Commentary

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Canada and his speech in Parliament blew up into a scandal. The world’s leading media outlets, including some Ukrainian ones, reported on the tribute that the president of Ukraine, Canada’s prime minister, and Parliament paid to Yaroslav Hunka, a “Nazi collaborator,” a native of the Ternopil region, who was a member of the SS-Galicia Division. This incident led to the resignation of the Parliamentary Speaker and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apology to the Jewish community of Canada, because the division was supposedly responsible for killing Jews during the Second World War. The Russians went so far as to demand that war criminals in Canada be prosecuted, while Poland’s education minister announced that he was “taking steps” to extradite Hunka to Poland. This event exposes the significant role of not so much the...

А few facts may be in order. The Third Reich, popularly known as Nazi Germany, was а major belligerent in World War II. The Third Reich had an army (the Wehrmacht). The state was dominated bу the Nazis political party. Not all soldiers іn the German Army were Nazis, in the same way that not all soldiers in the Canadian Armed Forces are Conservatives or Liberals or adherents of any other party. The German Army organized military units comprised of members of the various peoples that it conquered in central and eastern Europe, including Russians and Ukrainians. The unit comprised primarily of ethnic Ukrainians was known as the ...

On Friday, 25 August 2023, in comments made by video to Roman Catholic youth in St. Petersburg, Russia, Pope Francis made the following comments: “Never forget the legacy…You are the heirs of great Russia: great Russia of saints, rulers, great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire – great, enlightened, of great culture and great humanity.” (As reported by “The New York Times”, Tuesday,29 August 2023) The Pope’s praise of the Tsarist Russian empire was...

Is the pope a Russian imperialist? The answer, alas, may be yes, at least if Pope Francis’s closing words at the August 25th All-Russian Meeting of Catholic Youth in St. Petersburg are any indication of his views. Speaking via video, Francis said the following to the young Russians assembled in the Basilica of St. Catherine of Alexandria: “Never forget the legacy. You are the heirs of great Russia: the great Russia of saints and rulers, the great Russia of Peter I and Catherine II, that great and enlightened empire of great culture and great humanity. Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the...

Eighteen months into Russia’s all-out invasion of their nation, the Ukrainian people continue to resist. The response of the free world in Ukraine’s defense, led by NATO nations, has been robust, especially relative to the appeasement that followed Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Eastern and Northern Europe, which well understand the Russian threat, lead in percentage of GDP, but the game-changing military and economic aid has come from the United States. Ukraine is still suffering horrific violence, even as its forces counterattack to regain their occupied territory. Missiles and drones rain down from the skies every day as they face the Russian way of total war – terror and destruction often targeting civilians. But the weapons Ukraine needs to ...

Baturyn, the erstwhile capital of Ukrainian hetmans, was razed to the ground by Russian troops in 1708; 314 years later, the Russian boot trampled it again. The quiet, picturesque and very hospitable small town of Baturyn used to be on par with Kyiv three centuries ago, when it was the capital of Ukrainian hetmans. “Hetmans’ Capital,” as the local history and culture preserve is named, comprises 39 unique sites and objects of history, architecture, archeology and wildlife. Historical research suggests Baturyn as a town is more than 900 years old. Granted the Magdeburg Rights in 1654, it emerged on the political arena in 1663, when Hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky and envoys from Moscow signed an agreement known as “the Baturyn Articles.”...

‘I cannot be quiet’: Ukraine’s chief rabbi calls out Putin’s lies. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he's falsely and offensively claimed he's liberating the country from Nazis. Among the loudest voices pushing back against that propaganda is Ukraine's chief rabbi. And as Jeff Semple reports, Rabbi Moshe Azman is taking his message to Canada. Moshe Azman, known as Ukraine’s chief rabbi, has swapped his kippah and kittel for a helmet and flak jacket. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, Azman has traversed the war-torn country to deliver aid and evacuate civilians from some of the most dangerous areas. That humanitarian work nearly cost his life. During his trip to the flooded city of Kherson in June, Azman was recording a video message when a Russian shell struck nearby, sending the bearded rabbi diving for cover. Fortunately, no one was hurt...

Those who lived with Russian terror understand Ukraine must become a NATO member, because Ukraine is all that stands between them and a murderous despot. It demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what this war is about, for it is about the total conquest and annihilation of the Ukrainian nation and its people and not about NATO. We will soon run out of Ukrainians to fight this fight unless NATO gets serious about defeating, and not appeasing Putin...

When is a security guarantee not a security guarantee? The answer, Ukrainians know all too well, is when there’s nothing committing your friends to fight by your side if your country is unfortunate enough to be invaded. The series of bilateral arrangements announced Wednesday at the NATO summit in Vilnius, which commit Canada and the other G7 countries to continue providing Kyiv with modern military equipment, training, cyberdefence and intelligence sharing, are significant. They represent the first formal promises the West has made to keep supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia, which is now in its 503rd day...

ussians in the temporarily occupied Berdiansk are not giving the parents of the murdered teenagers – Tyhran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov – a certificate of permission for burial. Removing the boys’ bodies from the morgue for burials is impossible without this “document.” In addition, the occupiers are closely guarding the morgue, citizens of Berdiansk told Ukrainska Pravda. “They will not issue a certificate – the case was sent to Melitopol, and that’s it. And without this piece of paper, the bodies are in the morgue and can’t be taken. You have no idea what place we are living in. We have no rights… And there is no one to turn to, to whom to complain… ” locals said...