#77_1-8

DECEMBER 12, 2017 ISSUE No. 77 (1129) 

Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19, 

fax: +38(044) 303-94-20 

е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua; 

http://www.day.kiev.ua 

The year of the Hetmanate: 

we need to master 

unlearned lessons 

Photo by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day 

In 2018, Den intends to introduce 

its readers to a deeper 

understanding of the legacy 

of Pavlo Skoropadsky 

Continued on page 2 

Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day 

A NEW 

“The two countries 

converge in my house...” 

Den/The Day’s journalists have visited 

the Ukrainian village of Ryzhivka, which 

lies on the border with Russia, to find 

out how the lives of local people have 

changed after the war started 

Continued on page 4 

TURNContinued on page 2 

Marches in Kyiv, the trial of Mikheil Saakashvili, 

and a wave of political scandals: for whom and 

who is clearing a path in the Ukrainian politics?

2 

No.77 DECEMBER 12, 2017 

DAY AFTER DAY 

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA 

The year of the Hetmanate: 

weneedtomasterunlearnedlessons 

In 2018, Den intends to introduce its readers to a deeper 

understanding of the legacy of Pavlo Skoropadsky 

By Larysa IVSHYNA, 

Ihor SIUNDIUKOV, The Day 

Agood tradition of our newspaper, 

which started in 2009 

and has been, by the way, 

supported by our readers as 

well, has been to celebrate 

important, significant events, facts, 

abrupt turning points of national history 

throughout a certain 12-month period. 

Thus, the cycles of Den’s years were 

born; they have been mostly devoted to 

prominent figures in our history, culture, 

critical political or military events. For 

instance, 2009 was proclaimed by Den to 

be the year of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, 

2013 – the year of Volodymyr Monomakh, 

2014 – the year of Prince Vasyl 

Kostiantyn Ostrozky (to honor the 500th 

anniversary of the Battle of Orsha), 

2015 – the year of Yaroslav the Wise, 

2016 – the 20th anniversary of Den, 

and 2017 – the year of the Ukrainian 

Revolution and the 500th anniversary of 

the Reformation in Europe. 

We believe it is time to inform our 

readers what kind of year will be the coming 

year 2018 according to Den. We decided 

to proclaim it the 100th Anniversary 

of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky. 

There are good reasons for this, let us 

name just a few of them. Along with the 

“pure” romantics which every revolution 

gives rise to and which history needs as 

well, pragmatic state-builders are even 

more important to the nation, as they are 

focused on concrete, constructive work; 

without it, there is no historical progress. 

Skoropadsky, who ruled as Hetman of 

Ukraine from April 29 to December 14, 

1918, was precisely such a leader. During 

seven and a half months of his reign, 

he laid the foundation of many state institutions 

in the administrative, economic, 

military, diplomatic, scientific, 

and cultural realms. His work would 

have taken years upon years for some other 

leaders. And it was done in the conditions 

of a world war which lasted almost 

the whole period of the Hetmanate, and 

despite the mistakes committed by the 

Hetman’s government, which also need 

to be discussed and, most importantly, 

analyzed. The second reason is the incredibly 

interesting, talented people who 

supported the Hetman and stood by his 

side then: Viacheslav Lypynsky, Mykola 

Vasylenko, Fedir Lyzohub, Dmytro 

Doroshenko... Their legacy, too, must be 

carefully studied. And finally, the “matrix” 

of 1918 is still in many respects relevant 

(or even threatening!) now, and it 

also needs very careful attention. 

Hence, dear readers, we seem to 

have enough reasons to expound in detail, 

perhaps month after month, the events 

of 1918. Read Den/The Day next year! 

Continued from page1 ➤ 

Leader of the Movement of New 

Forces party and former President of 

Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili made an 

assurance in the courtroom of the 

Pecherskyi District Court on December 

11 that he was not interested in 

any confrontation and stressed that he 

did not call for “any drastic actions.” 

Still, his recent calls for overthrowing 

“the fat cat regime” certainly did not 

sound half-hearted. It is Saakashvili 

who has taken the most radical position 

regarding the president, which 

makes one wonder if some other forces 

are using him as a “protest bulldozer.” 

Let us recall that on December 11, 

the court held a hearing to determine 

a preventive measure for Saakashvili 

after his detention on December 8. 

The detained politician’s lawyer Ruslan 

Chornolutskyi stated that 10 MPs 

were ready to stand surety for 

Saakashvili. The Saakashvili team refused 

these offers, demanding that he 

be released without any reservations. 

The day before, a mass event occurred 

in Kyiv which saw people demanding 

the president to be impeached and 

Saakashvili to be released. Among 

other demands, the protesters traditionally 

called for a stop to obstruction 

of the National Anti-Corruption 

Bureau (NABU)’s activities and attempts 

to dismiss Artem Sytnyk from 

his office as head of the NABU. The 

themes of political reform and anticorruption 

court had somehow melted 

away among banners and flags. 

Let us recall that the first march 

on the government quarter, which 

launched a series of protests against 

the current government, took place on 

October 17. Then, party flags completely 

covered national ones, and the 

A NEW TURN 

Marches in Kyiv, the trial of Mikheil Saakashvili, 

and a wave of political scandals: for whom and 

who is clearing a path in the Ukrainian politics? 



Georgian Hercules 

“MIKHOMAIDAN,” DECEMBER 6, 2017 

In addition to the problems of 

sluggish reforms, inadequate 

corruption control, and war, we 

have one more headache – Mikheil 

Saakashvili. What is more, 

it is Ukraine’s leadership that created 

this problem. It does not matter 

whether it was Petro Poroshenko’s 

own idea to invite the ex-president of 

Georgia to Ukraine or somebody else 

persuaded him to do so – in any case 

it is the president who makes the 

final decision. Saakashvili’s first 

steps in Ukraine were much in the 

interests of the Ukrainian president. 

Poroshenko personally handed him a 

Ukrainian passport, then Saakashvili 

played the role of a “torpedo” against 

the president’s opponents, such as 

Hennadii Korban and Arsenii Yatseniuk, 

although the grassroots 

expected him to promote reforms in 

Ukraine. 

Saakashvili test 

But then things went awry. Either 

Saakashvili failed to get what 

he expected to in Ukraine, or somebody 

incited him to come out openly 

against those who had invited him, 

or the leadership no longer needed 

him, but Poroshenko withdrew 

Saakashvili’s passport. This caused 

as longtime face-off with all that 

this implies. What do we have as a 

result? 

➧ 

Devaluation of the institution of 

Ukrainian citizenship. 

➧ 

➧ 

➧ 

➧ 

The leadership has created a problem 

for itself. 

The use of law-enforcement bodies. 

The constant search for a messiah 

and Ukrainian society’s inability to 

self-analyze. 

It is high time to learn to bank on our 

own professionals. 

What are the conclusions? Here is 

the opinion of journalist Illia FE- 

DOSIEIEV. 

It is worthwhile to speak of the 

successes and failure of the “Georgian 

team” in Ukraine (let us further 

call it simply “the Georgians” for the 

sake of brevity) not only and not so 

much for the sake of this team. Something 

else is much more important: the 

history of this group of politicians or, to 

be more exact, administrators reflects 

very clearly the current state of 

Ukrainian society in both political and 

socioeconomic fields. 

The very emergence of this team is 

symbolic. The Revolution of Dignity 

was aimed above all against the ruling 

politicians who either represented or 

belonged to or even led certain oligarchic 

clans. But the revolution could not help 

but raise the inevitable question: who will 

replace them? Even Lenin, who did not 

exactly love elites, had to admit: any laborer 

or any cook is unable to rule the 

state. But somebody must rule it, especially 

if the situation is as dangerous as 

it was in Ukraine in 2014. 

“The Georgians” seemed to be ideal 

candidates for two reasons. Firstly, they 

were foreigners without any links with 

Ukrainian clans. This brings to mind the 

experience of medieval Italian communes, 

where the podesta (ruler) was usually 

elected from among people other than 

the citizens. It was to be an outlander who 

had neither relatives, nor friends, and nor 

enemies in the commune and therefore (at 

least in theory) was impartial and unbiased. 

In a word – just a hired manager 

like “the Georgians” in Ukraine. 

Besides, the Georgian managers had 

successful experience of transformations 

in their country – the transformations 

Ukraine so much awaited. It would 

have been a sin not to use this experience. 

“The Georgians” were sort of a collective 

Hercules at the time, who was supposed 

to clean the Ukrainian Augean stables 

which, let us be frank, stank a lot. 

Now, in December 2017, the stables 

are still far from being clean, but 

they are definitely cleaner than they 

were three and a half years ago. But 

where is that Hercules? 

The ex-president of Georgia and 

then chief of the Odesa Oblast Administration, 

Saakashvili left his office more 

than a year ago, slamming the door. Let 

us recall what he said on leaving: 

“Avakov and Nasirov – the pillars of corruption 

– remain sitting in their chairs. 

In reality, the president personally supports 

two clans in Odesa oblast: the 

1990s-style criminal clan of Trukhanov 

and the Izmail-based corrupt clan of Urbanskyi.” 

In other words, they failed to 

hit it off, to put it mildly. He also failed 

to improve things in the region, for 

which both sides are blaming each other. 

Odesa police chief Giorgi Lortkipanidze 

also resigned together with Saakashvili. 

Six months before, First Deputy Minister 

of the Interior Eka Zguladze had resigned 

from office. She is the only “Georgian” 

who did it without a scandal – on the 

contrary, she said she was not going to 

stay in office for a long time because she 

had no political ambitions. It is also to her 

credit that she has made a major contribution 

to the formation of the Ukrainian 

national police which admittedly looks better 

than its Yanukovych-era predecessor, 

albeit it is still far from being ideal. 

Shortly before her, Public Health 

Minister Alexander Kvitashvili had been 

dismissed together with all members of the 

Yatseniuk cabinet. Although he worked 

no miracles in his office, he at least managed 

to seriously economize funds by reorganizing 

purchases of medicines 

through international organizations. 

A little earlier, Deputy Prosecutor 

General David Sakvarelidze, who had 

come into serious conflict with MPs, 

was also “given the boot.” This “outsider” 

tried to organize a contest-based appointment 

of local prosecutors, but he 

said Ukrainian clans had been pushing 

through their own people, while he himself 

lacked clout to hinder this. 

We could recall still more names ending 

with “dze” and “shvili,” but the conclusionisthesameinmostcases.Yes,acertain 

result was achieved, but… This Hercules 

was expected to perform not “some” 

but heroic labors. Why did he fail to do so? 

Take a rubber ball and press it. This 

will leave a dent, but once we ease the 

pressure, the dent will vanish and the ball 

will reassume its previous shape. The 

Ukrainian oligarchic clan system is no 

less resilient than this ball, and “the


DAY AFTER DAY No.77 DECEMBER 12, 2017 3 

participants of the march could not 

always accurately explain the motives 

behind it. Some of those who 

position themselves as protest leaders 

did not appear on a specially 

equipped stage in Independence 

Square this time. It should be noted 

that the number of protesters increases 

each time (it reached 10,000 

on this latest occasion), and the 

protest itself has found its expression 

in logos and other symbols, 

which can be reduced to one word – 

“impeachment.” 

● LEGAL AND MORAL SIDES 

The fact that the opposition 

forces are unable to wait for a year 

and a half before the next election 

comes and are already talking about 

“impeachment” (not just about the 

law on impeachment, but the actual 

impeachment) proves that this is 

not about the legal procedure at all. 

It is all about the fact that the presidential 

campaign has already begun. 

Meanwhile, appealing to the 

“ideals of the Maidan,” the Heavenly 

Hundred, and calls “Kyiv, arise!” 

are just irresponsible while the aggressor 

wants to show the world 

that there is a “civil conflict” in 

Ukraine. The recent conflict between 

the Prosecutor General’s Office 

(PGO) and the NABU has further 

added fuel to the fire, giving 

new reasons to speak about the 

“corrupt government” which is 

combating “our only hope for a European 

future.” The latter is how 

the NABU was described by the 

crowd on December 10. In general, 

it should be noted that the protest 

has already engendered automatic 

accusations in people’s minds, 

which means that stage politicians 

Georgians,” who were outsiders and had 

no serious organized structures to rely 

on, proved to be unable to exert the necessary 

pressure. 

But there still is a demand for this 

pressure. We must admit: now, three and 

a half years after the Revolution of Dignity, 

the problems that provoked this revolution 

have been solved only to a small 

extent. The clan system still remains, and 

even President Petro Poroshenko, with 

all due respect for him, is part and parcel 

of this system. Of course, this “part 

and parcel” itself does not matter much. 

Count de Mirabeau and Marquis de 

Lafayette were part and parcel of the old 

absolutist France, but this did not prevent 

them from becoming leaders of the 

Great French Revolution. The question 

is whether the old structure is being ruined 

and a new one, which meets the demands 

of society, is being built. Ukraine 

is taking steps in this direction, but 

they are not very big so far. 

Squeezed out of governmental offices, 

“the Georgians” have not at all disappeared 

from the Ukrainian political 

space. They are here, they are only waiting 

for being called. For there is nobody 

else to be called – all the others are part 

of the previous Kuchma-Yanukovych 

system, and their coming to power will 

make no major changes. “The Georgians” 

are very well aware of this, for they are 

no novices in politics. The Ukrainians, on 

their part, know that “the Georgians” are 

in no way disinterested saints who are prepared 

to sacrifice their lives for the common 

good but just out-of-system figures 

who know how to manage. And nothing 

else is required from them. 

Their time has not yet come but is 

perhaps coming up. The latest events provide 

grounds for this presumption. Nobody 

but the leadership itself is pushing 

the developments in this direction. 

The encampment set up by Saakashvili 

and his supporters near the Verkhovna 

Rada could have provoked until recently 

either a sympathizing sigh or a 

spiteful grin, depending on political 

views. The leaders the Euromaidan catapulted 

to power could retain their positions, 

while the opposition of any kind 

could remain marginal until society 

reached the “flash point.” In other words, 

there is so far no radical contradiction between 

the expectations of this society and 

the actions of the government. For more 

details about this divergence, see the article 

“Euromaidan” in Wikipedia. 

are finding appealing to the crowd 

easier by the day. “No to political 

repression!”, “Anti-corruption 

fight!”, “The government kills patriots!”, 

“Fat cats to prisons!”, and 

already classic “Off with the 

gang!” – these polite slogans (for 

there were obscene ones as well) 

have found a fertile ground. However, 

the aforementioned words 

“Kyiv, arise!” do sound strange, to 

put it mildly, when uttered by 

Saakashvili’s wife. Is she really entitled 

to call for an uprising in a 

foreign country? 

In turn, the government, whose 

policies regarding the accumulation 

of professional personnel cannot be 

called successful, has resorted to 

quite crude and primitive use of lawenforcement 

agencies against its opponents. 

And worst of all for it, the 

one against whom these actions are 

aimed is easily using a wave of the 

government’s mistakes as an experienced 

political surfer who wants to 

speed up. The damaged van of the 

Security Service of Ukraine, unsuccessful 

attempts to detain the politician, 

and Saakashvili’s exploits on 

the roof have created the main thing 

he needs – a nice picture. Meanwhile, 

his latest detention on December 

8 made the role of the law-enforcement 

system in the person of 

Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko 

even more questionable. Saakashvili 

himself even said in the courtroom 

that the prosecutor whom Lutsenko 

sent for him deceived him. According 

to the detainee, the prosecutor 

assured him that nobody would detain 

him, as he was only being invited 

for a talk. 

By Valentyn TORBA, The Day 

As Saakashvili was seized and then 

freed, the situation reached a new level. 

In Ukraine, the opposition can only remain 

funny, absurd, and totally uninteresting 

until the government begins to 

apply force to it. And, once applied, violence 

begets retaliatory violence. There 

would have been no Euromaidan had it 

not been for the Berkut riot police. Likewise, 

the Verkhovna Rada plaza remained 

almost empty for a month and a 

half. But when this writer visited it in the 

evening of December 5, he found a big 

crowd of resolutely-minded people there. 

Is it likely that this resoluteness 

will produce no result and there will be no 

new Maidan? Yes, it is. “The Georgians,” 

including those who have Ukrainian citizenship, 

might as well remain respectable 

people, albeit without major political 

clout. This requires just a trifle: the 

Revolution of Dignity should be brought 

to a logical end – it is necessary to break 

the oligarchic system, eradicate corruption, 

establish true democracy, and do all 

the other things the Maidan people came 

out for. If the Ukrainian Eurystheus 

manages to do what he is expected to, 

Hercules will not be needed. 

Otherwise, Ukrainian society will 

soon have a very strong demand for 

politicians who are not linked to any oligarchic 

clans but are educated and experienced 

enough to rule the country. In 

all probability, there will be a lot of people 

other than “the Georgians,” who can 

deliver the goods, but the latter are still 

on top of the list. 

And can it be differently? Any revolution 

is, above all, a bid to resolve the 

problems the society faces. If one ruling 

team fails to resolve them, it is replaced 

with the second, third, fourth, and so on, 

one until the job is done. “The Georgians” 

are now pressing the current leadership 

in the back, subtly hinting that they 

will do the job better. But once they get 

the reins of power, someone else will soon 

be standing behind their backs. 

It is far from certain that the current 

political face-off will result in this kind 

of changes. But even if it results in 

nothing, the root causes of it will remain 

behind and make themselves felt tomorrow, 

in a week’s or in a month’s time. 

For the point is not in “the Georgians.” 

The point is in the current 

Ukrainian leadership and system. As 

one of the greats said, if you don’t solve 

a problem, the problem will solve you. 

By Illia FEDOSIEIEV 

Trump makes a decision 

By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day 

Donald Trump 

has decided to move 

the Embassy in 

Israel to Jerusalem. 

USPresident 

“Today, we finally 

acknowledge the obvious: that 

Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is 

nothing more or less than a 

recognition of reality,” CNN quotes 

Trump as saying. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

said it is a “historic, bold, 

and fair” step. Meanwhile, Palestine’s 

leader Mahmoud Abbas noted that 

“the Palestinians have lost confidence 

in the Americans as objective mediators 

in the Middle East,” and the 

Palestinian Sunni-Islamic movement 

HAMAS announced that “Trump 

opened ‘the gates of hell’ on US interests 

in the region,” Deutsche Welle reports. 

Most leaders of the European and 

Middle Eastern countries have also reacted 

negatively to this decision. 

The Day requested some experts 

to comment on the consequences of 

Trump’s decision for the Middle 

East. 

● “TRUMP IS REINFORCING 

IRAN’S POSITION WITH HIS 

OWN HANDS” 

Viacheslav SHVED, chief, Asia and 

Africa history section, Institute 

of World History, National Academy 

of Sciences, Ukraine: 

“Donald Trump has made an absolutely 

ill-considered, unbalanced, 

and venturesome decision. It will 

have a very negative effect on the 

Middle East situation in general and 

the Middle East peace process in particular. 

■ “Firstly, there is absolutely no 

logic in the US president’s actions, 

for he previously set a goal to form a 

strong anti-Iranian coalition. He 

must clearly understand that, to do 

so, he should, above all, reach a 

certain agreement with the Arab 

world which is very sensitive to such 

an old problem as Palestinian-Israeli 

conflict. He ought to understand that 

this is likely to trigger a very 

negative reaction of the Arab-Islamic 

world and cause this coalition to 

break up or at least to weaken 

seriously. In other words, Trump is 

reinforcing Iran’s positions with his 

own hands. I think the Supreme 

Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, is 

rubbing his hands in delight, for he 

Experts comment on the news that the 

US will move its embassy to Jerusalem 

has received such a nice gift from the 

US president. 

■ “Secondly, the latest public 

opinion polls show that only a third of 

Americans believe that Jerusalem 

should be recognized as capital of 

Israel and the US embassy should be 

moved to this city. In other words, the 

vast majority of Americans oppose 

this decision. 

■ “Thirdly, we can see that US 

major allies in the West have taken a 

negative attitude to this decision: the 

UK, France, Italy, and Sweden have 

made it clear that they do not support 

it. British Foreign Secretary Boris 

Johnson said bluntly that his country 

is not going to move its embassy to 

Jerusalem. The EU commissioner in 

charge of foreign policy, Federica 

Mogherini, announced that the EU will 

be trying to make Palestine and Israel 

reach a peace agreement which will lead 

to establishing a durable peace. UN 

Secretary General Antonio Guterres 

has also taken a negative attitude to 

this decision, not to mention the 

reaction of Muslim world leaders. 

“Why did this happen? The Arab- 

Muslim world is sharply divided today 

because a bitter struggle is underway 

in the Middle East between the two regional 

forces – Saudi Arabia and Iran. 

In the whirlpool of this struggle, the 

Palestinian problem has receded to the 

background. The current foreign-policy 

strategy of Saudi Arabia shows that 

Iran is the main enemy. The Saudis 

have even opted for considerable rapprochement 

with Israel in order to establish 

a broad anti-Iranian front. 

This is one of the serious reasons why 

Trump chose to make this decision. 

“This decision reflects very clearly 

the very essence of Trump’s approach 

to thorny foreign- and homepolicy 

problems – to shoot from the 

hip without thinking of the consequences. 

“US analysts are also asking themselves 

a different question. Indeed, 

Trump is fulfilling one of his main 

pre-election promises – to move the 

embassy to Jerusalem and recognize 

the city as capital of Israel. Why not 

then raise the question of East 

Jerusalem being the capital of the future 

Palestinian state? This would be 

at least fair and would not touch off 

such a big wave of indignation. This 

would lead to a more unworried discussion 

of the final peace agreement 

between Palestine and Israel. 

“As for Ukraine’s position in this 

matter, we are perhaps not supposed 

to directly appraise President 

Trump’s decision. But we should emphasize 

that Ukraine is taking the following 

attitude to the Palestinian-Israeli 

conflict and the Middle East 

peace process: there should be a twostate-based 

solution of this problem, 

with due account of the fact that the 

borders between Israel and the future 

Palestinian state must be the same as 

they were in June 1967, before the 

seizure, while East Jerusalem must be 

returned to Palestine. This has always 

been Ukraine’s official position in this 

very complicated issue.” 

● “THE COST OF SUCH 

A DECISION WILL BE 

MINIMAL” 

REUTERS photo 

Adrian KARATNYCKY, senior research 

fellow, US Atlantic Council; Myrmidon 

Group LLC, Washington D.C.: 

“I believe this is a proper and 

strong move. Israel is a loyal ally of 

the US and the US has a special relationship 

with Israel, the only democracy, 

in the Middle East. 

“I see few negative consequences 

from the decision. While it may temporarily 

raise the temperature of 

Palestinian radicals, I do not believe it 

will lead to an upsurge in anti-US terrorism 

for several reasons. 

“First, Islamist radicalism is so 

fanatical that in the form of ISIS, it is 

already committed to an unrelenting 

war against the non-Islamic world. 

“Second, Shia Islam is in a tense 

standoff with Sunni Islam for dominance 

in the middle east. The US and 

its support are crucial to the stability 

and security of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, 

and other Sunni majority. 

“Simply put, such states cannot 

afford to worsen relations with the 

US. Moreover, the US is already in a 

tense relationship with Iran and 

countries in its sphere of influence. 

In short, no major shift in relationships 

with the countries in the Middle 

East is possible. Therefore, the 

cost of such a decision will be minimal 

in my view.”

4 


TOPIC OF THE DAY 


By Vadym LUBCHAK, photos 

by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day 

a half of my house looking 

to Russia” – with these words, 

80-year-old resident of the 

border village of Ryzhivka, 

“Ihave 

Bilopillia raion of Sumy oblast, 

Halyna Hudilina met Den/The Day’s 

journalists and immediately invited us to 

go inside the house. “Guys, go here, please. 

This is my bedroom which looks to Russia... 

You can see the border fence, barbed 

wire... Look out the window: the two 

countries converge directly in my house 

and in my kitchen garden.” 

Having returned from the anti-terrorist 

operation area and described in detail 

in a series of photo reports the peculiar 

features of life in frontline cities and villages, 

Den/The Day’s journalists decided 

to visit the border with the aggressor 

country, Russia, in order to see firsthand 

how people were living, what they were 

thinking, and what problems they were encountering 

in villages that are literally one 

house away from the border with the country 

that is waging war on us. 

Hudilina’s house is the last on the 

Ukrainian side of the border. Literally in 

front of it, there is a Ukrainian border 

checkpoint, and then you enter the town of 

Tyotkino, Glushkovo District, Kursk Region. 

“Our Druzhby (Friendship) Street, 

Ryzhivka village, goes smoothly to the 

Russian Tyotkino railway station. In the 

Soviet era, it was decided to transfer a portion 

of this street to the village of Tyotkino. 

It was renamed Pogranichnaya (Border) 

Street,” Hudilina told us. “We did not understand 

the map then. It was the Soviet 

Union, Ukraine was here all the time, and 

Russia was there. But all locals had the 

right to cross the border freely. And even 

after Ukraine’s independence, the border 

was a formality to an extent. It did exist, 

of course, but we lived as one village. All 

of us are their relatives here, and there all 

are ours. Ukrainian children went to school 

in Russian Tyotkino, and went outdoor 

here and there; many of us worked there. 

But after the war started, Ukraine closed 

our village border crossing, the one that 

was in front of my gate. Absolutely for 

everyone, including locals. As soon as the 

border was closed, troubles began. Tell this 

to the authorities in Kyiv: here in the village, 

we cry for days due to the checkpoint 

being closed, and Russians cry as well... I 

cannot even go to the store. I used to go for 

bread to the Russian store which is less 

than 50 steps away. And now I have, despite 

my health conditions, to walk more 

than a kilometer; a girl has a sick immobilized 

mother living there, and a man has 

his wife cut off there.” 

“You see, there is no family in the village 

that has no relatives in the village of 

Tyotkino or a bit further in Russia,” we 

heard again, this time from Ryzhivka’s 

representative in the Bilopillia Raion 

Council Volodymyr Viduiev. He kindly 

agreed to accompany us in the village, because 

he knows the local issues well. “I personally 

have two cousins residing in 

Tyotkino. Earlier, when the pedestrian 

border crossing was open, our people 

moved freely provided they carried a passport 

and had a local registration, they 

went to Russia to visit their relatives, to the 

“The two countries 

converge in my house...” 

Den/The Day’s journalists have visited the Ukrainian village of 

Ryzhivka, which lies on the border with Russia, to find out how 

the lives of local people have changed after the war started 

store, to work... Meanwhile, people of Tyotkino 

all went to our Bilopillia raion to the 

bazaar, because foodstuffs are cheaper 

here. The pedestrian border crossing is 

completely closed. This was a Ukrainian initiative, 

the official explanation being that 

it would prevent the enemy’s sabotage 

teams from infiltrating. Now people are 

forced to go by car through the Ryzhivka 

vehicle border crossing. They go five kilometers 

from the village to the border 

crossing, and then another five to seven 

kilometers to the Russian town’s center. 

And as a result, Grandma Hudilina has to 

cover 15 kilometers to see a neighbor, and 

she loses time at the checkpoints...” 

On hearing that the raion councilor 

mentioned one of the reasons for the closure 

of the border crossing – the need to prevent 

infiltration of sabotage teams from the 

Russian Federation – Hudilina interrupted 

him: “Listen, the Ukrainian border 

crossing here is manned by such committed 

Banderaites, they are strong and healthy 

and will never let in any unwanted visitor, 

no matter how much money they might be 

offered. Even a mouse could not slip 

through, much less an enemy. And should 

they really need to go through, do you really 

think that they will do it in the very center 

of our village, through the official 

checkpoint? If so, they might do it just as 

well with Russian flags unfurled and drums 

beating. Those who need to ‘infiltrate’ 

will do so, as they have the whole border to 

choose a location. While our leaders in Kyiv 

are politicking, we cannot even visit our 

dead. We share a cemetery with Russians 

as well. As for the war you have mentioned, 

I will tell you this: America should 

keep its hands off this country. Our rulers 

have sold out to the US, that is all the truth 

I know.” And when we asked her about it, 

the grandmother made it clear that she 

watched Russian TV channels, although 

Ukrainian ones were available as well. 

“While there was a checkpoint in the 

village, the Sumy-Ryzhivka bus went here 

three times a day. It was a convenient 

route. Now it does not run on Monday at 

all, and only two times a day on other days. 

The number of passengers has fallen a lot. 

Before, Russians went to our bazaar, or 

just obtained services here, in our pharmacies, 

hospitals, gas stations,” added 

raion councilor Viduiev. 

We left Hudilina’s house and went 

along Druzhby Street to the center, to the 

village council office. Having noticed journalists 

with a camera, local resident Serhii 

approached us, and village children came 

running. “Write the truth, tell them that 

the checkpoint is the main problem. Even 

our children ran here and there to play. And 

many families are a Russian woman and 

her Ukrainian husband, or vice versa. 

Now they are divided. Understand, please, 

it was not Russia that closed the border, but 

we, Ukraine. And then Russia got offended 

and put up the fence,” said the man. “My 

wife is from Tyotkino and all her relatives 

live there. Now she is sick in the hospital, 

and her sisters cannot even visit her, because 

they are Russian and do not have international 

passports.” 

We drove past the village soccer stadium. 

“Our soccer team is ranked third or 

fourth in the whole raion, but when the ball 

lands on the Russian side of the fence, it is 

as good as lost, and we have to buy a new 

one,” said Viduiev, and showed us the 

way to the village council office. A poster 

with portraits of Ukraine’s fallen defenders 

hangs on the wall just several hundred 

meters from Russia, inside the village 

council office. This is the first thing that 

immediately catches the eye, followed by 

the opened door to the local library that is 

under one roof with the village council. 

“I have written letters to everyone: 

MPs, the Cabinet of Ministers, the oblast 

council, the raion council... All have answered 

with formal replies stating that 

‘you have another checkpoint less than 

10 kilometers from the village, the Ryzhivka 

vehicle border crossing.’ But getting 

there takes at least two hours. Our checkpoint 

was established primarily for the local 

residents of the two countries, living in 

Glushkovo and Bilopillia districts. Now we 

ask the authorities to reactivate it for 

two villages at least, separated by one 

street – Ryzhivka and Tyotkino,” said 

chairman of the Ryzhivka Village Council 

Oleksandr Chekh. “Aunt Hudilina, whom 

you already saw, is our star. She told you 

YOU CAN’T TRAVEL TO RUSSIA BY TRAIN HERE – THE RAILWAY SERVICE WAS STOPPED


TOPIC OF THE DAY No.77 DECEMBER 12, 2017 5 

N 2014 

about what really is our main problem – 

the need to open the border. Yes, the 

war is going on, and the shells are 

bursting as we speak... But one’s mother 

remains the mother, and brothers are 

still brothers. And when someone lived 

in an adjacent street all his life, and now 

he cannot visit his neighbors, it is not 

right. There are very close family ties 

here. Moreover, when a brother will be 

able to come to his brother and tell him 

that nobody eats people in Ukraine, this 

will contribute to our information warfare 

efforts. But as things stand, everybody 

sees Russian TV saying insane 

things about us, while the people themselves, 

us locals, are faced with the fact 

that Ukraine does not hear its citizens... 

By the way, the village council 

maintains the Ukrainian border crossing, 

we pay for its power supply... we 

help it by donating fuel wood and buying 

equipment. We are still clinging to 

the hope that we will reopen it. For the 

time being, they only open the passage 

to us two times a year – on Easter and 

May 9, when people gather to commemorate 

relatives.” 

We asked him, what the popular 

mood was? 

“The need to open the crossing for 

the locals at least and repair the roads – 

these are our two problems. They do not 

understand this in Kyiv. Families 

should not be separated. As for the 

road, it is an international one, and last 

time it was repaired was in 2012. The 

village itself, on the other hand, is 

connected to a gas pipeline, there is 

mains water, all local roads are paved. 

As for politics, I will tell you this: people 

watch both Ukrainian and Russian 

TV channels, and compare who says 

what, and then we try to figure it out. 

Also we read a lot, though we are only 

planning to subscribe to Den.” The village 

mayor shows us the library. It is 

warm and comfortable, and its holdings 

are considerable for a village. 

“In our border village, people are 

interested in romance novels and detectives. 

They love to read about history 

as well. Although we have few books 

about history, in particular about the 

modern one,” said the librarian Natalia 

Vashchenko. “Overall, we have 4,752 

books. Thank you for giving us a copy 

of the book ‘The Trap,’ or A Case without 

a Statute of Limitations from Den’s 

Library series. We will have 4,753 

books now.” 

While we were leaving the library 

and walking to the car, a local girl ran 

up to us. “Are you really from a newspaper? 

Write about me. My grandma is 

76. She cannot walk and lives alone. 

And we have to drive up to 30 kilometers 

every day, while she is just several 

hundred meters away directly across 

the border,” the girl, named Svitlana, 

was a little excited. She believed that 

publishing her story in the newspaper 

would help. “Look, my mother is Russian 

from Tyotkino, and my father is 

Ukrainian from Ryzhivka. Mother 

worked here throughout her life, while 

father worked there. This is the specific 

feature of border villages. And one 

should not try to tear us apart, it needs 

to be understood.” 

A PASS FROM THE BOSS 

By Ivan KAPSAMUN, 

Valentyn TORBA, The Day 

The conflict between the National 

Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine 

(NABU) and the Prosecutor 

General’s Office of Ukraine (GPU) 

has been increasingly smoldering 

for a longtime and exploded in the past 

few weeks. The two sides began to 

exchange scathing accusations, open 

criminal cases against each other, use 

special-purpose units, and conduct 

searches. What is more, some other 

institutions have joined the face-off – 

SAP (Special Anticorruption Prosecuting 

Office), SBU (Security Service of 

Ukraine), NAZK (National Agency for 

the Prevention of Corruption)… A juicy 

scandal, in a word. 

It is difficult for society to make out 

all these abbreviations, let alone grasp 

the very essence. The essence is that 

Ukrainians have not yet learned to observe 

rules and are using state-run, in 

this case law-enforcement, bodies in political 

face-offs. Even if we take into account 

that Artur Herasymov and 

Makdym Burbak, Petro Poroshenko 

Bloc and People’s Front faction leaders, 

respectively, registered in a frantic rush 

a draft law that allows the Verkhovna 

Rada to express no confidence in the directors 

of the State Bureau of Investigations 

(DBR), the SAP, the NABU, and 

a NAZK member, which carries dismissal 

from office, we can conclude 

from this that the leadership is on one 

side of this confrontation because these 

largest factions form the parliamentary 

majority. This bill was to have 

been discussed in Thursday, but it was 

soon struck off the agenda. 

“These are perhaps my last days in 

office,” NABU Director Artem SYT- 

NYK said recently at the Global Real Assets 

Forum in Washington. “The parliament 

of Ukraine has registered a bill 

that makes it possible to dismiss the Anticorruption 

Bureau chief, in fact facilitates 

the procedure of a dismissal, 

and allows dismissing for political reasons. 

And the political reasons are very 

simple – not all in Ukraine like it that 

somebody thoroughly investigates into 

corruption schemes, really freezes assets, 

and really intends to bring them 

back to Ukraine.” 

On the other side of the confrontation 

are the newly-established structures (albeit 

not all of them: the NAZK is perhaps 

off this list) and their heads, some MPs, 

the so-called anti-corruptionists and 

Euro-optimists, and public activists. 

This face-off would perhaps not be so eyecatching 

if the West did not support the 

An MP: “Both the Anticorruption Bureau and the Prosecutor 

General’s Office are supposed to serve state interests” 

latter. Both the US and the EU have already 

expressed their opinion about this. 

“Recent events – including the disruption 

of a high-level corruption investigation, 

the arrest of officials from 

the National Anti-Corruption Bureau 

of Ukraine (NABU), and the seizure of 

sensitive NABU files – raise concerns 

about Ukraine’s commitment to fighting 

corruption,” a US State Department 

statement says. “These actions appear to 

be part of an effort to undermine independent 

anticorruption institutions... 

They undermine public trust and risk 

eroding international support for 

Ukraine.” 

“NABU, to which the UK has invested 

significant resources, is an extremely 

important link in the anti-corruption 

mechanism in Ukraine and has 

made significant progress in its development 

and investigation. Recent 

events, in particular, interference in 

the investigation of the NABU and the 

exposure of its agents under cover, is a 

worrying sign that threatens the future 

of independent anti-corruption investigations,” 

the UK Foreign Office 

spokesperson said. 

As practice shows, Ukrainians never 

learned not to wash their dirty linen in 

public. They quarrel for everybody, for 

the whole civilized world, to hear. Indeed, 

Ukraine needs Western assistance, but is 

Western support for Ukraine always 

adequate? This requires an in-depth understanding 

of Ukrainian realities. So far 

we can see, for example, world politicians 

visit the Viktor Pinchuk-organized YES 

forum and shake hands with Ukraine’s 

ex-president Leonid Kuchma. They may 

be unaware of all nuances in the contemporary 

history of Ukraine, when, 

during the presidency of the latter, this 

country saw the formation of oligarchic 

clans and, accordingly, the corruption octopus 

against which the Europeans themselves 

are urging us to fight. Is Washington 

really capable of unraveling the 

tangle of the interests of certain forces 

in Ukraine? 

“The US has enough information to 

make a general picture of Ukraine, public 

activist Oleksii TOLKACHOV comments 

to The Day. “Washington can see 

that Kyiv’s political establishment is inadequate 

and unable to carry out highquality 

effective reforms. Therefore, to 

have Ukraine as a reliable partner, the US 

needs as many auxiliary entities as possible 

to encourage our inadequate establishment. 

The NABU and the demand to 

establish the Anticorruption Court are the 

instruments of influence by means of 

which the US and the international community 

are trying to put our topmost 

leadership, i.e., the president, parliament, 

state-run businesses, as well as 

budgetary flows, within some controlled 

and adequate framework. The current 

NABU-related and Saakashvili-related 

conflicts are tarnishing the remnants of 

the Ukrainian officials and politicians’ 

reputation. It is suicide of the Ukrainian 

politicians in power in the eyes of our international 

partners. The West may very 

soon show a ‘red card’ to Poroshenko, the 

BPP, and most of the parties in parliament 

for this and provoke if not the early 

elections then a very tough scenario of 

the scheduled presidential race.” 

What is the essence of the face-off between 

the NABU and the GPU? “Obviously, 

we can say nothing about the effectiveness 

of anticorruption bodies in 

the current situation,” Oleksandr 

BANCHUK, an expert at the Center of 

Political and Legal Reforms, comments 

to The Day. “The president says it is necessary 

to establish the High Anticorruption 

Court which will exclusively 

handle the cases investigated by the 

NABU in coordination with the GPU. 

Nevertheless, we cannot say that the 

NABU’s performance was totally ineffective 

– this institution helped regain almost 

750-million-hryvnia-worth public 

funds. So, I think the NABU has worked 

off the budgetary expenses spent on it. 

But it is, of course, interesting for society 

to know who has after all received 

a concrete punishment for these crimes. 

In other words, people need names and 

Photo by Andrii NESTERENKO 

XIX INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 

PHOTO — - 2017 

Why this country is losing 

trials. I would like these cases to be 

heard in trial courts, but it is impossible 

in our conditions. So, the High Anticorruption 

Court is needed. Undoubtedly, 

certain forces in Ukraine are trying to use 

law-enforcement bodies as instruments 

for domestic political struggle. It is 

hardly a normal thing, but the problem 

is that there is a struggle but there are no 

names of the concrete people who have 

been punished for their crimes. Yet the 

situation, when internal struggle results 

in blocking certain institutions, is 

not unique for Ukraine.” 

“I am a harsh critic of all the presentday 

anticorruption bodies – there are lots 

of them, but they have failed to achieve 

at least one striking result,” MP Vitalii 

KUPRII comments to The Day. “On the 

other hand, we can also see inactivity of 

the prosecutor general. I have also complaints 

about the SBU. I can arrive at only 

one conclusion in this situation: there 

is not a single honest top law-enforcement 

official in Ukraine. Both the NABU 

and the GPU are supposed to serve state 

interests. In my view, they should not 

have made their disputes public. Artem 

Sytnyk has done nothing in the past two 

years to submit bills that would legislatively 

streamline a number of corruption 

control methods. Lutsenko took advantage 

of this, and he is formally right. On 

the other hand, the GPU reform is also 

being blocked. Unfortunately, this chaos 

is of benefit to the president, but he just 

doesn’t understand that it will ‘eat him 

up’ at a certain moment.” 

Kuprii also adds: “As for whether it 

is worthwhile to vote for dismissing Sytnyk, 

I will say bluntly: I will not vote because 

this can eliminate even the small 

and fragile effect, without which the 

president of Ukraine will finally usurp 

power. What we need is a sound competition 

for at least some system of 

checks and balances. If a certain side 

commits crimes during a pretrial investigation, 

they will be punished sooner 

or later. I think the leadership has obviously 

got carried away, playing with 

both sides.”

6 


CLOSE UP 


By Liudmyla LUTYTSKA, Kharkiv 

Den’s 19th International Photo 

Exhibit has been open for a week already 

and has harvested a lot of grateful 

reactions: for being truthful and 

brave and for helping open society’s 

eyes to the developments in the country. 

And also, for giving hope. This is 

exactly what student Hanna Pereiaslavska, 

a prosecutor to be, noticed 

among the photos that provoke tears 

and despair. 

“The exhibit made an unforgettable 

impression on me. It shows moments 

of grief and suffering, but it also 

suggests that, despite our cruel reality 

and the dramatic events in 

Ukraine, our fellow countrymen still 

hope for the better, whatever might 

happen. My favorite among all the pictures 

in this exhibit is Dmytro Desiateryk’s 

work Heavenly Obolon. From 

the first glance it is just your usual 

cityscape, a residential neighborhood 

with standard apartment blocks, not 

too bright, the typical sight we come 

across on a daily basis. We live in this 

sadness, and sometimes you just feel 

like bursting out: ‘Oh my God, I’m totally 

fed up with these joyless 

cityscapes, I’m fed up with this grayness!” 

But against this prosaic backdrop 

we see a bird which, it seems to 

me, augurs hope,” said Pereiaslavska 

sharing her impressions. “Our Ukrainian 

mentality is to always hope for 

the better. Even looking at the pictures 

from the ATO zone, in everyone’s 

eyes there I see hope for the better. 

And all in all, we must be grateful 

to our troops whom we see in these 

photos. We look at them, we see that 

they do not give up no matter what, 

and this should inspire us.” 

“In everyone’s eyes I spot a spark of hope” 

Den’s photo exhibit in Kharkiv attracts visitors and emotions 

Pereiaslavska came to the exhibit 

with some friends who also shared 

their impressions from the display. 

Regina Savchenko, a sophomore at the 

Investigative Criminology Institute at 

the Yaroslav the Wise National Law 

University, admits she is not really 

emotional. Yet Den’s photo exhibit 

stirred feelings inside which she wanted 

to share. 

Photo by the author 

“The ATO theme is very painful 

for me because my mom comes from 

Donbas, all my family come from 

there, my close friends were killed in 

the ATO. I was very much moved by 

the series “Heroes’ Games” by Andrii 

Nesterenko. Probably because it 

shows how shallow our everyday 

problems are compared to the problems 

of those who survived that hell 

and still keep fighting, doing something 

in order to go on living. I was 

also particularly impressed by Yurii 

Velychko’s photo The Svitlodarsk 

Salient. It shows the immense loyalty 

of animals, they remain with us till 

the very last moment,” Savchenko 

muses. “Some pictures are hard to 

look at. I am a person who is not used 

to showing my emotions readily. But 

it is necessary, because without such 

exhibits people might overlook that 

what a photographer will notice. The 

first photos I saw on the display here 

were about politics, and I was bored. 

But when I saw the war pictures, pain 

squeezed my heart.” 

Student Viktoria Kukhtina is an 

amateur of artistic photography. She 

confesses that next year she will also 

try to participate in Den’s photo contest. 

She thinks there are too little 

contests of this scale in our country. 

“These pictures move you with their 

genuineness. The emotions are sincere, 

they are not staged. That is why 

these shots stir tears and despair,” 

goes on Kukhtina. “My absolute favorite 

is Maksym Kudymets’s Infinity. 

This is an infinity symbol left by a 

car. I do not know why, but I am very 

much impressed by this one. Maybe 

because I love genuine photos, 

unique, not similar to others. More- 

“An astonishing amount 

of historical facts and curiosities” 

Photo from Viktoria BISKUB’s Facebook page 

By Olha KHARCHENKO, The Day 

The second, additional print of 

Den’s recent new publication 

The Crown, or Heritage of the 

Rus’ Kingdom is about to be 

sold out – and less than in three 

months, for we presented the book at 

the Publishers’ Forum in September! 

The Crown attracts various audiences, 

professionally and geographically. 

For instance, a former metallurgy 

worker from Zaporizhia Viktor 

Monakh noticed the book after reading 

a review by a person he considers 

an authority on a range of subjects, 

Vitalii Skotsyk, in social networks. 

“The title evoked my curiosity from 

the very start,” shares Monakh and 

adds that the book reads very fast. 

“My family are lining up for it: the 

theme is really burning, I have shown 

The Crown to my grandchildren (and 

I have nine!) and said: this is what 

you will need when you go to school.” 

Vladyslav Zaitsev, coordinator at 

the Kyiv Dialog (a civic German- 

Ukrainian platform launched in Ukraine 

in 2005) in Mariupol, says that 

he is enthusiastic about history and 

tries to buy all the books on the history 

of Ukraine which are printed by 

Ukrainian publishers. He also notes 

his “very positive impressions” left by 

the book. “A very nice trend to see history 

unfolding not in the ‘village and 

folklore’ format, but in a nobler one,” 

says Zaitsev. 

And so, dear readers, we invite 

you to a remote discussion of this extremely 

topical book which, by telling 

What makes The Crown, or Heritage 

of the Rus’ Kingdom so popular? 

the stories of the past, helps find the 

paths to a worthy future. 

● “IT IS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT 

AND TOUCH” 

Andrii BOCHAROV, designer, blogger, 

and traveler: 

“I love reading, which comes as 

no surprise in a son of a librarian, and 

I have a couple of dozens of books on 

my Kindle. Yet I still love ‘live’ 

books, I love to walk in a bookstore, 

in Ukraine and abroad, thumb 

through a book and admire impressive 

covers. Some books, luckily or 

not, hardly ever get on Kindle. Some 

due to their incompatible formats 

(various albums, guides etc., where 

color is of utmost importance); others 

because their e-versions were originally 

not envisaged. Often it is local 

literature. And here is one of such examples. 

“The Crown, or Heritage of the 

Rus’ Kingdom is a solid, substantial 

book. I love this kind of books. It is 

love at first sight and touch. A calm, 

reserved cover, feels nice, good print. 

In older days such books were used to 

decorate home libraries because they 

emanated good quality. And good 

quality it is. First of all, concerning 

the content. What an astonishing 

amount of historical facts and curiosities! 

At a certain moment you start 

feeling an ignoramus. You keep saying, 

now and again: ‘Oh come on!’, ‘Seriously?’, 

‘Just look at this one!’ And 

I have only read a part of the book so 

far! You may take it as a teaser but if 

you want to have an absolutely alternative 

(or rather just fresh) perspective 

on what you are used to see as history 

of Ukraine, you need to find The 

Crown. And in my view, this is just a 

case of book as the best present. This 

was my case, actually. But be careful 

with this gift! It can cause attacks of 

profound analysis and controversial 

conclusions. Be prepared for ensuing 

discussions on historical themes from 

the angle of contemporary perception. 

Be warned.” 

● “THE PUZZLE FALLS 

IN PLACE” 

Lesia ANTOSHKIV, an ophthalmologist, 

Chernivtsi: 

“The book is very interesting and 

unexpected. Well, it was expected. I 

come from a place near Turiisk in Volhynia, 

and ever since I was a child I 

have felt the fairy-tale effect of that 

part of the country on me. Now, as 

you read about the place’s ancient history, 

the puzzle falls in place. Stories 

of modern monarchies deserve special 

attention. For example, how many nations 

succeeded in surviving the 

atrocities of the 20th century. Now I 

ask myself: what if Ukraine had a 

king, or hetman, or prince? Back then 

or now? What kind of history would 

we have? Thanks a lot to Den’s editorin-chief 

Larysa Ivshyna and the 

authors for their boldness and the 

depth of knowledge they plunged into 

and shared with us.” 

● “A HARMONIOUS BUNCH 

OF HISTORICAL SKETCHES” 

Viktoria BISKUB, undergraduate, 

Taras Shevchenko National University 

(Kyiv): 

“The mastermind behind the idea 

and the editor of The Crown, or Heritage 

of the Rus’ Kingdom Larysa 

Ivshyna once said: ‘History is not a 

theorem that needs a single instance


over, today people need to be 

shown photos on military themes, 

because they reflect not so much 

the general picture of reality but 

details which an outsider might 

overlook. Yet photographers capture 

them and reflect true emotions 

in an artistic way.” 

CLOSE UP No.77 DECEMBER 12, 2017 7 

Photo by Oleksandr KHOMENKO 

Volodymyr from Sumy is visiting 

Kharkiv. In sharing his impressions 

he was not too wordy. 

After seeing the exposition he confessed 

that some pictures had left 

him depressed. But he believes 

that they can open some people’s 

eyes to our reality. “I feel so sorry 

for the people. To see these boys 

who lost their arms or legs is very 

painful. But this must be shown: 

people need to realize what is really 

going on in our country,” said he 

with anguish. 

Den’s photo exhibit is open at 

the Kharkiv National Academic 

Opera and Ballet Theater through 

December 23. Kharkiv is the first 

city after Kyiv to host it. The visitors’ 

reactions show that these 

photos are in great demand in society. 

They must be shown to as wide 

an audience as possible. The more 

so that the exposition includes not 

only war-themed pictures. Here 

you can also find incredible children’s 

emotions and seemingly 

routine things seen from a new, unusual 

perspective. 

■ So, you are welcome at the 

Mykola Lysenko National Academic 

Opera and Ballet Theater (25, Sumska 

Street, Kharkiv) until December 

23. Working hours: noon – 

5 p.m. Free admittance. Come to 

choose your favorite photo. 

of proving. It lives in the shape of 

continuous reinterpretations.’ 

“The art of historical thought 

reflected in the words of our contemporaries, 

the authors of The 

Crown, proves that today history 

is being written by young, innovative 

authors with a unique perspective 

on historical events 

which we were told about at 

schools or universities by grayhaired 

ladies and gentlemen who 

were taught by the past century’s 

system to speak modestly and 

matter-of-factly of the huge historical 

and cultural heritage 

awaiting us all today, and of all 

the secrets of the past which we 

need to research and discover tomorrow… 

“The Crown’s progressive pool 

of authors has created a harmonious 

bunch of historical sketches, 

which will provide finest details to 

the most inquisitive reader of the 

ancient insular city Luchesk the 

Great, which for a long time was 

recognized as the capital of the 

eastern part of the Grand Duchy of 

Lithuania-Rus’. They will reveal 

the secrets of Vytautas’ crown, the 

mysteries of the Entrance Tower, 

Svydryhailo’s Tower, and the Bishop 

Tower; describe the intricate power 

struggle for the title of prince 

which unfolded in the streets 

where we walk every day. We hurry 

past buildings and crypts without 

even giving a thought to the 

fact that right there, on a square 

outside the castle, our city’s history 

was being made. 

“I am proud that, as I page 

through The Crown, I can discover 

for myself a part of the huge heritage 

of the city ‘…with a heart. 

Call it the Lubart Castle, or Vytautas’ 

hearth, but it is really home, 

with its own spirit, atmosphere, 

passions, memories, and hopes’ 

(Anna Danylchuk, author of the 

sketch ‘A Trip Through Time to the 

Volhynian Capital’).” 

By Khrystyna PETRENKO, Odesa 

For almost a year and a half, a 

group of internally displaced 

persons (IDPs) from eastern 

Ukraine have lived in a 19thcentury 

building in the heart 

of Odesa, in Uspenska Street. They 

number over a hundred and have been 

improving the building on their own. It 

was there that Oleksandr Khomenko 

photographed Ira, a little IDP Fairy, 

who brought him the Prize of Prizes at 

the 19th Den’s International Photo 

Competition. 

For three months, the IDPs lived 

without water and power, and only 

subsequently were able to connect to 

the power supply and water mains. 

There is still no district heating there. 

People want to pay utility bills, but 

cannot because they do not have the 

required legal status. 

The Day visited the house at 

4, Uspenska Street and talked with 

the community’s representatives: 

head of the “Good People” NGO Sofia 

Markina, and head of the “DON- 

BAS – ODESA – NEW LIFE” NGO 

Yulia Piatachenko. 

● “THE BUILDING’S INTENDED 

PURPOSE IS UNCERTAIN” 

“We came here on June 24, 2016, 

and after just a month, realized that 

the authorities did not want to contact 

us (the only exceptions being police 

visits and those by representatives 

of Transbud Ltd., which has possession 

of the property). After a 

month, we began to write to Infoksvodokanal 

[this company provides 

drainage and water supply in 

Odesa. – Ed.] and the regional power 

company, asking them to conclude 

agreements with us which would bind 

us to pay for water and electricity 

which we would actually use. We have 

sent many different requests. They 

have been denied, because we are not 

considered members of the community, 

they say: ‘Who are you? Why do 

you need it?’ We paid the bills in May, 

but they then cut our power supply. 

We, of course, went to the regional 

Why internally displaced persons who live at 4, 

Uspenska Street in Odesa cannot pay utility bills 

power company as one, talked there to 

one Mr. Honcharenko, the head of the 

credit department. Then we were 

promised that an interim agreement 

would be concluded, which would 

then be extended on a monthly basis. 

We agreed. For our part, we signed 

this agreement; we were asked to 

leave it there, because before it would 

be signed by the regional power company’s 

CEO, it had to be signed by the 

District Grid’s chief manager. After 

that, we were to pay all the bills in 

full. A month later, they called us and 

told us that they could not sign this 

agreement with us because they 

lacked authority to do it. We know 

they have that authority, but it seems 

that there were superior orders 

against it. Since then, we have transferred 

68,000 hryvnias to the regional 

power company, but have had them 

all returned, with the explanation: 

‘We may not accept from you money 

for power consumed, because there is 

no contract.’ Now we are going to pay 

again, but we do not know how it will 

end up...” 

That is, you pay, but are not sure 

whether these funds will be accepted? 

“Yes, this week, we will transfer 

funds to the Odesa regional power 

company (Odesaoblenerho) for the 

third time to pay for power consumed, 

one payment covering three months... 

We have data from meters installed 

by the company. We just add money 

to our total payment due every 

month.” 

Do you have power now? 

“Yes, we have. But winter has 

come, and nobody knows how the regional 

power company will behave in 

the future... We have also appealed to 

Anatolii Urbanskyi [chairman of the 

Odesa Oblast Council. – Ed.] and 

Transbud with a request to conclude 

some provisional contracts with us. 

But Transbud has replied that the 

owner of the building is the territorial 

community of Odesa city in the person 

of the Oblast Council, while Transbud 

is only its possessor. Thus, they 

advise us to contact the owner with 

any questions. We appealed to the 

Oblast Council, but there were many 

different answers on its part. It seems 

they are a little confused. At first, 

they claimed the building was in disrepair, 

then that it was a non-residential 

building, and lastly they stated 

that ‘the building’s intended purpose 

is uncertain.’ This building is an architectural 

monument, and the possessor 

must maintain the building and 

prevent it from crumbling. Moreover, 

this architectural monument is a former 

dormitory, and by law it should be 

used for its intended purpose. If it is a 

dormitory, then it should be used as a 

dormitory...” 

● “IF IT IS NOT MADE CLEAR 

NOW TO THE POPULATION 

THAT WE ARE UKRAINIANS, 

WE WILL HAVE TO FLEE 

ONCE AGAIN...” 

XIX INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 

PHOTO — - 2017 

AN IDP FAIRY 

“We are also members of the community!” 

Before coming to dwell in this dormitory, 

all these people were renting 

apartments or rooms in the city. But 

during the holiday season, the rent for 

housing in the city goes up greatly, so 

finding a separate large home for 

everyone was the only solution. 

“A friend of Markina lives near 

this building, she is also an IDP. And 

she told us once that she was regularly 

walking past this building, that the 

building was empty and there were no 

repairs being done there. We came 

looking and requested information 

from the State Property Fund, and so 

we learned that the building was municipally 

owned and therefore belonged 

to the community. And we are 

also members of the community! The 

only thing we ask is to give us a building 

for use, we do not ask for any 

gifts. We were offered accommodation 

in Borshchi and Stepove. There 

are no jobs in either place,” Piatachenko 

said. 

“We do not demand anything from 

anyone. We have already cleared a lot 

of rubbish here... If only you saw what 

was going on here when we came! For 

example, there was a huge rubbish 

heap instead of this flowerbed. And 

recently we were presented with 

15 cherry trees, and we have planted 

them as well. We have also installed 

all the windows ourselves,” Markina 

added. 

“We are now creating a children’s 

center in one of the rooms. Truth be 

told, we got a lot of help as people 

provided us with free materials. Children 

already study there, they made 

pendants yesterday. We have 

brought three computers there. We 

want to conduct English lessons for 

adults. And we really want to learn 

Ukrainian, because we are all Russophones. 

We strive to speak good 

Ukrainian. We need patriotic education. 

It turns out that nobody was doing 

it before, and look where it has 

led us,” Piatachenko concluded. “If it 

is not made clear now to the population, 

the kids that we are Ukrainians, 

we will have to flee once again... And 

we do not want to do this anymore.” 

P.S. For our part, having a 

special attitude towards these people 

and taking into account their desire 

to learn Ukrainian, we will send 

them as Christmas presents our 

Ukrainian-language bestsellers: Ukraine 

Incognita; Ukraine Incognita. 

TOP 25; My Sister Sofia... and our 

latest book The Crown, or Heritage of 

the Rus’ Kingdom. 

■ Read them and send us your 

impressions.

8 


TIMEO U T 


Transcarpathia is a source of inspiration 

Chocolate House hosts 

an exhibit of Zoltan Micska 

By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA 

Zoltan Micska (1949-2017), a 

marvelous Ukrainian artist 

born in and inspired by Transcarpathia, 

a member of the 

Ukrainian Academy of Arts, 

has departed this life too early, leaving 

behind a good memory and a very rich 

artistic heritage. His works adorn not 

only a gallery in his home city of 

Mukacheve (he made a lot of efforts to 

open it), but also a lot of museums and 

private collections in Ukraine and 

Europe. 

The exhibit, which opened at 

Chocolate House with support from the 

Embassy of Hungary, is the second exposition 

of Micska’s artworks this 

year. But while the first of them, held 

at the Academy of Arts, displayed the 

works the artist did in the last few 

years – brilliant searches of colorist 

variations and non-figurative paintings, 

– the current one includes the 

earlier works that present the painter 

as a philosopher, realist, and romantic. 

This exhibit’s conceptualists are the 

artist’s family – his widow, daughter, 

and granddaughter (incidentally, the 

family always supported and inspired 

Micska). 

“If there was no mutual understanding 

in the family, I wouldn’t 

have done even a half of what I have 

done,” the artist confessed in an interview. 

“Artistic-minded people take 

a different view of the world and seem 

to be a bit strange in the eyes of others. 

If there is no elementary understanding 

of this in the family, an artistic personality 

will be like a bird with clipped 

wings. But I am lucky from this angle.” 

The wonderful landscapes of Transcarpathia 

at dawn or at mysterious 

dusk enchant you not only with the 

mastery of artistic execution, but also 

with an emotional message. Characteristic, 

sometimes tired, faces of people 

beam kindness and some incredible 

stability, which all of us need, especially 

today. What is also topical today 

is the picture “Unfinished Conversation.” 

Although painted about two 

decades ago, it still shows an almost 

hypnotic sense. The artist used to organize 

a lot of plein-air sessions in his 

native Transcarpathia and in Europe. 

He had no school of his own, but many 

Transcarpathian artists consider him 

their guru. For his pictures provide for 

a space in which everyone can look for 

and find his or her truth. 

“My philosophy is that artists 

create a nation,” Zoltan Micska once 

said. “Art comprises everything – 

culture, philosophy, and national 

identity. And the more developed an 

art is, the higher the nation stands. A 

country that has no cultural heritage 

is just a protected territory with people. 

We need several more generations 

to cognize ourselves and perceive our 

own identity.” 

This is a good reminder to both 

politicians and the powers-that-be who 

traditionally and persistently push 

culture to the background of current 

history, whereas culture is the main instrument 

for cognizing oneself and one 

another and the source of so badlyneeded 

mutual understanding. 

Ukraine’s Manet from Kharkiv 

By Hanna PAROVATKINA 

Photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day 

Impressionism 

and the Revival 

of Commemorating 

Artist Mykhailo Tkachenko” 

is the name “Ukrainian 

of a new culturological project initiated 

by the British-Ukrainian 

Chamber of Commerce (BUCC). The 

British, in cooperation with the Yale 

Club in Ukraine, Cambridge Society of 

Ukraine, Harvard Club of Ukraine, 

and the US-Ukraine Business Council, 

recently organized a Ukrainian visit 

of the world’s leading expert on 

impressionist art, Professor James 

Henry Rubin. The author of numerous 

articles and 13 books on French Realism 

and Impressionism gave presentations 

in Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv. 

The Day visited Professor Rubin’s 

Kyiv presentation, which was accompanied 

by an exhibit of paintings by 

Tkachenko, the classic of the Kharkiv 

school of landscape. Of the displayed 

works, 20 belong to the collection of 

the Auction House Corners (which in 

2010 held a string of events dedicated 

to Tkachenko’s 150th birth anniversary, 

and published an illustrated 

monograph Mykhailo Stepanovych 

Tkachenko by Olha Lahutenko and 

Dmytro Holets. 

The American researcher’s analysis 

focused mainly on Tkachenko’s 

Ukrainian landscapes (and not his 

seascapes, which made him famous in 

his lifetime). Comparing Tkachenko 

to Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Sezanne, 

Renoir, Degas, and other world-famous 

impressionist artists, Professor 

Rubin stated that the Ukrainian’s 

work is on the level with these more 

renowned classics. Yet, while being 

typically impressionist (the researcher 

emphasizes Tkachenko’s 

affinity to Pissarro and Monet), his 

paintings have a vivid Ukrainian coloring. 

For example, comparing winter 

landscapes by Tkachenko and 

Monet, Professor Rubin points out to 

the “blue Ukrainian sky” reflected in 

the snow. You will not see that much 

blue in the landscape of his French 

counterpart, this is a national peculiarity 

of Ukraine and its painting, according 

to the researcher. “It is exciting 

to discover an impressionist 

artist of such eminence, so appreciated 

during the period of Impressionism, 

yet forgotten due to historical 

circumstances,” stated Professor Rubin 

as he closed his talk. 

The dramatic lot of the forgotten 

genius’s heritage was shaped by historical 

circumstances and an unfortunate 

coincidence. In 1887 Tkachenko 

brilliantly graduated from the St. Petersburg 

Imperial Arts Academy. The 

Great Gold Medal for his Village 

Churchyard was his passage to a residence 

abroad. In 1888 he made his first 

trip to Paris, where he continued training 

at the famous Cormon Academy. 

The Ukrainian painter made close 

acquaintance with many of his peers, 

future classics. He mixed with the legendary 

Oleksii Boholiubov, Mykola 

Hrytsenko, Serhii Vasylkivsky, Ivan 

Pokhytonov, Yosyp Krachkovsky, and 

others, and remained friends with the 

talented Hrytsenko until the latter’s 

very demise. 

French critics soon noticed the 

painter from Kharkiv. “There is no 

other artist on the globe who would be 

less belligerent and more in love with 

the beauty of the world around us,” 

The “forgotten genius” of Ukrainian 

impressionist Mykhailo Tkachenko 

(1860-1916) commemorated in Kyiv 

AMERICAN RESEARCHER JAMES RUBIN’S ANALYSIS FOCUSED MAINLY ON 

MYKHAILO TKACHENKO’S UKRAINIAN LANDSCAPES. “IT IS EXCITING TO 

DISCOVER AN IMPRESSIONIST ARTIST OF SUCH EMINENCE, SO APPRECIATED 

DURING THE PERIOD OF IMPRESSIONISM, YET FORGOTTEN DUE TO 

HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES,” STATED PROFESSOR RUBIN AS HE CLOSED 

HIS TALK 

wrote Rene Maizeroy about Tkachenko, 

whose first personal exhibit 

in Paris was held in 1898. Later he had 

two exhibits at the Grand Palais, participated 

in the Exposition Universelle 

in Paris in 1900 (Second Gold 

Medal), Liege International in 1905 

(Gold Medal), and many other events. 

His first work En plein air, a portrait, 

was exhibited at the Le Salon in 1891, 

Paris, following Cormon’s advice. In 

the early 20th century the managers 

of exhibition halls would line up for 

his works. 

Tkachenko’s seascapes were loved 

by the royals, but the artist preferred 

painting Ukrainian landscapes. Every 

year he came to his birthplace, 

Kharkiv. When the First World War 

broke out, the 54-year-old painter 

moved back to eastern Ukraine. 

Working near Sloviansk, he fell ill and 

died. Tkachenko was buried in 

Kharkiv. His posthumous fate was 

sad. The paintings that remained in 

France, and that is the greater part of 

his heritage, did not survive. The 

painter’s name fell into oblivion in the 

West, where he was referred to as “a 

Russian artist.” His work was not promoted 

in the former USSR for ideological 

reasons. Nowadays, the largest 

collection of works by Tkachenko, 

some hundred paintings, is preserved 

at the Kharkiv Art Museum. 

The project “Ukrainian Impressionism 

and the Revival of Commemorating 

Artist Mykhailo Tkachenko” 

envisages a publication of an illustrated 

monograph on Tkachenko’s 

life and artistic career by Professor 

Rubin in two languages, Ukrainian 

and English, and exhibits of his works 

in Kyiv, London, Paris, New York, 

Chicago, Toronto, and some other 

cities across the globe. The restoration 

of Tkachenko’s renown in the 

global community is an important 

step in bringing Ukrainian art as a 

whole into prominence, which will increase 

interest in Ukraine internationally. 

It will also help emphasize 

the role of Kharkiv as a center of museum 

and cultural life, the organizers 

of the project believe. 

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