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Prime Minister Stephen Harper today concluded a successful visit to Ukraine where he met with Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and reaffirmed Canada’s strong support for the new Government of Ukraine as it undertakes the important steps of embracing the economic and democratic reforms needed to restore stability and prosperity in the country. The Prime Minister also condemned Russia’s illegal military occupation of Ukraine and reiterated the call for immediate de-escalation by Russia. During his visit, the Prime Minister also announced Canada’s contribution to a political and security monitoring mission to Ukraine, led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Canada’s support to the OSCE Special...

On 19 March 2014 Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij issued a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, John W. Ashe, in which he urged the United Nations to suspend Russia’s membership rights and privileges in the UN and to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine to protect it from any further invasion by Russian troops. Referring to the unprecedented in the 21st century invasion of Ukraine by Russian armed forces, and the forceful and illegal “annexation” of Crimea to Russia, the UWC President focused on the blatant...

We are Jewish citizens of Ukraine: businessmen, managers, public figures, scientists and scholars, artists and musicians. We are addressing you on behalf of the multi-national people of Ukraine, Ukraine’s national minorities, and on behalf of the Jewish community. You have stated that Russia wants to protect the rights of the Russian-speaking citizens of the Crimea and all of Ukraine and that these rights have been trampled by the current Ukrainian government. Historically, Ukrainian Jews are also mostly Russian-speaking. Thus, our opinion on what is happening carries no less weight than the opinion of those who advise and inform you. We are convinced that you are not...

Ukraine should take active steps to overcome totalitarianism, and not simply issue declarations, said members of the European Parliament during their fact-finding mission to Ukraine, including a visit to the Lonsky Street Prison National Museum and Memorial. As a country burdened by a colonial legacy of totalitarianism, what is Ukraine doing in order to join the European community? Members of the European Parliament recently visited the Lonsky Street Museum, the site of a former prison used in turn by the NKVD and the Gestapo, in order to study the possibilities for Ukrainians to obtain information on political repressions of past totalitarian regimes. A fourteen-person delegation from the...

The Ukrainian World Congress endorses the assessment, contained in the following resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 12 September 2013, of the escalating political and economic pressure being applied by Russia against Ukraine in the run-up to the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit: The European Parliament, – having regard to the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Vilnius in November 2013, – having regard to the fact that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have the prospect of signing or initialling, as the case may be, Association Agreements with the European Union; having regard in particular to the new, enriched character of association that is at stake, offering a broad and deep relationship with European partners, and...

For the past several years, the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness 1932-33 has worked diligently to raise awareness within American society about one of the least known tragedies in the world - the 1932-1933 Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, or Holodomor. In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Ukrainian Holodomor this year, the U.S. Holodomor Committee intends to continue this important work throughout 2013. One of the greatest achievements of the Ukrainian American community in the campaign to raise awareness about the Holodomor has been the allocation of federal land in Washington, DC for the establishment of a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide. This tremendous effort, spearheaded by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), led to federal approval of land allocation in Washington, and...

On 25 July 2013, Ukrainian World Congress President Eugene Czolij issued a letter to Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk noting his important call for reconciliation. During a press conference on 12 July 2013 Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that in commemorating the past we should promote, and not complicate, the search for common ground between Poland and Ukraine. To strengthen this call in Poland, he pointed out that Ukrainians could claim that “Operation Vistula” qualifies under the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In his letter, Eugene Czolij drew attention to the powerful pro-Russian forces intent on Ukraine joining the Eurasian Union instead of the European Union. These forces are trying to create an irreparable rift between Ukraine and Poland, today’s strongest...

eaker of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, who had been invited to address the Assembly and had initially agreed, abruptly cancelled his trip, complaining that his “strategic proposals are unlikely to be heard by Parliamentary Assembly leaders and by Russophobe [sic] delegations.” (The speaker’s “strategic proposals” were aimed at “the serious problems with the development of parliamentarism in Europe.”) The Assembly’s president, French center-right legislator Jean-Claude Mignon, expressed “disappointment” at Naryshkin’s decision, reminding his Russian counterpart that “it takes two to hold a dialogue.” It was precisely a “dialogue” that the Duma speaker sought to avoid. Sixty-five European legislators had signed up for questions to Naryshkin after his speech. One of the main agenda items at the current session of the Assembly is a resolution on Moscow’s...