Commentary

Vladimir Putin’s Anschluss of Crimea is echoing through the non-Russian nations within the Russian Federation, but it is also creating a new Ukrainian problem for the Kremlin leader in the Russian Far East where a former Japanese defense minister has noted that 60 percent of the inhabitants on the disputed Etorofu Island are Ukrainian. In a commentary over the weekend, Yuriko Koike, who currently chairs Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party General Council and serves in the Diet, says that “given the Crimean annexation,” Tokyo’s position in talks with Moscow about the disputed Northern Territories changed...

The crisis in Ukraine, which since November 2013 has seemingly taken us all by surprise, has three components: Crimea, Russia, and Ukraine. But is there anything really surprising in what has unfolded and will continue to unfold in this volatile part of the world? In this past few weeks, much of the world’s media has told us that Crimea is really “a historic Russian land,” which only recently had become part of Ukraine...

Customers at all Liquor Marts and the Casinos of Winnipeg are able to make donations to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). Funds raised will be used to purchase needed medication, means of shelter, clothing and food products to support the humanitarian assistance needed in Ukraine. Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries will be matching customer and employee donations to a maximum of $50,000...

In March 2014, Iuliia Zubrytska and Dr. Markian Shulakewych interviewed Maryana Zayats (Winnipeg, Canada), focusing on civil society democratic engagement in the upcoming Ukrainian Presidential elections, first round voting May 25, 2014, and possible second round voting June 15, 2014, and hopefully soon to be scheduled Ukrainian Parliamentary elections, and what Canada, Ukrainian diaspora and Ukrainian citizens can do to enhance, facilitate and realize the voting process...

Geopolitics has returned to the periphery of the Old World with a vengeance, upending Brussels’ well-scrubbed public agendas. Clearly, the depth of the Ukrainian crisis has caught politicians and analysts unawares, for not long ago, during the storied Vilnius Summit of the EU Eastern Partnership, all seemed on track for the EU to sign an association agreement with Ukraine. Though some in the West doubted the Ukrainian government’s sincerity prior to Vilnius, nobody in power seemed to give a second thought to the likely scope of Russian pressure and the decisiveness of the Ukraine government’s pro-Russian shift. Europe’s politicians were also not prepared for the public outcry in Maidan square in Kiev after President Yanukovych scuttled the EU agreement, in the process inking a $15 billion dollar deal with Moscow...

In March 1945, as World War II was ending in Europe, the US war correspondent Edgar Snow wrote, in part, “The whole titanic struggle, which some are apt to dismiss as Russian glory, was first of all a Ukrainian war. No fewer than 10 million people had been lost to […]Ukrainesince 1941. The Allies won the war, butUkrainepaid the bill.” In fact his article, published in “The Saturday Evening Post” (a popular magazine inUSAat that time) was entitledUkrainePays the Bill. This publication explains, at least in part, how that payment was made...

For those who are new to the subject — indeed, for those who have been following it for many years — the Ukrainian crisis can seem murky. The Ukrainians have a President, Viktor Yanukovych, who granted himself dictatorial powers and then repealed some of them; announced a truce and then broke it; claims to enforce the law but employs thugs who haul journalists out of cars and shoot them. The Ukrainian opposition, meanwhile, has three separate leaders who may or may not actually control the Ukrainian protest movement at any given moment...

Despite appearances to the contrary, the West doesn't have a Ukraine problem. It is clear from the large demonstrations that have swamped the streets ofKievin recent weeks that the Ukrainian people want closer integration with the European Union, to secure higher prosperity and cleaner government. The problem lies withRussiaand its determination to keepUkrainewithin its orbit using threats and inducements. In contrast to the EU's adherence to democratic institutions, competitive markets and the rule of law, Vladimir Putin has a rival integration project based on his own model of corrupt state capitalism...

To the beloved clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches beyond the borders of Ukraine in North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the genocidal famine in Ukraine 1932-33...

No amount of live video feeds or news stories can convey the essence of EuroMaidan. The December 11 massive attack by Berkut riot-control police, for example, took people by surprise. Although there was an alert from the leaders of the political opposition that there would be a police raid at 1 a.m., people simply dismissed as ludicrous the idea that a raid would happen that night. After all, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland were in town and President Viktor Yanukovych assured them and other world leaders that no force would be used...