Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

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Pro-Russian insurgents are likely to prevent voting Sunday in half or more of the election districts in the embattled east, Ukrainian officials say.
Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovyi said on Saturday that police are ready to ensure order and security at polling stations in just nine of the 34 districts in the east.

Volodymyr Hrinyak, chief of the public security department at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said 17 out of 34 district election commissions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not operating because their offices have either been seized or blocked by armed men

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine...east-1.2653049

[Natalka]

Sables d'Olonne, a seaside town in western France on the Atlantic, held a rally today on the beach in solidarity with Ukrainians



"Today, on the 24th of May, a regatta "For united Ukraine" is being held at a yacht club in Mykolaiv. The total of 18 teams of yachtsmen are competing for the first place. The yacht club and the boats of participants in the regatta are waving blue and yellow s."

[Natalka]

Special wedding at Maidan today

Maidan activists Liza Shaposnyk and Vitali Popov, who is from Yakutia but has Ukrainian roots, met on the Maidan, Kyiv's Independence Square, last winter, where they both worked tirelessly as volunteers. Liza who has suffered from cerebral palsy since childhood worked in the Maidan kitchen, putting in long hours despite her disability. As a result of her patriotic activities, she was evicted from her flat in Eastern Ukraine. Vitali left his home and came to Kyiv with only his toothbrush and vowed to stay until a happy future is assured for Ukraine. Both are now not only committed to the cause, but also to each other. They wed in Kyiv today.






More information on each of them, and their story

http://euromaidanpr.com/2014/05/23/m...ied-this-week/

Wedding video here - it's awesome!

http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/.../25396957.html

This is my fave pic - as they stand on the rushnyk (ritual embroidered cloth) to take their vows. On the cloth are the words - "Na shchastia" means "to have good luck, good fortune, joy, love - the best of everything in life. Ukrainian words on bottom - "na dolia" means good fate-destiny

[Natalka]

A massive march in Mykolayiv today, where vyshyvanka-clad activists unfolded a huge Ukrainian

[Natalka]

Day of Prayer for Ukraine - from Ruslana's FB page

Ukraine prayed for Peace and Tranquility in various places in the country and all over the world! At least a million people in the world prayed at the same time.

Today, a united prayed for Ukraine, Peace and Tranquility took place in Ukraine in many world languages. The prayer for Ukraine was broadcast for an hour on TV and online on the Internet.
People all over the world organized a flashmob "For Ukraine, Peace and Tranquility" - a united video appeal to the world to show that Ukraine is against war and bloodshed. These words were said in thirty world languages.

Today, in the prayer were united priests of different denominations, people from various countries, churches in different cities of Ukraine and the world. The prayer for Ukraine symbolically united four cardinal directions: North (Chernihiv), South (Mariupol), East (Donetsk), West (the Carpathians) and the center (Kyiv, Kaniv). At the highest point, the prayer took place in the Carpathians at the height of 1600 meters, at the top of mount Khomyak, where thousands of people went to the foot of Virgin Mary. This place was broadcast internationally.

Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, London, Warsaw, Brussels, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Stockholm prayed together with us. These cities were on direct live feed with me during the broadcast from the Carpathians. Now, other continents and countries of the world started their Prayer for Ukraine, Peace and Calm - communities in New York, Curitiba, Montreal, Cleveland, Ottawa, Detroit. Thus, today people pray for Ukraine all over the world the whole day!

We wrote and read a new Prayer for Ukraine, Peace and Calm in different languages of the world - I read it in Ukrainian and a priest from Khmelnytsky - in Latin in the Carpathians.
It was read in Russian in Kharkiv and Donetsk, in English in London.

I and eight united choirs (140 people) in the Carpathians at the united Prayer performed the Anthem of Ukraine, which combined 12 world languages!







For Ukraine, For Peace and Tranquility

[Natalka]

[Natalka]

Saturday (24.05.2014) was a "day of silence" in Ukraine. Campaigning was banned, the mood on the streets in the unseasonably hot sunshine was subdued.

Political leaders gathered at the ornate St. Sophia Cathedral in central Kyiv for a special "prayer for Ukraine" ahead of Sunday's crucial vote.


But it was also Kyiv day - a traditional celebration at the end of May - and many people on the way to the service wore colorful traditional Ukrainian shirts to mark the occasion. Presidential security kept the latecomers out, and those penned in at the entrance vented their frustration in furious political argument.


Amidst the shouting, a group of churchgoers - also shut out of the service - began to sing. Inside, members of the interim government joined together in prayer for the future of their country. This weekend, they know, is a crucial time.


Not just the outcome of Sunday's presidential election, but also how it is held will determine Ukraine's future. In a statement on the Ukrainian government's website, Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk appealed to his people to participate in the vote, saying "the choice we make on Sunday and the responsibility on each of us is even higher."

http://www.dw.de/ukraine-prepares-fo...ote/a-17660308

[Natalka]

Former prime minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko (C), accompanied by her daughter Yevgenia (L) and husband Oleksander (R), casts her vote at a polling station in Dnipropetrovsk.

Ukraine's critical presidential election got underway Sunday under the wary scrutiny of a world eager for stability in a country rocked by a deadly uprising in the east. While there were no immediate reports of fighting, pro-Russia insurgents were trying to block voting by snatching ballot boxes and patrolling polling stations.

There were no immediate signs of clashes on Sunday after weeks of intense battles. But it also appeared little voting was taking place in the east: The regional administration in Donetsk said that only 426 out of 2,430 polling stations in the region were open Sunday, and none in the city of Donetsk, which has 1 million people.

There was no voting in Luhansk, the centre of the neighbouring province, but some stations appeared to be open across the region, according to local officials.


The rebels, who have declared two sprawling regions of Donetsk and Luhansk independent, have pledged not to allow the vote, which they described as an election in "a neighbouring country." They have seized or blocked election offices and intimidated election officials and voters in the regions that have a combined population of 6.6 million.


Ukrainian election officials said they have received as little as 26 per cent of the election registers for the Donetsk region and 16 percent for the Luhansk region. Ukraine's deputy interior minister, Serhiy Yarovyi, said Saturday that police are ready to ensure order and security at polling stations in just nine of the 34 electoral districts in the east.

In the center of Donetsk, a team of insurgents was seen visiting polling stations to make sure they were closed.

Outside the Donetsk regional administration building, which has been occupied by government opponents since early April, a group of masked men drove up carrying confiscated ballot boxes and made a show of smashing them in front of a journalist's camera.


One polling station in the city opened in the morning, but minutes later a group of gunmen arrived and forced the election commission out, its chief, Nadia Melnyk, said on Ukraine's Channel 5.


The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said that in the village of Artemivka, in the Donetsk region, gunmen stormed the building of a village council hosting a polling station and set it ablaze.


Some parts of the Donetsk region remain under greater government control and voting has been taking place in those locations.
In the Azov Sea port of Mariupol, 202 out of 216 polling stations were working, indicating that the situation has been brought under some degree of government control there.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine...east-1.2653513


Photojournalist killed

In the city of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region, which has been one of the main epicenters of fighting in the past weeks, artillery shelling — apparently from government forces — badly damaged a psychiatric hospital late Saturday, shattering its roof and damaging its walls.




An Italian photojournalist, 30-year old Andrea Rocchelli, was killed Saturday near Slovyansk, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Insurgents said Rocchelli died in a mortar shelling by government forces and that his Russian translator also was killed.

Andy contributed to national and international publications such as Newsweek, Le Monde, Kommersant, Foreign Policy, Novaya Gazeta, Panorama and worked with NGOs and associations like Human Rights Watch, Cooperazione Italiana, Cric Senegal and WomenAgainstViolence.

[Natalka]

Line up for voting at the Ukrainian embassy in Prague



Hamburg



Stockholm



Paris



Berlin



Warsaw



Naples



Munich

[Natalka]

Yesterday, election observers Senator Raynell Andreychuk and Hon. Mike Harris pay their respects at the Maidan.





Co-heads of mission, Senator Andreychuk and former Premier Harris, honour Kyiv's Holodomor memorial.

[pertaton]

Yes

[Natalka]

Voting in London



South Korea



New York



Barcelona



Japan



Moscow (brave to go vote there!)

[Natalka]

At the polling station in Podilia, in southwestern Ukraine, today election workers are wearing their embroidered blouses, which are traditionally worn for special occasions and festivals. Given the historic nature of these presidential elections, they are most fittingly attired.



Long lines to vote in Rome



Milan

[Natalka]

Reported in KyivPost

Petro Poroshenko wins Ukraine's presidency in the first round, according to the results of two national exit polls, with approximately 56 percent of the vote.

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But these are just exit poll numbers, will wait to see real results - should be tomorrow.

[Natalka]

Just found the live feed of Maidan, celebrations already starting as people start arriving - hear shouts of "Glory to Ukraine"