Mediaboss Marketing

The Parliament of the United Kingdom has called on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to clarify whether the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement will apply to UK-Ukraine political and economic relations after it leaves the EU, according to a report of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament, which was posted on Parliaments official website.

It is noted that if the UK is no longer a party to the Association Agreement after it leaves the EU, then the FCO should begin planning a successor agreement.

Clearly the EU relationship with Ukraine will continue and we will need to develop our own bilateral relationship with Ukraine, which we will want to do. It will be supportive of Ukraine and Ukrainian reform and trade, where our interests remain, Tim Barrow, Political Director of the FCO said.

The report says that the FCO should continue to work with the EU, Canada and USA on supporting Ukraine.

In the long term, the UK and its allies should support Ukraine in developing resilience to further Russian encroachment and in building its social, political and physical infrastructure, which will facilitate further engagement with the West and allow Ukraine to engage with Russia on a level playing field, reads the report.

Also, it is noted that 20 million is foreseen in the Good Governance Fund to support Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, Ukraine alone would justify the investment of British resources of hundreds of millions of pounds to improve governance, according to the report.

iy

Read the original here:
British Parliament wants to clarify what will be with Ukraine-EU Association Agreement after Brexit - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

My godmother, Nina, told me the truth. When I shared it with my history teacher, he said she was mistaken, or had lied. I was upset. I asked my parents who wasright.

They gave me a book, Russian Oppression in Ukraine, which included firsthand accounts about the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine. I still have that very same green-covered volume. My first encounter with it was brief. I slammed it shut, shuddering at the black-and-white photographs inside the remains of famine victims being heaved into a cart, the bodies of raped-then-murdered women jumbled on a bed, a massacred communitys corpses exhumed to identify the victims. Even though I looked away quickly, it was too late a Pandoras box of nightmares was freed. Those images, glimpsed decades ago, burden me to this day. Only a few minutes ago I dared look again. They remainharrowing.

The essay I penned got a poor grade. Defiantly, I presented the book to my teacher. Disdainfully, he gave it back, dismissing it as anti-Sovietpropaganda.

He was right. It was. It was also true. It just took a half-century toconfirm.

What brought this decades-old high-school memory to mind was a new film, Bitter Harvest. As it ended, I glanced around the screening room. Some cried quietly. Others seemed uncertain about how to react. I know why. Its a beautifully filmed love story about Natalka (Samantha Barks) and Yuri (Max Irons), set in an almost Edenic landscape saturated with colours evoking a verdant and fruitful life. Very soon, however, almost imperceptibly, it begins to soil, as the brutality of the Bolshevik occupation of Ukraine metastasizes Europes breadbasket into a modern-day Golgotha, a place of skulls. Can love survive such corrupting foulness? I dontknow.

The film is a love story about Natalka (Samantha Barks) and Yuri, set during Boshevik occupation ofUkraine.

More than four million people perished during the Holodomor after Moscows minions stripped Soviet Ukraine of food, exporting grain even as widespread hunger took hold, sealing the borders to prevent anyone leaving or aid getting in, all while insisting there was no famine. Then Stalins shills buried the truth about one of the greatest genocides to befoul modern history, their dissembling given succour by scribblers such as Walter Duranty of The New York Times, who claimed: There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation, but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition. Privately, he told British diplomats as many as 10 million people died. Yet London never exposed this great Soviet lie. Why? In June, 1934, the Foreign Offices Laurence Collier provided a humbug of an excuse for posterity: The truth of the matter is, of course, that we have a certain amount of information about famine conditions We do not want to make it public, however, because the Soviet government would resent it and our relations with them would beprejudiced.

No wonder my teacher knew nothing about this man-made famine. Many still dont. Stalins successors in the Kremlin remain Holodomor-deniers while fellow travellers in the West call upon the world to turn a blind eye to continuing Russian imperialism against Ukraine, lest we offend the Great Russians. Director George Mendeluks film will challenge those fake news peddlers. Id wager Putin wont want you to see Bitter Harvest. But I wish U.S. President Donald Trumpwould.

The Kremlin remains Holodomor-deniers, but the film challenges fake newspeddlers.

Its haunting. Scenes portray doomed Ukrainian insurgents charging their oppressors, a boy pawing desperately at dirt barely covering his mothers just-buried remains, a fleeting shadow of self-doubt on a Red Army mans face in a firing squad executing innocents desperate people doing whatever they must to live, even collaborating with the very Communists who were their killers. Millions of Ukraines best sons and daughters were disposed of unceremoniously, tipped into collective boneyards. The survivors were leavings, entombed in a postgenocidal society, victims of a crippling legacy stillunexorcised.

After Nina died, I helped clean her house. Every kitchen shelf was overstocked with non-perishable goods bags of flour, sugar and canned preserves supplies sufficient to sustain anyone for months. Dusk fell as we harvested. Her home slowly hushed. I grew disquieted in this silence, calling to mind her gentle whispering about the glutinous human flesh eaten in her village during the famine. Faced with this abomination, she scavenged worms and weeds rather than sup on what others devoured. She swore never to be without food again. Thats how Nina saved her soul and came to share the truth about Ukraines bitter harvest. As for the food we took from her home that fall day, it went to feed the hungry. She would have liked that.

Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor of political geography at the Royal Military College ofCanada.

View post:
A forgotten history, finally told - The Globe and Mail

Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz is seeking to join Polish gas firm PGNiG in a court case challenging the European Unions decision to give Russias Gazprom more access to the Opal gas pipeline in Germany.

Naftogaz said today (2 March) it had asked permission from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to intervene in the case initiated by state-controlled PGNiG at the end of last year.

In October, the European Commission decided to lift a cap on Gazproms use of Opal, which carries gas from the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea to customers in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Poland, which imports most of the gas it consumes from Russia, said the decision threatened gas supplies to Central and Eastern Europe and would strengthen Gazproms dominant position in the region.

Joining the case initiated by PGNiG will enable Naftogaz to present additional arguments and gain access to the case files. The request by Naftogaz is now awaiting consideration in the court, Naftogaz said in a statement.

It also said the Commissions decision could threaten the stability of gas supplies to Ukraine because of possible of gas flow interruptions from Poland.

The ECJ has already suspended the executives decision on Opal.

In December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine and Poland would act jointly to block projects that could result in Gazprom gaining greater access to the European gas market by bypassing Ukraine.

Originally posted here:
Ukraine hopes to join Poland in challenging EU pipeline decision - EurActiv

MONTEGO BAY, St James Newly crowned Jamaica Football Federation Western Confederation Charleys JB Rum Super League mid-season champions Reggae Youths will meet Montego Bay Boys Club at the UDC field on Saturday as the third round cross-zone gets underway with two St James derbies.

Reggae Youths, who came from two goals down to beat Sandals South Coast in the mid-season final 5-2 in extra time at Jarrett Park on Sunday, will be seeking to avenge a loss in the St James Football Associations Captains Bakery and Grill Knockout last week.

At Jarrett Park, defending champions Granville United and Faulkland SC, both seeking to make a run at the top four, will meet in another game.

The remainder of the round of matches will be played on Sunday and will see Sandals South Coast seeking to rebound from their first loss of the season when they host Three Miles River. Clarks Town will host Holland United at Cedric Titus High; Hopewell meet Wadadah FC at Orchard; and Beaches Negril and Petersfield will play at Long Bay Beach Park.

In the third round teams from either zone will play each once, and the top four teams on points from all three rounds will advance to the semi-finals.

Sandals South Coast, the beaten finalists last year, lead the table with 28 points, nine more than Reggae Youths.Meanwhile, Montego Bay Boys Club and Faulkland SC and Clarks Town are tied on 16 points each.

On Saturday Reggae Youths will seek to maintain their momentum from Sundays game when they take on a Boys Club team that are winless in their last three Super League games.

Denardo Kerr put his hands up for a starting position with two goals in extra time on Sunday and could partner OCarey Spence, the competitions top scorer with nine goals, and Santino Grinnion.

Boys Club could move into second place if they can repeat their win from last week, but could face a tougher Reggae Youths team than the one they played in the parish knockout game last week.

Boys Club have the best defensive record of any team in the competition, conceding just five goals in 10 games, but has scored just nine goals.

At Jarrett Park, Faulkland FC will hope to continue their resurgence at the expense of the defending champions as they seek to press for a place in the top four.

Faulkland SC, who are facing their toughest test in four years of existence, are unbeaten in their last three games, creeping to fourth place, and within striking distance of second place.

See the original post:
Reggae Youths to meet Boys Club in JFF Western Confed - Jamaica Observer

Karachi Kings bat first after Islamabad United opt to field. DawnNews

The Karachi Kings trounced Islamabad United by 45 runs, knocking the reds out of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at Sharjah on Wednesday.

Wickets dropped like flies for United who were set a 127-run target by the Kings during the 22nd match of the PSL this season.

With this victory, Karachi has qualified for the last playoff.

The flurry of wickets courtesy leg spinner Imad Wasim, Muhammad Amir and Usama Mir who took three each left Islamabad at a disappointing 82 all out, 45 runs short of their target. Wasim was awarded Man of the Match.

The innings kicked off with a stunning upset as Dwayne Smith was caught out early by Kings captain and wicket keeper Kumar Sangakkara off a delivery by Amir, who went on to bowl BJ Haddin out and got Rumman Raees caught out by Pollard.

Sangakkara termed the beginning of the innings "a good start".

Speaking about the catch, he said, "I think I had my eyes closed and that helped. It was just one of those catches that stuck. Pretty lucky."

"I was just surprised that I caught it," he laughed while speaking to Ramiz Raja.

"A knock-out contest is draining. Every game is a do or die thing. The guys are starting to play like a team... I'm hoping we can get up again against Peshawar."

The Kings skipper also lauded Usama Mir for his "outstanding" bowling. "We have to bat longer," he conceded, "And stop our run outs."

Imad Wasim bowled Islamabad United skipper Misbah-ul-Haq at the beginning of the 9th over and Shane Watson at the end of the 11th over. He returned to take Nicholas Pooran's wicket.

Usama Mir got Shadab Khan, Asif Ali and Muhammad Sami out. Sohail Khan clean bowled Amad Butt.

Misbah, speaking to the media after the match said, "It's always hard to take this sort of defeat."

"We couldn't bat well on that pitch. One twenty seven was gettable. No pressure of a knockout game. They just bowled well and once we lost wickets, the pressure mounted. I think we batted badly," he admitted.

Islamabad United won the toss and opted to field.

The Karachi Kings racked up 126 runs, even as wickets fell like dominoes over the last five overs of the match.

Ravi Bopara, Shoaib Malik, Usman Khan, Sohail Khan, Imad Wasim were taken out by United in quick succession as the innings came to a close.

Babar Azam and Malik both scored 25 runs each, the highest scores this innings by Kings batsmen.

United bowlers ruled the innings with 18-year-old Shadab Khan taking Azam's wicket off his first ball.

Rumman Raees knocked Chris Gayle out early with just 17 runs. He went on to get Bopara, Pollard and Wasim caught out and took Usama Mir's catch off Muhammad Sami.

During yesterday's match, the Quetta Gladiators snatched a dramatic one-run victory against Peshawar Zalmi yesterday at Sharjah to enter the the PSL final scheduled for March 5 at Lahore's Qadhafi Stadium.

After 20 matches, the PSL 2017 has now entered the decisive stage where Lahore Qalandars will be missing for the second successive season.

In an exact replica of inaugural season, the playoff line-ups are same as they were last year.

Explore: Crunch time in PSL as playoffs start today

Read more here:
PSL 2017: Karachi Kings knock Islamabad United out of tournament - DAWN.com