Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

Regina, SK May 12

Holodomor Statue Officially Dedicated in Provincial Capital

Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz joined Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield, Regina Mayor Michael Fougere, and Ukrainian community members to officially dedicate a statue that will serve as a permanent reminder of the Holodomor – a man-made famine that devastated Ukraine during the early 1930s.

The bronze figure is an exact copy of the statue entitled “Bitter Memories of Childhood” by sculptor Petro Drozdowsky and features a somber peasant girl collecting a wheat sheaf. The statue serves as a sobering reminder of the devastation caused by the famine and its impact on children.

Holodomor, meaning 'extermination by hunger' in Ukrainian, claimed seven to 10 million people from 1932 to 1933 and is regarded by historians as a deliberate campaign of terror perpetrated by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

“The Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Regina is happy to see our vision become a reality,” Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Regina Branch President Orest Gawdyda said. “We thank the Government of Saskatchewan and Wascana Centre Authority for making the Ukrainian community of Saskatchewan proud by having the Holodomor statue erected near the Saskatchewan Legislative Building.”

The statue is a project of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Regina Branch. The original is near the entrance of the National Holodomor Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine.


(My husband's brother is on the right; he's the pastor of St. Basil's in Regina. Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sask is in the purple vestments.)

Short video

http://regina.ctvnews.ca/video?clipI...ylistPageNum=1

[Natalka]

Almost no residents in Pisky near Donetsk airport, all houses destroyed

A few residents – roughly about 10-15 people – have stayed to live in the village of Pisky, which is located not far from the destroyed Donetsk airport. Almost all the buildings in Pisky have been destroyed by shelling by Russian-backed militants.

Not only Pisky, but also the town of Avdiyivka and the villages of Opytne, Vodiane, Tonenke and Karlivka in Donetsk region are under the enemy's heavy artillery fire almost every day

Pisky, once being the wealthy suburbs of Donetsk, has turned into ruins






http://www.unian.info/war/1078595-al...tml#ad-image-6

[Natalka]

15.05.2015 17:14
Press office of President
Petro Poroshenko opened the exhibition of ATO heroes’ photo portraits



“Country must know and honor its heroes that are currently creating an absolutely new Ukraine. The exhibition represents 16 heroes who have glorified Ukraine for centuries with their sacrifice, courage, bravery and patriotism, who give the younger generation an example of how one should love the Homeland and defend it,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.


Addressing the militaries, whose portraits are represented at the exhibition, the Head of State said: “The whole Ukraine is proud of you. You are the pride of the country. Low bow to you for that”.


According to the Head of State, it is a great pleasure that the interior of the Presidential Administration changes due to such projects. The President is confident that the premises of the Presidential Administration are the best place for such exhibition. From now on, visitors, inter alia, foreign delegations will see the most esteemed Ukrainians. The President also welcomes the idea of placing the exhibition in Boryspil airport. “For Ukrainians who return from abroad and guests of Ukraine to see how our country respects those who defend the Homeland and demonstrates the best human qualities,” the President said.


Commander of the Army Corps of the AFU, Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Klymchuk noted that he had enjoyed the exhibition and thanked the organizers. “These are not just photo portraits. These are victories, losses and pain. Young generation and our descendants must know this,” the military said.


The exhibition represents 16 photo portraits of Ukrainian heroes, from soldier to colonel, who bravely defend Ukrainian Donbas.

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/32863.html

[Natalka]

Thousands of people climb the Chatyr-Dah mountains in Crimea to commemorate and pray for the victims of the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars from their homeland - the forcible removal of Crimean Tatars from the peninsula, ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
This is done yearly.

[Natalka]

Europe Day celebrations

Swedish Ambassador to Ukr Andreas von @vBeckerath joined #EuropeDay celebration in #Sloviansk







many Kyivites chose to attend concerts on Mykhailivska square marking #EuropeDay

[Natalka]

Severodonetsk, #Luhansk region joins #EuropeDay celebration

[Natalka]

Kremlin's actions have sparked efforts by Ukrainians to move further towards EU integration

Ukrainians are attending a host of events to celebrate Europe Day, an annual event aimed at promoting peace and unity. A packed schedule of events are being held in the capital Kyiv and around the country including various music concerts, sports events, children's workshops and public debates.
The event comes following over a year of revolution and war in Ukraine, where the country has attempted to move closer to the EU, away from Moscow's sphere of influence.
Europe Day has been marked annually on the third Saturday of May since 2003, following the signing of a presidential decree.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz recorded a special address for Ukrainians ahead of this weekend. He said: "This year's celebration has gained particular importance. What is happening in Ukraine, applies to all Europeans. In times of Maidan (revolution), you courageously took to the streets, because you wanted to live in a free and democratic society. With the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU, you have chosen a European way, and we support your European choice "

President Petro Poroshenko also raised the EU flag in a ceremony near to the presidential administration on Saturday.










http://uatoday.tv/society/ukraine-ce...ay-427615.html

[Natalka]

17 May 2015, Warsaw will host the March of Solidarity with Ukraine

Similar rally took place in Warsaw a year ago to show Ukraine and the whole world that Poland supports Ukraine. Organisers note that the situation in Ukraine hasn't improved since then: "Crimea remains annexed, and every day people die in eastern Ukraine as a result of Russia's aggression".


The march will finish at the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw, where participants on the eve of 71st anniversary of the forcible deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea will light candles - "light of hope for those who remain in the occupied Crimea and believe, like we do, that Crime is Ukraine".

[Natalka]

UA Embassy in Poland @UkrEmbassyPL · 5h 5 hours ago





Crimea Is Ukraine

[Natalka]

#Odesa commemorated 71st anniversary of #CrimeanTatar deportation

[Natalka]

Commemoration of 71st anniversary of #CrimeanTatar deportation, #Maidan square. People chant words of support: we're together

[Natalka]

(not going so well for those in Crimea trying to mark the anniversary....)

Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 5h 5 hours ago

#CrimeanTatars detained in #Crimea for motor rally marking 71yrs of their deportation








At the Zapadnaya bus station in Simferopol, Crimean Tatars driving in cars with Crimean Tatar flags were stopped by a large contingent of OMON riot police in full combat gear and with shields. Radio Svoboda’s Crimean Service reports that around 60 people were taken away in police vans, to draw up protocols.


What precisely they will be charged with is unclear since the Crimean Tatars were simply taking part in a traditional car rally through Simferopol and to Bakhchysarai in memory of the victims of the Deportation. However the detentions were clearly prepared in advance, with four police vans waiting, and under Russian occupation the lack of any offence has not proved a problem.

The Centre for Journalist Investigations reports that two journalists from the Russian organization For Human Rights have also been detained. They were simply speaking with Crimean Tatar at the station.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1431960060

[Natalka]

Berlin commemorated 71st year of Stalin's deportation of Crimean Tatars & their continuous harrassment by Russia

[Natalka]

Today, May 18, is the 71st anniversary of the deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar people from the Crimea Peninsula during World War II. This mass deportation, ordered by Soviet leader Josef Stalin who claimed to be rooting out Nazi collaborators, displaced 200,000 people and cost many thousands of lives as women and children were herded in cattle cars under inhumane conditions while the men fought in the Soviet Red Army.


Stalin's deportation of Crimean Tartars from the Crimea, May 1944
(Image: cidct.org.ua)

[Natalka]

Mass graves exemplify communist terror — Poroshenko

Bykivnia Graves National Historic Memorial is located on the site of the Bykivnia village in a wooded area on the outskirts of Kyiv. During the Stalinist period the Soviet secret police used the area to dispose of thousands of executed “enemies of the Soviet state.” It is estimated that some 100,000 – 200,000 victims are buried here.

President Poroshenko called on all those who oppose decommunization to come to the site of mass graves in Bykivnia to “hear the cries of the victims of communist terror.”
Poroshenko made his comments on May 17 at the Bykivnia Graves National Historic Memorial during Day of Memory commemorations for victims of political repression.

According to Poroshenko, in Bykivnia “they were not killing the enemies of the people — they were killing the entire nation that they had not had time to destroy during the Holodomor… The Executed Renaissance of Ukraine is buried in Bykivnia — more than 100,000 innocents killed,” he said.

“This term (Executed Renaissance) that was once used for a group of repressed writers, artists, historians and philologists can be extended to all those who died in the cellars of the GPU-NKVD (intelligence service and secret police of the USSR — Ed.), in prisons and concentration camps,” he added.
Poroshenko emphasized that the GPU-NKVD “is a structure much like the SS Gestapo.”

“They adopted the criminal experience of each other, perfecting the techniques of mass destruction of their victims. It was a plague and is a plague, whether red or brown,” he said. “Ukraine remembers! We have no right to condemn the murderers ourselves. But the murderers of our people will have to answer in this world or the next,” he said.

“We came today to the Bykivnia grounds to honor the ashes of the innocent victims, our ancestors. As we pray for their souls we swear to the living that we will never again allow another red or brown genocide against the Ukrainian people,” he stated.

Poroshenko noted that the Bykivnia graves are the living testimony of communist terror, irrefutable proof of crimes against humanity that are on the same scale as those committed in Katyn, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Babyn Yar or Solovki (notorious Russian and Soviet forced labor camp) .

“Isn’t it time to finally cleanse Ukraine of the symbols of the regime that destroyed millions of innocent people? Repressions, deportations, famines. There was no method that the totalitarian Soviet machine did not resort to in order break the spirit of the freedom-loving Ukrainian people,” he said.

“Ukraine must thrive and prosper in the name of those whose blood served to write the history of our country,” he concluded.

Participating in the ceremony together with the president were Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, foreign ambassadors and representatives of the public..



http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/1...or-poroshenko/

(personal note - I had NO idea about this, how horrible!)