Commentary

Russia – the main ally of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad – not only sends troops and planes to the Middle East country where at least 500,000 have been murdered in the civil war that started in 2011. The Kremlin is also enthusiastically exported vile anti-Ukrainian propaganda to Syria. Pro-government Syrian Facebook groups often publish texts or pictures, blaming Ukraine for supporting jihadist groups. Anyone can find cartoons with two figures hugging, one of whom impersonates Ukraine and the other – ISIS or al-Qaeda. Or people can read articles about rebel training camps somewhere near Lviv or Kharkiv, with combatants aimed at overthrowing Assad...

In early 2015, Ukraine’s pro-Russian separatists defeated government forces in the city of Debaltseve in a major battle that seemed to prove something about the balance of forces in the conflict: The ragtag insurgents could face the country’s conventional military on their own and win. But it later became clear that Russian troops deployed in the area helped defeat the Ukrainian forces—a fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to hide. How was the secret revealed? Russian soldiers involved in the fighting posted details of the battle on social media...

Christopher Miller’s article “‘Banderite’ Rebrand: Ukrainian Police Declare Admiration For Nazi Collaborators To Make A Point” was published last week on RFE/RL. The article tells about the “I am a banderite” flashmob launched by some Ukrainian police members as an apology to their colleague’s phrase “Lay down, Bandera” when on 9 February police arrested and beat members of the nationalist C14 organization, which had come to a rally of presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko with a “Who killed Katya Handziuk” banner. It is widely suspected that a high-ranking member of Tymoshenko’s party was involved in ordering the murder of Handziuk, a city official and activist fighting corruption in the south-Ukrainian city of Kherson. The arrest of C14 took place during the rally apparently without reason, leading to suspicions that the...

A Russ1 Television segment recently aired delivering an unprovoked, disparaging and rhetorical diatribe directed at the Ukrainian community in Canada. The confounding and vitriolic segment is not only misleading, it is also incredibly narrow in scope. Devoid of objectivity, or anything even remotely resembling truth or accuracy, this would-be ‘expose’ is so full of contempt, innuendo and half-truths that it can hardly be regarded as ‘journalism’ at all. It is, rather, an over-simplified, arrogant, hateful and blatant piece of propaganda, couched as a pseudo op-ed report, aimed solely and squarely at the Ukrainian diaspora. Who would claim production of such a piece? And why? The segment aired on January 13, 2019. Understanding the roots and nature of this propaganda piece begins with Russ24 anchorman, Dmitry Kiselyov, who introduced the...

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Russian military analyst, says that even though Moscow will not confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons in occupied Crimea, there can be no doubt that the Russians have placed them there because of the presence of nuclear-capable delivery systems. He tells Ukraine’s Gordon news agency that most of them are probably still in storage bunkers, but some of them may already be installed in launch vehicles for possible use (gordonua.com/ news/crimea/felgengauer-rossiya-ne-budet-podtverzhdat-ili-oprovergat-nalichie-yadernogo-oruzhiya-v-krymu-no-ono-tam-est-mozhno-ne-somnevatsya-395148.html). The situation...

The U.S. Senate has adopted a resolution recognizing that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin committed genocide against the Ukrainian people in the early 1930s, when millions died in a horrific famine known as the Holodomor. The "simple resolution" passed on October 3 commemorates the 85th anniversary of the famine of 1932-33, saying the event “should serve as a reminder of repressive Soviet policies against the people of Ukraine.”...

In her speech at the United Nations, Ukraine’s Acting Minister of Health Dr. Ulana Suprun underscored an extremely dangerous element of Russia’s hybrid information warfare – aggression against healthcare. The spread of misinformation through traditional media and trolls in social networks targeted anti-vaccination campaigns. These efforts lead to distrust in medicine and directly threaten human life...

On October 30 Amina Okuyeva, a renowned ethnic Chechen who fought as a Ukrainian volunteer sniper and medic in eastern Ukraine was killed (and her husband, Adam Osmayev, injured) in an attack in the countryside just outside of Kyiv. Both Okuyeva and her husband were staunch Putin critics. The assassination, blamed on Russian special services, is the latest in a string of attacks and attempted assassinations in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine. Okuyeva and her husband survived a previous assassination attempt in June of this year. I often get asked "How's Ukraine? How's Kyiv?" upon my returns, and I never really know how to respond. Because on the...

Over the history of the last half milennium Ukrainian Polish relations have been strained, to put it mildly. This included at least three invasions of Ukrainian territory by the Poles and accusations of genocide by both sides. However, in 1991 when the Ukrainians proclaimed a free and independent Ukrainian state, the Republic of Poland was the first country (Canada may have been first) to recognize Ukrainian independence. Poland's early rapprochement with Ukraine despite the history, was not all that surprising given its immediate past Soviet Russian domination and a keen memory of what happened in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Independent Ukraine was seen by Poland as a buffer to Russia, a constant source of concern to both. Ukrainian-Polish relations were good or at the very least workable in every sphere including historical issues. And then the Party of Law and Justice came to power in Poland and everything seemed to change...

1. UNSCHOLARLY RESEARCH BY WESTERN APOLOGISTS - Their writing is Ideologically driven with prepared in advance conclusions - They have never visited Ukraine - They have never visited the Donbas frontlines - They only use footnotes from Russian media, including pro-Putin propaganda - They do not interview Ukrainian politicians, journalists and NGO’s...