· November, 2008

Stories about Ukraine from November, 2008

Ukraine: Ruthenians

  30 November 2008

Some background and a translation of an Izvestiya piece on Ukraine's Ruthenians – at Robert Amsterdam's blog.

Ukraine: Taras Kuzio on Yushchenko

  30 November 2008

Taras Kuzio analyzes “the achievements and failures and unfulfilled expectations of the last four years” in Ukraine – here and here, and also writes that president Yushchenko “had over-focused on the issue [of Holodomor] to the detriment of contemporary political and economic concerns.”

Russia, Ukraine: Party News

  30 November 2008

The Ivanov Report writes about last week's 10th Congress of the ruling United Russia party: “The victors have suddenly realized that as the ‘leading political force of the country’, it's their job to deal with the crisis and face its inevitably negative political and social consequences.” Taras Kuzio reports that...

Ukraine: “orange revolution” vs “Orange Revolution”

  29 November 2008

A note on the difference between “orange revolution” and “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine – at Leopolis: “The former represents the current state of politics: disappointment, disillusionment, distrust, financial crisis, brawls in parliament, corruption, broken promises. There is no reason to celebrate the ‘orange revolution.’ But the latter recalls an amorphous...

Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan: Calling Attention to Tragedy

  29 November 2008

Window on Eurasia writes: “Kyiv’s efforts to call attention to Stalin’s terror famine on the 75th anniversary of that tragedy and especially its moves to gain international recognition of it as a genocide against the Ukrainian people has generated much criticism by Russian officials from President Dmitry Medvedev on down...

Ukraine: Daily Posts on Street Children

  28 November 2008

A whole month of posts and photos featuring street children in Ukraine – at Scenes From the Sidewalk. Some highlights: a photo report on a visit to a Ukrainian jail; photos of Ukrainian street kids from six years ago – here and here; the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures from the...

Ukraine: 75th Anniversary of Holodomor

  27 November 2008

Taras of Ukrainiana posts photos and video from the commemoration of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Holodomor – here, here, and here. Tetyana Vysotska of What's Up, Ukraine? explains why she chose not to take part in any of the official commemoration events: “We, Ukrainians, have respect for...

Russia-Ukraine: Denying the Great Famine

  25 November 2008

Finrosforum accounts for President Medvedev's view of Holodomor – the great famine in Ukraine 1932-33 – accusing those who speak about the “so-called Holodomor” of creating a rift between the two Slavic nations.

Ukraine: Harm Reduction and Law Enforcement, Part 2

  18 November 2008

Last month, Ukrainian blogger mazay wrote about his attempt to educate a group of Kyiv police officers on harm reduction programs. Although many in the audience did not seem as interested in this not-yet-popular approach to dealing with drug addiction as they were in obtaining free condoms from the activists, judging from this follow-up post by mazay, the talk did after all bear some positive fruit.

Ukraine: Harm Reduction and Law Enforcement

  6 November 2008

Harm reduction initiatives are gradually taking root in Ukraine, a country with one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in Europe (e.g., the first methadone substitution therapy programs, still illegal in Russia, were introduced in Ukraine in 2004). But having the government's approval for such programs is not enough for them to succeed: for one thing, general public and law enforcement officials should be aware of the situation and of the efforts to change it for the better. Ukrainian blogger mazay writes about a recent attempt to educate a group of Kyiv police officers.