From Canberra to Vancouver, Ukrainians, Russians and others nations protest against Putin’s war on Ukraine. A review of some publications and activities to stop Russian aggression.

 

Protests in Canberra.

The protesters voice their anger in front of the Russian embassy in Canberra. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

On the day of Ukrainian elections, hundreds of Ukrainians gathered outside the Russian embassy in Canberra on Sunday in protest against the Putin government’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and other eastern regions of Ukraine.

Coinciding with the Ukrainian presidential elections, the demonstration was just one of many happening worldwide.

About 500 people travelled from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane to demonstrate, with Ukrainian citizens taking the opportunity to cast their vote at the Ukrainian embassy before staging a peaceful protest outside Russia’s embassy in Griffith.

Among the protesters was Alime Sadyyeva, who has lived in Sydney for five years but remains a Ukrainian citizen and was keen to vote in the presidential elections.

“I’m from Crimea, which is being occupied by Russia, and all my family is still there - my parents and my sisters - and I’m very worried because [the Russians] do whatever they want and people don’t have any rights in Crimea,” she said.

“I still believe we should be with Ukraine and I was here today to support Ukrainians. We are united - we want Ukraine to overcome this very bad situation.”

Mrs Sadyyeva is an indigenous Crimean Tatar, a cultural group that has had a poor history with Russia, having been deported from the homeland by Joseph Stalin in 1944 and only allowed back in 1987.

“We don’t accept Russia because we have so much negativity connected with the communist party and we don’t like the Putin regime - it’s very oppressive and it’s not like Ukrainians. Ukrainians are very tolerant. It’s very multicultural in Ukraine and people feel very Europeanised. We want to be with Europe, we want to be with Ukraine.”

Igor Onysko from Kiev was also in the Canberra crowd. He has been living in Melbourne for three months but was part of the peaceful demonstrations in Kiev earlier in the year that ousted former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, a move that sparked Russia to annex Crimea in the guise of protecting Russians living in the region.

“Every Ukrainian nowadays is politically active - you cannot look at what’s going on and not be involved in this,” Mr Onysko said. “We are against the situation of Russia - and [Vladimir] Putin specifically - trying to annex some parts of Ukraine.

"We don’t want any country to invade … we want to manage our country on our own. We don’t need any advice from the Russian President - we want him to get out of Ukrainian land.”

The demonstration was organised by Stefan Romaniw, who is chairman of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations and secretary of the Ukrainian World Congress, which represents about 20 million international Ukrainians.

Mr Romaniw said the situation is about more than just Crimea and the Ukraine. “Ukraine could only be the start of something which could be far worse in the future - that could be another war,” he said.

“There are no rules when it comes to Putin - he has his own rules and if you don’t stop him now, who knows how far this will go.

“The further the footprint gets into Ukraine, the closer it gets to the Baltic states, the closer it gets to Poland, the closer it gets to Europe, and if that were to happen, obviously there would be international military intervention.”

 

 

 

 

Ottawa, Canada (June 5, 2014) - A global campaign calling for consumers to boycott sponsors of FIFA’s

World Cup has now expanded to include Visa (NYSE:V), Kia Motors (OTN: KIMTF) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) .

United with Ukraine, the organization spearheading the campaign was formed to mobilize global

grassroots opposition to Vladimir Putin and Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula

and its orchestrating of violent terrorist activities across Eastern and Southern Ukraine.  The 2018 World

Cup was awarded to Russia by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international

governing body of the sport of football.

 

“We have Presidents and Prime Ministers of Western nations looking for additional economic sanctions

to further punish and isolate Russia.  And, we have this opportunity standing right in front of us to have

FIFA strip Russia of its 2018 World Cup hosting rights which is estimated to be worth $20 billion to that

country.  I can think of more than 100 countries that would be far more deserving of that $20 billion

than Russia,” said Eugene Melnyk, Chairman of the Campaign Advisory Committee for United with

Ukraine. “Russia has illegally invaded a sovereign nation, broken international laws and is orchestrating

daily terrorist activities within Ukraine.  I do not believe Anheuser Busch InBev, Visa, Kia and Sony are

companies that want to align or associate their brands with Vladimir Putin and Russia.  These global

companies and their once loyal customers have an important principled choice to make.”

 

The international campaign launched last month, initially targeting Anheuser Busch InBev. The campaign

has a comprehensive website www.boycottputinnow.com which includes informative online videos to

help highlight the hypocrisy of FIFA and its major corporate sponsors.. The videos are available on the

website in 12 different languages to help facilitate global awareness and to promote the hashtag

#boycottputinnow through social media.

 

Since its launch last month, the “Boycott Putin Now” campaign has received widespread media coverage

in Canada, Europe and the United States.  A sampling of the media coverage can be found on the

campaign’s website.

 

FIFA’s voting for the 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) World Cup hosting rights took place under the same

process and only involved FIFA’s 24 member Executive Committee.  United with Ukraine firmly believes

this voting process was tainted with corruption. United with Ukraine is calling upon FIFA’s sponsors as

well as governments of all 209 FIFA member nations to revoke these hosting rights and initiate a new,

transparent selection process that includes human rights considerations as part of its voting protocol.

 

About United with Ukraine 

 

United with Ukraine is an international human rights organization based in Ottawa, Canada focused on

ending the ongoing Russian military aggression against Ukraine and its illegal occupation of Crimea.  The

organization is taking a number of steps to support the Ukrainian people as they work to restore

political and economic stability. Until Russia clearly demonstrates its respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty

and territorial integrity, United with Ukraine will continue to apply pressure that will further isolate

Russia economically, culturally and politically.

 

 

Contact Information 

 

Paul Morozenko

pmorozenko@boycottputinnow..com

Don’t Forget Crimea [The New York Times]

Posted on Jun 11th, in Euromaidan, News

The Opinion Pages

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/opinion/dont-forget-crimea.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

By WILLIAM TAYLOR, STEVEN K. PIFER and JOHN E. HERBST

JUNE 8, 2014

As the situation in Ukraine has evolved from an internal to an international crisis, Western diplomacy has focused on persuading Moscow to de-escalate tensions. That has made good sense, given the potential for the situation to spin out of control. At the same time, the West should not lose a sense of outrage over Russia’s illegal armed seizure of the Crimean peninsula. The United States and European Union should strive to make the Kremlin’s Crimean venture as expensive as possible.

After former President Victor Yanukovych fled Ukraine in late February and a pro-European acting government took charge in Kiev, Russia moved with stunning swiftness in Crimea. “Little green men” — the Ukrainians’ term for soldiers without identifying insignia, later confirmed by President Vladimir Putin to have been Russian military personnel — quickly occupied strategic points on the peninsula. Days after a hastily organized and flawed referendum produced dubious results, Russia formally annexed Crimea.

Whatever Russia’s historical claim, the seizure of Crimea represents the most blatant military land-grab that Europe has seen since 1945.

Western attention quickly turned elsewhere, however, as armed separatists began seizing buildings in eastern Ukraine, apparently assisted by more little green men. As fighting has increased in recent weeks, Crimea commands less and less attention.

Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing

9 June, 2014, 4:00 PM Kyiv time

 

 

1. Kremlin-backed violence in Eastern Ukraine

The active phase of the anti-terrorism operation (ATO) in Donetsk and Luhansk continues. The State Border Service of Ukraine reports that at approximately 10:30 PM Kyiv time on 8 June, Kremlin-backed armed extremists attacked the border checkpoint Izvarene, Luhansk oblast, but when border guards returned fire, the extremists fled. At approximately midnight on 8-9 June Kyiv time, a Ukrainian armed forces base in Artemivsk, Donetsk oblast, was attacked by almost 50 Kremlin-backed armed extremists, who opened fire on the base. The Ukrainian armed forces personnel returned fire; one of the extremist was killed and a 12.7 mm machine gun and three 30 mm AGC-17 grenade launchers were taken by the Ukrainian armed forces. The Ministry of Defense reports no casualties on the Ukrainian side. 

2. New President of Ukraine Inaugurated

Ukraine’s President, P. Poroshenko, was inaugurated on 7 June. In his address, Poroshenko stated: “Freedom is not given once and forever. One needs to fight for it…The army and its rearming through efforts of the national military-industrial complex - is our highest priority…Nobody will protect us, until we learn to defend ourselves. I will use my diplomatic experience to ensure the signing of an international agreement, which will take the place of the Budapest Memorandum…Russia has occupied Crimea, which was, is and will be Ukrainian. Yesterday during a meeting in Normandy, I said this to President Putin. Crimea is Ukrainian. Period. There can be no compromise on the questions of Crimea, European choice, and the state system…Reforms as to decentralization will begin this year with changes to the Constitution…But Ukraine was, is and will be a unitary state…An important point in society’s demand for a full reset of power is early parliamentary elections…Living freely includes being able to freely use [one’s] native language. We are guided by Article 10 of the Constitution. It states that the Ukrainian language is the only state language, but guarantees the free development of Russian and other languages…The European choice of Ukraine is the heart of our national ideal…We look at the Association Agreement as only the first step towards full membership of Ukraine in the EU. Nobody has the right to veto Ukraine’s European choice…We [are] a people who were separated from our great fatherland Europe - we return to her.”

3. Contact Group on returning peace to eastern Ukraine meets

On 8 June, the first meeting of the three-sided contact group on “the realization of a peaceful plan in east Ukraine” met. The meeting was attended by Ukrainian President P. Poroshenko, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany P. Klimkin, special representative of the Secretary General of the OSCE H. Tagliavini, and Russian Ambassador to Ukraine M. Zurabov. Poroshenko stated that “During this week we must stop the shooting. For me, every day that people die, every day that Ukraine is paying such a high price, is unacceptable.”

4. US announces more aid to Ukraine

On 7 June US Vice President J. Biden, in Ukraine for the inauguration of President Poroshenko, stated that the US will provide an additional $48 million assistance package to Ukraine, pending Congressional approval. The aid will, among other areas, be provided to assist in carrying out reforms needed for the IMF and World Bank programs, Constitutional reforms, and “confidence-building measure that enhance national unity, particularly in the east and south,” “Strengthen Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service,” and “Help Ukraine diversify its trade and enhance its energy security.”