In 1891 several families departed the village of Servyriv, Zolochiv county, Galicia, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in Brazil. In the same year, two Ukrainian pioneers from the same Austrian crownland, Vasyl Eleniak and Ivan Pylypiv, embarked on another trans-Atlantic journey, but one that took them north to Canada. The mass migrations of Ukrainians to Canada and Brazil are linked in many ways, although few people have explored these connections.

On June 15 Ivan Mykolaichuk would be 68 By Ivan PIDDUBNY Photo from the website ktm.ukma.kiev.ua A scene from the film ANNYCHKA, 1968 (LIUBOV RUMIANTSEVA-CHORNOVOL AND MYKOLAICHUK)

AHA! Network Presents: Comments on the Vice President Biden's visit to Ukraine and Georgia in July 2009 by:

By Taras Kuzio On June 28, 1996, Ukraine became the last Soviet republic to adopt a post-Soviet constitution, and that day was designated Constitution Day, a national holiday. Two years later, on October 21, 1998, the Crimean Autonomous Republic adopted its own constitution, recognizing the peninsula within Ukraine.

The [Venice] Commission adopted, at the request of the Permanent Representation of Ukraine to the Council of Europe, an opinion on the proposal of President Yushchenko for a new version of the Constitution. The Minister of Justice of Ukraine, Mr Onishchuk, took part in the discussions.

MOISEI FISHBEIN Мойсей Фішбейн Paper delivered at the 26th Conference on Ukrainian Subjects at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 24-27 June 2009 During his speech at an expanded session of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which was held on 29 January 2009, the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, revealed an FSB special operation in a few brief sentences: "An unstable sociopolitical situation persisted in a number of neighboring states, there were continued attempts to enlarge NATO, including by means of granting Georgia and Ukraine accelerated membership in the alliance. Naturally, all this required precise and well coordinated work on the part of all special security, defense, and law enforcement structures, and quite a high level of coordination of their activities. I must say straight away that on the whole the Federal Security Service successfully carried out all its tasks."

Diana Dutsyk The recent talks about the 'broad coalition' and the new draft Constitution, details of which were published in "Dzerkalo Tyzhnya" ("Mirror of the Week") newspaper on June 6-12, have revived the issue of freedom of speech -- and the many unfolding threats to it in Ukraine.

By Pavel Korduban Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced on June 10 that three banks will be bailed out. The state will take over stakes ranging from 84-98 percent in the mid-size banks Rodovid, Ukrgazbank and Kyiv. The government does not plan to keep the banks permanently. They will be auctioned as soon as they start to function normally, she said. The government also plans to bail out two more banks, including Nadra, which is one of Ukraine's few large private banks not controlled by foreign capital.

Miron Kryzhan-Iwskiy Little pretense could be made that expanding NATO to Albania, Romania and similar states enhanced American security. Even worse are proposals to add Georgia and Ukraine to the alliance. NATO Gains Weight Doug Bandow

Dear JTA Reader http://jta.org On the heels of what insiders say will be the last major Holocaust restitution conference, JTA Europe correspondent Dinah Spritzer reports from Prague about a new pledge by 46 countries to ease the restitution process for Jewish property taken during the Nazi era.

Maria Danilova KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia and Ukraine have quarreled over a lot of things in recent years, from politics and energy to language and religion. Now they are again at odds -- this time over history.

Taras KuzioUnder Vladimir Putin the positive steps taken in the Gorbachev and Yeltsin eras in overcoming Soviet stereotypes and false criminal charges have been reversed. President Dmitry Medvedev's creation of a "historical commission" coincides with a bill "opposing the rehabilitation of Nazism, Nazi criminals and their accomplices" in the former USSR.