April 26, 1986: the relatively prosperous town of Pripyat was asleep.

At 1:23am local time the Chernobyl nuclear reactor #4 blew up and burned, the result of an ill conceived and poorly executed experiment.

The occupants during the next 36 hours were dosed with dangerous amounts of radiation. The story continues.

Belarus/Ukraine: Reports From The Contamination Zone

Radio Free Europe

Radio Liberty

“More than 20 years after the Chornobyl catastrophe, hundreds have chosen to ignore the warnings and return to live in the contaminated zone that straddles the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. And many more are on their way.”

More governmental disagreement in Ukraine, sharp words.

Kiev Ukraine News Blog

Monday, April 21, 2008

“Ukrainian PM Yulia Timoshenko Disregards President Viktor Yushchenko Ban On Privatisation”

“KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko is going to put into effect the privatisation of a number of facilities, ‘disregarding the presidential decree,’ after President Viktor Yushchenko banned their privatisation. Timoshenko said so in an interview with Kiev-based ICTV TV Channel.

“ ‘I can tell you that those senseless decrees will not change anything. I think the privatisation of those facilities will take place within the time limits set by the government, because all those decrees are just illegal,’ Timoshenko stressed.”

Kommersant

Russia’s Daily Online

April 17, 2008

From an article about Yulia Tymoshenko addressing a PACE gathering in Strasbourg. The Prime Minister delivered her speech in Ukrainian and answered questions in Ukrainian.

This is questions to her after her speech. The entire article is worth reading. A link appears above.

“Parliamentarians from Switzerland, Italy, Great Britain, Azerbaijan and Lithuania calmly asked her questions (the last two in Russian) and she calmly answered them in Ukrainian.

“Then came the turn of head of the Russian delegation Konstantin Kosachev. He stated that Ukraine was violating the rights of national minorities, especially Russian speakers, by closing Russian schools and even movie theaters, in connection with the recent decision to require dubbing into Ukrainian.

“ ‘And in Ukraine we eat newborns with sour cream,’ she replied dryly in Ukrainian. The Russian delegation listened to the translation through headphones.

“ ‘There is no need to enflame such passions. After the Soviet dictatorship, the Ukrainians became a minority in their own country. We will need a lot of time still to recover our identity.

‘‘ ‘And another thing. I and all my family belong to the minority you are so worried about. I was born in Dnepropetrovsk. I spoke only Russian in my childhood. I only learned Ukrainian when I became a member of the government of Viktor Yushchenko. In 2000!

“ ‘My family still speaks Russian. And they are perfectly happy. No one infringes on their rights. When I tell my mother, Learn Ukrainian already, she says, I'm too old to learn it. But in her soul, she is Ukrainian and she shares the values of the country she lives in.

“ ‘So don't exaggerate problems that don't exist.’

“After that emotional outburst, criticism of Tymoshenko seemed to have been exhausted. None of the Russians asked about the schism in the Ukrainian government or her conflict with Yushchenko.”

That is why this lady is the Prime Minister. 

Ela

There is an orphan named Ela in an orphanage near Kherson, Ukraine. Ela has severely deformed hands and also deformities of her feet. It is said that the problems are genetic and were caused by Chernobyl.

Ela was abandoned to an orphanage at birth and has lived in an orphanage all of her life. She is now eighteen and will soon be put out of the orphanage after some schooling to be a seamstress, an impossible task for her hands.

Ela was also born with some fluid on the brain and as a result has a mild learning deficiency.

There is a wonderful lady in California who adopted two boys from this orphanage and brought them home where they had much needed corrective surgery.

Ela had told the lady that she and the boys had grown up in the orphanage together and they are like brothers to her. She asked if she could also be adopted.

The lady had come with permission to adopt only two. She promised that as soon as the boys were treated she would be back to adopt Ela. They stayed in frequent contact.

There is a surgeon in California who has committed to attend to Ela.

The Ukrainian government stopped adoptions for a year when Ela was to be adopted. When the ban on adoptions was lifted Ela turned seventeen.

At seventeen the US government shut her out. Pleas for a humanitarian visa were stopped by Home Land Security of all people.

Quaking in their boots at the prospect of a girl from Ukraine coming here they stopped the visa again.

Ela is now eighteen and it is not long until she will be put on the street with no family, no friends, never having lived outside an orphanage, and marginal to poor education. She has no hope.

Ela most likely faces suicide and soon. She probably can’t even make it as a prostitute because of her deformities of hands and feet.

This morning I woke up thinking how I am blessed with everything I need; a family, housing, food, clothes, medical care, even a car!

Then I looked at the world through Ela’s eyes.

“I am being put out of the only home I have ever known – an orphanage. I don’t know anyone out there.

“ I don’t know how to live out there.

“I have no place to go.

“I have no job and no hopes for one.

“There is a lady who loves me and who is trying to help me but I am told that “they” won’t let me go with her.  I don’t know who they are.  

“Dear God, help me please. I am so afraid.

“There is someone who loves me but they won’t let her take me.  Please help me. Please dear God. Please. ”

Dear Friends, God works through us.

David

Go to Ela on Sonia’s website, Mellowswanfoundation.org. Click on “Project Ela” tab.