Commentary

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...

I often get asked "How's Ukraine? How's Kyiv?" upon my returns, and I never really know how to respond. Because on the one hand the trendy restaurants popping up everywhere, lively night scene, luxury cars parked on street corners, and weekly festivals would indicate that everything is great, and that war is the furthest thing from anyone's mind. But then, lurking behind these facades are the military hospitals and rehabilitation centres, filled with men and women who have been physically and psychologically traumatized by war, often roaming the hallways or sitting in their rooms with blank stares and empty eyes. There are the...

Feigning concern for the efficacy of Ukraine's foreign policy is a good approach to reach an audience that otherwise would not bother to read obvious disinformation. There are serious flaws in Andreas Umland's recent article in “New Eastern Europe”: Misrepresentations ...the ultra-nationalist, ethnically cleansed and monistic one-part state that the Bandera faction envisaged, at least until the early 1940's, would have itself amounted to an illiberal and totalitarian dictatorship. The OUN was a national liberation movement. At its first congress in 1929 it did not adopt any resolution regarding the form of government of a future state. When the OUN began to address the issue of a...

Today, the British House of Commons unanimously passed the UK Magnitsky sanctions legislation. Following the historic vote, Member of Parliament James Bezan issued the following statement: “Today the United Kingdom became the third country to adopt Magnistky sanctions. The U.K., the U.S., and Estonia each passed their respective bills unanimously. In 2015, the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed its own motion calling for Magnitsky sanctions to be applied to corrupt foreign officials. “In May, I tabled Bill C-267 “Justice for Victims of...

With the upcoming elections in the United States, particularly presidential and congressional, Ukrainian American voters should be raising issues of concern with the candidates. The purpose is to both inform the candidates about those issues and to let the Ukrainian-American electorate know the candidates’ positions. It seems to me that the following issues should be of importance to the Ukrainian-American voter: Personal and sectoral sanctions have had a significant effect on the Russian economy, but have not compelled Russia to withdraw. One of the reasons for this tepid success has been that the economic woes have affected the Russian population but not the oligarchs. In particular, Putin's family and inner circle have been shielded by...

Pope Francis met with Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on February 12. It’s the first time the leaders of the two churches have met since the Great Schism almost 1,000 years ago.* There is much more to this meeting than a push for unity from two church leaders. The Russian Orthodox Church is an essential tool for the Russian government. Kirill is allegedly a former KGB agent. Kirill, wrote Stratfor, “has been deeply involved with Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSB), and he thinks geopolitically. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has used the political nature of the church to consolidate influence at home and reach out for...

Western analysts have failed to understand Russia for many of the same reasons they failed to understand the Soviet Union: a rejection of normative criteria. Editor’s Note: How do Russia and the West see one another? What are the experts’ views on the confrontation between Russia and the West? How do the pundits explain the Russo-Ukrainian war and Russia’s Syrian gambit? What are the roots of the mythology about Russia in the West, and...

Fighting continues to gradually intensify in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin-backed militants are now using heavy weapons, including tanks, artillery, and ferocious Grad rocket systems, sporadically. Moscow's rationale behind this latest escalation is to achieve a frozen conflict by gradually sabotaging the execution of the Minsk II ceasefire agreement. Russian President Vladimir Putin likely realizes that his offensive in the Donbas has essentially stalled and that for now he cannot take more Ukrainian territory, not without sustaining heavy casualties among his regular military forces and triggering additional Western sanctions. And so...