13 May 2014

A total of 84.1% of Ukrainians say they are going to vote at the presidential elections on May 25, according to the all-Ukrainian phone survey conducted by the GfK Ukraine. Poroshenko continues to lead in the polls.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is sending 1,000 observers: 100 long term, and 900 short term. On May 12, a Canadian government-funded mission deployed 39 long-term observers throughout Ukraine who, by election day, will be joined by an additional 100 short term observers.

Forty-nine people have been killed in Donetsk Oblast since an armed standoff began on March 13. 245 people have been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds over the period, according to the healthcare department of the Donetsk regional state administration. And more than 40 people died in Odessa on May 2.

The first refugees arriving in Kyiv from the eastern regions of Ukraine have been placed in the presidential residence in Mezhyhirya, reports the newspaper segodnya.ua. Dozens of refugees from Luhansk, Donetsk, and Kramatorsk and some 20 from Crimea are being housed in the two-story building where Yanukovych’s closest servants were to live.

People have been arriving not just from Crimea but also from eastern Ukraine.

The young man has been in Kyiv for several weeks: “I had to leave because I had supported Maidan. When I arrived in Kyiv, I first stayed in affordable housing, then I moved to Maidan square, and now they placed me in Mezhyhirya. When I find work I will bring my family to Kyiv because I’m afraid for them. I also have to finish my education, get a diploma. I’m studying to be a lawyer,” he said.

Serhiy Lobonovsky, a 25-year-old from Luhansk, still has an 18-year-old sister, mother, and older brother at home: “I arrived in Kyiv several days ago because life in my city became unbearable. There’s constant shooting, they’re robbing stores, apartments ... My older brother and mother want to go to Russia and do not support my views, so I will not be going home again. I want to find work in Kyiv and bring my sister from Luhansk. She supports me and Ukraine. In Mezhyhirya everything is certainly good, but a king’s mansion is not for me. I don’t want to depend on others.

excerpt from article written by Archbishop Emeritus Lubomyr:

In his poem ‘The Great Anniversary,’ Ivan Franko says, “Remember that everyone holds the fate of millions in his hands and to these millions you will have to answer.” These lines include two key words.

The first is ‘everyone’— not just high-ranking officials and civil servants, but every citizen, without exception, from the oldest to the youngest, from the highest to the lowest.

The second key word is ‘you.’ This is a personal appeal, not to some ‘he,’ ‘she,’ or ‘they,’ but ‘you.’ Each of us is personally responsible for the fate of the nation.

This wording strikes great fear in the hearts of those who are used to getting something without doing a thing to earn it, or who are afraid to do anything at all.

Am I responsible for the fate of millions? Yes, you are.

As we stand on the threshold of a new era in the history of Ukraine, we must be fully aware of this responsibility to the common good. Otherwise, the sacrifices of our grandparents and parents, Heaven’s Hundred and Maidan’s spiritual uplift, will be useless.