Will it be a brighter future for Ukraine? Certainly the President has many problems to address. The World economic crisis has hit Ukraine particularly hard and the population is finding just everyday life very difficult. They cope because sadly they, over the years, have become accustomed to hardship.
The most important decision Yanukovych seems to have taken is to agree to a 25 year extension of a lease which will allow the Russian Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol to stay there until 2042. In return the Russians have reduced by 30% the cost of Ukraine’s gas bill. Whether that is a one-off reduction or an annual discount for a similar 25 years I have no knowledge, but it will certainly help the immediate situation whilst making Russia’s hold over Ukraine very much stronger. It certainly stirred opposition M.P’s to anger in Parliament and Yulia Tymoshenko described the decision as a ‘black day in the history of Ukraine’. The bill agreeing to the extension of the lease was approved by ten votes but it may have united a divided opposition which ultimately may be a good thing.
The Memorial to the victims of the 1932-33 Famine in Ukraine. It is somehow such a meaningful memorial. The black and light blue reflection is clever and I was pleased to capture that and the wording on the side of the stone itself, erected just two years after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet State.
A further move towards Russia was the President’s denial that an act of genocide was perpetrated against Ukraine in 1932-33 by the Soviets under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Former President Viktor Yushchenko campaigned strongly for world- wide recognition of this induced famine to be recognized as genocide. Many countries support that view, but the U.K. government does not. One wonders what will happen now to the memorial outside the St.Michael’s Cathedral in Kiev, which members of our Association have seen.
It is hoped that we can organise a trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon next year to see the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Natalia Vorozhbit’s play “The Grain Store”, which is based on the famine. This play was first brought to my attention by Jancis Wilson a few weeks before her death.
On my short visit to Kaniv in March I was told that the President had visited the town, appointed a new Director of the Taras Shevchenko Memorial Museum and decreed that work should recommence on the extension of the building in the near future. As work had been stopped for a six year period due to financial restraints this is good news for Kaniv although, obviously not good news for the former Director who appears to have lost his job through no fault of his own.
So the jury remains out on the question of a brighter future for Ukraine. Certainly the new President appears to have given away his major bargaining power to his powerful neighbour - perhaps a five year extension of lease might have been acceptable but uniting the opposition Parties in Parliament may become a telling factor in the years to come.
Mike Handcock Chairman
