INSIDE: l Explosions and fire at arms depot in Ukraine – page 3 l Gov. John Kasich receives Shevchenko Award – page 4 l Toronto’s 22nd Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXVI No. 41 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018 $2.00 BREAKING NEWS Two suspected Skripal hit men conducted operations Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Holy Synod approves quest in Ukraine, received Russia’s highest state awards by Mark Raczkiewycz for autocephaly in Ukraine KYIV – Two suspected Russian military by Mark Raczkiewycz intelligence (GRU) officers who allegedly attempted an assassination of double KYIV – The Ecumenical Patriarch of Russian-British agent Sergei Skripal and his Constantinople decreed on October 11 daughter in March also visited Ukraine and that processes continue toward creat- received their country’s highest state ing a fully self-governed Orthodox award in the latter half of 2014 as the Church in Ukraine. The move, following Donbas war was heating up. a three-day Holy Synod in Istanbul, fur- Two members of the six-man hit squad ther solidifies support for an indepen- that British authorities believe took part in dent Ukrainian Orthodox Church that deploying a Russian-made chemical nerve Moscow has for centuries opposed. agent in the English town of Salisbury were In a communiqué issued on identified as Dr. Alexander Mishkin and Col. October 11, the Chief Secretariat of the Anatoliy Chepiga of the GRU, according to Holy and Sacred Synod stated that it the U.K. internet sleuth group Bellingcat. renewed the “decision already made Russian presidential spokesperson that the Ecumenical Patriarchate pro- Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin is willing ceed to the granting of autocephaly to to discuss the Skripal poisoning case only the Church of Ukraine.” “with British authorities” and not investiga- In attendance were the two exarchs, tive reports or media articles. Moscow has Conflict Intelligence Team or emissaries, whom Ecumenical repeatedly tried to discredit Bellingcat’s The driver’s licenses of Russian GRU military intelligence officers Col. Anatoliy Patriarch Bartholomew had dis- findings, which have included pinpointing Chepiga and Dr. Alexander Mishkin, who are suspects in the attempted assassination patched to Kyiv in September to pre- Russia as the source of the Buk missile that in England of their former colleague Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. pare for the granting of a Tomos that shot down the Malaysian airliner in Ukraine four years ago, killing nearly 300 20 other interim trips to Western Europe passport data. Most of them are women, he would bestow autocephaly on the and Asia through mid-2016. has added. Ukrainian church. They are Archbishop passengers and crew. Using a variety of open-source investiga- Their Ukrainian trips, Bellingcat sur- In December 2014, Col. Chepiga received Daniel of Pamphilon, who is based in tive techniques, partially leaked passport mised, were conducted using the same his Hero of the Russian Federation award – South Bound Brook, N.J., and Bishop and border-crossing data, as well as on-the- aliases – Ruslan Boshirov (Col. Chepiga) an honor that is bestowed only by the pres- Hilarion of Edmonton, Alberta. ground gumshoe reporting in partnership and Alexander Petrov (Dr. Mishkin) – dur- ident and in secret if the merited nature of Anathemas were lifted for Filaret with Russian reporters, Bellingcat since ing the failed slaying of their main target, the recipient’s achievement warrants it. Denysenko, patriarch of the Ukrainian September up to October 9 released the Mr. Skripal. “In 2014, there were no military activi- Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate two GRU officers’ identities and limited Some 40 GRU officers have been to ties in Chechnya. Russia had not engaged (UOC-KP), and Metropolitan Makariy biographies. Ukraine since 2014 when the Russia- militarily in Syria yet,” Bellingcat wrote on Maletych, head of the Ukrainian Auto- Both men had visited Ukraine in 2013- instigated Donbas war started, a Bellingcat September 26. “The only region in which cephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). 2014, before the assassination attempt of investigator, Christo Grozev, has tweeted their former colleague; they made nearly based on the same cache of partially leaked (Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 14) Candle of Remembrance ceremony held at Ukrainian American Cultural Center of N.J. by Roma Hadzewycz of Ukrainian studies – read the names of 85 victims between the ages of 1 month and WHIPPANY, N.J. – Ukrainian Americans 14 years from the Luhansk region. and their neighbors in this Morris County The evening began with the singing of town lighted a Candle of Remembrance on the national anthems of Ukraine and the Thursday evening, October 4, to mark the United States by, respectively, Oksana 85th anniversary of the genocidal Telepko and Irene Sawchyn Doll. The pro- Holodomor that killed millions in Ukraine gram’s master of ceremonies, Jerry and adjacent ethnically Ukrainian territo- Kuzemczak, gave opening remarks, and the ries in 1932-1933. invocation was offered by the Rev. Stepan Held at the Ukrainian American Cultural Bilyk, pastor of St. John the Baptist Center of New Jersey, the ceremony was Ukrainian Catholic Church in Whippany. organized by the New Jersey Chapter for Nadia Nynka, who chairs the New Jersey Ukrainian Holodomor Genocide Awareness, committee dedicated to promoting infor- which is affiliated with the similarly named mation about the Holodomor, delivered a U.S. committee. Since it was dedicated to the substantive address to inform the audience children who were innocent victims of the about Ukraine’s genocide of 1932-1933, Holodomor, children of the local community pointing out that the Holodomor was part Christine Syzonenko – members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting of Joseph Stalin’s four-pronged attack aimed Participants of the Candle of Remembrance ceremony held in Whippany, N.J., to Organization and the Ukrainian American mark the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor with Nina Pinczuk Kowbasniuk (seated Youth Association, and students of the school second from right), a survivor of the genocidal Famine of 1932-1933. (Continued on page 12) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018 No. 41 ANALYSIS Kyiv and Budapest on brink Balukh suspends hunger strike Sentsov ‘forced’ to end hunger strike Volodymyr Balukh, a pro-Ukrainian Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, of dangerous crossroads activist jailed in Russian-controlled Crimea, imprisoned in Russia after opposing has suspended a months-long hunger Moscow’s takeover of his Crimean home- Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry declared by Sergey Sukhankin strike pending his expected transfer to a land, says he is being forced to end his hun- the Hungarian consul in Berehove persona Eurasia Daily Monitor prison in Russia. Archbishop Klyment, the ger strike after 144 days to avoid force- non grata, and Budapest declared it would feeding. “I’m forced to halt my hunger An intense dispute between Hungary cleric responsible for Crimea in the Kyiv- soon be expelling a Ukrainian consul in strike from tomorrow, that is October 6,” and Ukraine sparked by the notorious “lan- based Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told response (UNIAN, October 4). Mr. Sentsov said in a handwritten state- guage question” and fate of the Hungarian reporters in Kyiv on October 9 that Mr. On the surface, the current crisis might ment, a copy of which was released to the minority in Ukraine (see Eurasia Daily appear to be an example of yet another dis- Balukh will resume the hunger strike once media by his lawyer Dmitry Dinze. He said Monitor, July 17) has now received power- pute between Kyiv and Budapest – two he arrives at prison in Russia. He is current- Russian authorities had planned to start ful new impetus, threatening to seriously proximate countries, whose border territo- ly being held at a jail in Crimea. The arch- force-feeding him “due to the critical state degrade diplomatic relations between the ries are closely bound by virtue of history bishop read aloud from a letter in which of my health.” Mr. Dinze confirmed to two countries (Eurointegration.com.ua, July and cultural ties. Nonetheless, a closer look Mr. Balukh wrote that he “used the last Current Time TV that Mr. Sentsov would 2). The current bilateral crisis goes beyond at the issue reveals the problem to be much chance to find at least a crack in the occupi- Budapest and Kyiv, however. It vividly high- more serious and far reaching. Several rep- er’s punitive system, where some elements end his strike on October 6, after visiting lights the problems faced by the European utable Ukrainian sources have estimated of common sense and honor might be pres- him at a civilian clinic in the town of Union both internally and in relations with the total number of Ukrainians currently ent, and decided to halt the hunger strike.” Labytnangi on October 5. Earlier on its immediate neighbors. holding Hungarian passports (only in He said he will resume the protest fast once October 5, Russia’s Penitentiary System On September 26, Ukrainian Minister of Zakarpattia Oblast, with a total population he is in a prison in Russia. “I will not allow (FSIN) said Mr. Sentsov had ended his near- Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin stated that if close to 1.3 million) to be no fewer than myself to consume food from the occupiers’ ly five-month hunger strike. FSIN Deputy Hungary refuses to revoke its consul from 100,000 people (Radiosvoboda.org, hands and wear their prison robes,” Mr. Director Valery Maksimenko said on Berehove (Zakarpattia Oblast), Ukraine September 21). This number is the result of Balukh wrote, adding that if he dies he October 5 that Mr. Sentsov agreed to start would expel the diplomat unilaterally systematic measures undertaken by the would like to be buried in the “unoccupied eating and that “Moscow diet experts have (Hromadske.ua, September 26).