20 million
Ukrainians worldwide
Canada is an important partner of Eastern Europe simply because of their nationality structure. It reflects the full diversity of the nationalities of Eastern Europe within its borders. Approximately 8 million of the 33 million residents of Canada stem from Eastern Europe – Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Baltic peoples, Jews and Germans.
Almost nowhere the
Eastern European migrants have such great opportunities for development – in
politics, in the economy and society as in the liberal, multicultural Canada.
Over several generations, most immigrants become “Canadians”, where
the Ukrainians hold at the same time on their internal connection to their
homeland.
While there is an
equally energetic Ukrainian lobby in the US, but these suffer from the
competition of many other ethnic communities. One million Ukrainians in the
territorial state Canada with just 33 million inhabitants make more than a
million in the United States with 330 million inhabitants.
Estimates of the size of the Ukrainian diaspora vary far from each other
and lie between 6 and 20 million. The
Ukrainians are attracted obviously preferably by large states as the big states
with their far-reaching possibilities – to Russia, Kazakhstan, the USA, Canada
and Brazil.
So live according to
varying estimates in Russia almost 2-3 millions, Kazakhstan 300,000, Canada 1.2
million, the United States 900,000-1 million, Brazil 550,000, 300,000
Argentina, Germany and Italy respectively 50-100,000.
Canada and Ukraine
are approximately
equally strong mid-sized powers, with 33-44 million people. But the area of Ukraine is hardly
bigger than a Canadian province. Canada has 10 million square
kilometers while Ukraine is geographically
the largest country in Europe.
The preferred prairie provinces of Ukrainians Alberta, Manitoba and
Saskatchewan are almost as large as Ukraine with 603,000 square kilometers, but very
sparsely inhabited: Alberta has 3.4 million inhabitants on 642,000 square kilometers, Manitoba
1.1 million inhabitants Manitoba on 553,000 square kilometers and Saskatchewan
990,000 inhabitants on 591,000 square kilometers..
Canada is hopelessly underpopulated, but would in terms of future threats
primarily by Russia in the Arctic accept the multiples of the population in
order to be defensible. Immigrants from Eastern Europe are always welcome.
Immigration in
several waves
For two centuries
Ukrainians migrate preferably to North America, where they can find similar
geological and climatic conditions as in their homeland, but find “unlimited”
freedoms and unimagined opportunities for advancement and express their ethnic,
religious or political peculiarities unhindered. Many succeeded a new start as
a farmer or entrepreneur.
For a lot of
reasons, it drove the Ukrainians into exile from their home areas in what is
now western Ukraine, who were alternately under Russian, Austro-Hungarian or
Polish rule. Poverty, war and oppression of any kind by the Russian tsarism and
Soviet communism – with the “Holodomor” (mass starvation) under
Stalin as a highlight – triggered further waves of migration. For the
immigrants from Eastern Europe the free prosperous Canada was a counterpart
against Russia, a counterpart to the Soviet dictatorship.
At the end of World
War II, many Ukrainians fled before the advancing Soviet army – after a
stopover in Western Europe, in West Germany and the UK – further to America.
Among the fugitives found themselves former forced laborers as well as
Ukrainian war veterans, who have collaborated with the Nazis and are accused of
massacre of Jews and Poles.
After the fall of
Communism there followed another wave of emigration, which consisted however
less of “patriots” and “nationalists”, but of “fortune
seekers” in a better world.
The Ukrainians who
came to Canada 100 years ago, favored the prairie provinces of Alberta,
Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as cities in the East as Toronto and
Montreal, where now live also communities.
Everywhere in
Canadian society one finds Ukrainians – as farmers, craftsmen, businessmen,
intellectuals, athletes and media staff. They sit in the urban, regional and federal
parliaments, as well as in the top of major companies that invest in the
successor states of the Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in
agriculture, in the petro industry and in mining.
Ukrainians in leadership positions
In alliance with
leading Canadian families Ukrainians got access to leading positions in
politics and economy. Also through alliances with other Eastern European
communities the Ukrainians reinforced their influence and formed with Germans,
Poles, Russians and Balts a “Third Force” alongside the Anglo-French
core culture. Ukrainians presented a Governor General as Canada’s head of state
on behalf of the Queen, provincial premiers and governors, MPs in the Canadian
Parliament, in the Security Council of Canada and other key institutions. In
several cabinets of the federal government in Ottawa were ministers of
Ukrainian origin, only the current government of conservative Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Ukrainians are missing.
Even before Ukraine became independent again in December 1991, a
Ukrainian was head of state of Canada, Ramon Hnatyshyn (1990-1995),
whose ancestors came from the Austrian part of the western Ukraine, the
Bukovina. His parents had good connections to the German-born Premier John
Diefenbaker
(1957-1963).
Roy Romanow was prime minister (1991-2001) of Saskatchewan, a stronghold of the
Ukrainians. He supported the Ukrainians in Canada and the opposition in
Ukraine. He hosted the leaders of the Orange movement Viktor Yushchenko and
Yulia Tymoshenko, and visited Kiev and the home of his ancestors in the Lemberg
/ Lviv region. With a comprehensive cooperation agreement he could contribute
to the development of Ukraine.
The Ukrainians Gary Filmon was 1988-1999 premier of the province Manitoba
in Canada’s Midwest. He himself came from Winnipeg, another center of the
Ukrainians. His grand parents of mother’s side came from the Carpathians.
Filmon visited Ukraine in September 1991, a few weeks before their independence.
He supported the development of Ukraine through means for the economy,
education and culture as well as health care. He promoted the relaunch of
immigration of Ukrainians to Manitoba. Filmon even brought a G7 conference on
Ukraine to Winnipeg.
The last of the
Ukrainian-Canadian plains premiers was Ed
Stelmach, premier of Alberta (2006-2011), whose ancestors also came from
Lviv. In 2006 he replaced the popular German-born Premier Ralph Klein. Stelmach launched numerous programs for Ukraine,
including an exchange program and a program for economic development, to which
the three prairie provinces are involved with different focal points: Manitoba
– for the construction sector, Saskatchewan – agriculture and oil-rich Alberta
– for energy.
Surprisingly gained
recently again a Ukrainian in Canada a leading position: in June 2013 Stephen S. Poloz, born in 1956, from
Oshawa, Ontario, became Governor of the Central Bank, the Bank of Canada,
appointed for a term of seven years. He has over 30 years experience in the
financial sector, including the Bank of Canada (1981), the Export Development
Canada (EDC) and the International Monetary Fund.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress as authorized
representation
The primary
organization of Canadians of Ukrainian origin is the Ukrainian-Canadian
Congress (UCC). It is not just an association of cultural and folkloric nature
such as the German-Canadian Congress, but the “authorized”
representative of the Ukrainian-Canadian community to the people and the Government
of Canada. The UCC is the umbrella organization of 28 major affiliates.
Curiously, the
Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, which was tasked to operate the actual lobbying, is
based in Winnipeg, 3000 km from Ottawa, where there is still a National Office
of the UCC. The worldwide umbrella organization of the Ukrainians, the
Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), however, has its headquarters in Toronto, again
indicating Canada’s prominent role as patron of the Ukrainians.
Chairman of the UCC
and also Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian World Congress is Paul Grod,
President of Rodan Energy, one of the leading electricity companies in North
America. He was a banker and lawyer with the already mentioned law firm Gowling
Lafleur Henderson LLP, specializing in Eastern Europe. Grod is charged in the
Canadian media among the top 100 most influential people of Canada. In March
2014, the Kremlin has put him on the sanctions list against 13 Canadians, whom
the entry to Russia is prohibited.
In addition to the
UCC emerged from the ranks of the Ukrainian-Canadian community numerous
associations and institutions to safeguard the traditions, social self-help and
to support the homeland Ukraine. An important role for the promotion of
economic relations plays the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce (CUCC).
High-level political contacts arranges the group “Canadian Friends of
Ukraine”, which also promotes the reform process in Ukraine since 1990.
The UCC has been
cooperating in the implementation of its interests in many socio-political
issues with the German-Canadian Congress, the Polish-Canadian Congress and
other associations of Eastern European nationalities. Several East European associations
have joined forces in the “Central and Eastern European Council of
Canada” (CEEC), representing a total of 4 million Canadians of Eastern
European origin: Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Hungarians, Slovaks
and Albanians and Czechs. During the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine they led
many joint actions in support of the protesters.
33 ethnic
associations in Canada including the UCC and the German-Canadian Congress are
united in the “Canadian Ethno Cultural Council”, which represents the
interests of Canadian minorities.
Two World Congresses
The Ukrainian World
Congress, headquartered in Toronto, sees itself as the representation of the Ukrainians
in the diaspora, estimated at 15-20 million members. The UCC unites Ukrainian
organizations in over 33 countries. It was founded in New York in 1967 and is
recognized by the UN as an NGO with special status. Since 2008 President of UWC
is the Quebec lawyer and financier Eugene
Czolij.
In 1991, in Kiev was founded l a competing organization, the
“Ukrainian World Coordination Council” with whom it repeatedly came
to quarrels, despite ist cooperation with the UCC. The Coordination Council is
headed by Mykhailo Ratushny since 2011. To support the Euromaidan protests
against the regime of President Yanukovych the two world organizations formed
from December 2013 a co-ordination center.
The top leadership
of the Ukrainian community conformed to the Canadian society rapidly. They made
careers in business, culture, media and politics. Interestingly, the provincial
premiers and other established Ukrainians origin dedicated almost not in the
associations of their community. Instead they joined the leading parties in
Canada – the Liberals and the Conservatives and, more recently, the New
Democrats as well to make a career. They are committed to the “Canadian
values” and avoid it to get into the smell of the arch-conservatives of
the Ukrainian community.
Despite this, the
Ukrainians in the Western diaspora, who maintain their language and culture, are
considered more patriotic than their compatriots at home, who still partly
carry the Soviet mentality in themselves, are committed to Ukraine and yet
prefer to speak Russian.
The Ukrainian
government is trying to promote the connection to the diaspora in the West.
Thus, the Foreign Ministry has for longer included a department for the
Ukrainians in the world, cultural and humanitarian cooperation. In the Ministry
of Culture, there is also a section for working with the Diaspora.
Controversial national heroes
Some experts such as
Taras Kuzio think that the Ukrainian community in Canada is somehow backwards,
partly they still live in the 19th century categories and missed the leap into
the 21st century actually.[3]
So in the diaspora
the cult of the controversial leaders like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych
is held up because of their struggle for the independence of Ukraine, whereas their
collaboration with the Nazis and war crimes against Jews and Poles are
downplayed. Remains of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization
of Ukrainian Nationalists (UNA) found a new home in Canada and hold still
connections to the rightists in Ukraine. Even offices of the „Right sector“, the party “Svoboda”
and other right-wing groups are located in Canada. In Edmonton and elsewhere in
Canada arose veritable sanctuaries of Ukrainian patriotism.[4]
Curiously, there is
among the Ukrainian immigrants, although most of them had escaped the Soviet
dictatorship, exist even radical splintergroups in the left spectrum,
anti-American intellectuals in the universities, pro-Russian sympathizers and
Marxist circles in the towns who once dreamed of a “Soviet Canada” in
which one could realize the Socialist ideals better than in the “Old World”.
Culture of remembrance of the persecution and
suffering
The UCC along with
Germans, Japanese and other affected, requested the Canadian government with
some success ehabilitation and compensation for unjustly interned during the
First World War – as alleged collaborators with the former Central Powers
(Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Thousands of German-Canadians were
interned during the Second World War again. The Canadian government set up a
foundation that deals with the “shadows of Canada’s past.”
The opening of a
Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg sparked a debate on the demand of
Ukrainians and Germans that not only the Holocaust, but all mass murders in
human history should be remembered, including the Ukrainian Holodomor, the
Genozyds against the Armenians and the expulsion of the Germans from the Eastern
territories, which also costed millions of victims.
Several ethnic
organizations called for due consideration of the Canadian injustice to the
Inuit as well as Canadians of Ukrainian, German and Japanese origin and of
Quebecers who were temporarily interned in labor camps.
A new issue of
dissent is currently the establishment of a „Memorial for the victims of
communism“ near the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa. The Ukrainian Canadian
Congress (UCC) encouraged all Canadians to take part in Black Ribbon Day
Commemoration events being held across the country and Organized by the Central
and Eastern European Council (CEEC). In November 2009, Canada’s Parliament had
unanimously passed a resolution to establish an annual Canadian Day of
Remembrance for the victims of Nazi and Soviet Communist crimes on August 23,
called “Black Ribbon Day”, which coincides with the anniversary of the signing
of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Nazi and Soviet Communist
regimes. Also should remembered the present aggression of Russia against
Ukraine.
Support for Ukraine
Politicians and
entrepreneurs from immigrant circles were important mediators between Canada
and their countries of origin after the changes in Eastern Europe. Similar to
West Germany contributed to the development of the new federal „Länder“ through
investments, financial assistance and political transfers, the United States
and Canada contributed through targeted partnerships to the reform process in
Eastern Europe. Migrants who had sought refuge in North America, returned after
the „big turn“ back to their homeland in order to help there the political
process of change and Western orientation to a breakthrough.
Most ethnic Ukrainians in Canada have their roots in Western Ukraine,
which is predominantly Catholic, Ukrainian and more facing to the West than to
Russia. Between the Ukrainians in Canada and Lviv in the Western Ukraine has
always been close cultural and political ties, but also in the controversial
hero worship of Bandera and other historic figures.[5]
Since the
independence of Ukraine Canada sought together with the diaspora contacts to
the Kiev leadership as well as to the opposition.
President Leonid Kuchma
visited Canada in 1994 as the first Ukrainian head of state. His visit was
followed by other visits of the pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. President Viktor
Yanukovych, whom was known the hostile attitude of the diaspora, behaved
cautiously. President Petro Poroshenko
visited in September 2014, asking for military aid, the United States and
Canada. In February 2014 the controversial Andry
Parubiy, Parliament Vice-President and former Secretary of the Security and
Defence Council, urged in Canada and the US further again effective military support
for Ukraine’s defence against Russia.
In Canada as in the United States there is a strong Ukrainian lobby,
which tried to influence the development in Ukraine and always contributed to
the success of the Orange Revolution from November 2004 until January 2005 and
the transfer of power during the Euromaidan protests in February 2014. Here
Canada was able to act more inconspicuous and active than the Washington
administration – in the shadow of the United States.
That Canada is so
interested in the Ukraine, this is not only result of lobbying of the engaged
Ukrainian minority or in view of their voter potential, but also on tangible
global political and economic interests of the government in Ottawa. Ukraine,
in turn, provides Canada a key ally in the effort to political and economic
reconstruction and in defense against Russia. For Canada Russia will soon no
longer be a thousands of kilometers distant problem, when it will be confronted
in the Arctic with massive Russian territorial demands.
Canada as a patron of the “Orange Revolution“ and the “Euromaidan“
Not least because of
the active Ukrainian diaspora Canada was among the Western countries the “Patron”
of Ukraine. Canada was the first Western country to recognize Ukraine’s
independence in 1991. It supported the Orange Revolution of 2004/2005 and now
the Euromaidan. The Ukrainians hope to influence through the Canadian
government Obama to deliver effective weapons to Ukraine.
An army of several hundred Canadian activists, including about half of members
from the diaspora, were present at the elections and at the protest actions in
Ukraine. in both revolutions, the Canadian Embassy located near the
Independence Square played a humanitarian and coordinating role and offered
demonstrators pursued by security forces safe heaven.
Critics ask how the
embassy would state when the EuroMaidan would have failed. But ambassador Roman
Waschuk rejected the petty objections against its predecessor Troy
Lulashnyk, the embassy cared for humanitarian aid to people in need. The
Canadian Embassy supported significantly Ukrainian NGOs and the pro-Western
opposition; it even organized a working group of Western embassies in support
of the opposition during the Orange Revolution and protests against Viktor Yanukovych.
Collecting
for the Fatherland
Ukrainians in Canada affirmed that they rely the support of Ukraine not
entirely to the government of Canada, but want to make contributions of themselves.
Since the start of fighting in eastern Ukraine collections took place in all diaspora
organizations for Ukraine and its troops: weapons, simple equipment and medical
aid. They also recruited volunteers for the service at the front. Canadians who
fought in Syria, sign up now to fight for Ukraine. Some also joined the
infamous Azov Batallion, which bravely fought in the Donbas, but
came into disgrace because of its alleged cult of Nazi symbols.
In the relief actions are involved besides the UCC diaspora organizations
of all shades. At the front, the red and white of Canada can be seen next to
the blue-yellow flags of Ukraine. Military assistance contributes the
organization “Army SOS”, which has its headquarters in Toronto and in
Kiev and maintains numerous weapons caches. In Canada it is supported by the
Government, MPs occur as fund raisers during celebrities.
In Kiev the UCC has a representation whose office is led by Lenna
Koszarny, an activist, 45 years age, from London, Ontario. She monitors the
auxiliary supply of Army SOS and ensures that they arrive at the
right address. She is also co-founder and CEO of the group Horizon
Capital, a board member of which was also the current Ukraine Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko. Both were also at the Western NIS Enterprise
Fund operates (USAID) in leading positions.
Marko Suprun, an activist
from Winnipeg, who now lives in Kiev, is co-founder of the relief organization
of UWC “Patriotic Defense”, which performs in Ukraine and in the
diaspora purchasing medical equipment and first aid courses for Ukrainian
troops. Bohdan Kupych is a Ukrainian-Canadian software developers who
provided the artillery with precision technology.
The Canadian diaspora has collected for more than $15 million which were used for parts of replacement, computers, weapons and vehicles. The
deliveries surpass – for fear of material losses due to theft and corruption – the
army and go right to the front. Behind “Army SOS” is the Kiev
Investment banker Jaroslav Tropinov. Members of the Ukrainian community
in Canada also acquired much needed drones.
The UCC has protested the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the staged
by the Kremlin rebellion in Eastern Ukraine with indignation. The UCC welcomed
the numerous visits of Prime Minister Harper in Ukraine as well as the
conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Ukraine.
Hesitant military
aid
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird travelled several times,
accompanied by leaders of the Ukrainian diaspora, to Ukraine to assure its
leaders of the support of Canada. Canada granted until now $500 million
financial aid as well as political and moral support. Canada joined the US and
EU sanctions against Russia. Harper was one of the few Western leaders who were
present at the Inauguration of President Petro Poroshenko on June 6, 2014. He
supported the Ukraine in the G-7 and other international conferences. An
important step for Ukraine was the conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement with
Canada in mid-July 2015.
After the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s crackdown on the Eastern
Ukraine Canada and the US Ukraine contributed first “non-lethal”
military aid. During his visit to Canada and the United States in September
2014, the Ukrainian President Poroshenko reminded that one cannot win a war
against Russia with “blankets and tents”, but need heavy weapons for
defence. It took months until at last American, Canadian and British as well as
Polish and Lithuanian trainers came to the Ukrainian army for help. Main
concern of the Canadian media was that the Canadian instructors won’t train
Ukrainian “fascists”. To this category were included the
Azov-Batallion, groups of “Svoboda” party of Oleh Tyahnybok
and the “Rights sector” of Dmitry Yarosh, who even had threatened
to take action against Kyiv.
The training courses were accompanied as part of the Operation
“Reassurance” by an enhanced NATO operation on air and land in the
frontier EU countries from the Baltics through Poland to Romania and Bulgaria.
The diaspora as a
“catalyst of reforms”
Ukraine has in parliament and in the government under the
Canadians, a strong lobby in all parties. Mention may be made of the
Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj, and the active journalist Chrystia Freeland, the
conservative member of parliament Ted Opitz from Toronto, who led the Canadian observer mission
during the parliamentary elections of 2012, the defense expert James Bezan of
Manitoba, a Baptist, who accompanied the multiple military aid shipments to
Ukraine. In addition to Premier Harper, Ukraine has strong advocates in
Immigration Minister Chris Alexander, former Foreign Minister John Baird and
his successor Rob Nicholson.
The diaspora in Canada and the United States became a “catalyst of
reforms” in Ukraine, as Ukraine expert Andreas Umland said. This is true
at least in the form of lobbying by the UCC, which exerted pressure on the
Ukrainian leadership directly and through the Canadian government. The
re-importing of nationalism in Ukraine, however, led to tensions in qestern
Ukraine (Right Sector, Svoboda Party). Last but not least under the
influence of diaspora Poroshenko’s decommunization laws won an unnecessary
sharpening.
Politicians’
transfer
After the fall of communism in 1989/1990, Canada became a source for the
recruitment of politicians from exile who returned to their homelands to offer
their knowledge to support democratic rule and profound changes of society.
The most famous
examples of politicians and exports to Eastern Europe are Lithuania’s President
Valdas Adamkus, who returned from
the United States, and Latvia’s President Vaira
Vike-Freiberga, who returned from exile in Canada to her homeland. In the opposite
direction, many politicians from Eastern and Southern Europe traveled – to
Canada and the United States to look for support of the governments and their diasporas.
Reference should be made, inter alia, the Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavšić and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, who gathered money and
weapons for their political and military objectives in North America. Tudjman
took his later defense minister Gojko
Šušak back from Canada.
A smart move as part of a transfers of politicians was the appointment of
Ukrainian-American economist Natalija Jaresko to Minister of Finance of
Ukraine. There are probably even more personal connections between the
Ukrainian politicians and the diaspora. So the former president Yushchenko e.g.
has married an American woman of Ukrainian origin.
Strangely, however, President Poroshenko appointed a variety of
Georgians, on first place Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili as
governor of Odessa. But he hardly took people from the Ukrainian Diaspora to
government offices although they proved their skills in highest Canadian
offices, in business and in the army.
The Ukraine expert Taras
Kuzio commented that the Georgians could act more independently than Ukrainians,
since they are not connected to the local clans in Ukraine. In addition, all
Georgians have government experience in their own country, many of them as once
Saakashvili had studied in Ukraine, know the country and the language. People
of the Ukrainians diaspora are not familiar with present Ukraine, their
ancestors come from Western part oft he country, do not speak Russian and have
no understanding of the Russian-dominated Eastern Ukraine. Georgians, Poles and
Balts were selected for high offices as Georgia’s ex-president Mikheil
Saakashivili, now governor of Odessa, Health Minister Aleksandr
Kvitashvili (until July 2, 2015) and the Minister of Economic Development
and Trade Aivaras Abromavičius from Lithuania.
More than 140
advisors are from European countries, the U.S. and other countries in Ukraine. A
supporing role played the International Advisory Council on Reforms, appointed
by Poroshenko on Feb. 13 2015. First chairman of the council became Mikheil
Saakashvili. Among its members are former prime ministers Mikuláš Dzurinda (Slovakia)
and Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania), Carl Bildt (former Swedish foreign minister),
MEPs Elmar Brok (Germany) and Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (Poland), as well as Washington
based Swedish analyst Anders Aslund.
U.S. senator and
lobbyist for Ukraine John McCain declined because of his position, also former
British Prime Minister Tony Blair. No Ukrainians of the diaspora had been
invited.
Churches as
guardians of the Ukrainian soul
The oldest organizations that since the first immigration to Canada
preserved the Ukrainian community’s cultural and national identity, are the
churches that maintained close links with Ukraine and played an important role
in the survival of Christianity in the Communist era. The Ukrainian Orthodox
Church under Archbishop Yuriy (George) Kalistshuk, and the Ukrainian
Catholic Church under Archbishop Lawrence Daniel Huculak, who guarded its
independence from the Catholic hierarchy in Canada, and numerous Protestant
communities support their brother churches in Ukraine and their compatriots in
the struggle for survival against Russia. They also defended the diaspora from
domination oft he Russian Orthodox Church.
Western commitment to protecting
Ukraine
Repeatedly
the discussion on Ukraine refers to the Budapest memorandum of Dec. 5, 1994,
in which the United States, Great Britain and Russia pledged, in return to nuclear
weapons waiver the protection of sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine
(Belarus and Kazakhstan) as well as their political and economic independence
to respect and protect these countries.
The Ukrainian
leadership had then waived naively trusting in the West to a huge nuclear
potential, with which it would Russia today could keep in check, so Ukraine
expert Andreas Umland. The unwillingness of the West to defend the Ukraine
against Russia, could in his view have devastating consequences for the
continued existence of NATO and EU, and for European security.
The biggest
nightmare of Ukrainians in the diaspora and in their homeland is that the West
– as in many other cases – would again agree tacitly over their heads with
Russia and the Kremlin in Ukraine matters to obtain its support in other regions.
Obama’s thanks to Putin for his assistance in the nuclear negotiations with
Iran would seem to indicate such a compromise.
The Ukrainian
disaporas in Canada and the USA still try to push the governments in both
countries to engage for Ukraine more effectively. The U.S. are reported to have
strengthened their military support in the framework of their training program
for the Ukrainian troops.
