The passing year was not just difficult or tough (as the presidents say in the New Year’s speeches) – it was historic. It was determinative. The year that launched a new turn of the modern history of Ukraine and forever changed its future. Kyiv will no longer be with Moscow, the church will not be with Patriarch Cyril, and we will not have any regret for them. Let’s recall the main events of the year in the traditional digest of DUMKA.
This time, Andy Warhol provides visual support to the text. Let’s not dwell on his Ukrainian origin, only note that he is a classy artist. It seemed that when contemporary art was exhausted, he used it and created a new layer of modern culture that we consume (and buy) even now. So Ukraine seems to have exhausted its old version in 2013, and now it is becoming a new, strong and truly independent step by step.
Overconfidence broke the political career of another “messiah” – Nadiya Savchenko. According to the prosecutor’s office, she personally planned a terrorist act in the walls of the Verkhovna Rada.
“The investigation has undeniable evidence that Nadiya Savchenko personally planned, recruited, gave instructions on how to carry out a terrorist act in the walls of the parliament, and how to destroy two floors with combat grenades, and with trench mortars (she planned – Ed.) to destroy the dome of the Verkhovna Rada and to eliminate those who will survive with automatic weapon,” said the Attorney General.
Prior to this, her friend the head of the Center for the release of captives Officers’ Corps Volodymyr Ruban was detained on the entry/exit point with an arsenal of weapons. Probably for this terrorist attack – it will become clear after the publication of records with the negotiations of the people’s deputy.
The council has agreed to remove the immunity of the Hero of Ukraine. For almost a year Nadiya is staying in the Investigation Cell. Like in Russia, she went to extremes – announced a dry hunger strike and stopped it in 24 hours. In Ukraine, people do not seem to feel any more sympathy for her.
In a few months, all talked about the terrorist act again – the murder of journalist Arkady Babchenko. A wave of sorrow swept through the social networks, but what was the surprise when he went to a press conference during a briefing of security forces at the SBU.
According to the head of the SBU, Vasyl Hrytsak, the murder of a journalist was ordered by the Russian intelligence services through an intermediary in Ukraine.
They allegedly recruited a citizen of Ukraine, who ordered the murder to a friend from ATO and paid him 15 thousand dollars of earnest money of the promised 30 thousand. However, the veteran appealed to the SBU and told them about the recruiting attempt.
According to the head of the SBU, the murder of Babchenko is merely an element of a major special operation the purpose of which is the destruction of Russian opposition journalists and bloggers.
He also said that a recruited Ukrainian citizen had one more task from the RF special services. Namely – to illegally buy weapons and ammunition for Russian money and create a base in central Ukraine where they will be kept.
However, no one, in this case, has yet been convicted. Meanwhile, the European community has criticized this operation, saying that the law enforcement agencies are better at staging murders than at investigating real killings: Gongadze, Sheremet, and others.
From July till the end of the year, protests by the owners of cars on European license plates continued in Ukraine. The owners of cars on European license plates demanded to reduce the customs fee and customs clearance. Almost every week, drivers blocked the government’s blocks, and in the autumn even blocked checkpoints and national roads. Only after the indirect threats of the Minister of internal affairs Avakov about the use of force, rioters went away. After that, the Verkhovna Rada drastically simplified the principle of charging customs fee on cars and reduced the cost of customs clearance. Now the section of the tax code, which previously consisted of several pages and contained dozens of tax rates for cars of different capacities, is placed on one page.
Owners of the cars on European license plates, who will register the car within 90 days of the law’s entry into force, will be able to pay only half of the amount of excise duty. Thus, for the clearance of the 15-year-old Polish car, purchased for 2,300 euros, the owner will have to pay 1,606 euros. This is a lot, but three and a half times less than it was till now – the total amount of clearance would be almost 6 thousand euros.
On July 31 in Kherson, an employee of the city council, a volunteer and an activist Kateryna Handziuk, was attacked with concentrated sulfuric acid by unknown. Police first made a case on disorderly and insulting behavior and arrested Mykola Novikov, who was suspected of the assault. After the noise was raised by the journalists, it turned out that he has an alibi.
Handziuk received burns of 40% of the skin her eyes were damaged. She was taken to Kyiv, where she had several complicated operations. In September, Handziuk was still able to write an appeal to the authorities from the hospital. But on November 4, the activist died. After that, top officials: from the Attorney General to the president swore that it was the matter of honor, but law enforcement officers still haven’t found the person who ordered the hit.
According to the fact that only the performers were detained, the criminals breathed easy.
But it’s hard to breathe to all of us. Especially for Oleh Mykhailyk, an activist from Odessa, who went through the assassination attempt in September. The bullet hit his lung, and the man experienced clinical death. He was lucky enough to survive, and in this case, the police were not able to find those who ordered the hit within 3 months – traditional impotence of our law enforcement agencies. But Avakov threatened to get rid of protests of the owners of cars on European license plates.
At that time, in September, the world was shocked by the photos of the pale and half-dead Oleg Sentsov, whom the Russian authorities saw as a healthy and strong terrorist prisoner. On May 14, Sentsov announced a hunger strike, demanding that Russian authorities release all Ukrainian political prisoners. The director starved until October 5, until his health condition became critical.
“145 days of struggle, minus 20 kg of weight, plus damaged health, but the goal has not been achieved. I am grateful to all who supported me and apologize to those whom I let down… Glory to Ukraine!” he wrote in a letter.
Later, the European Parliament awarded the Ukrainian director, political prisoner Oleg Sentsov with a prize “For Freedom of Thought” named after Sakharov. His cousin Natalia Kaplan received the award for him. In Strasbourg, she made a speech and read a letter from Oleg Sentsov.
“You can call for coming to terms and surrender, but you can, on the contrary, call for resisting and fighting, even when there is no chance of survival, but there is only a chance to die… I hope that I will still be able to do something in order to feel that I deserve this. Thank you,” said Sentsov in his letter.
At the end of November near the Kerch Strait, Russian border guards attacked and fired at battleships and a tugboat of the naval forces of Ukraine. 24 sailors were seized. The “court” of the annexed Crimea put the guys to the Investigation Cell, and Russian security service officers immediately sent our soldiers to the Moscow Investigation Cells “Matrosskaya Tishina” and “Lefortovo”. Three of them are seriously injured, however, the boys are not in despair and only ask for letters and for them to be remembered.
On November 25, there was a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, after which the president addressed the parliament with a proposal to introduce martial law. Discussions in the Council lasted for more than 6 hours and in the end, Petro Poroshenko had to make concessions: the martial law was introduced only in 10 regions, no restrictions on the rights of citizens, and its duration decreased from 60 to 30 days.
“What was that?” the social networks exploded, recalling the special legal status, but the president stated that the martial law gave a chance to establish a link between the military and regional administrations in a short time and to identify problems in the Ministry of Defense. Strange thing. The main goal, the release of our soldiers, was not achieved.
On December 15 in Saint Sophia Cathedral, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created.
Epiphanius, metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky and Bila Tserkva, representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate had become primate of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He was elected at the Unity Synod in the Saint Sophia Cathedral, in the presence of representatives of the Orthodox churches of Ukraine, representatives of Constantinople and the President of Ukraine.
“We managed to unite three branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy into a single local Orthodox Church,” commented Epiphanius on the results of the Synod from the stage at Sophia Square in Kyiv. He thanked Constantinople, the President of Ukraine and the head of the UOC-KP Filaret, the head of UAOC Makariy and all the hierarchs, as well as the Verkhovna Rada for the unity.
Epiphanius was presented by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. People were waiting for the presentation of the new head of the Ukrainian church for about 10 hours.
According to the results of the Synod, Poroshenko said: “This day will become, or it has already become the sacred day, the day of the creation of an autocephalous local Orthodox Church. The day of the final independence from Russia. Ukraine will no longer drink from the Moscow’s bowl.”
After that Oleksandr (Drabynko), metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi UOC-MP, after the liturgy at the Transfiguration Cathedral in Kyiv announced the transition to the local church of Ukraine, and the believers present at the church met his words with applause. No one in Moscow was upset and who cares?
Following this, the official Vatican news portal published the news of the Epiphanius’s election as the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. This, in fact, means that the new Ukrainian church was recognized in a civilized world.
The new head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will get Tomos on January 6 in Constantinople (Istanbul). Therefore, the procedure for obtaining church independence will be completed. And Ukraine will go its own way.
By Kostyantyn Rul
