TV channel for occupied territories against Russian disinformation the United States has called on Russia to hand over suspects in the 2014 downing of Ukraine’s Culture Ministry has unveiled a [on media] is based on safeguarding the by Olevs Nikers Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17), a disas- new television channel that has started principle of freedom of expression. Russia Eurasia Daily Monitor ter that cost the lives of all 298 people on broadcasting in Russia-occupied Crimea board. “It is long past time for Russia to and parts of the easternmost Donetsk and In light of the three Baltic states’ and argued (Lsm.lv, April 16, 2018). comply, to reveal what it knows and to turn Luhansk regions that the government in is using it illegally,” Ms. Lībiņa-Egnere other Central and Eastern European coun- In the past, the NEPLP suspended the over those individuals who have been indi- Kyiv doesn’t control. Called Dom (Home), the channel started the pilot broadcast on tries’ continued struggle against Russian channel Rossiia RTR (RTR Planeta) several cated in these cases,” U.S. Deputy Assistant March 1, said Yulia Ostrovska, the acting disinformation, Latvian President Egils times: first in the spring of 2014 for three Secretary of State for European and CEO of public broadcaster UATV. During the Levits emphasized that international law months and then, in the spring of 2016, for Eurasian Affairs Christopher Robinson said presentation in Kyiv, she noted that “54 per- needs to be improved to promote cyberse- six months. Six months is the longest peri- in an interview with RFE/RL during a visit cent of people in the occupied territories curity and limit sovereign countries’ vul- od of time that national authorities of an to Prague on March 2. Russian citizens Igor don’t have access to Ukrainian television nerabilities to information warfare EU member country are allowed to sus- Girkin, Oleg Pulatov and Sergei Dubinsky, channels, and 43 percent can’t access (President.lv, February 14). Speaking at this pend a “toxic” broadcast. Even during the and Ukrainian national Leonid Kharchenko Ukrainian websites.” One of the channel’s year’s Munich Security Conference suspension, many of those Russian broad- have been charged by Dutch prosecutors goals is the “de-occupation of conscious- (February 13-16), Mr. Levits not only casters’ official websites and YouTube with shooting down the Boeing 777 with a ness” of Ukrainians, Ms. Ostrovska added. It described the struggle of Russia’s neigh- channels would continue to offer unlimited Russian-made Buk missile as it flew over was in reference to Russia’s takeover of bors to deal with Kremlin-backed disinfor- and free streams of their programs (such as territory held by Russia-backed militants in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in early 2014 mation campaigns, but he also highlighted Rossia 1, Rossia RTR, Rossiia 24, NTV, Ren eastern Ukraine. The men are unlikely to be and subsequent support of pro-Moscow obstacles to a credible defense, such as TV and TVC), both live and pre-recorded. present at their first hearing scheduled for militants in eastern Ukraine in a conflict European Union regulations that make it Currently, the Latvian regulatory frame- March 9 at a high-security courthouse near that has killed more than 13,000 people.