Swedish EU Presidency - EU-Ukraine Summit in Kiev

On Friday, 4 December Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt will travel to Kiev to chair the EU-Ukraine summit.

The EU will also be represented by Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso. The Ukrainian delegation will be led by President Viktor Jusjtjenko.

The summit will address broad relations and cooperation between the EU and Ukraine. Particular importance will be given to the issues of climate change, energy and the management of the economic and financial crisis. In addition, the EU’s Eastern Partnership and current international issues will be discussed.

Meetings are also planned with Prime Minister Julia Tymosjenko and leader of the opposition Viktor Janukovytj.

Source:isria.com

Ukrainian genocide will be commemorated in Quebec

QUEBEC - Members of the Quebec provincial legislature voted unanimously to approve on first reading a bill to commemorate the Ukrainian genocide in the 1930s, when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin withheld food from Ukraine, leading to millions of deaths.

The bill was presented by Parti Quebecois member Louise Beaudoin.

Once the bill receives final approval, the fourth Saturday in November will be designated to commemorate the Ukrainian genocide, known as the Holodomor.

If passed, Quebec will be the fourth province to mark the genocide. Alberta passed similar legislation in October 2008.

Also, in May 2008, the Harper government said it would recognize the Holodomor as genocide.

The genocide, in 1932 and 1933, was Stalin's attempt to subdue the Ukrainian people by systematically starving them and restricting travel beyond their villages. The exact number of victims remains unclear.

Montreal Gazette with files from Canwest News Service

Source:canada.com

EU turns away from Ukraine

EU officials are casting a wary eye at Ukraine as it prepares for watershed presidential elections in January that look likely to spark a lurch back towards the Russian sphere five years after the former Soviet republic was supposedly set free by the "Orange Revolution". The cautious approach in Brussels is again raising questions about the EU's apparent lack of a strategic vision – and political courage – in its dealing with its eastern neighbours.

Fierce rivalry between President Viktor Yushchenko, who is standing for re-election, and his prime minister and principal opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, is feeding worries about the recession-ravaged country's political and economic stability. Yushchenko's decision this month to approve a 20% increase in wages and pensions, characterised by critics as a crude pre-election bribe, led the IMF to freeze the fourth instalment of a $16.4bn bailout package. That in turn increased credit market fears of a sovereign default.

Tymoshenko, a famously combative millionaire currently leading in the polls, accused the president of deliberately sabotaging the IMF agreement to starve her government of cash and undermine her presidential bid. But she in turn has been accused of sucking up to the Russians, in the shape of the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who as Russia's then president opposed the Orange Revolution and is an inveterate Yushchenko foe.

After late-night talks with Tymoshenko in the Crimean resort of Yalta last week, Putin said he had agreed to waive various penalties and amend Russia's natural gas supply contract with Ukraine to avoid a repeat of last January's dispute, which led to serious gas shortages in eastern and central Europe.

"It would be very good to meet the new year without any shocks," Putin said, adding that transit fees next year would rise by 60% – a change potentially worth billions of dollars to Ukraine. Tymoshenko's response was unctuous. "You, as a strong country, are meeting us halfway," she said. The deal was seen as both a none-too-subtle attempt to show that she, unlike Yushchenko, could do business with Moscow, and as blatant electoral interference by Putin.

Ukraine's shenanigans have even led football's ruling body, Uefa, to seek assurances that preparations and financing for the Euro 2012 championship, to be hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine, will not be affected by the elections. Uefa is also worried that visa-free travel arrangements with the EU have yet to be agreed.

All this is watched with trepidation in Brussels, where José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, recently telephoned Yushchenko to reportedly express concern over the way the IMF bailout and Europe's gas supplies have become political footballs. According to euobserver.com, commission plans to offer €500m in economic aid are under review "because of Kiev's unwillingness to curb public spending or to clean up waste and corruption at its national gas company, Naftogaz". About 80% of EU natural gas supplies from Russia transit Ukraine.

Such is the animosity between the rival camps that EU officials fret that the election, which is also contested by the pro-Russian former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, could end in stalemate and possibly violent recriminations, as happened in 2004 when Yanukovich was initially declared the winner and then unseated.

These strains and stresses lend an air of crisis to the EU-Ukraine summit on 4 December, which is shaping up as the first big test for the untried diplomatic skills of the EU's new foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton. Officials say the EU aims to give Ukraine a "stern warning" that substantive political and financial reform is a prerequisite for progress on issues such as visas and future association and trade agreements.

But full EU membership, on which Yushchenko set his heart, is now a receding prospect. Impatience with Ukraine across the EU is growing, with France and Germany, for example, delaying its accession to the EU's energy community treaty. More significantly, last year's Russian invasion of Georgia, and Moscow's accompanying claims of Ukrainian support for Tbilisi, have driven home the message in Brussels that forging closer, structural ties with Ukraine could have severe, negative consequences for EU-Russian relations.

Given the much reduced appetite for further EU enlargement, it seems certain that the high watermark of EU-Ukraine ties has already passed. It's no consolation for Yushchenko that much the same applies to Georgia, Belarus and Turkey. And for many in Europe who hoped for better, braver things along the EU's post-Soviet eastern frontier, it's galling to conclude that, in a sense, Putin has won.


Source:guardian.co.uk

Ukraine demands progress on visa issue at summit

Ukraine says it will seek to "speed up" dialogue with the EU on various issues at a summit between the two sides next month.

Spefically, Kiev says it will demand progress on the issue of visa liberalisation at the meeting on 4 December.

Despite problems on this, a spokesman for the country's EU mission said, "The summit will nevertheless prove Ukraine and the EU are steadily moving forward towards each other."

"At the same time, we expect to speed up Ukraine-EU dialogue in spring next year, after both Ukraine and the EU have completed their institutional changes.

With the threat of disrution of gas supplies to European countries once again a possibility, energy security will be another item for discussion at the summit in Kiev.

During last year the negotiations between Ukraine and the EU on the association agreement have "considerably advanced."

The source said, "Sectoral cooperation chapter is almost finished. The sides are now focused on negotiating the free trade area which is to become a unique and ambitious FTA in terms of scope and depth of the liberalization of trade in goods and services, as well as adaptation of the EU acquis.

"The top priority for Ukraine remains further visa liberalisation for Ukrainian citizens to travel to the EU.

"We hope the summit will make its contribution to further extension of the categories of Ukrainian citizens eligible to get facilitated visas.

"We also hope the leaders will give an impetus to elaborate methodology and set up clear-cut criteria needed to be achieved by Ukraine in order to get a visa free regime in the future."

He added, "Global challenges like climate change, energy security, prevention and repression of acts of piracy will also be discussed at the summit.

"Ukraine is getting ready to commit itself to further reduction of carbon emission and to cooperate with the EU on the environmental issues by establishing in the future the regional environmental centre in Ukraine."

When it comes to energy security, he said Ukraine aspires to join the energy community treaty this year and "counts on the EU support in this regard."

He went on, "Being one of the countries whose nationals continue to be often victims of pirate hijack attacks off the Somali coast, Ukraine has voiced its readiness to make a contribution to EU NAFVOR Somalia.

He said Ukraine planned to send 30 special mission unit agents to participate in the EU-led operation.


Source:theparliament.com

Swine flu pandemic peaks in Ukraine

After three weeks of panic, pandemonium and politics, the initial swine flu pandemic in Ukraine has peaked.

Today the government is expected to end a nationwide ban on public gatherings, lift travel restrictions and order the reopening of parliament, schools and universities in all but 11 regions.

But the country, with its anemic health-care system, is still reeling from having 1.6 million people fall sick with the flu, resulting in the hospitalization of 97,000 people and the deaths of 388 in three weeks.

At the height of the frenzy, tens of thousands were becoming ill each day, dozens were dying and the Ukraine navy said it could not carry out combat duty because of a lack of manpower.

The National Security & Defence Council said there were constitutional prerequisites to declare a state of emergency and politicians briefly talked of postponing presidential elections, scheduled for Jan. 17.

A rising death toll added fear to the emotions rattling Ukraine as it ran out of essential medicines and supplies.

Pharmacies looked like Soviet-era shops with long lines of customers queuing for nonexistent surgical masks and cold medicines. The Health Ministry's stock of Tamiflu, an anti-viral designed to slow the spread of influenza, was used up in days and people began to hoard lemons and garlic for homemade cures.

Ukraine's fragile health system was soon paralyzed and rumours proliferated that people were dying of a new, more lethal strain of influenza virus.

As the World Health Organization rushed a nine-member outbreak assessment team to Ukraine in early November, politicians rounded on each other, predicting mass illness and death.

President Viktor Yushchenko declared his country had been hit simultaneously by two seasonal flus and the "California" (swine) flu, and blamed his political arch-rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for failing to prepare for the outbreak.

Ms. Tymoshenko, who is running for president, provided daily television updates on the pandemic and appeared in public swathed in hospital gowns and wearing a surgical mask. She criticized her rivals for hindering her efforts to end the pandemic.

When parliament voted to spend US$125-million to fight the flu, Mr. Yushchenko refused to authorize it, saying it would fuel inflation. Instead, he launched his own appeal for foreign aid.

Not to be outdone, presidential frontrunner Viktor Yanukovich, a former prime minister and leader of the Regions' Party, pledged to use election campaign donations to buy flu medicine and 20 million surgical masks.

"Ukrainian politicians, including the two main presidential candidates, do not really care about the fate of their people," columnist Kateryna Grushenko wrote in the Kyiv Post. "They allowed themselves to turn the H1N1 epidemic into a PR show during days when educational, medical, and society-oriented coverage should have been provided to the population."

As the pandemic entrenched itself, straining hospitals and emergency rooms to the breaking point, Ukraine's panic grew. With no authoritative explanation for what was happening, bloggers and conspiracy theorists suggested the country was in the grip of a mysterious, more lethal virus.

The government and WHO were deliberately playing down the pandemic's death toll, some suggested.

When Norwegian scientists announced they had found a mutated form of the swine flu virus that could infect deeper into the airways and cause more severe disease, Ukraine's news media began reporting that doctors conducting postmortems on some patients had found their lungs had virtually disintegrated.

The WHO tried to temper the sensational reports saying "viruses with similar mutations had been detected in several other countries, including Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States."

"No links between the small numbers of patients infected with the mutated virus have been found and the mutation does not appear to spread," it added.

By last week, the WHO said its preliminary analysis of Ukraine's pandemic showed "the virus is very similar to other strains causing the current influenza A(H1N1) pandemic elsewhere in Europe."

This virus is the main cause of Ukraine's problems and current pandemic vaccines will provide protection, it added.

Only Ukraine doesn't have any vaccine. Short of cash and hoping to combat any pandemic with Tamiflu, it did not order vaccine.

Now, it is appealing to foreign countries, including Canada, for vaccine donationsy.

The United States has already volunteered to deliver one million vaccine doses in December.

But the WHO is recommending 10% of Ukraine's 46 million people be inoculated by January.




Source:nationalpost.com

Russia’s Central MSD Working to Recover Influence over Muslims in Ukraine

In much the same way that the Moscow Patriarchate is working to maintain its control of more than 12,000 Orthodox parishes in Ukraine, the Central Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) in Ufa is seeking “the restoration of a common spiritual space” with the Muslim communities in Ukraine.

Rinat Aysin, recently appointed as the representative of the Central MSD in Ukraine, told Bashinform.ru this week that UFA continues to play a major role in Ukraine because “a large proportion of the Muslims” in that country remain to this day “supporters of the Central MSD of Russia” (bashinform.ru/news/228315/).

He said that the Central MSD has already developed “a number of educational programs” for Ukraine’s Muslims and that representatives of the Ufa organization “will travel to Ukraine for the preparation” of Muslim leader there and “in parallel with this will organize courses for spiritual pastors from Ukraine in Ufa and in Moscow.”

Doing this, Aysin said, is part of his “civic and religious responsibility” because “after the disintegration of the Soviet Union was lost a large part of the cultural ties which united the residents of our countries. And these connections today must be re-established throughout the entire post-Soviet space.”

While Aysin did not say more, there are at least three reasons for the announcement of this program now. First, Moscow has been playing up concerns about Islamic radicalism in Crimea in order to set the stage for a possible Russian intervention there, and Ufa clearly wants to be ready for that (risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;32568/).

Indeed, in an interview Aysin’s boss, longtime Central MSD head Talgat Tajuddin gave to the Bashkortostan edition of “Argumenty i fakty” this week, the mufti, who is one of the last Muslim leaders in Russia appointed in Soviet times, said there would be no extremism in Islam if there were the Muslim equivalent of pope or patriarch (ufa.aif.ru/issues/779/3_1).

“If there were four spiritual directorates in the Soviet Union,” Tajuddin said, “there are now more than 60 [in Russia alone]. Let there be even 600, but one must be the main one. Only one. And then the problems of extremism, terrorism and all other filth will be resolved within the Muslim umma.”

Second, Tajuddin, who has styled himself as the Supreme Mufti of Holy Rus, very much wants to be at least primus inter pares among the Muslim leaders of Russia and of the post-Soviet space, a position that his own sometimes extravagant comments and actions would appear to have put beyond is reach.

Now, at meetings timed to correspond with the 220th anniversary of the formation of the Orenburg Spiritual Assembly, the predecessor of the Central MSD, Tajuddin has been stressing the notion that Ufa is “the Mecca” for Muslims in the former Soviet republics and that its leader should be deferred to as the most senior (bashinform.ru/news/227940/).

And third, Tajuddin, more than any other Muslim leader in the Russian Federation, has routinely followed the course set out by the Moscow Patriarchate. In fact, some of his opponents have called him “the Muslim Patriarch” because he wants to establish such tight control. Now that Kirill is pursuing an active policy in Ukraine, Tajuddin is not surprisingly following suit.

Ukraine’s Muslim community is much smaller than the Orthodox one. It includes nearly 400 parishes, nearly that many mullahs and imams, and five MSDs, all set up after 1991. The most important of these is the MSD of Crimea, which supervises almost three-quarters of all registered Muslim communities in Ukraine (risu.org.ua/eng/major.religions/muslims/).

Among the other MSDs in that country are the Spiritual Direction of Muslims of Ukraine, which is explicitly multi-ethnic and consists primarily of migrant labor communities from Central Asia and the Caucasus, and the Spiritual Center of the Muslim Communities of Ukraine, which is made up of Tatars living outside of Crimea.

Because these groups are small and seldom get much attention from Kyiv, it is quite possible that the Russian MSD leaders in Ufa will have more success in spreading their influence among the faithful in Ukraine than even Kirill has had in holding the Orthodox of Ukraine within the orbit of the Moscow Patriarchate.

If that proves to be the case, Tajuddin and the Central MSD may be the big winners not only in their campaign for state-backed primacy within the very much divided Muslim community of the Russian Federation but also in their efforts to recover their influence not only in Ukraine but elsewhere in the post-Soviet states as well.


Source:georgiandaily.com

EU-Ukraine summit to mark new chapter in relations

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU aims to give Ukraine a stern warning about financial and political reform at an upcoming summit, as the two sides head into a new, more pragmatic chapter in bilateral relations.

In an anecdote told by one EU official, a close ally of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, Oleh Rybachuk, visited Brussels shortly after the Orange Revolution in November 2004. Following a marathon of meetings in various formats in the EU institutions, Mr Rybachuk's frustration came to a head. "He just said 'Look, who do I have to talk to round here to get Ukraine into the European Union?'" the EU official recalled.

Five years down the line, the EU has a new "foreign minister" who is preparing to attend the summit in Kiev on 4 December.

But the event is likely to be the last of its kind for the Orange Revolution hero, Mr Yushchenko, who trails badly in polls ahead of presidential elections in January.

The question of EU accession remains firmly off the agenda despite romantic ideas among some Ukrainian diplomats that the country should submit a formal application for membership next year.

The EU is equally unwilling to open up borders with its eastern neighbour: At a meeting of foreign ministers last week, only Lithuania, Estonia and Slovakia backed a plan to offer Ukraine a "roadmap" for visa-free travel in the next few years.

Even Poland, traditionally Ukraine's biggest friend in Brussels, has become fed up with its internal instability and confrontational negotiating tactics.

If Ukraine embroils the EU in a fresh gas crisis with Russia in January, as feared, or fails to hold normal presidential elections, relations will deteriorate further.

The EU is keen to keep making progress on a technical Association Agreement and to help Ukraine cope with its recession.

But European Commission plans to offer €500 million in economic aid are under review because of Kiev's unwillingness to curb public spending or to clean up waste and corruption at its national gas company, Naftogaz.

Limited objectives

In this context, the union's main objective at the summit will be to "send clear messages on the need for determined and decisive action on reform," according to an internal EU paper. The union does not expect a quick reaction. "What kind of commitment can we ask from the Ukrainians in this regard even before the elections?" the internal paper said.

Ukraine's likely next president and current prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, stands accused of cultivating an authoritarian style reminiscent of the country's pre-Orange Revolution leader, Leonid Kuchma.

She is also building closer relations with Moscow: Her recent gas deals with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could help Russia to gain control of Naftogaz' pipeline network. Nobody expects her to follow Mr Yushchenko's plan to evict the Russian navy from Crimea in 2017 or to steer Ukraine toward Nato.

The EU's lack of ambition to anchor Ukraine to the West is criticised by some.

"There is a lack of strategic political thinking in the EU as far as Ukraine is concerned," Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Konstantin Yeliseyev, said on a visit to Brussels last week. "I hope the current bad weather with regard to our European aspirations does not lead to a permanent ice age."

Pragmatism sets in

But the passing of the heady days of colour revolutions is being increasingly welcomed inside the EU.

A senior diplomat from one former Communist EU country told EUobserver that Ukraine is likely to act as a model for EU relations with other post-Soviet states. The contact envisaged that in the coming years the union will roll out trade and visa deals with Belarus, Moldova and Georgia. But it will not push for a democratic government in Minsk or for Chisinau and Tbilisi to regain control of Russian-held regions.

"Under Tymoshenko Ukraine will be more Kuchma-like. But she is a rational person. Ukraine will be more stable and more predictable if she is in charge," the EU diplomat said.

Source:euobserver.com

World Cup Qualifier betting – Ukraine vs Greece

Greece travel to Ukraine tonight in the final stage of qualification for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. This match is the second leg of the play-off for a place in the finals after the first leg in Athens was drawn 0-0. Greece have been poor away recently, failing to win in visits to Switzerland and Moldova, while Ukraine have been excellent at home, winning four in a row including a 1-0 win over third-favourites England.

The hosts are favourites for the game at 17/20 (bet $200 to win $170 profit), leaving Greece as underdogs at 4/1. Another draw is priced at 5/2. The first leg was dominated by Ukraine, who did most of the attacking, and with home advantage and Greece’s poor away form it is easy to see why the home side are odds-on.

A 1-0 win for Ukraine is the favourite result for tonight’s game, priced at 5/1, just ahead of a 1-1 draw, which would see Greece through on away goals, at 6/1. Next most likely is 0-0 at 13/2 and a 2-0 home win is 7/1. 1-0 to the visitors is at 10/1 and would see celebrations throughout Greece, who won the 2004 European Championships.

Former AC Milan and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko is favourite to open the scoring tonight at 11/2, ahead of team-mates Milevskiy and Seleznyov, both at 13/2. Greece’s best hope to score the first goal of the match is Theofanis Gekas of Bayer Leverkusen at 9/1.

Unkraine are 11/5 to be winning at both half-time and full-time and 7/2 to win the match after drawing at half-time. Both halves to end in a draw is priced at 4/1 and Greece are 17/2 to be leading at the interval and the final whistle. Draw/Greece is 11/1 and Greece/Ukraine is priced at 33/1.

Neither team is seen by the bookmakers as having a realistic chance of winning the World Cup next year but Ukraine are seen as slightly more likely than Greece at 150/1 to their opponents’ 200/1.

Source:liveoddsandscores.com

Ukraine famine diaries on show

The 1930s diaries of a Welsh investigative reporter who exposed Stalin's "terror famine" in Soviet Ukraine are to go on public display for the first time.

Gareth Jones, who was an aide to David Lloyd George, risked his life to travel into Ukraine via Moscow to verify the reports of a famine.

The Holodomor saw millions of Ukrainians starve to death as a result of economic and trade policies instituted by Stalin.

Mr Jones' diaries cover the period from 1932-33.

Despite his stories appearing in newspapers across the western world, revealing the plight of Ukrainian peasants starving to death, he was discredited by other journalists and banned from the USSR.

But his grand-nephew, Nigel Linsan Colley, said Mr Jones had believed in exposing the truth of what was happening to the Ukrainian people.

Two years later, while working in China, Mr Jones was murdered. He was 29.

His diaries had remained largely forgotten in the house of his older sister and were not uncovered until she died in the 1990s.

Mr Jones' diaries are now on display in Trinity College, Cambridge.

Source:bbc.co.uk

Panic in Ukraine over swine flu

Officials in Ukraine have closed schools for three weeks, imposed travel restrictions and are limiting public events as the country battles to stop the spread of swine flu.

More than 60 people are believed to have died of respiratory problems in the past week, and the measures are among the toughest to be implemented in Europe to tackle the virus.

It's still not clear whether all the deaths were caused by swine flu, but the news has sparked panic, and people have started wearing masks across the country.

Appeal for calm

The Ukrainian health minister Vasyl Knyazevych has asked the media only to report the comments of medical experts following a series of misleading reports which fuelled public anxiety.

On national television, he said Ukraine had the same problems as the rest of the world.

He also called on fellow politicians to give people 'a week of silence,' and said there was no need for panic.

However, his calls may already be too late.

255,000 cases of flu and acute respiratory problems have been registered among the 46m population. 15,000 have been hospitalised.

The World Health Organisation says there is no evidence to suggest that Ukraine had a bad outbreak of swine flu, but it has agreed to send a team there to help the country cope.

President Viktor Yushchenko has also appealed for international help.

Government response

The government has faced growing criticism of its handling of the outbreak.

Some opposition politicians have been particularly critical of the health minister who they not only want to be sacked, but jailed.

Opposition politicians from the Party of the Regions say the first reported cases were at the beginning of October, but by middle of the month there had already been confirmed deaths.

They say the authorities should have provided accurate information about the outbreak so that Ukrainians could seek appropriate medical help.


Instead, the opposition says, many people have resorted to self-treatment.

Experts say Ukraine was unprepared for the swine flu outbreak, and the hunt for political scapegoats is likely to continue.

The opposition leader, Viktor Yanukovych, has called on parliament to scrutinise the government's actions.

Investigation calls

The influential National Security and Defence Council has called on the judiciary to investigate why Ukraine was unable to prevent the outbreak.

President Viktor Yushchenko has even asked the country's security service to look at whether pharmacies are guilty of price-fixing anti-flu medications.



The world has given us the financial crisis and now this horrible flu

Yulia Tymoshenko
Ukrainian Prime Minister
Critics have also rounded on Ukrainian television channels which they say have wall-to-wall coverage of Ukraine's leading politicians, but not leading medical specialists.

This, they say, is exacerbating public concern rather than allaying popular fears.

Some analysts say swine flu is being used by the President and his arch rival the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to score political points ahead of presidential elections in January.

Supporters of Prime Minister Tymoshenko, who remains at bitter loggerheads with the President, say he is trying to blame her government for the situation.

Playing politics

Aware of the electoral sensitivities, she assured the Ukrainian public that she stood with them, and took "every responsibility for the government's handling of swine flu on herself."

"The world has given us not one, but two great trials - first, the financial crisis and now this horrible flu."

Ukraine's leading political analysts say the handling of swine flu has become one of the key electoral issues.

According to them, rival candidates are seeking to take the initiative in battling the spread of the virus.


"The swine flu outbreak has overshadowed all the other negative campaigning we were seeing, especially around Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko," says Vitaly Kulyk, a political scientist at Kiev's Centre for Civil Society.

"The main players are using the flu in their propaganda war," he adds.

Appeals for help

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, whose party is backed by Ukraine's most powerful oligarch, has called on Ukrainians to donate to a special fund which was set up by his party.

He said he wanted to hold a TV marathon to raise funds to fight the epidemic.

The first aircraft to arrive in Ukraine from Switzerland carrying emergency medical supplies, was met by the country's leadership.

They demonstrated how to put face masks on in front of cameras.

Many Ukrainians however, are asking why their government did not act sooner.

It was evident in May or June that swine flu was spreading around the world, they say, yet Ukraine failed to stockpile sufficient supplies of medication.

Only now, when Ukraine faces an epidemic of swine flu, has the government started to act.

Source:bbc.co.uk

Ukraine crisis will be first test for Lady Ashton

Europe and Russia are embroiled in an escalating contest over Ukraine ‑ its direction, its stability, and its alliances. Diplomats, analysts, and EU officials are warning that the situation could worsen sharply within weeks, in an early test of Catherine Ashton's crisis management skills.

The new EU foreign policy chief will hardly have had time to get her feet under her desk on 1 December, when Ukraine dominates her computer screen. An EU-Ukraine summit three days later will mark her international debut as foreign policy high representative. Ashton's predecessor, Javier Solana of Spain, is known to be extremely "frustrated" with the worsening political, economic and security crisis in Ukraine. A fresh bout of the perennial gas war between Ukraine and Russia may break out after the new year, affecting Ukraine's bitter presidential election later in January.

Then there is Iran, Afghanistan, relations with the US, bureaucratic infighting in Brussels, non-stop travel, overseeing and fronting a new global EU diplomatic service, chairing monthly meetings of European foreign ministers as well as performing the functions of a vice-president of the European commission.

"This is an excruciating job," said the EU official who noted that Solana spent two thirds of his time travelling. Ashton's job is much more arduous since its powers and responsibilities are expanded and it combines being a de facto foreign minister with also being a commission vice-president.

The other international emergency that will test Ashton's mettle quickly is likely to be Iran. For most of the last six years, Solana and the senior EU policy strategist, Robert Cooper, have been dealing with the Iranians on behalf of Britain, France, Germany, and tacitly the Americans. It is not clear, however, whether Ashton will retain that pivotal role. "I'd be surprised if she does. There is no automaticity," said a Brussels diplomat.

"That will be a test of her authority," said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. "If she loses the role on Iran that will be a setback."

Inside the Brussels beltway, turf battles are already being waged between competing parts of the European bureaucracy over how to organise, staff, and control the so-called external action service, Europe's fledgling global diplomatic arm. "Ashton needs to be the engine and the figurehead for that service," said the diplomat. "It will be a brutal start," said Leonard.


Source:guardian.co.uk

Swine Flu Fears Grip Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine introduced some of the strictest measures in the world on Friday to combat swine flu after a spate of deaths in the west of the country.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko imposed travel restrictions, banned public gatherings and closed schools and universities for three weeks after the health ministry declared an epidemic of the H1N1 virus.

The ministry released figures Sunday showing 53 people had died from flu and respiratory infections, although it was unclear how many of these were caused by the H1N1 virus.

The authorities called for calm as panic and rumors spread. In the capital Kiev, long queues formed at pharmacies on Friday, many of which ran out of medication and face masks. Many put the frenzied reaction down to people's lack of trust in the authorities.

"Everyone believes that they have to look after themselves as they cannot rely on the state," said Tetyana Barvitska, who was queuing at a pharmacy in downtown Kiev having already tried five others.

The ban on large gatherings will bring a halt to campaign rallies ahead of a contentious presidential election scheduled for Jan. 17.

The flu outbreak has already become a political football, with both president and prime minister issuing a number of orders to combat the outbreak by making masks and medication available. Mr. Yushchenko said he would like to see "more consistent steps from the government," and Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the opposition and a frontrunner for the ballot, called for the health minister to be dismissed.

A team from the World Health Organization is set arrive in Ukraine on Monday to assist

Source:wsj.com

Ukraine flu response 'over the top': expert

Countries like Ukraine have gone too far in responding to the H1N1 pandemic, a European flu specialist said Friday.

Ukraine has reported 95 deaths from acute respiratory illness, but the strain has not been confirmed as H1N1.

In most people, H1N1 infection results in mild illness.

"The mildness is good in some ways, but it has also given the disease control people some problems," said Angus Nicoll, influenza co-ordinator at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

"Then you get a Ukraine thing, where some countries have suddenly been ambushed by the pandemic and have gone over the top in their response," he added in a briefing with reporters in Stockholm.

On Monday, the Ukrainian government closed schools, shut down parliament for a week and banned public gatherings including election rallies, and restricted travel after confirming its first H1N1 death.

Nicoll said the country is likely six weeks into its outbreak, but it wasn't officially noticed until young people started getting ill and going to hospital.

"It is clear that the pandemic [H1N1] 2009 has established itself in Ukraine and it is likely that the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine is mainly related to the pandemic," the European Centre for Disease Control said in an update Friday, adding that other causes for clusters of respiratory illness cannot be ruled out.

Analysts have suggested that rival Ukrainian leaders may be trying to exploit fears of the outbreak ahead of the country's presidential election on Jan. 17.

Nichol called it a "very complicated political situation," and commended the Ukrainian government for "sensible" measures such as reinforcing hygiene, importing antivirals and closing schools.

In response to an urgent plea from the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Canada Ukraine Foundation called for donations of medical supplies such as antibiotics, sanitizers, masks, syringes, ventilators and basic medical products to assist sick and critically ill Ukrainians.

Intense flu spread in North America
In its weekly pandemic update, the World Health Organization said Friday that H1N1 is on the rise in China and Japan.

The virus triggered an unusually early start to flu season in Europe, Central Asia and North America. Since the spring, at least 6,071 people worldwide have died as a result of H1N1, the UN health agency said.

"Intense and persistent influenza transmission continues to be reported in North America without evidence of a peak in activity," the WHO said in its latest update. "In China, after an earlier wave of mixed influenza activity [seasonal H3N2 and pandemic H1N1], pandemic H1N1 influenza activity now predominates and is increasing."

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that swine flu is widespread in 48 states.

Since the virus was first identified in April, 129 children in the U.S. have died of complications from H1N1.

Most people infected suffered mild illness. The total number of deaths in the U.S. is estimated to be above 1,000.

On Friday, the Public Health Agency of Canada also reported a "considerable increase" in flu activity last week, with over 700 influenza outbreaks reported in almost all provinces and territories, mostly in schools. Of the specimens tested, 99.7 per cent were positive for the pandemic H1N1 2009 strain.

U.S. vaccine lineups
About a third of American adults who have tried to get a H1N1 vaccine have been able to get it, including those with underlying medical conditions, according to a national poll by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Vaccines against H1N1 have been available in the U.S. for about one month. Health officials have focused on inoculating those at high risk of complications as manufacturing delays have hampered vaccine supplies.

The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted last weekend and the results were released Friday. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Separately, WHO noted some pigs, turkeys and pets have been infected with H1N1 but the virus does not appear to be spreading quickly among animals.

The virus has been detected in some mink farms in Denmark. It seems to have infected the animals and not farm workers.

The Geneva-based UN health agency recommends monitoring farm workers for signs of respiratory illness, given that "the potential exists for novel influenza viruses to be generated in animals other than swine."

Source:cbc.ca

Diplomat: Ukraine, Georgia Not Viewed as EU Candidates

Even though further enlargement of the EU is not ruled out, Ukraine and Georgia are not seen currently as potential EU membership candidates.

This has been stated by Fernando Valenzuela, head of the European Commission Delegation to Moscow, as cited by ITAR-TASS.

According to Valenzuela, the EU needs time to adjust to its last enlargement, i.e. the accession of 12 Eastern Europe states in 2004 and 2007, including Bulgaria and Romania.

He did remind, however, that there are countries which have been promised EU membership and those are the states in the Western Balkans. He also said Turkey was a different case as it is a country which was already negotiating.

Valenzuela has predicted that the introduction of visa-free travel between the EU and Russia still had a long way to go.

Source:novinite.com

ASUS Ukraine 2009: Summary

With the ASUS Autumn 2009 Cup kickoff just around the corner, the Ukraine national qualifiers has concluded with KerchNET, DTS.Chatrix and Hellraisers receiving invites to the event.

The qualifiers took place in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where the three top teams: KerchNET, DTS.Chatrix and Hellraisers grabbed a paid travel package for Asus Autumn 2009 in Moscow in the coming months. The qualifier finished was cut short however with both KerchNET and DTS.Chatrix not bothering to fight it out for 1st place, with a guaranteed place in the upcoming event.

Hellraisers in particular showed grate promise throughout the qualifier, placing 3rd after a huge roster change prior to the event.

ASUS Autumn 2009 Qualifiers:

KerchNET / DTS.Chatrix
KerchNET / DTS.Chatrix
HellRaisers

Source:mymym.com

Ukrainian, Austrian foreign ministers discuss preparations to Ukraine-EU summit

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko and Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs Michael Spindelegger have discussed the preparations to the Ukraine-EU summit, the Ukrainian foreign minister's press service has reported.

The two ministers met during Poroshenko's working visit to Vienna. During the meeting Poroshenko and Spindelegger discussed preparations for the Ukraine-EU summit, regional cooperation issues and visa issues.

Austria is ready to support Ukraine's proposals to extend the categories of people entitled to receiving free visas, Spindelegger said.

In addition, the two ministers agreed to step up the dialog with EU institutions concerning the introduction of visa-free travel for Ukrainians provided that the two countries' interior ministries and border services take coordinated measures to prevent illegal migration of citizens from third countries.

The Austrian foreign minister suggested Ukraine should extend its participation in the European Development Strategy for the Danube Space through involving the country's representatives in the development of joint economic, cultural and humanitarian programs of cooperation in the region.

"Austria has confirmed its readiness to provide the necessary financial support for these programs," the statement reads.

Poroshenko, in turn, thanked the Austrian minister for a speedy response to Ukraine's request for humanitarian aid to help overcome the flu epidemic in Ukraine

Source:interfax.com.ua

UAE may buy An-148 planes from Ukraine - Yuschenko

Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached a preliminary agreement on selling Antonov An-148 aircraft to the UAE, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has said.

"We are approaching a potential agreement on An-148 purchases," Yuschenko told journalists before flying to Kyiv from Abu Dhabi.

Yuschenko said that, while the negotiations are formally continuing, he was sure they will be successful.

Space exploration cooperation was given priority in the negotiations, Yuschenko said. "This is a special area of cooperation, which is among the promising ones," Yuschenko said.

A delegation from the Ukrainian National Space Agency is to travel to the UAE from Ukraine within the next two weeks, and UAE negotiators will be able to discuss joint projects at Ukrainian enterprises during this visit, Yuschenko said.

Source:interfax.com.ua

What's really happening with bio-weapon "flu" in the Ukraine: report from Project Camelot

Among hundreds of reporters, I’ve documented that corporate “mainstream” media constantly lies to you with our most important topics of life and death in wars and trillions of our dollars with the confessions of our own government of infiltrating media to intentionally deceive Americans. These facts are objective and independently verifiable for all who choose to see.

For those with the intellectual integrity and moral courage to embrace the evidence and look beyond the oligarchy’s propaganda, Project Camelot is one of my best sources of inside information in the challenge to get to what’s really happening. Regarding flu vaccines (and here, here) and evidence that this flu is a bio-weapon (and here), I urge you to read Bill Ryan’s report, then listen to at least the first part of their interview with Dr. Bill Deagle discussing the weaponization of this flu.


Please share this article with all you see or feel will benefit. If you appreciate my work, please subscribe by clicking under the article title (it’s free). Please use my archive of work to help build a brighter future. And here's Bill Ryan:



• As promised, here's an expanded report from our Ukraine update yesterday.

We've not communicated directly with our source, who relayed this report via an intermediary who spoke to her in depth on the phone two days ago. The source is a doctor and qualified nutritionist in Kyiv [Kiev] with recent hands-on experience of treating patients who are seriously ill with what the Russians are calling "Mutant Black Lung" - apparently an apt name for a horrific and often fatal set of symptoms.

The problem (corroborated by Dr Henry L Niman and others) is that the H1N1 virus has mutated and the new strain goes straight to the bottom of the lungs where it causes massive bleeding triggered by a cytokine storm. It's the patient's own immune over-reaction that kills them. This is what happened in the second wave in the fall of 1918 (click here and here for historical archives and photos). It's not pneumonia, and it's not pneumonic plague (which is a bacterium, not a virus - but more on that below in the final paragraph of this report). However, it's extremely nasty and can be a very fast killer of anyone affected.

Our source said that she had kept some one seriously ill patient alive with intramuscular injections of Vitamin D: up to 30,000 IU, twice a day. This was a surgeon who had suddenly collapsed in the operating theater 40 minutes after waking up one morning. The surgeon's colleague was not so lucky: he collapsed two hours later, and was dead the next day.

She personally witnessed aircraft spraying something that was slimy and smelly over Lviv. These were NOT chemtrails - it was more like crop-dusting. The altitude was about 1500 feet [500 meters]. They were large aircraft: the windows in her 4-story building shook when one of the planes passed. This was three days before the outbreak there. That report is matched by information she learned in Kyiv, where the same planes were reported and again the outbreak occurred three days later.

There are restrictions in travel: the source's husband had to bribe his way to cross one national border. In many villages one cannot leave. In larger towns, however, it's easier to find a way out. Taxi drivers are not permitted to leave a city without a military licence. The source reported on one occasion seeing several pick-up trucks traveling together between cities which had on them a sign to the effect that one should keep clear as there were bodies on board.

About 10% of patients are recovering quickly and discharging after a few days. The rest are still in hospital and if not dead are not recovering after even three weeks. She noted that they might still die, so it's impossible to establish the true CFR [Case Fatality Rate]. In the Kyiv hospital where she works 40% of the staff are ill and the 600 bed hospital - usually 2/3 full - now has 1200 patients and they have even had to move bodies out of the morgue to make room for beds. Many who did not fall ill are not reporting to work. The healthcare system is breaking down. There is nothing in the pharmacies except for Aspirin - if one is lucky. Locals are falling back on traditional remedies and some groups (for instance) were going into the forest to hunt for medicinal mushrooms because they had nothing else to use.

No-one in Ukraine has accurate statistics. But WHO officials have been seen in many locations. Her colleagues are baffled because they look to the western media for news reports... and they see nothing. They cannot understand this. But what's happening in Ukraine is now being well reported in Russia. Furthermore, this H1N1 mutation is now apparently being encountered in Poland, Turkey, Russia and the Czech Republic.

The source had encountered cases of bubonic and pneumonic plague professionally and was familiar with the symptoms. In this new epidemic, the severe lung damage was so similar to pneumonic plague that she said "it was as if someone had taken the bacterial component of the plague and shoved it into a virus". Please note that we are not medically qualified and cannot comment on this remark, which may have been meant descriptively rather than scientifically. We do understand that bacteria and viruses are very different, spread differently, affect the body differently, and need to be treated differently. Also please note an important interview with a Ukrainian Coroner here (a short, must-read report) - which seems very likely to be accurate. We await further information. We are also interviewing Dr Bill Deagle again within the next 48 hours.
--Bill

Source:examiner.com

EU must help Ukraine to fight flu - Poland

Warsaw wants EU to help Ukraine fight swine, seasonal flu

* Poland ups its H1N1 cases to 185, no deaths so far

(Adds Poland's health minister comments)

WARSAW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on the European Union to help neighbouring Ukraine fight a flu epidemic and a growing number of H1N1 cases, saying its further spread is threatening the wider bloc.

Ukraine shut schools, banned public meetings and restricted travel earlier this month in an attempt to combat the H1N1 flu epidemic, which has also caused public concern in Poland.

"The character of this threat demands that rapid action be undertaken at the European Union level," Tusk wrote in a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who holds the rotating EU presidency.

"This will serve both the interests of Ukraine, and the EU itself," he said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

Tusk urged Brussels to hold an extraordinary meeting of the EU's health council to identify Ukraine's needs and discuss availability of vaccines.

Poland's Health Minister Ewa Kopacz said there had so far been 185 cases of swine flu and around 41,000 of seasonal flu diagnosed in the biggest ex-communist EU member. There have been no deaths.

"I don't understand why we are all so worried about a rare flu that has a much more gentle course than the regular one. I don't understand why people do not take vaccines for seasonal flu," she told a Polish television channel.

But news broadcasts showed Poles lining up at pharmacies to get sanitary masks which were quickly sold out in a sign of growing public concern.

Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer told Reuters that Warsaw was awaiting a reply from Brussels, and said he feared the epidemic could spread rapidly in eastern Europe.

"Poland has already organised quite reasonable help for Ukraine, but in a split second we will see swine flu in Belarus, we are already hearing something about Romania," he said.

Shipments of medicine and medical equipment have been leaving Poland for Ukraine in recent days. A growing number of swine flu cases have also been reported in Germany and Slovakia, which likewise share borders with Poland. (Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; editing by David Stamp)

Source:reuters.com

Ukraine's forgotten famine

Around a well-stocked Ukrainian dinner table one evening recently, I watched in surprise as a friend's grandmother carefully swept together the breadcrumbs on the table in front of her, then ate them from the palm of her hand.

"She knows the value of food," my friend explained. "She lived through the Holodomor."

The Holodomor, or "death by hunger", was unleashed on the country in 1932-33 as part of Stalin's drive to collectivise farming across the Soviet Union. Forced grain seizures left millions dead, and Ukraine, with its fertile black earth, was worst hit. Ukraine's suffering was intensified by the simultaneous attempt to crush Ukrainian nationalism, seen as a threat to the Soviet project and the integrity of the Soviet Union. Pavel Postyshev, who became known as "the hangman of Ukraine", was sent by Stalin in 1933 to step up seizures, but also to hunt down "nationalist counter-revolutionaries" and throttle Ukrainian culture.

Seventy-six years on, the "forgotten famine" still remains little known in the west, despite the particularly assiduous, and continuing, efforts of the Ukrainian diaspora. Knowledge of the Holodomor at the time was tainted by the accounts of Walter Duranty, New York Times reporter and Stalin sympathiser. From the comfort of Moscow, he wrote that "any report of a famine is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda".

But two journalists – Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge – overcame travel restrictions and wrote of the suffering and death they saw first hand. A documentary about Jones was aired last week, and his diaries are currently on display at the University of Cambridge.

In the Soviet Union, the story of the Holodomor was hushed up, with the famine blamed on drought. The silence that surrounded it for decades left the wound festering, before Ukraine's independence brought new life to the issue. The country's first post-Soviet president, Leonid Kravchuk, called the first commemoration ceremony in 1993, and his successor, Leonid Kuchma, called for governments worldwide to recognise it as genocide in 2003.

The current Ukrainian president, Viktor Yushchenko, has invested much effort in rethinking Soviet interpretations of the nation's history. It is unfortunate that his political failures have limited the impact of these attempts, which have been largely well received. When a large new memorial was opened last year, thousands of Ukrainians from across the country flocked to see it.

Modern Russia, on the other hand, has not made any attempt to come to terms with the famine, as with many other aspects of Stalin's legacy.

Russian politicians and talking heads argue that it was not genocide, as millions died across the Soviet Union, ignoring the evidence that the famine was purposefully intensified in Ukraine. Revealingly, Russia does not commemorate those deaths. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev refused Yushchenko's invitation to the 75th anniversary ceremony in Kiev last year with a coarse dismissal of "the so-called Holodomor". Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, widely lauded on his death last year for his stance against Soviet gulags, echoed his president, calling it "a loopy fable", dreamed up to tear Ukraine away from Russia's bosom. The Holodomor has thus come full circle, and become a part of Russia's attempt to keep Ukraine within its sphere of influence.

This modern political debate in many ways obscures the horror of what happened. Perhaps the current focus on Jones's story will bring the narrative away from the political, and back to the human aspect, to which his work gives such a direct and eloquent voice.
Source:guardian.co.uk