Commentary

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls upon the international community to react to the continued repressive actions being taken by the Russian Federation to ban the activities of the UWC in the Russian Federation in an attempt to isolate the Ukrainian minority in Russia from the Ukrainian diaspora...

Thirty years ago, on 26 April 1986, the nuclear facility in Chornobyl, Ukraine, was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster which took the lives of 28 reactor staff and emergency responders, displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals, and affected the long-term health and well-being of millions exposed to the radioactive fallout. This catastrophe resulted from the ruthless exploitation of Ukraine and its people by an imperialistic Russian regime that continuously manifested a callous disregard for human life...

Following the signing of the memorandum of cooperation between the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) and the Canadian Association of Crimean Tatars (CACT) during the Crimean Tatar Night on March 24, 2016, a Canadian delegation comprised of members of both organizations headed to the IV Board meeting of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars in Vilnius (Lithuania). The leaders of the Crimean Tatar organizations from across the world took part in this strategic planning meeting. The first day marked the opening of the international conference entitled "Mass Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Crimea." The Lithuanian Parliament was chosen as a venue for this event. Prior to the beginning of the first session of the conference, the guests of the meeting were invited to view the exhibition about the legendary Crimean Tatar leader, Mustafa Dzhemilev, prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland...

In the course of World War II Franklin D. Roosevelt suffering from many ailments as well as Soviet infiltration of his administration and the Department of State sought a “modus vivendi” with Josef Stalin. Having just experienced the results of a similar course by his British brothers acting through Foreign Minister Neville Chamberlain in Munich in 1938, involving a different psychopath Adolf Hitler, FDR, nevertheless, failed to recognize the similarity between Hitler and Stalin. The result was a 45 year cold war only it wasn’t so cold in Korea, Czechoslovakia, Cuba, Hungary, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Those conflicts resulted in significant loss of life. The economic loss resulting from an arms race was trillions of dollars...

The referendum in my country rejecting the EU Association agreement with your country must have raised some bitter feelings with you about European double standards, and in the Netherlands in particular, on Ukraine’s place in Europe and your genuine aspirations to share our basic human values of dignity, democracy and human rights. This was, I know, the message of millions of Ukrainians sent so powerfully during the Maidan revolution, where many Ukrainians paid the highest price for it to be heard...

Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij met with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner on National Minorities, Astrid Thors, to inform of the gross violations by Russian governing authorities of the human rights of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars. The UWC President highlighted the harassment of religious and ethnic groups in Russia-occupied Crimea. He also focused on the repressive actions by Russian governing authorities against the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, the suppression of activities of the Ukrainian community in Russia, and the persecution of its activists. In this context, Eugene Czolij drew attention to the earlier introduced “patriotic stop list”, designed to stop the activity in Russia of “unwanted” foreign non-governmental organizations...

For decades the Dutch political party Democrats ‘66 campaigned for the introduction of a referendum as part of political life in The Netherlands. The main reason was to bring politics closer to the people, to let them have a say in key issues that affected the country, and strengthen the connection between politicians and the citizens. In the end they succeeded, and an advisory referendum was added to the Dutch political system. How could they imagine that this creation, introduced as the ultimate tool of democratic governance, would became a mechanism hijacked and used for non-democratic purposes?..

On 1 October 2015 in Washington, USA, Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij met with Member of Parliament of Ukraine and Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov and Chairman of the General Council of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Josef Zissels. Specific attention during the meeting was dedicated to the strategy for cooperation between the UWC, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the General Council of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress on the important issues of defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea, and the fundamental freedoms and human rights of Ukrainian citizens, counteracting Russian disinformation and broadening joint actions with other ethnocultural minorities on these issues...

I wish to thank the organizers of this conference for the opportunity to present the situation of the Ukrainian minority in the Russian Federation, which is in stark contrast to the state of national minorities in Ukraine. Although the Ukrainian minority in the Russian Federation has never enjoyed the fundamental freedoms and human rights afforded the Russian minority in Ukraine, the situation has significantly deteriorated since the illegal occupation of Crimea by Russian forces in March 2014 and the subsequent invasion of Eastern Ukraine by Russia-backed terrorists and Russian military forces. Historically, Ukrainians settled in the Russian Federation either by force or by need. According to unofficial statistics, there are over 10 million Ukrainians living in the Russian Federation, which makes it the largest Ukrainian diaspora in any country in the world...

In this Ukrainian Echo special, Hero’s Companion Project Director Kalyna Kardash reflects on the project’s inaugural three week mission to Ukraine in August 2015. “A dog is a man’s best friend” – a phrase most people have heard at least once in their lifetimes, a truth perhaps even experienced personally. In August 2015 that expression came to life in some unexpected places, and for some unexpecting people, in Kyiv, Ukraine. This summer saw the official launch of Hero’s Companion, a project of Guardian Angels Ukraine, initiated and sponsored by the League of Ukrainian Canadian Woman, which trains and pairs service dogs for veterans and soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and volunteer battalions. Or at least this was the plan when the Canadian contingent first arrived in Ukraine. In a matter of three short weeks the project had expanded to also include both a therapy dog and explosive detection dog program...