Stories about Ukraine from February, 2006
Ukraine: Pre-Election Observations
Less than a month before the election, Oleksandr of Messages From Canada assesses Ukraine's major political parties’ presense on the Web and their platforms: he's unsatisfied and bored with what he learns. LEvko at Foreign Notes discusses campaigning styles of the three major parties and predicts an increasing support for...
Ukraine: Faces and Churches of Lviv
Carpetblogger has visited the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and shares photos of local churches of various denominations and of the creatures that look at you from the buildings.
Ukraine: Party of Putin's Politics
Scott W. Clark of Foreign Notes writes about some Ukrainian parties competing in this year's parliamentary race; among them is the Party of Putin's Politics (Neeka's Backlog has more on it) and the Pensioners’ Party.
Ukraine: Self-Immolation Attempt
David McDuff of A Step At A Time has translated a report about a Ukrainian woman's recent self-immolation attempt as a way to protest her Chechen husband's imminent deportation to Russia.
Ukraine: Politics Via Mother-in-Law
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine shares some valuable political commentary from one of his favorite sources: his Ukrainian mother-in-law.
Ukraine: Two Babushkas
Stefan of Dykun continues with his Ukrainian grandmother‘s story: how the languages and dialects Baba Omaha can speak – Ukrainian Poltava and Ukrainian Galician, Polish, Czech, Russian, German and Belarusian – reflect her life experiences. The Ranger of NVASHAG tells of his Ukrainian mother-in-law: Babushka Maria is turning 70 next...
Ukraine: ‘Gangs of Donetsk’
LEvko at Foreign Notes writes about ‘Gangs of Donetsk’ and what appears to be a criminal connection of a major Ukrainian party.
Ukraine: Minor Violence Reported
LEvko of Foreign Notes reports several “worrying violent incidents,” which may or may not be related to the upcoming election: the National State Tax Service Academy in Irpen has been stormed, a journalist in Donetsk attacked, and a news agency office in Lviv gutted.
Turkmenistan, Ukraine: Gas War
Ukraine, faced with threats now from Turkmenistan that it will raise gas prices, is reacting aggressively, reports neweurasia
Ukraine: Yanukovych Having an Easy Campaign
LEvko at Foreign Notes muses on why no one is really giving Victor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions a hard time during this campaign, despite him being an easy target.
Ukraine: Boston Diaspora Church
Greg of Reflections on Ukraine provides a link to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Boston, built in 1954 and serving a Diaspora community whose history goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. The church's calendar has an unlikely feature: an RSS feed.
Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov Book Review
Kevin Kinsella at Languor Management disagrees with Victor Sonkin, a book reviewer who is being too harsh on Andrey Kurkov, a Ukrainian writer whose novels, originally in Russian, have been translated into many languages: “I'd call it ‘pleasantly surreal’ as opposed to Sonkin's ‘without rhyme or reason’ – despite also...
Ukraine: Kyiv on a Saturday Night
Carpetblogger, now in Kyiv (not Baku), describes the feel of the city on a (comparatively) warm Saturday night in February.
Uzbekistan: Ukraine Deportations
Registan.net writes about the deportation from Ukraine of a handful of Uzbeks trying to obtain refugee status and speculates about the possible connection of the decision to Ukraine's need for Central Asian gas.
Ukraine: News Roundup
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine does his regular roundup of Ukraine's main political and economic themes: the gas agreement, privatization issues, campaign news and relationship with Russia.
Ukraine: 10 Uzbek Asylum Seekers Deported
Peter Byrne at Abdymok links to a Ukrainian-language story on ten Uzbek asylum seekers who were deported from Ukraine in violation of international law. He thinks this is “almost as bad as shipping rocket launchers to Burma.” Holly Cartner, director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, believes...
Campaign Ads: Our Ukraine Bloc vs. Party of the Regions
Ukraine, Russia, Europe, the US, Oh My! looks at campaign ads of Ukraine's main political forces: Our Ukraine Bloc and the Party of the Regions. Our Ukraine could've done better, it seems: “…this perverse sense of humor can be seen all over Kyiv in their billboards: “Do Not Betray the...
Yanukovych and Poetry
Oleksandr at Messages From Canada has a post about “proFFessor” Victor Yanukovych talking poetry in Odesa. Very funny. Yanukovych is Ukraine's former prime minister who ran for president in 2004 and was accused of rigging the election, which caused street protests that became known as the Orange Revolution.
Story of a Ukrainian Grandmother: Baba Omaha
Stefan from Dykun tells a story of his grandmother, who was kidnapped and brought to Nazi Germany – like many other Ukrainians – to work at a munitions factory at the age of 17. When the war ended, she didn't return to the Soviet Union but escaped to the United...
Ukrainian Political TV Ads Roundup
Scott W. Clark at Foreign Notes does a roundup of the Ukrainian parties’ TV ads: Regions of Ukraine; Our Ukraine; Viche; Pora. Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc, however, is neglecting the TV campaign, for some reason.
Ukrainian News Roundup
Scott W. Clark does a Ukrainian news roundup at Foreign Notes: the Gongadze murder case proceedings should be open to the public; the Danish cartoons have been reprinted in a Ukrainian paper Segodnya; the Russian navy will not stay in Crimea beyond 2017; and it's cold here, so cold that...