The last week is a painful reminiscence of the Aivazovsky’s paintings: the war and poverty are around, and there is a strong desire to go to the sea. Our politicians took up freedom on the Internet, the topic of Crimea is again on the first pages and there are new poisonings under the Kremlin’s footprint. DUMKA, through the prism of the pictures of outstanding Crimean, analyzes the key events of the past seven days.
Battle of Navarino, 1846.
The Ukrainian army liberated the occupied village in Luhansk region. The Ukrainian flag now flies above Zolote-4, and the hitmen are pushed back several kilometers deep into the occupied territories. Moreover, this operation does not violate the Minsk agreements. There were no casualties among Ukrainian servicemen and civilians. The victory of the allies in the Battle of Navarino, depicted in the picture of Aivazovsky, helped Greece to get independence from Turkey. Perhaps, all Ukrainians were waiting for such news, and would this operation of the combined forces remain a brief flash? Because the separatists do not stop shelling our positions, despite the agreement on the regime of silence.
Sea coast. Сalm, 1843.
Thousands of Ukrainians this week, like the girl from the picture of the master, waited for their ship, which will return them home. At the end of last week it became known that about hundreds of Ukrainian tourists, who could not leave Tunisia, Georgia, Albania and a number of other countries for several days because of a conflict between the tour operator Oasis Travel and the airline Bravo Airways. Families were forced to live in the terminals for several days until they were evacuated to Kyiv. The carrier said that the problem arose due to the debt of the tour operator in the amount of 25 million UAH, and Oasis assigned responsibility to the airline. The Ministry of Economy plans to deprive the tour operator Oasis Travel of the licenses, and to develop strict rules for infrastructure. And ordinary Ukrainians can be advised only to plan their own trips independently, and do not rely on private offices.
The Night in Ukraine, 1891.
The fire is near the house, and they are chatting, moreover, with a red flag. It seems that this is an eternal story of our country. A bill on blocking the Internet was passed by the Rada Committee. According to critics, this will lead to the creation of an analogue of Roskomnadzor, which blocks all websites that criticize the authorities. And the rhetoric of our officials is very similar to the northern neighbors. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said that to protect the state, it is necessary to adopt a package of draft laws, significantly expand the capacity of government agencies in terms of information cybersecurity. Thus, the draft law No. 6688 proposes to legalize the possibility of temporary blocking access to information resources by not only court decision, but also the prosecutor, the investigator and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. On Thursday, there were not enough votes of the deputies to bring this document to the consideration. However, do not relax – maybe politicians just check until the criticism subsides.
Exploding ship, 1900.
Novichok is back to business. The British police reported new cases of poisoning in Salisbury, where the Russian nerve agent tried to kill the double agent Serhii Skripach and his daughter Julia. Two people were taken to the intensive care unit and this is not a new attack, but the action of the old substance, Scotland Yard reported. It seems that the patience of the Saxons will soon break down because this incident occurred next week after the statement of Foreign Minister Boris Johnson on Ukraine’s support against Russian aggression. 100 investigators of British Empire take part in the investigation and if the fact of sabotage from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation is confirmed, not only Roman Abramovich will lose his visa.
Travel of Poseidon by Sea, 1894.
The President of Ukraine for the first time went to the state, which voted (and even repeatedly!) against the UN resolution on the Crimea. Already this fact alone shows how unusual was the official visit of Petro Poroshenko to Serbia. But this is not the only “strangeness” of this trip. Coming to the press with Vučić, he said that Ukraine and Serbia “have no problems in bilateral relations”.
Indeed, the participation of Serbian militants on the side of the ORDLR, the unwillingness of official Belgrade to punish them for this, the regular visits of Serbian politicians to the annexed Crimea and to Donbas controlled by the militants, the categorical refusal of Serbia to join sanctions, imposed because of the Russian aggression, and its constant voting against UN resolutions on the Crimea – are trifles, do not worry.
Jesus walks on water, 1888.
Constantinople said that there is no canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine, and Moscow in 1686 added the Ukrainian church uncanonically and took more than allowed. In the modern religious world, this is a very serious statement – we witnessed the first confrontation of churches in the last half century. Further, Patriarch Bartholomew recalled the spiritual and canonical rights of the Ecumenical Throne for Ukraine: “Let us not forget that Constantinople never gave permission to transfer the territory of Ukraine to anyone except the right of consecration of the Kyiv Metropolitan in Moscow on the conditions of his election in the cathedral in Kyiv at the local Cathedral and with unconditional mentions of the Ecumenical Patriarch”. Is it really worth waiting for the transition of Ukrainian churches from Moscow to the Constantinople throne? The next year is unlikely, but anything could happen.
Napoleon on the isle of St. Helena, 1897.
Russia’s Razdolnensky District Court of Crimea found the political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh guilty of allegedly beating the head of the temporary detention facility and sentenced him to 5 years in prison and fined him 10,000 rubles. And this is the second sentence (the first was also 5 years). Ukraine expressed protest to Russia because of the verdict to Balukh and called it “the punishment of the occupant for patriotism”.
A terrible sentence at once after another terrible news: Sentsov’s sister for the first time in 4 years met with the director in the colony. He lost 15 kilograms, and the Ukrainian ombudswoman still is not allowed to him, just like to others 70 political prisoners.
Each of them is lonely in the middle of a stormy ocean, and, hopefully, the ship that will bring them home will finally appear.
Text: Kostyantyn Rul
