Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

ucu.edu.ua The Administration of the Ukrainian Catholic University is appealing to the education community in Ukraine to come out publicly about the situation in the education field after the appointment of Dmytro Tabachnyk as education and science minister.

For a long time, Tabachnyk has been openly and publicly humiliating the Ukrainian intelligentsia, as well as Ukrainian language and culture, kindling hostility among the various regions of Ukraine, vindicating the human-hating Stalinist regime, which has been condemned alongside fascism for crimes against humanity by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe. He doubts the sacrifices born by the Ukrainian people in the times of the Soviet totalitarianism.

A recent declaration of Tabachnyk that his actions as a minister will be government not by his election-time statements but exclusively by the orders of the top government of the country, cannot sustain any criticism. It is his anti-Ukrainian stance during his stint as a deputy prime minister for humanitarian issues in the government of Viktor Yanukovych that caused mass protests in 2006 on behalf of six regional councils and a major part of the Ukrainian society.

Ukraine’s democracy gives Tabachnyk a right to carry the convictions that his conscience prompts him. However, this right is closely tied with responsibility for his public statements and actions. A person with this kind of civil, professional and moral face cannot take government jobs in Ukraine.

Witnessing the birth of spontaneous protests on behalf of student self-government and communities of intellectuals, we are expressing our concern with the current situation and are demanding to reconsider Tabachnyk’s appointment as education and science minister, to appoint instead a professional educator and patriot, as well as a human with spotless reputation.

The original statement can be found on http://ucu.edu.ua/ukr/community/article;4603.