Ukrainian Americans helping Ukraine

    According to Tamara Olexy, executive director of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America headquartered in New York City, nearly 200 volunteers have been registered to serve as monitors for the pivotal May 25 election in Ukraine to replace former President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country after massive peaceful demonstrations against his corrupt and anti-European policies and is now hiding out in Russia, and to replace the interim government that was established after the flight of Yanukovych. As of the Monday deadline, the Ukrainian Central Election Commission had registered nearly 2,800 foreign election monitors from several countries, including Canada, U.S. and Poland.

    The election monitors will be expected to report corruption (buying votes was not uncommon during the past elections in Ukraine), ensure that the ballots are secure and watch for harassment at polling sites. Many, if not most, volunteers from the U.S. are Ukrainian Americans committed to assist freedom-loving Ukrainians during this crucial election, while others are advocates for democracy with no ties to Ukraine.

    At least one individual, the son of area residents, will be monitoring the elections. One son of Ukrainian immigrants from Chicago, who was severely injured while participating in the EuroMaidan protests and came home for medical treatment, not only plans to return to his ancestral homeland but he has asked to be stationed in the particularly dangerous Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Forty-nine people have reportedly been killed in Donetsk, some tortured before they were killed by the separatist “heroes” since mid-March. The Ukrainian American community of North Port and vicinity was very generous in raising funds for the humanitarian aid for demonstrators at the Kyiv’s Maidan, for the families of the fallen heroes of the “Heavenly Hundred” (the popular name given all peaceful demonstrators killed by sharpshooters ordered by now indicted former President Yanukovych, although the number is well over 100), and for other causes. The local chapter of “Soyuz Ukrayinok” (union of Ukrainian ladies), Post 40 of the Ukrainian American Veterans, and other clubs and organizations, contributed tens of thousands of dollars either through the main office of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America or through the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee in Philadelphia, Pa. The fundraising continues.                                                                                                                                             • • •


    Over the weekend, the Crimean Tatars and patriotic Ukrainians, defying the ban on assemblies imposed by the occupational rulers of Crimea, commemorated the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars from their ancestral Crimea ordered by Stalin. Tatars were shipped in freight trains to Central Asia, where more than 40 percent died of hunger and disease.

    The Tatar community leader, Mustafa Dzhemilev, who was barred from Crimea after the Russian takeover, took part in the commemoration of the 1944 deportation in Kyiv, which was attended by several hundred people. Similar commemorations took place in other Ukrainian cities.

    Stalin had planned also to deport all Ukrainians, but he was told that “there are too many of them.” He had to settle on selective deportations, which, as it turned out, included my entire family, all families of my aunts and uncles, and more than half of the residents of my native village, Volya Yakubova. Many, including my father and all but one of his brothers, never made it back.

    Atanas Kobryn covers the Ukrainian community for the North Port Sun. He can be emailed at atanask@aol.com.

Our Neighbors — The Ukrainians

by Atanas Kobryn