Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Marcy Kaptur – Order of Yaroslav The Wise
Marcy Kaptur, the 18th-term Democratic member of Congress from Ohio, is a co-chair of the Ukraine Caucus and a lifelong friend of Ukraine. Kaptur’s maternal Polish grandparents emigrated from Ukraine and her passion for her ancestral homeland shows. She can be counted on to support the nation and April 12 was no exception.
Kaptur and others criticized U. S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for asking other Western foreign ministers at a G7 meeting why U.S. taxpayers should care about Ukraine.
“It is abundantly clear that the U.S. has a major security interest in a free and democratic Ukraine, one not subject to Russian aggression. The statement by a State Department spokesman that the secretary’s statement was a ‘rhetorical device’ only adds to the uncertainties about what the basic policies are of the current administration,” according to the statement by the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. “It is imperative that the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine, who have demonstrated time and again their shared values for sovereignty, human rights, and the rule of law.”
Kaptur supports a tougher stand against Russian aggression and human rights abuses. She co-authored the Ukraine Freedom Support Act in 2014.
Last month, she and others in Congress called on Russia to drop criminal charges against Mykola Semena, a Crimean journalist who contributes to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Semena is charged with public incitement to undermine Russian territorial integrity via mass media, after he wrote an article expressing the view that the Crimea should be returned to Ukraine,” the letter stated. “We strongly urge you to drop all charges against Mr. Semena, and allow him to leave the Crimean peninsula to seek medical treatment in Ukraine.”
Also in March, she held a film screening and discussion in Washington, D.C., about the documentary “Women of Maidan,” a film about the role of Ukrainian women in the 100-day EuroMaidan Revolution that overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014.
In winter, she spearheaded a drive in Toledo to send warm clothes and shoes to victims of Russia’s war. “Our goods are destined for the innocent people who are barely surviving,” Kaptur said.
Ukraine would be much better off today if every member of Congress was as caring and enlightened.
Dmitry Peskov – Order of Lenin
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lies for a living for his war criminal boss, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who most world leaders regrettably still do not ostracize and whose countries still trade with Russia.
Peskov does all this maybe because he loves baubles — he was photographed two years ago wearing a $500,000 watch at his wedding. If his watch is worth a half-million dollars, what are his houses, cars and clothes worth?
Peskov’s lies about Ukraine are whoppers.
On April 25, he said the Ukrainian government’s decision to cut power supplies to Russian-controlled areas of Luhansk “another step by Ukraine on the road to rejecting territory.”
Listen up, son of Joseph Stalin. Ukraine cut off the supplies for three great reasons:
1. Russia controls the territory and border;
2. Russia’s proxies have not paid the electricity bills;
3. Russia has seized control of the businesses there.
He has also said that “Russia has never bullied anybody” — that is, except for Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland, Georgia, Moldova and many other neighbors.
Same with: “Russia has never intervened in other countries.”
See above.
“Russia wants to establish friendly relations with its neighbors,” he said — but only as long as its neighbors remain vassals.
He has also said that “there are no written scenarios” for integration of the Donbas with Russia. This likely means the opposite.
Russia enforces a de facto border between its proxy regions and Ukraine. It recognizes “passports” from the separatist areas, has imposed the Russian ruble as the currency and, this week, Russia’s parliament introduced legislation to make Donbas residents eligible for Russian passports.
As for the March 23 assassination of ex-Russian Duma member-turned-Kremlin critic Dennis Voronenkov in Kyiv, Peskov’s crocodile tears came out in deflecting what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko correctly considers to be “an act of state terrorism” by the Kremlin.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Peskov told ABC-TV’s George Stephanopoulis on March 31. “A man who abandoned his homeland, who decided to move to Kyiv, unfortunately found himself in a country and in a city with a more and more dominating role of nationalist and ultra elements. And, a very dangerous environment.”
Dear son of Stalin, Russia poses the greatest danger in Ukraine — killing 10,000 people in a war without end. Withdraw from the Donbas and Crimea, respect Ukraine as a nation, drop the imperialistic complexes and soon life will be better.
