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USUF March-April 2023 Newsletter
March/April, 2023
In January 2023 U.S.-Ukraine Foundation launched an informational and advocacy campaign to confront the genocide being perpetrated by Russia in the kidnapping of over 16,000 children of Ukraine.
Let us do our part for Ukraine’s victory in 2023!
Join us in building our counter offensive to Putin’s ongoing escalating war in Ukraine, the growing humanitarian crisis including continuing the genocide of kidnapping and indoctrination of Ukrainian children kidnapping.
FOUN Testimonies in Congress and Senate
FOUN submitted two statements in March to the House Appropriations Subcommittee and the Senate Committee on Armed Services on Defense’s hearings on the Department of Defense’s FY24 Budget Request, for inclusion in the hearing record, adjusted to address authorizers. Both hearings had same administration witnesses – Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III; Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Michael J. McCord; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark A, Milley, USA.
FOUN will take every opportunity to press for clarity in the United States’ mission in Ukraine and for long-range precision strike capability. If the United States and allies give Ukraine what it wants and needs now, it can win this war, defeat Russia and save lives. And, as FOUN has stated many times winning means all Russian forces leave Ukraine, the abducted and missing are returned or accounted for, reparations are paid, and war criminals are identified and brought to justice.
STATEMENT OF THE FRIENDS OF UKRAINE NETWORK
TASK FORCE ON NATIONAL SECURITY TO HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEFENSE, March 23, 2023
STATEMENT OF THE FRIENDS OF UKRAINE NETWORK
TASK FORCE ON NATIONAL SECURITY TO SENATE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, March 28, 2023
MOST VIEWED WEBINAR: OVER 20,000 VIEWS!
CRIMEA IN UKRAINE’S CONTROL IS KEY TO ANY GENUINE PEACE AND PROSPERITY
More and more Crimea is being mentioned in in articles and discussions about the war that seem to see the peninsula about a subject for negotiation.
Crimea is far more than occupied real estate. Without Crimea Ukraine and the west will have rewarded Putin’s barbaric behavior, his war crimes, his genocide, and left him a platform from which he can control Ukraine and its economy – and where he can prepare for the next phase of his war against the west.
CRIMEA, A VICTIM OF PUTIN’S WAR CRIMES SINCE 2014, MUST ALWAYS BE UKRAINE
Russian war crimes did not start in February 2022; Russia has been committing war crimes in Crimea and the occupied parts of Donbas since 2014. Significant human rights issues included: disappearances; torture, punitive psychiatric incarceration; harsh prison conditions; violence, and systemic discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians and more. Until Ukraine regains control over Crimea and other occupied parts of Ukraine horrible atrocities and human rights violations will not stop.
Through our Ukraine Airlift program we are able to cover the shipping costs and assure the delivery of medical supplies and equipment to Ukraine. Through our partnerships with our Humanitarian Coalition members including the Revival Foundation, we are able to provide critical medical aid on a continuous basis to hospitals across Ukraine. Thank you for your generous donations and continuous support that makes our work possible! Together we will reach victory!
March HIGHLIGHTS
In marking of the Women’s History Month, USUF held a webinar with four incredible Ukrainian women that like many other Ukrainians stepped into the fight right where there were. Please meet Svitlana Pustovit, the creative director of the Vinnytsia regional non-governmental organization Media-Center, documents the crimes of the Russian military by interviewing Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) and created a media program to combat misinformation; Nataliia Protsiuk who has personally driven more than fifty cars from Europe to Bakhmut, Donetsk, Kramatorsk, and other cities in the east and south of Ukraine supporting women and the military; Kateryna Lutsyk, a veteran and military medic that lost 50% of her hearing and a percentage of her vision but continues to travel east with Nataliya to bring aid to the military and displaced persons; Iryna Polishchak, a lawyer who organized the transportation of more than 70,000 Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.
WOMEN OF UKRAINE FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
March 9 - Taras Shevchenko's birthday
We bring to your attention two videos in which you can discover Taras Shevchenko from a new side.
Women in the life and poetry of Taras Shevchenko
Shevchenko inspired some of the protestors during the Euromaidan. The context of his poem "Testament" (Zapovit) was given credit of "resonating" with Ukraine's ongoing struggle during the invasion from Russia in 2022. Taras Shevchenko's writings formed the foundation for the modern Ukrainian literature to a degree that he is also considered the founder of the modern written Ukrainian language (although Ivan Kotlyarevsky pioneered the literary work in what was close to the modern Ukrainian in the end of the 18th century).
Shevchenko's poetry contributed greatly to the growth of Ukrainian national consciousness, and his influence on various facets of Ukrainian intellectual, literary, and national life is still felt to this day. Influenced by Romanticism, Shevchenko managed to find his own manner of poetic expression that encompassed themes and ideas germane to Ukraine and his personal vision of its past and future. In view of his literary importance, the impact of his artistic work is often missed, although his contemporaries valued his artistic work no less, or perhaps even more than his literary work. A great number of his pictures, drawings, and etchings preserved to this day testify to his unique artistic talent. He also experimented with photography and it is little known that Shevchenko may be considered to have pioneered the art of etching in the Russian Empire (in 1860 he was awarded the title of Academician in the Imperial Academy of Arts specifically for his achievements in etching.)
Shevchenko Round Table with Peter Fedynsky
His influence on Ukrainian culture has been so immense, that even during Soviet times, the official position was to downplay strong Ukrainian nationalism expressed in his poetry, suppressing any mention of it, and to put an emphasis on the social and anti-Tsarist aspects of his legacy, the Class struggle within the Russian Empire. Shevchenko, who himself was born a serf and suffered tremendously for his political views in opposition to the established order of the Empire, was presented in the Soviet times as an internationalist who stood up in general for the plight of the poor classes exploited by the reactionary political regime rather than the vocal proponent of the Ukrainian national idea. This view is significantly revised in modern independent Ukraine, where he is now viewed as almost an iconic figure with unmatched significance for the Ukrainian nation, a view that has been mostly shared all along by the Ukrainian diaspora that has always revered Shevchenko.
March 14 - Day of the Ukrainian volunteer
March 17 - The Ukrainian Central Council was created, 1917
March 20 - International Day of Happiness
March 21 - World Day of People with Down Syndrome
March 25 - International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Day of the Security Service of Ukraine
March 31, Remembering the Victims of Bucha
This date marks one year since the Russian forces were ousted from Bucha, Irpin and other towns in Kyiv oblast. Upon entering the towns after liberation, Ukrainian defenders discovered dozens of bodies of civilians bearing signs of torture. Bucha witnessed widespread human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and forced disappearances. Reports of mass graves and burned houses have emerged from the town, pointing towards a brutal campaign of violence against the civilian population. Unspeakable atrocities under the Russian occupation shook the world. Unfortunately, similar crime scenes were later discovered in Kharkiv, Kherson and other liberated areas that were under the Russian occupation.
The events in Bucha highlight the urgent need for the international community to take decisive action against the perpetrators of such crimes and to bring them to justice.
April HIGHLIGHTS
April 9 - Easter Sunday (USA). May your hearts be filled with the peace, warmth, and hope that this holiday offers. Happy Easter from US-Ukraine Foundation!
April 12 Start of the Russian military invasion in Donbas, 2014
April 12 The World Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics
Serhiy Korolyov: Ukrainian, not Russian
April 16 Easter Sunday (Ukraine)
April 16 Day of Gratitude to Volunteers
April 26 The Earth Day
April 26 Chornobyl Tragedy Commemoration Day
Krynytsya Podcasts
USUF is pleased to recommend to you the Krynytsya (The Well) podcast produced and hosted by USUF Advisory Board member Mike Buryk for the Ukrainian Weekly. This podcast series is focused on important contributions made by Ukrainians from around the globe in their effort to build a prosperous and innovative Ukrainian society. Since the Russo-Ukrainian war began on February 22, 2022, the podcast has featured interviews with people discussing topics related to the war. New episodes are released twice monthly. Enjoy!
Read More about Krynytsya Podcasts
