Ten representatives of the organized Ukrainian Canadian community came together under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Toronto on July 2, 2019. As President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) I attended the meeting and had the opportunity to ask the first questions of the new President: The Institute of National Remembrance is considered to be the leading state institution for the further development of Ukraine as a political nation. The director of the institute is Volodymyr Vyatrovych. Do you support the work of the Institute and its leader?
Also, a follow-up question arose: What is your position on Ukrainian as the single state language, and on legislation adopted to strengthen the positions of the Ukrainian language?
On the language question, the President stated that he has no intention to change the constitution where Ukrainian is the state language. He added that any consideration of regional languages would comport to constitutional norms and that his administration supports protecting minority rights. President Zelensky chose to not comment on the recent legislation adopted by parliament on affirmative action measures for the Ukrainian language.
Concerning the Institute of National Remembrance, President Zelensky said he is not personally familiar with Vyatrovych but noted that at a time of war the Institute’s work might be too radical, but that later patriotism can be in full display.
For the LUC and many other Ukrainian organizations, these issues are central to Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and its place as a European political nation.
Perpetuity of one’s language, culture, traditions, religious rites, and liberation history are central to any nation and for a diaspora its raison d’etre. For Ukrainian Canadians, it was their sine qua non, since throughout almost the entire 20th century, their brethren in the ancestral homeland were under direct threat of being wiped off the face of the earth by crimes against humanity, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced mass migration, the gulag’s concentration camps and the rest. The Ukrainian language and history banned by numerous laws and regulations of the Czars and Commissars and its advocates and practitioners were severely punished. These atrocities were hidden from the people and the world.
Throughout the seven decades of Soviet Russian occupation of Ukraine and since the demise of the USSR and the restoration of Ukraine’s independence, the LUC and the diaspora as a whole have dedicated resources to research and document Ukraine’s centuries-long legacy as a political nation and struggle for national independence. Since Ukraine’s independence, the LUC and its like-minded partner organizations have worked to share with their brethren in Ukraine a wealth of research, documentation and scholarly studies, literary works and cultural productions. We also are engaged in programs promoting democracy, civil society, respect and tolerance, economic development, and social justice. We provide humanitarian assistance to the needy and support for the war effort.
Our mission is to support the process of nation-building in Ukraine. We work directly with government officials and institutions, civic activists, and non-governmental organizations that share our values.
Our hope and expectation are that the LUC and our partners in Ukraine will be able to work with the new President and his administration on priority issues in securing a brighter future for Ukraine.
However, today, Ukrainian territory is under direct foreign military occupation and revanche in key sectors of government and society. Russia is conducting a ruthless hybrid war to bring Ukraine under its control. Russia’s rulers continue to speak openly about Ukraine as a fake country, eliminating Ukrainians as a political nation, and melding Ukraine into Russia. Russia has mounted a sustained campaign to break the West’s will to stand with Ukraine.
Hence, our concern and that of many others in the diaspora and Ukraine is that during his trip, President Zelensky made scant reference to Russia’s designs on Ukraine, even to identify Russia as the aggressor country. His reluctance to state his administration’s national security and defense policies, including his position on pending legislation to reform the defense and security sectors is no less disturbing. The LUC and the entire Ukrainian diaspora support the position of leading Ukrainian MPs, including Andriy Levus, on national security issues. Extensive work was carried out with representatives of NATO, the EU and the United States on the Basic Law on National Security adopted in June 2018. Unfortunately, President Zelensky has yet to state his position on further reform legislation before parliament, as required by the basic law. At the same time, we continue to hear a steady stream of disturbing proposals from his administration about referendums on the war, NATO, EU, etc. We also are deeply concerned about President Zelensky’s reluctance to speak clearly about his administration’s commitment to restore Ukrainian soverenty in Donbas and Crimea on Ukrainian terms.
Our reticence is also because President Zelensky rarely speaks about Ukraine’s centuries-long quest for nation statehood or, since 1991, the arduous path of consolidating its sovereignty and independence. What have we heard from him about the Orange Revolution and how subversive and seditious entrenched interests worked to undermine the people’s will? He makes no mention of Russia’s puppet Yanukovych, who was brought down by yet another uprising - Revolution of Dignity and the Heavenly Hundred or the volunteer fighters from Maidan, who were the first to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine. For President Zelensky, it seems Russia is not bent on total domination. He sees it as more of a dispute with a disagreeable neighbor. It also seems that for President Zelensky Ukrainian is not the bedrock of national identity, despite ethnic Ukrainians making up over 80% of the population. For him it seems to be more of a hybrid identity of two people’s “shared history” and that the deformations of Ukrainian society are not the product of Czarist and Commissarist social engineering cloned through unspeakable imperialist oppression and violence.
The League of Ukrainian Canadians was the first in the diaspora to raise the alarm about the Yanukovych regime as a puppet of Moscow and mobilized Canadians to support civic opposition to Yanukovych. Then as now, we heard similar commitments about shared western values and investment opportunities. What disturbs the LUC is that we did not hear from the new President a commitment to complete the goals set out by the Revolution of Dignity. Instead, at the events in Toronto we heard high ranking foreign government officials from Europe, the US, and Canada make more references to the goals and achievements of the Revolution of Dignity than President Zelensky or his delegation.
Ukrainians are at war. The invader, Russia, is insisting on terms for peace that fit its hybrid war strategy to dominate Ukraine from within. The Revolution of Dignity set the long term goals for victory in this existential struggle. Just as Ukrainians were a decisive factor in the demise of the USSR, so too, Ukraine’s quest for mature nation statehood will determine the demise of Russia’s imperial ambitions. Therefore, we will not obviate our very real concerns about President Zelensky’s devaluation of the continuing impact of the Revolution of Dignity, and instead, his resort to vague platitudes served up as policies. These are not times for ambiguity. Already, Russia is taking advantage of the confusion and discontent among Ukraine’s international partners. Ukraine needs a commander in chief and statesman who will speak clearly to the Ukrainian people, to Ukraine’s friends and to its enemies alike.
As the LUC celebrates our 70th anniversary, and as it has since its founding in 1949, the then Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine and, since 1991, the League of Ukrainian Canadians will continue to foster and promote Canadian values and to share our Ukrainian cultural heritage with our fellow Canadians. We will work to marshal support for Ukrainians to build a secure, democratic and prosperous, sovereign and indivisible, independent Ukrainian nation-state. To these ends, the LUC stands ready to support policies of President Zelinsky and his administration.
en representatives of the organized Ukrainian Canadian community came together under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Toronto on July 2, 2019. As President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) I attended the meeting and had the opportunity to ask the first questions of the new President: The Institute of National Remembrance is considered to be the leading state institution for the further development of Ukraine as a political nation. The director of the institute is Volodymyr Vyatrovych. Do you support the work of the Institute and its leader?
