Archive for the ‘Ukraine’ Category

Fact check: False conspiracy theories allege connection between Biden victory and Ukraine – USA TODAY

President-elect Joe Biden's son was in the spotlight during the presidential campaign for his business dealings with Ukraine and China. USA TODAY

Since near the start of his campaign for the presidency, President-elect Joe Biden has been dogged by accusations of corruption relating to his involvement in the ouster of a top corruption prosecutor in Ukraine.

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The conspiracy theories about Biden and his family crested in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election, when major conservative political figures repeated claims of varying truthfulness about Biden and his son Hunter.

One recent Facebook post by Omar Faruque repeats several of these claims, alleging that Biden was involved in corruption and that members of the Obama administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., covered up his criminality. It also begins with the claim that Biden "never won the election."

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USA TODAY reached out to Faruquefor comment.

Biden won the 2020 election. Further, there is no evidence that Biden participated in corrupt or otherwise improper behavior in Ukraine. The various conspiracy theories about the Biden family and Ukraine draw on false information and perpetuate inaccurate narratives about Bidens time as vice president and his victory in the November election.

Biden was certified as the winner of the 2020 presidential election by the United States Congress on Jan. 6. That was preceded by a Dec. 14 vote during which states' electorsacross the country formally cast their votes for the president and vice president, confirming that Biden won 306 Electoral College votes to President Donald Trumps 232 votes.

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The Trump campaign filed dozens of lawsuits contesting the results of the election, and state legislatures held hearings to scrutinize potential evidence of fraud in the election.

In high-profile battleground states that Biden won, like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the electoral apparatus was examinedby state and federal courts, federal investigators and state audits. Journalists also investigated the election for evidence of fraud and found no evidence of widespread fraud.

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The Supreme Court struck down two lawsuits alleging widespread fraud in the election.

Just after the election, the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agencydeclared that the general electionwas the most secure in U.S. history.

Conspiracy theories to the contrary have been repeatedly debunked by investigations led by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Accusations that Biden was involved in corruption in Ukraine trace back to his part in Western democracy promotion efforts in Ukraine in 2014. Shortly after Russia invaded the country that same year, Biden helped to spearhead the alliance of countries thatsought to bolster Ukrainian democracy against Russian aggression.

More: A tabloid got a trove of data on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, the FBI is probing a possible disinformation campaign.

As part of that effort, Western diplomats and Ukraine watchers in 2016 called for the firing of Ukraines general prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who officials did not believe was adequately prosecuting corruption in the young democracy.

Conspiracy theories, like the Facebook post, insinuate that Biden sought to withhold money from Ukraine for some reasons of corruption.

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Fact check: Joe Biden was never 'wanted' in Ukraine; prosecutors rejected a complaint

The conspiracy theory has been repeated by the official White House account to draw a false equivalence between Bidens involvement in Ukraine and Trumps pressuring of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a call that resulted in his first impeachment.

This narrative is inaccurate; as part of the broader Western effort to strengthen democracy in Ukraine, the Obama administration determined that using $1 billion in aid to Ukraine as leverage was in the interest of the United States, its Western allies and Ukraine itself.

Regardless of the merits of that decision, Biden did not stand to directly benefit financially or politically from the move, nor was he the final decision-maker on the issue.

Both Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.

Comments alleging that Biden said You son of a bitch to Ukrainian officials are true, per Bidens own comments during a panel at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The comment, though, is not indicative of any kind of corruption.

Various other conspiracy theories have alleged that the Obama administration knew about potential corruption in Ukraine involving Biden, but the information was somehow covered up. These conspiracy theories, again included in the Facebook post, also occasionally allege that Pelosi impeached Trump as a political move for Biden.

Ukraine Scandal: Trump's conspiracy theories thrive in Ukraine, where a young democracy battles corruption and distrust

Explainer: Biden, allies pushed out Ukrainian prosecutor because he didn't pursue corruption cases

There is no evidence that the Obama administration conducted investigations into Bidens involvement in Ukraine.

A Republican-led Senate investigationinto the Biden familys activities in Ukraine, concluded in September, confirmed that some Obama administration officials expressed concern about Bidens son, Hunter, being seated on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings after Biden began leading anti-corruption efforts in the country.

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That same Senate investigation, however, found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the senior Biden. The central claim of conspiracy theories about the Biden family and Ukraine, that Biden sought the removal of Shokin to protect Burisma, is false.

Fact check: Claims that Hunter Biden received $3.5M from Russia are unproven, lack context

There is also no evidence to suggest that Pelosi sought to impeach Trump to cover up alleged wrongdoing by Biden or anyone else. It is unclear how Trumps impeachment would eliminate evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either Biden.

Various iterations of conspiracy theories alleging wrongdoing on the part of Joe Biden in Ukraine have been investigated and debunked. Claims that the 2020 presidential election was the result of corruption are also false. The merging of the two conspiracy theories creates an equally incorrect narrative. We rate this claim FALSE based on our research.

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

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Fact check: False conspiracy theories allege connection between Biden victory and Ukraine - USA TODAY

Ukraine has accumulated $49 B in foreign direct investment – Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

The total amount of accumulated foreign direct investment in Ukraine is $49 billion.

"As of today, the total amount of foreign direct investment in Ukraine is $49 billion," executive director of the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office (UkraineInvest) Serhiy Tsivkach said on Apostrophe TV.

According to him, Ukrainian regulatory policy sees many positive changes. The greatest achievements of recent years, according to Tsivkach, were the reform of the agricultural land circulation system, transparent auctions for privatization of state property, alcohol industry liberalization, successful sale of subsoil use permits, conclusion of first concession agreements, large-scale digitalization of public services, adoption of inland water transport laws and state support for projects with significant investments.

However, he noted that there are problems that still need to be solved, and UkraineInvest works with the Ukrainian authorities to do this.

"We have three major problems that always arise in conversations with investors: courts, corruption and monopolies," Tsivkach said.

He stressed that the state is taking real steps to solve them, including at the legislative level.

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Ukraine has accumulated $49 B in foreign direct investment - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

New data released on the First Wave of immigrants from Ukraine to the United States – The Ukrainian Weekly

The following article is the second part of a two-part series. Part 1, which was published in the previous issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, addressed the timing, place of birth and mother tongue of Ukrainian immigrants to the United States, as well as their distribution within the U.S. Part 2 addresses Ukrainian immigrants characteristics, such as age and sex, education (literacy), knowledge of English, family structure, employment status, class of worker, occupation and homeownership.

Part 2

The first part of this article presented new results about the First Wave of immigrants from Ukraine to the United States. These results were based on recently released census data for 1910, 1920 and 1930. Immigrants from Ukraine were defined using two different criteria: place of birth and mother tongue. According to these two criteria, large fluctuations in immigrants totals prevent us from using these data to estimate the number of immigrants in the First Wave. The data were useful for analyzing the immigrants evolution of their ethnocultural identity and their distributions by state and metropolitan area.

Using this census data, a detailed demographic and socioeconomic profile of these immigrants can be created with the following components: a) demographic: age, sex and marital status; b) integration into American society: ability to speak English, citizenship and homeownership; c) household and family structure; d) socioeconomic characteristics: literacy, labor force status, class of worker; e) and detailed analysis of occupation.

The number of immigrants defined by place of birth Galicia or Ukraine in 1920 was chosen as the basis for the demographic and socio-economical profile. This definition yields the largest number of immigrants (Table 1 in part 1 of this article) and includes a representative set of mother tongues (Table 2 in part 1). Although this definition does not include all immigrants from Ukraine, the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are similar to those of all immigrants from Ukraine.

Immigrants have a relatively high percentage of children less than five years old (14 percent) and a very small percentage of people age 65 or older (2 percent). The high percent of children age 0-4 is due to the high fertility in the immigrants country of origin, especially in rural areas. As in many immigrant groups, the highest percentage is found in the working-age group (25-44), i.e., 36 percent. There are also more men than women among these immigrants, 53 and 47 percent, respectively.

Five marital status categories are presented in the census: married, spouse present; married, spouse not present; divorced; widowed; and never married/single. Sixty-nine percent of all immigrants are married with spouse present, followed by 18 percent single, eight percent married with spouse absent and four percent widowed. Less than half of one percent are divorced, with twice as many men as women. There are also twice as many single men as women and half as many widowers as widows. Men are much more prevalent in the category married with spouse absent, as it is usually the man of the house who migrates first.

The measure for level of education is rather crude in the 1920 census. It consists of questions asking whether the person can read and/or write. Many immigrants answered that they are literate (can read and write): 79 percent males and 72 percent females.

As pointed out by researchers of this wave, immigrants strived to become integrated into American society. A high percentage of them claim to speak English 70 percent of males and 75 percent of females but there is no information about their level of proficiency. Nineteen percent of the immigrants are naturalized citizens and 14 percent started the process of naturalization. These high percentages are the result of continuous efforts to become members of American society: a) the percent of English-speakers increases with time of residence; b) percent with citizenship is strongly related to the duration of residence in the U.S.

Another measure of integration is homeownership. As expected, the percent of people who are homeowners among immigrants is below the national level of 23 and 46 percent, respectively. However, if we consider the duration of residence in the U.S., homeownership among immigrants with 35 years of residency is equal to the national level. Immigrants who speak English or who are literate have higher homeownership than non-English speakers and illiterate immigrants.

The 181,300 immigrants born in Galicia or Ukraine are members of 67,200 households, classified into seven types. Table 6 presents the absolute and relative sizes of these types. Most of the households, 89 percent, are of the married-couple family type. Two other important types are male householder, no wife present (two percent) and female householder, no husband present (six percent). There are few households in the other four types; they are either one-person households or one person living with one or more non-family members.

Table 7 presents some characteristics of the three main household types. Married-couple family households have, on average, five persons. Only 10 percent of these households have no children. More than half have at least three children and two-thirds of these households have children who are less than five years old.

There are significant differences between households with male and female householders, where the spouse is absent. Male-headed households are, on average, somewhat smaller than female-headed households. Many more male- than female-headed households with spouses not present have no children 20 percent and two percent, respectively. Fewer male-headed than female-headed households have three or more children and fewer children are less than five years old.

The labor force status of immigrants was also analyzed. Male immigrants have very high labor force participation, above 90 percent, compared to 78 percent for the total U.S. male population. On the other hand, Ukrainian female immigrants have labor force participation similar to the entire U.S. female population, about 22 percent.

Female labor force participation is related, in general, to the number and age of children in the household. Only eighteen percent of females in married-couple family households, with many children and many of them less than five years old, are in the labor force. In the male householder, no wife present household type, with fewer children and fewer of them less than five years old, 50 percent of females in the household are in the labor force. In other words, the presence of many children restricts female labor force participation.

This relationship does not hold for females in the female householder, no husband present household type. Although these households tend to have many children who are less than five years old, 53 percent of females in these households are in the labor force. The absence of the husband forces more women to work to support the family.

Most of the immigrants, 90 percent, are wage earners. Only three percent are employers and seven percent are independent workers. All employers are male and more males than females work independently eight and five percent, respectively.

All censuses have a very detailed list of occupations. Presented here are only a fraction of what can be understood about the occupations of the immigrants. Table 8 shows the distribution of immigrants in the labor force by 11 occupational categories and by sex. It provides a global picture of the position of the immigrants in the occupational hierarchy.

The very high percentages of immigrants in the laborer and operatives categories, as well as the very low percentage in the professional and technical categories, is consistent with a wave of immigrants characterized by high levels of illiteracy and no knowledge of the English language. However, occupations in categories like managers or salesmen require some level of literacy and knowledge of English. The number of immigrants with occupations in these categories is an indicator of their efforts to take advantage of the new countrys opportunities.

The two top occupation categories for males are laborers and operatives. The laborer category lists few specific occupations. It consists mostly of the generic term laborer, as immigrants did not provide more detail in their census responses. The category operatives contain more specialized occupations like mine-operatives and laborers, workers in the textile industry, dyers, meat cutters, truck and taxi drivers, etc. The five percent of males with occupations in the managers and proprietors category is an indicator of success for an immigrant group that had to start at the bottom of the occupational scale.

The top occupation category for females is operatives, not laborers, as in the case for males. These occupations in the operatives category require, in general, more skills than occupations in the laborers category. The categories service workers (not household) and service workers (private household) are in third place, accounting for 14 percent of all female occupations. Another important category is non-occupational response, which accounts for five percent. It includes occupations like home housekeepers, students and retired persons.

The occupation datas detail is illustrated by the top 14 professional occupations for males and females (Table 9). The highest number among professional occupations is teachers, 235, and they are almost evenly split between males and females. They are followed clergy at 112. There are also physicians, dentists, lawyers and judges, pharmacists and accountants and auditors, which are all professions that require university-level degrees. Except for teachers and professional nurses, there are many more men than women in all professions.

Table 10 shows the 112 clergy by mother tongue and state of residence. Only 22 clergy have Ukrainian (or Ruthenian) mother tongue. This does not mean that they are the only Ukrainian clergy. Some of the clergy with Russian, Polish or other mother tongues may also be Ukrainian, but from other religions like Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Protestant. Also, the definition used immigrants born in Galicia or Ukraine is quite restrictive. Some Ukrainian clergy may have stated other places of birth, such as Austria, Hungary, Poland or Russia. This analysis can be expanded to include cross-tabulations by year of immigration, age, marital status, family type, and the number of children (if married).

According to the 1920 census, seven of the 22 clergy with Ukrainian mother tongue resided in Pennsylvania, five in New York, four in New Jersey and two in Ohio. Four other States have one clergy each. As mentioned, one can expand this analysis by adding more variables and get a more complete profile of these clergy. It would also be useful to compare these data with the records of the two main churches in Ukraine at that time, Greek Catholic and Orthodox, and other religions.

The availability of data from 1920 and other censuses provides a unique opportunity for increasing the level of knowledge of the first wave of immigrants from Ukraine to the U.S. The analysis presented here provides only a small fraction of the topics that can be addressed with these data. We invite historians, demographers and other scholars interested in this topic to contact us about getting copies of these data and technical assistance in their use.

Oleh Wolowyna is Director of the Center for Demographic and Socio-economic Research of Ukrainians in the U.S. at the Shevchenko Scientific Society, and research fellow at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He can be reached via email at olehw@aol.com.

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New data released on the First Wave of immigrants from Ukraine to the United States - The Ukrainian Weekly

ICC prosecutor ready to open investigation into Ukraine – PBS NewsHour

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) The International Criminal Courts prosecutor said Friday that a preliminary probe has found a reasonable basis at this time to believe that crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in Ukraine which merit a full-scale investigation.

The six-year preliminary probe by prosecutors at the global court looked at allegations of crimes starting with the brutal crackdown on pro-European Union protests in 2013-14, the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the drawn-out conflict in eastern Ukraine. Fighting there between Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels has killed more than 14,000 people in the last six years.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the suspected crimes and the failure of courts in Ukraine and Russia to successfully prosecute them mean that the next step for ICC prosecutors will be to request authorization from judges to open a formal investigation. She did not give a timeframe for that to happen.

Ukraine is not a member of the court but has twice accepted its jurisdiction, asking it first to investigate the crackdown on protesters in 2013-2014 under former president Viktor Yanukovych and later extending the jurisdiction to cover conflicts in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Russia is not a member of the court and does not accept its jurisdiction.

Without going into details of the alleged crimes, Bensouda said in a statement that her preliminary investigation found three clusters of victimization; crimes committed during hostilities, during detentions and crimes committed in Crimea.

My Office furthermore found that these crimes, committed by the different parties to the conflict, were also sufficiently grave to warrant investigation by my Office, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, Bensouda said.

The ICC is a court of last resort that only takes cases when member states do not or cannot prosecute them in domestic courts.

Earlier Friday, Bensouda whose term as prosecutor at the ICC is drawing to a close, said she also was ready to seek authorization for a full-scale investigation into the conflict between Nigerian forces and the Boko Haram extremist group.

She said that with her office stretched financially and facing the challenge of working amid the global coronavirus pandemic we will need to take several strategic and operational decisions on the prioritization of the Offices workload, which also duly take into account the legitimate expectations of victims and affected communities as well as other stakeholders.

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ICC prosecutor ready to open investigation into Ukraine - PBS NewsHour

Ukrainian Floorball Federation recognised as subject of the Olympic movement in Ukraine – IFF Main Site – International Floorball Federation

On the 10th of December 2020 Ukrainian Floorball Federation (UFF) was recognised as a subject of the Olympic movement in Ukraine.

The decision was made at General Assembly of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee with 106 votes in favour one against and two abstained. UFF is only the second federation after the Ukrainian Automobile Federation to be granted this status as sport that is not on the Olympic programme.

The status is a formality but it gives possibilities to increase cooperation with Ukrainian National Olympic Committee and its member associations and is another important step in establishing Floorball as a leading team sport in Ukraine, says Tamuz Hidir, IFF CB member and UFF representative.

The list of sports in Ukraine that are Subjects of the Olympic Movement are found here! (floorball to be added to the list). The Ukrainian Olympic Committee was founded on the 22nd of December 1990 and is since 2005 headed by the former Olympic Champion Mr. Sergey Bubka who is also Chairman of IOC Athletes Entourage Commission. The Ukrainian NOC is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Source:Ukrainian Floorball Federation

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Ukrainian Floorball Federation recognised as subject of the Olympic movement in Ukraine - IFF Main Site - International Floorball Federation