INSIDE: “A UKRAINIAN SUMMER” – a special 24-page pullout section. THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXIII No. 18 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015 $2.00 Vira Savchenko visits Canada to raise Victory Day commemoration awareness about sister Nadiya’s plight geared to presenting a new Ukraine OTTAWA – Vira Savchenko, sister of ille- by Zenon Zawada long vacations, given that May 1 – gally imprisoned Ukrainian military pilot International Workers Day – was also a Nadiya Savchenko, was welcomed last KYIV – Never will be it more apparent state holiday. week to Canada by the Ukrainian Canadian that Russia and Ukraine are going their sep- Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) has Congress (UCC). arate ways than this year’s commemoration been commemorated on May 8 in the Ms. Savchenko was in Canada to raise of the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Western world because that’s when the awareness of the illegal arrest and impris- Germany. German Nazi leadership declared its capitu- onment of her sister Nadiya by authorities Not only will the main commemorations lation. Yet Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in Russia. be held on different days, but the Ukrainian declared Victory Day on May 9 because it While in Canada, she participated in the state events will be stripped of any symbol- was 0:43 a.m. Moscow time when the act International roundtable discussion ism of Soviet communism for the first time. was signed (22:43 in Berlin). “Reforms, Security and the European The government also decided to do away In a symbolic move intended as a break Ukraine” on Saturday, April 25, in Toronto, with the May 9 military parade on Kyiv’s from the past and as indication of Ukraine’s and a banquet on Sunday, April 26, hosted central boulevard, the Khreshchatyk, once European integration, the government will by Dopomoha Ukraini, the Canada-Ukraine and for all. hold a larger ceremony for the May 8 com- Foundation, the Canada-Ukraine Chamber “This era has disappeared forever, at memoration, as compared to the limited of Commerce and the UCC. least in our country,” said Yurii Krykunov, a events planned for May 9. On Monday and Tuesday, April 27-28, Kyiv City Council deputy who is among European leaders are invited to join Ms. Savchenko met with political leaders, those responsible for organizing this year’s their Ukrainian counterparts for an evening members of Parliament, the Ukrainian commemorations in Kyiv. “I think these ceremony at what is called the Memorial community and the media in Ottawa. commemorations will be two absolute con- Complex of the National Museum of the Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian air force trasts, revealing that we are moving History of the Great Patriotic War. They will pilot, was abducted by Kremlin-backed ter- towards civilization and they [in Russia] are participate in a ceremony laying the foun- rorists in the Luhansk Oblast in eastern moving towards a dead end.” dation for a Memory Alley honoring all vic- Ukraine in June 2014. She was illegally UCC Victory Day has been among the biggest tims and casualties of World War II, regard- removed from Ukrainian territory to the Vira Savchenko (center) with Members holidays on the Ukrainian calendar ever less of their circumstances. of Parliament Chrystia Freeland and since 1965, when it was established. Many (Continued on page 11) Ralph Goodale. Ukrainians have used the holiday to plan (Continued on page 10) Use of Ukrainian growing more than ever, Doniy says by Zenon Zawada factors that led to the revolt in the speakers are serving in the Presidential Donbas. I even heard how so-called Administration, helping in the war KYIV – Oles Doniy, 45, has been among American experts of the post-Soviet effort. We can’t possibly offend them. the most active defenders of independent sphere alleged this. Is that the case? Even mentioning Ukrainianization has Ukraine politically and culturally. He served In order to understand that that’s not become politically incorrect. What do as a national deputy between 2007 and you think? 2014, but his main achievements were true, we need to recall that Luhansk and beyond the walls of Ukraine’s Parliament. Donetsk were not the first occupied territo- I have the opposite view. Yes, this position He was a leader of the student hunger ries. The first occupied territory was is being advanced by part of the government. strike of 1990 and the “Revolution on the Crimea, where preparation for the occupa- When I tried to raise the issue of financing Granite” that led to Ukraine’s indepen- tion began long before voting for this law in our free Ukrainian language courses, the vice dence. He launched the Ostannia Barykada 2012. There was the command from the prime minister for humanitarian affairs (Last Barricade) artists’ association in Kremlin to occupy Crimea, regardless of the [Viacheslav Kyrylenko] told me now is not 2006, organizing a series of festivals and Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law’s cancellation. the time for that. But I don’t agree that publishing books and pop music albums. It’s another argument that Russian pro- Ukrainianization has died. Quite the opposite. Mr. Doniy also helped launch the All- paganda used the cancelling of this law in We are engaged in the same Ukrainianization Ukrainian Committee to Defend the the Donbas as one of the scare tactics to campaigns as 10, 15 years ago. Ukrainian Language in 2012 after the hyperpolarize the situation and assert, as in Two years ago, we organized free Verkhovna Rada approved the language bill Crimea several years ago, that everyone Ukrainian-language courses in 17 cities of – sponsored by then-deputies Serhii Kivalov, will be forced to speak Ukrainian in all situ- Ukraine. We’ve had to close them in who was re-elected, and Vadim ations. The propaganda had nothing to do Sevastopol and Donetsk after the occupa- Kolesnichenko, who gave up his Ukrainian with the essence of the law’s cancellation. tion. But we’ve organized new Ukrainian citizenship – that removed safeguards for the But the propaganda took advantage of the Aleksandr Sinitsa/UNIAN language courses in Druzhkivka, Sloviansk Oles Doniy has been among the most Ukrainian language. He currently chairs the situation. The cancellation could have been and Kramatorsk, which are the freed terri- Center for Political Values Research in Kyiv. stretched over a longer period of time so as active defenders of independent Ukraine politically and culturally. tories of the Donetsk Oblast. That’s He was interviewed by this correspon- not to give additional arguments for Ukrainianization. We don’t pay our teach- Russian propaganda. I understood this, but dent on March 20. arguments now as to why it can’t be ers, who teach for free. The only thing I the parliamentary session hall didn’t. In the West, Russian lobbyists and implemented. They are that Russian- spend money on is transporting poets and sympathizers spread the notion that the In my personal view, Ukrainianization speaking soldiers are dying on the front, teachers who lecture. cancellation in February 2014 of the as an idea that can be implemented is so what right do we have to discuss Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law was one the dead. It’s not possible. We see many Ukrainianization. Or that Russian- (Continued on page 8) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015 No. 18 ANALYSIS Russia’s refusal to restructure debt Savchenko transferred to civilian clinic Arsen Avakov had said the fire involved about 400 hectares. The blaze in wood- MOSCOW – Ukrainian military pilot lands, parts of which are still contaminated hinders assistance plan for Ukraine Nadia Savchenko has been transferred by radioactive particles from the 1986 from a jail hospital to a civilian clinic in waive part of the debt, or at least to cut Chornobyl disaster, had raised fears of by Oleg Varfolomeyev Moscow. Russian Federal Penitentiary interest and allow Ukraine to pay off its increased radiation in Ukraine and neigh- Eurasia Daily Monitor Service spokeswoman Kristina Belousova debts several years later, the country will boring Belarus as high winds pushed it said on April 28 that Ms. Savchenko was Ukraine has to generate $15.3 billion default. In this case, the creditors would towards the plant. Emergency services moved to a clinic in the capital because of over four years with the help of a debt lose even more, as large institutional lend- deployed more than 300 firefighters, three her deteriorating health, but did not say restructuring plan agreed upon last March, ers such as the IMF, the World Bank and the planes and one helicopter to battle the whether her move to a civilian hospital was with the International Monetary Fund European Union would be likely to stop blaze, which Mr. Yatsenyuk said was the permanent. Ms. Savchenko had previously (IMF). The IMF, which approved a new largest in Ukraine since 1992. (RFE/RL, their assistance. Kyiv would be penniless maintained a hunger strike for more than $17.5 billion loan for Ukraine and issued based on reporting by Reuters and UNIAN) for years to come, given the dismal state of 80 days over the winter. Her lawyer, Mark the first $4.9 billion tranche, expects that Ukraine’s economy and the fact that gov- Feygin, said on April 27 that she had Roshen factory assets seized in Russia Ukraine and its creditors will agree on the ernment debt is expected to jump to 94 resumed the hunger strike over the week- terms of Ukraine’s commercial debt percent of GDP by the end of 2015 from the end, and was in bad health.