INSIDE: l Holodomor Awareness Tour visits Canadian schools – page 8 l “Painting the Valley: Works by Andrei Kushnir” – page 9 l Connecticut group aims to oust Trump campaign manager – page 11 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXIV No. 20 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2016 $2.00 Nadiya Savchenko marks Verkhovna Rada approves Lutsenko second birthday in Russian prison as Ukraine’s procurator general by Zenon Zawada KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament voted on May 12 to approve the president’s nomina- tion of Yuriy Lutsenko as procurator gener- al. He will be expected to accomplish what his three post-Euro-Maidan predecessors failed to do: prosecute and convict corrupt key state officials, both past and present. Mr. Lutsenko’s election came after the Verkhovna Rada voted earlier that day to amend the law setting the qualifications for the country’s top prosecutor, namely, removing the requirements for a law degree and 10 years’ experience working as a prosecutor. An electronics engineer by trade who built his career in politics, Mr. Lutsenko lacks both requirements, which are widely viewed as essential for any top prosecutori- al post. Critics accused the president of Aleksandr Kosarev/UNIAN On May 11, Nadiya Savchenko turned 35 in a Russian prison. It was the second leading the effort to change the law in order Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the Petro birthday Ms. Savchenko, a member of a volunteer brigade fighting Russian-backed to place a political ally into a key post that’s Poroshenko Bloc’s parliamentary faction, militants in Ukraine’s east, marked in Russian captivity since she was kidnapped and supposed to be independent. during the May 12 session at which he taken across the border to Russia. Ms. Savchenko’s birthday was the focus of gather- “Today we are passing a law on the proc- was approved as Ukraine’s fourth procu- rator general since the Euro-Maidan. ings in various cities. In Kyiv, lanterns were set aloft in order to, as Vira Savchenko urator general because that person has the said, light her sister’s way home. In Riga, the capital of Latvia, 35 blue and yellow trust of the president and he wants him world that the law is amended for one per- balloons, with birthday messages written on them, were released into the air to mark appointed but the law doesn’t allow for it,” son,” he added. Nadiya’s 35th birthday. In Paris, a group of Ukrainians got together to sing a rous- National Deputy Serhiy Leshchenko of the The votes to amend the qualifications ing “Mnohaya Lita” and posted video of this greeting to Nadiya on Facebook. Vira Petro Poroshenko Bloc said on May 11 dur- and approve Mr. Lutsenko’s candidacy Savchenko shared news of these public celebrations on her Facebook page. A cam- ing a political talk show. would not have been approved based on paign to mail Nadiya Savchenko birthday greetings was under way. In addition, her “Tomorrow we could change another the two factions that are supposed to form lawyer Mark Feygin was accepting birthday greetings on his Facebook page which he law for someone from the president’s the parliamentary majority. said he would share with Nadiya. The file photo above was posted on Facebook by entourage just because we want to. This is Euromaidan Press on May 11. savagery. It doesn’t exist in the normal (Continued on page 15) Roundtable discusses legacy and lessons of Chornobyl by Adrian Karmazyn deals with a catastrophe versus the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation response of an open society. She drew a stark comparison between the Soviet cov- WASHINGTON – A roundtable discus- er-up of the nuclear accident at Chornobyl sion commemorating the 30th anniversary and the quick and comprehensive Japanese of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster was held and international response to the at the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) on Fukushima power plant crisis. April 26. The panelists were Valeriy Chaly, Ms. McConnell stressed that the Soviet Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S.; Mykola “playbook” of concealing and denying the Riabchuk, a prominent Ukrainian writer Chornobyl catastrophe and the scope of its and literary critic; and Nadia McConnell, destruction and human casualties is the USUF president. same tactic employed by the Kremlin today Ms. McConnell recalled the Soviet infor- regarding Russia’s engagement in a hybrid mation blackout about the catastrophe and war against Ukraine: how only a week after the explosion, while “I don’t think that we in the West have radiation continued to spew from the dam- learned any lessons about Chornobyl aged reactor, the May Day parade in Kyiv because again when anybody talks about Chornobyl... nobody really talks about the went on as planned with thousands of peo- cover-up, the understanding of the cover- ple of all ages exposed to Chornobyl’s up. The fact that this is a consistent play- radioactive cloud. book by the Kremlin and we see it today She said that, for her, the biggest lessons USUF with the war – denial... We don’t really dis- from the Chornobyl disaster pertain not to At a roundtable discussing the lessons of the Chornobyl disaster of 1986 (from left) are: cuss the real tragedy of Chornobyl.” the issue of nuclear safety (which, certainly, Nadia McConnell, president of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, Ambassador Valeriy Chaly, is important) but to how a totalitarian state Ukraine’s envoy to the U.S. and Mykola Riabchuk, a prominent Ukrainian writer. (Continued on page 14) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2016 No. 20 ANALYSIS No deal on holding local elections latest economic forecast for Ukraine has it Virtual militarism grows eking out growth of 1.5 percent this year BERLIN – Talks involving the foreign after a deep economic contraction of nearly into real peril for Russia affairs ministers of Germany, Russia, 10 percent last year. (RFE/RL, based on Ukraine and France have produced no deal reporting by Reuters and TASS) by Pavel K. Baev case of Russia’s capacity for power projec- on holding local elections in the eastern Eurasia Daily Monitor tion. The reduction of its intensity to 20-25 areas that are controlled by Russia-backed 40.8 million displaced by conflict sorties a day does not reduce the official separatists. “These are questions of detail GENEVA – The number of people Tanks rumbled through Moscow over triumphalism over this “small and success- that might appear small, but they are uprooted within their own countries by the past week before rolling across Red ful” war (Rbc.ru, May 4). Each time U.S. important for creating the basis for local war and conflict rose last year to a record Square on May 9 in the traditional, extrava- Secretary of State John Kerry calls Russian elections in Ukraine,” German Foreign 40.8 million, a report published on May 10 gant military parade marking Victory Day. Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov to Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier found. “This is the highest figure ever Unlike in 2015 (which marked the 70th negotiate another extension of the partial said after the May 11 meeting near Berlin. recorded and twice the number of refugees anniversary of the end of World War II), ceasefire, Moscow registers a new diplo- Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo worldwide,” said Jan Egeland, head of the there were no notable foreign guests in matic victory (RIA Novosti, May 4). The Klimkin blamed Russia for rejecting a plan Norwegian Refugee Council, co-authors of attendance at this year’s showcase of political impression from the military victo- to let the Organization for Security and the report with the Geneva-based Internal Russia’s military might. But as Russia’s ry was supposed to be reinforced by the Cooperation in Europe oversee security for Displacement Monitoring Center. Some 8.6 economy sinks deeper into recession, the performance of the Mariinsky orchestra in the vote. Mr. Steinmeier also said that “sig- million newly displaced people were need to again put on a spectacular show the ruins of the newly liberated city of nificant progress” was made in the area of recorded in 2015, including 4.8 million in has become even greater than last year. Palmyra (Moscow Echo, May 6). What security, citing a plan to separate military the Middle East and North Africa. The propaganda campaign aimed at spoiled that plan for adding a cultural touch units along the front line and to create “Displacement... has snowballed since the boosting “patriotic” feelings has reached to the bombing campaign was the air strike demilitarized zones. Fighting between Arab Spring uprising in 2010 and the rise new heights, but it is difficult to reliably on a refugee camp in northern Syria, which Ukrainian government forces and separat- of the Islamic State,” said the report, with gauge its effectiveness. Recycling past glory some are characterizing as a war crime ists has killed more than 9,300 people since Yemen, Syria and Iraq accounting for more can produce only so much resonance in (Kommersant, May 7). Russia prevented April 2014. The conflict has flared up in than half of the total. Outside the Middle today’s population; so appropriating the the United Nations Security Council from recent weeks, with numerous cease-fire East, the countries with the highest num- Soviet Union’s heroic victory over Nazi condemning that atrocity, once again illu- violations reported. (RFE/RL, based on bers of people fleeing were Afghanistan, Germany as a means to assert the legitima- minating Moscow’s apparent indifference reporting by AP and Interfax) the Central African Republic, Colombia, the cy of the Vladimir Putin regime’s aggressive to the humanitarian catastrophe of the IMF sees ‘very encouraging’ signs Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, but ineffectual policies is growing a bit stale Syrian civil war (Newsru.com, May 7).