Theatre director Andriy Zholdak premiered his Holodomor play “Lenin Love, Stalin Love” in Kyiv TV last week drawing 10 million viewers. It is based on the Soviet-banned 1963 novel “Yellow Prince” by Holodomor survivor Vasyl Barka who emigrated to the US to publish his novel. The play is looking to tour through Japan, Korea, Romania, Germany, Finland, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg before ending in Kyiv.
Authorities in Kyiv have decided to take down ten Soviet-era monuments, including eight statues of Vladimir Lenin, but will leave a main Lenin monument on the main street of Kreshchatik.
Somali pirates holding an arms-laden Ukrainian cargo ship on Sunday accused the owners of stalling on a ransom payment and threatened to pull out of a deal for its release struck a week ago.
The National Bank of Ukraine has unveiled its intentions to intervene Dec. 8 through Dec. 12 so as to revaluate the hryvnia. Ukraine’s finance ministry has proposed that the central bank limit the sale of foreign currencies for cash use. Demand for the dollar has surged as the hryvnia currency rapidly shed over 60 percent of its value since the start of September. Ukraine’s economy is highly dollarised — many Ukrainians took out loans for cars or apartments in dollars.
Two Berkley California teachers got the chance this summer to impart their skills to aspiring teachers in Ukraine. They focused on training Ukrainian teachers to become technology specialists in order to promote computer literacy among teachers and students of Ukraine.
Shipping costs have plunged to 22-year lows, skewing global grain trading patterns to the point where U.S. hog farmers are importing wheat from Britain and Japan has eschewed U.S. corn supplies to buy from the distant Ukraine. Ukraine have been able to make sales far beyond its traditional markets in Europe and the Middle East, reaching out to Asia, European traders said.
Putin has brought up the possibility that Europe may be hit hard if Russia cuts natural gas supplies to Ukraine because of a pricing and debt dispute between Moscow and Kyiv. Then Putin switched from Russian into Ukrainian and added “Have you lost your mind?†— a sound-bite that is currently being carried all over Ukraine (as Putin intended). A fall in the value of the hryvnia currency has cost Ukraine an additional $83 million in meeting the cost of gas shipments and disrupted attempts to pay arrears, the state oil and gas company Naftogaz said.