UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) veteran stops break-in of his home in New York

Glory to Ukraine- Glory to (her) Heroes. The soldier is standing on the banners of the totalitarian regimes. A former soldier in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, known for fighting both the Nazis and the Soviets for a free and independent Ukraine in World War 2 made the news recently in  New York, stopping an intruder from breaking into his home:

Pulteney, NY —  The unidentified man who broke into the residence of Stephen and Pauline Boyechko Friday night apparently didn’t know who he was dealing with.

Confronted with the sight of a man halfway through a bathroom window, Stephen Boyechko, 80, simply retrieved his .32 PPK/Walther and went back to confront the intruder. The man rushed Boyechko, who then shot him, reportedly in the abdomen and groin.
“I think I just surprised him,” Boyechko said. “I didn’t fire to kill him. I just shot, maybe a little low.”
Boyechko isn’t the kind of man to get easily rattled.
A veteran of World War II, he didn’t fight with the Americans troops, he said.
“I was in the Ukrainian underground,” he said. “I was 14. We fought the Germans and the Russians.”

…

The break-in occurred after someone knocked on the door of the couple’s ranch-style home at 8016 Brown Road, Boyechko said.
However, Boyechko thought it was a member of a religious group and didn’t answer the door, he said. A short while later, the couple heard the sound of breaking glass from the bathroom and he went to investigate.
Boyechko said upon seeing the man wriggling through the bathroom window “I asked him ‘Why you break my window?’ But I guess he didn’t hear me. So I went to get my gun.”
After the would-be intruder was shot, the two men waited in silence for police to respond to Boyechko’s 911 call.
They didn’t have anything to say, Boyechko recalled.
“He didn’t talk to me,” he said. “He told the police he heard children screaming in the house, is why he tried to get in. But there are no kids here; just two old people.”

…

“Oh it was nothing,” Boyechko said. “Just high blood pressure went a little higher is all.”
No charges are expected to be filed against Boyechko. The investigation into the break-in is continuing.

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Weekend Listening: BBC Documentary – Useful Idiots

For your weekend listening pleasure, the BBC has published a two-part documentary podcast on ‘useful idiots’ – a phrase coined by Lenin about Westerners who endorsed the Soviet Union and its Communist ideologies, usually in the press.

Part One – 22 minutes

The Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and American journalist Walter Duranty were some of those people who also visited the Soviet Union. They mingled with political leaders, were escorted into the countryside by Joseph Stalin’s secret police, and returned home to speak and write of ‘a land of hope’ with ‘evils retreating before the spread of communism’.

However as stories mounted of mass murder and starvation in parts of Russia and the Ukraine, reporters such as Gareth Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge investigated and reported on ‘the creation of one enormous Belsen’. Duranty responded with an article in the New York Times headed ‘Story of the famine is bunk’, and got an exclusive interview with Stalin.

Soon after, Jones died and Muggeridge’s career nose-dived. Duranty was awarded a Pulitzer.

How can intellectual curiosity transform into active promotion of a dangerous lie? Why so many ‘useful idiots’?

Part Two – 22 minutes

BBC – Useful Idiots

Happy 19th anniversary of Ukrainian Independence (Updated)

Ukraine celebrated it’s 19th anniversary of independence today, below are some news stories coming out of the wire:

Ukrainian president says wants more powers

Yanukovich said the former Soviet republic needed a new, stable political system led by a "strong president" to guide it through potentially painful structural reforms.

"In order to achieve this we need to reform the constitution thoroughly," he said in a televised speech on Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Ukraine curbed presidential powers in favour of parliament through constitutional amendments introduced in 2004 when pro-Western politician Viktor Yushchenko came to power after the "Orange Revolution" street demonstrations.

The curbs, promoted by Yanukovich’s supporters at the time, limited Yushchenko’s effectiveness as president and set up confrontation with parliament and prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The dispute ultimately contributed to his downfall in an election earlier this year.

Yanukovich supporters now say his hand should be strengthened so he can push through unpopular reforms such as raising household gas prices and slimming down the bloated pension system.

Many of the reforms have been undertaken at the behest of the International Monetary Fund which has extended a new $15 billion stand-by arrangement to Ukraine to help stabilise its economy.

Read the rest of the article

How can Presidential powers be relinquished for pro-Western President Yushchenko, and then be asked to be returned for pro-Russian President Yanukovych. In addition to that he wants the Constitution reformed (gutted) for a Chinese style one-party government that eliminates the opposition and leaves the door wide open for a return to Communism – on the 19th anniversary of the country’s independence!

Meanwhile a Kharkiv reporter critical about authorities has been missing and feared dead for two weeks now, as freedom of the press, speech and to organize have been under attack under this regime.

 

Interview: Scholar Says Ukraine’s Greatest Achievement ‘Survival’

As Ukraine marks its Independence Day on August 24, one analyst says Kyiv’s greatest accomplishment since independence has been "survival." But he adds that survival is not good enough.
Andrew Wilson, the author of books like "The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation" and "Ukraine’s Orange Revolution" and a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, talks to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service correspondent Maryana Drach about the high and low points of the country’s 19 years of statehood.

RFE/RL: According to the latest opinion surveys, 45 percent of Ukrainians have doubts about whether Ukraine is truly an independent state. What is your view?
Andrew Wilson:
In some ways, I might be one of them… Its economy has actually been in trouble recently, and with so many sectors falling under Russian influence, there is a question mark about how economically independent Ukraine really is.

RFE/RL: What is the biggest achievement by Ukraine during the last 19 years?
Wilson:
Survival…

Continue reading Happy 19th anniversary of Ukrainian Independence (Updated)

Pictures and video from the 2010 Toronto Ukrainian Independence festival & flag raising ceremony info (Updated.. again!)

This year’s Toronto Ukrainian Independence festival has come to end. Despite the rain another large crowd gathered for the festivities of ‘Taste of Ukraine’ as well as the evening zabava with Ukrainian Canadian rock band Klooch.

I have found some event pictures from the Toronto Sun, as well as a gallery from Facebook, (update: here’s another), and yet another gallery. Also there are some videos of the event:

Update: Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi also attended the event. 

 

Flag raising ceremony

Also tomorrow (August 24th) there will be a flag raising ceremony in Toronto at Queen’s Park at noon.

 

Update: Here are some pictures from the Independence Day ceremony in Ottawa, Ontario