Happenings in Ukraine

I don't know if I should be publishing this article because recently several bloggers have been reprimanded for printing information derogatory to the Ukrainian Government.   In this blog I believe that there is nothing said against the Ukrainian Government and it's relations to the Ukrainian people.  In my future posts I will try to keep a positive outlook on the happenings in Ukraine. That being said I hope that this post may influence the world to be more sympathetic towards Ukraine and it's cause.

These days there is every indication that Ukraine is being dragged into a feud.  Or at least the actions of the Russian government seem to indicate that they are trying to provoke Ukraine into something of the sort.
This began with Russia's Prime Minister V. Putin declaring that Ukraine's ten million plus sacrifices during W.W.II did nothing to turn the tide against Naziism and Hitlers march to conquer Eastern Europe.  He stated on public television that the Russian people could have stopped Hitler alone and Ukraine's contribution added nothing to his defeat. (Ukrainian journalists claim that the question was staged)
In early December a Ukrainian library in Moscow was raided for alleged "Nationalism" and "Extremism".  Russian government agents forced their way into the library, confiscated books and closing the library.
Again on the 22nd of December they returned to once again conduct a search for more "Extremist" material. This time they removed several more books and a computer hard drive containing the list of patrons names and a list of their withdrawls.  The Librarian reported that her staff wittnessed an agent trying to place books, which he brought with him, onto library shelves. When confronted he threw the books in a pile with other confiscated materal and supposedly were taken away as evidence.  January 15th once again saw a repeat of the raid but this time the librarian was physically abused and she was taken to hospital with bruses and injuries to her head.  More that 50 books were confiscated including a book containing the history of the life of Biship Slipy, a bishop in the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lviv  .
A Lviv based internet news site zik.com.ua reported that on December 22 the Russian Consol Yevgenij Guzeyev to Lviv showed his disrespect for Ukraine and it's people. In an interview he challenged the existence of a Ukrainian nation as well as a Ukrainian church and a Ukrainian culture.

During his New Years address Bishop Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church stated that the Orthodox Church of Moscow has tried to persuade churches loyal to the Ukrainian patriarch to convert  to the Moscow patriarch. Television interviews with parishioners in eastern Ukraine have confirmed these alligations.  He believes that the Moscow based church is trying to undermine the Ukrainian church and completely integrate all of Ukraine's Orthodoxchurches into Moscow's cluches.
Interestingly, there are reports that the Ukrainian government has granted tax freedom to the Orthodox church loyal to Moscow which was not granted to any other denomination.