The latest:
- The United States is trying to extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash from Austria on corruption charges. But now his defense alleges that U.S. prosecutors accidentally submitted false evidence against him to the Austrian Ministry of Justice and have never set the record straight.
- The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, claims it arrested 71 foreign spies and prevented 8 terror attacks in 2018. But the news this past year wasn’t all skittles and beer. There were controversies too.
- After five years, the U.S. Export-Import Bank has relaunched its program for Ukraine.
- The Kyiv Commercial Court has ruled that the Ukrainian state must pay more than $900,000 in compensation to a Kyiv store for watches, jewelry, and money it lost during a joint raid by police and prosecutors in August 2014.
- In 2019, Ukraine fears more Russian aggression in the Azov Sea. Watch our short, informative video on the issue.
- Ukrainian tourists are bringing new life to Egypt’s troubled Sinai resorts. But the potential return of Russian and British tourists could drive the prices up and the Ukrainians out.
Ukrainian Christmas:
- The Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches marked Christmas on Jan. 7.
- Check out two beautiful photo galleries from Ukrainian Christmas. In the first, Metropolitan Epiphanius, the head of the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine, leads a Christmas service in St. Sophia’s Cathedral. In the second, we see how Ukrainians celebrated Christmas in Kyiv.
Important news from over the holiday break:
- On Dec. 5, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople granted canonical independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The next day, the Patriarch ceremonially handed the independence decree over to the Ukrainian church.
- However, the Russian-backed Orthodox Church in Ukraine declined to have any dialogue with the newly independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
- In the wake of church independence, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine warned about the possibility of provocations intended to spark religious conflict by people posing as members of the Ukrainian right-wing organization Right Sector.
- Three Polish nationals face trial in Poland for attacking a Hungarian cultural center in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod. The attack was intended as a false flag to provoke conflict between Ukrainians and Hungarians, and a closer look at the suspects reveals far-right and Russia connections abound.
- RT, formerly known as Russia Today, could lose its broadcasting license in the UK, after British TV and radio regulator Ofcom announced that it will consider imposing sanctions against RT for breaking impartiality rules while covering the Salisbury attack and wars in Syria and Ukraine.
- Ukraine bids farewell to Torben Majgaard, the founder of IT company Ciklum, who died on Jan. 3 in a hospital in Marbella, Spain, at the age of 48 from cirrhosis of the liver.
- A U.S. Navy warship is entering the Black Sea to support ‘allies and partners.’
- Two Ukrainian sailors have been freed from pirate captivity, according to Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. The two men are the last of twelve sailors who had been held by pirates in the waters off the coast of West Africa since November.
