Politics

In his remarks on Ukraine’s Constitution Day President Poroshenko noted the need to codify in the basic law Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO and EU. Such commitments to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic choice are appreciated. However, policy analysts believe that the best demonstration of the veracity of these pledges will be staying the course on implementation of genuine reforms. In addition to the anti-corruption court, reform agenda priorities include overhauling the national security and defense system. Every major provision of the reform process laid out in the recently adopted law on national security is based on recommendations from the international advisory group, experts and diplomats representing the European Union, NATO, and the US. The process leading up to...

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine, spoke yesterday about recent events. Following the call, Ms. Lagarde issued the following statement: “I am very encouraged by the adoption of the law on the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) by the Ukrainian parliament, which is an important step forward in the authorities’ fight against corruption. The new law paves the way for setting up an independent and strong anti-corruption court that together with existing institutions (NABU and the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office) will contribute to delivering the accountability and justice that the people of...

On June 11 and 12, an all-party delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, members of the Ukraine-Canada Parliamentary Friendship Group (UCPFG), visited the Parliament of Canada for a series of formal and informal meetings. Led by First Vice-Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko and the Co-Chair of the UCPFG, Ivan Krulko, the delegation with their Canadian counterparts laid the foundations for strengthening bilateral relations between the respective parliaments of the two countries. On June 11, working meetings between the executive of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group (CUPFG) and the UCPFG took place. “Since 2015, our ‘special’ and ‘strategic’ relationship has been deepened by...

For the second time in less than a month, a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine was agreed to. The pause in shooting was to have gone into effect just after midnight Thursday, March 29. That’s not particularly unusual; many ceasefires have been declared since the conflict began in the spring of 2014. And like the others, it failed to hold. The previous ceasefire started on March 5, and within hours the two sides began firing at each other...

Changes to the law on the Institute of National Remembrance, targeting the Ukrainian national liberation movement, point to dangerous trends in the political life of the Republic of Poland. Much of the political elite leadership want to return Polish society to the worst times of confrontation with Ukrainians. Today, the Polish leadership is not guided by European traditions of dialogue and seeking understanding and reconciliation. Instead, there is a return to tragic traditions of occupation, political repressions, (including the Bereza Kartuzka concentration camp), polonization, and negation of the right of the Ukrainian nation to self-determination and independent statehood...

Distinguished Dr. Robin Niblett, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, Let me start with words of appreciation. It is my true honor to speak today at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. I shall thank the distinguished audience for your genuine interest in Ukraine. But above all, I thank for your support of and solidarity with my country. The reason for this is not just our fight against aggression and against the return to the world of disrespect and “deliberate territorial grabs”. The reason for this is our common fight for the future of Europe. It's also about the future of the Free World - one, which believes that freedom is a real thing and not a decoy to...

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) condemns the conviction by the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on 5 June 2017 of former Director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow Nataliya Sharina to a four years’ suspended sentence on politically motivated charges...

Mr. Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this week, the European Union introduced visa-free travel for citizens of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hailed this historic milestone, calling it ‘the fall of the paper curtain’ between Ukraine and the liberal democratic West, and Business Ukraine magazine referred to this day as “Ukraine’s Berlin Wall Moment.”...

Ottawa – yesterday at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa Etobicoke Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj in his capacity as Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group attended the signing of the historic Canada-Ukraine Defence Cooperation Arrangement between Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Ukrainian Defence Minister General Stepan Poltorak. The signing of this agreement will help develop further Canada-Ukraine mutual cooperation in arenas of defence policy, defence research, development, and production, and military training and education. At yesterday’s ceremonies and this...

With his speech leading off the Debates on the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement in the House of Commons on February 7, MP Wrzesnewskyj issued a friendly challenge to the Speaker of Ukraine’s parliament Parubiy and his colleagues in the Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine, as to which parliament will pass the Canada – Ukraine Free Trade Agreement first. On February 14, Bill C-31 was successfully passed by the Canadian House of Commons at Third Reading. Meanwhile, the Minister of Economic Development of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv expects the Verkhovna Rada to follow the Canadian lead within the next few weeks. In his speech and during...