Ukraine society news

17/07/2008
Ukrainian Minister of Education Ivan Vakarchuk met with representatives of the country’s Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches on 17 July 2008 in Kyiv. According to the press office of the Christian-Democratic Union, Vakarchuk emphasized the importance of the education of children and youth and how the churches and the state can work on this together.

5/07/2008
At a briefing the deputy head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, Yuriy Bohutsky, stressed that the president is convinced that “The celebration of the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus will facilitate the unification processes in Ukrainian Orthodoxy.”
“As early as at the time that Victor Yushchenko was the head of the national Bank and the Prime Minister, he always believed that ways to unite the Ukrainian Orthodoxy should be found,” stressed Bohutsky.
He also stated that the unity of Ukrainian Orthodoxy will become a subject of discussion of Church representatives during the celebratory events in July-August, 2008. “It is a chance to find an understanding,” says Bohutsky.

30/06/2008
A statue of Ukraine's wartime nationalist leader Stepan Bandera will be erected in Lutsk in western Ukraine, the city council said.
Bandera was one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which fought with the Soviet Army during the World War II. Following the invasion of German troops in the summer of 1941, Bandera called on Ukrainians "to help the German army in the fight against Moscow and Bolshevism."
The historical sparring has developed into an unofficial war of monuments. In October 2007, the western Ukrainian city of Lvov inaugurated a statue of Stepan Bandera and adopted a resolution establishing the "Award of Stepan Bandera," while a sculpture of Catherine the Great was erected in the Crimean port of Sevastopol as part of its 225th anniversary celebrations this June.

22/06/2008
In the building of the Caritas-Spes Ukraine, the heads and authorized representatives of Churches attended the Conference of Representatives of Christian Churches of Ukraine. The meeting was headed by Markiian Trofymiak, the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a number of questions of cooperation between the State and the Churches; in particular, the problems of morality and academic process in educational institutions, the concept of state-confessional relations in Ukraine, and legislative provision for the activity of Churches.
According to the Institute of Religious Freedom, the participants of the meeting discussed constitutional proposals in the area of freedom of worship and activity of religious organizations.

23/04/2008
Within the framework of his visit to Kyiv region President Victor Yushchenko came to Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
There he put flowers near the memorial honoring those who lost their lives fighting Chernobyl disaster. After that President Yushchenko took part in opening of Vector radioactive waste recycling complex and was present at unloading of the last fuel cell from reactor of the plant. Unloading fuel cell from the reactor is an important step towards decommissioning the plant in accordance with President’s instructions of December 5, 2005.
In his visit to Chernobyl President Yushchenko was accompanied by Emergencies Minister Volodymyr Shandra, Kyiv Regional Administration head Vira Ulyanchenko, other officials.

7/04/2008
Democracy supporters from tens of countries have gathered in the Ukrainian capital Kiev for an assembly of the World Movement for Democracy. The forum’s opening ceremony was held at the major exhibition hall Ukrainian House on Sunday evening.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is expected to take the floor at the Monday morning session, according to the organisers of the forum taking part in which are about 500 politicians, scientists, young activists of non-governmental organisations. Yushchenko sent them a greeting message noting that “in recent years Ukraine has achieved considerable progress on the way to democratisation and development of the civil society and freedom of speech and mass media.” The president said that his main goal is to “build a modern law-based democratic state.”
The participants in the New Delhi Assembly adopted a Founding Statement to guide the development of the World Movement, which held its Second Assembly in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in November 2000, its Third Assembly in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004, and its Fourth Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey, in April 2006. The Fifth Assembly is taking place in Kiev, Ukraine. The World Movement is led by a distinguished international Steering Committee and NED currently serves as its Secretariat.

17/02/2008
A new Ukrainian minister has vowed to stop xenophobia and interethnic hatred in his country.
Dr. Aleksandr Sagan, recently appointed head of the Ukrainian State Committee on Nationalities and Religions, told a news conference in Kiev on Feb. 14 that his ministry will fight xenophobia and interethnic hatred in Ukraine as well as implement mechanisms to prevent them.
Sagan plans to establish an interdepartmental council of experts, including scientists, political and other public figures, to counteract xenophobia, race discrimination and hatred. The council will coordinate the State Committee’s activities to counteract conflict based on ethnic and religious grounds with other ministers and departments.
Last year, under the orders of President Victor Yuschenko, the Ukrainian Secret Service set up a special unitfor counteracting xenophobia and ethnic intolerance. The Minister of Foreign Affairs also established the post of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary on counteraction of racism, xenophobia and discrimination.

2/05/2007
The fidgeting, wide-eyed girls and boys squeezed around a table in Elizaveta Moklyak's kindergarten class are helping lead a cultural and political revolution. With her pointer and colorful posters, Moklyak teaches Ukrainian to Russian-speaking children — ensuring that by the end of the school year, the language of their homeland no longer sounds like a foreign tongue. Sixteen years after shrugging off Moscow's rule, Ukraine is reclaiming a language that — like scores of other local languages across the former U.S.S.R. — the Soviet leadership once disdained as inferior to Russian. Today Ukrainian has emerged from second-class status, slipping quietly into the chambers of government and popular culture. This marks more than a cultural change: It could doom any hopes Russia may have of restoring its traditional political influence over this country of 47 million.

28/04/2007
Christians, Jews and Muslims met for an interfaith conference in Ukraine. More than 200 representatives of the country's three major faiths met in Kiev to discuss issues of interfaith agreement, religious extremism and hate crimes. The event was organized by the interfaith group A Step to Unity, whose leader - Ukrainian Jewish business magnate Vadim Rabinovich - also heads the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress.

24/04/2007
Agreement on simplification of visa regime between Ukraine and EU to be signed by June 18. Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk forecast this by way of speaking to students of the Institute of International Relations of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University. "I guarantee that by 2007 end the agreement will not only be signed but will also take effect," the Minister said. Talking about relations with the EU, Mr Yatseniuk stressed that, unfortunately, one should not expect Ukraine's soon membership in the EU. In his opinion, adequate terms refer to decades. As he stressed, one cannot "cry out to be accepted, but should be invited, which fact demands lots of home work."

26/03/2007
Patrick Woods, of Tyler is about to embark on what could be an adventure of a lifetime. He leaves on Sunday for the Ukraine as a Peace Corps volunteer. After landing in Kiev, the capital, with about 70 other Peace Corps members, Woods will live with a host family for three months to learn the language and customs and then give two years of service.

14/03/2007
An official report from the press service of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) supports the initiative of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko regarding the creation of a single national Orthodox church in Ukraine, with some comments. The creation of a single national Orthodox church in Ukraine needs to be based on the solid ground of the canonical transfer of the Orthodox church and the initiative of the churches by way of dialogue.

20/02/2007
NY Museum Reclaims "Russian" Artists, Including Malevich, Archipenko, as Ukrainian. Some artists fled to Paris and other cities in the West. The Soviet government confiscated 2,000 modernist works in Ukraine. Only about 300 survive today. Crossroads: Modernism in Ukraine, 1910-1930, features more than 70 such works, including many not previously seen outside Ukraine. It opened last year at the Chicago Cultural Center and is on view in New York at The Ukrainian Museum until April 29.

1/02/2007
The EPA, working with the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, is sponsoring demonstration projects to educate Ukrainians about the dangers of harmful pesticides. The bulk of Ukraine's left-over pesticides are classified by the EPA as persistent organic pesticides (POPs). These chemicals, like the famous insecticide DDT, which was banned in the US in 1972, take a long time to break down and are particularly harmful to animals and people.

26/01/2007
A poll of 147 respondents, including 91 journalists, 44 analysts, and 12 government officials, which the Democratic Initiatives conducted at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry request on December 4-15, 2006 showed that 130 of them support Ukraine's accession to NATO, and 82 of them believe this should be done as soon as possible. The people are more concerned about economic implications of this step, the influence that it could have on ordinary people's living standards, and its possible effects for relations with Russia.

7/01/2007
The all-ukrainian foundation of international communication promotion "Ukrainian People's Embassy" conferred the honorary title of "People's Ambassador of Ukraine" upon general director of the kirovogradtransgazstroy enterprise (kirovograd gas transportation construction company) Vasyl Vinnytsky in first days of 2007.

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