Category Archives: video

How to stay up-to-date on news from Ukraine

From mass protests to invasion and now on the verge of all-out war, the latest news from Ukraine comes out almost hourly and too fast to analyze. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have become great resources to get the latest news, and today I’m going to share some great resources to help you stay up-to-date:

 

Articles Online

Euromaidan PRhttp://euromaidanpr.com/

This site has a great group of volunteers who are actively translating the latest news from Ukrainian and other websites into English, and quickly posts them not only on their website but their Facebook and Twitter pages as well. If were to only follow one source for news, this would be it.

Voices of Ukrainehttp://maidantranslations.com/

If you’re looking for a more daily analysis wrapped up in a single post, then this would be your best bet. The Military Blog summary by Dmitry Tymchuk is done fairly well. The posts go online at their website as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Help Translate

Both sites are actively looking for help translating articles from Ukrainian (and some others) to English. If you can spare some time, check out their Facebook page for requests to translate.

 

Watch Video

VICE News has a very comprehensive on-the-ground video series on Ukraine since late in the Maidan, and is still being updated! Its main correspondent Simon Ostrovsky made recent news being a captor in Sloviansk, and is returning to complete the series. Below is a playlist of all the videos so far (some might be out of order, so please check accordingly):

 

Watching Live

imageEspresso TVhttp://espreso.tv/

This internet TV station sprang up back in November in order to broadcast the Euromaidan protests worldwide. It broadcasts live.

 

image

Hromadske.TV – http://hromadske.tv/

An internet TV station started by many former TVi journalists who quit the TV channel last April after it was dubiously handed over to Russian oligarch Konstantin Kagalovsky, a Yanukovych ally. It broadcasts live.

 

Spilno.TV – http://spilno.tv

Another great internet TV station, features a video playlist of stories to browse, as well as a live stream.

Do drop me a comment if you have any other resources!

Ukrainian news round-up–March 26, 2013

Editors note: It has been a difficult trying to keep up, while posting regularly on Facebook and Twitter, trying to write an in-depth analysis for the main page becomes obsolete over a few days. Instead, I will try and post news updates whenever I get a chance.

Some great sites that are providing updates are EuromaidanPR and Voices of Ukraine,

Tanks amassing near the north Ukrainian border in Klimovo, Russia.

 

Economy

Russian economy grinding to a halt as Ukraine crisis takes heavy toll

Ukraine agrees to 50% gas price hike amid IMF talks

An analysis of by Dmitry Tymchuk

 

Military

One-Ship Ukraine Navy Defies Russia to the End

Ukraine Crisis in Maps – A visual guide to the continuing conflict over Crimea.

Argentina to Host Russian Military Bases While America Sleeps

Are Ukraine and Russia at war or not?

U.S. intel assessement: greater likelihood Russia will enter eastern Ukraine

 

Opinion

If Russia swallows Ukraine, the European system is finished – Timothy Snyder

 

Crimea

Crimea Referendum: 34 Percent, Not 97 Percent, Says Former Russian Government Adviser

My documentary crew was attached in Ukraine for being American

“Another genocide has started already” – Crimea’s Tatars dread the consequences of the peninsula’s annexation

How Crimea’s Annexation Plays To Russians’ Soviet Nostalgia

 

Politics

‘War without weapons’: Russia singles out Canada over tough line

Putin’s BRICS allies reject sanctions, condemn West’s ‘hostile language’

 

Other

Russia’s Online-Comment Propaganda Army

The Mafia Ruling Ukraine’s Mobs

Here Are The American Executives Who Are Working On Behalf Of Putin

Movie Star Seagal Backs Russia’s Actions in Crimea

Ukrainian orphans featured again this year at Hot Docs–Review of ‘High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga’

The former orphanage worker-turned documentary filmmaker debuted her second film about Ukrainian orphans last night at Hot Docs in Toronto, ‘High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga”:

Julia Ivanova premiered her first film ‘Family Portrait in Black & White’ 2 years ago at HotDocs which featured a Ukrainian women who adopts almost 30 children, which more than half are black who grow up in Ukraine.

This year’s film showcases the trials and tribulations of a B.C. childless couple who try and adopt two Ukrainian sisters from a orphanage in Horodnia (northern Ukraine), 7-year old Alyona and 8-year old Snezhana. The couple later learns the sisters have three siblings and try and adopt them all – 15-year-old Sergei, 16-year-old Yuliya, and six-year-old Sasha.

The film shows the challenges with adopting children across the age spectrum, with the eldest having the most trouble fitting in. Yuliya used to be the children’s protector, but finds that’s no longer her role, and struggles for independence from her new parents as she reaches adulthood. There is a language barrier at the beginning of the family’s relationship, but the parents did not show any signs of learning any of the children’s language in the movie. The parents face their own struggles connecting with the children at times, and the financial difficulties with adopting all of them (the movie claims around $200,000) and how it has drained their savings. The father is a nurse who eventually works up in the arctic a month at a time for additional income, and the mother is on disability from a car accident (which is the reason they did not try to have their own children).

The children also have to deal with the physical and emotional battle scars of their past – we are told some have learning disabilities (which are not thoroughly addressed in the film), Sergei suffers from lack of a growth hormone that leaves him only 4’6” tall entering adulthood, and at least one girl appears to have some form of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The younger children appear to adapt better than their own older siblings, who want to return to Ukraine to visit their old friends.

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The movie itself provides a good glimpse into the life of an adopted family and the struggles of immigrating, fitting and growing up. The movie is solely focused on the family and offers little into any politics (there was a state-wide adoption ban from the government) and life outside the family (there is little footage of the children’s past lives in the orphanage). Julia even interjects herself into the documentary, especially during conflicts, when the children shut themselves off from communication. She is able to interview them in their native Russian to hear their true feelings no whatever matter is pressing them. Filming the family in their home most of the time can certainly be challenging, as the camera cannot be candid in their small house – sometimes the conversations that the family have feel a little forced, most likely to save face in front of the camera. Nonetheless the true feelings do come out and are captured in the film, making it worthwhile to see.

High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga airs again as part of Hot Docs:

Today, May 1st at 4:00 PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre (at the University of Toronto campus near the ROM)

Saturday, May 4th at  4:00 PM at The Regent

The CBC has also written up an additional preview on the movie

Canadian Museum of Human Rights to put Holodomor exhibit by bathroom, ignores WW1 internment

The latest in the struggles for Ukrainian-Canadian issues such as the Holodomor and WW1 Internment to be included in the upcoming Canadian Museum of Human Rights continues to get worse:

After fighting for a spot at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Ukrainian-Canadians are asking just how much respect coverage of the Holodomor will receive when it’s located right next to the bathroom.

Read the rest of the article

Stories of the Holodomor have "either been ignored or minimalized" and the history of Ukrainian-Canadian internment camps will be addressed only by "a nondescript picture" rather than a full-fledged exhibit.

…

The subject of the Holodomor is relegated to a minor panel in a small obscure gallery near the museum’s public toilets.

"This is offensive, intolerable and jeopardizes the credibility of the museum to provide a balanced and objective perspective of key Canadian and global human rights stories," said the release from spokeswoman Darla Penner.

"The Holodomor is the lens through which the museum can teach the crimes of communism which were responsible for the subjugation, persecution and destruction of tens of millions of people."

Read the rest of the article

UCC President Paul Grod released details of the museum’s current plans in a video the group posted last month, here are some notes I made on it:

(At around 5:50) Grod says that WW1 Internment will not have a kiosk/exhibit, only a picture on the wall above Japanese Internment.

There will be a separate Holocaust room, which will include genocide discussion – the Lemkin model with background discussion, and the Holodomor will be discussed among other genocides.

The Holodomor will be featured in a separate "Hope and Hardwork" room, on the second floor, with "high-traffic location to the toilets" (at 9:00). The room will contain the 5 Canadian-recognized genocides, including the Holocaust (which has its own room as well).

The UCC has new demands: A dedicated kiosk for Internment, and to showcase the effect of War Measures Act for immigrants to Canada.

Watch the video

The UCC initially supported the museum 10 years ago, when promised to support prominent displays for the Holodomor and WW1 Internment. Last year though the museum decided not to have a permanent Holodomor display after all. The UCC, along with other groups like the UCCLA who started a postcard campaign, have urged Canadians to contact their MPs to support inclusiveness and no community be elevated above others.