British Minister for Europe Glenys Kinnock considers that Ukraine is the most democratic country in the Commonwealth of Independent States, she told the Holos Ukrainy (Voice of Ukraine) newspaper on June 18.

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.

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."

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.

What are we going to breathe tomorrow? The Day in search of new parks in Ukraine By Natalia MALIMON, Volyn oblast; Vadym RYZHKOV, The Day; Tetiana KUSHNIRUK, Rivne; Tetiana KOZYRIEVA, Lviv; Larysa OSADCHUK, Ternopil; Mykyta KASIANENKO, Simferopol; Maksym STRILETSKY, Donetsk; and Oleh ADAMOVYCH, Kryvy Rih

Ukrainians in Australia celebrated on 5, 6 and 7th of June the 60th Anniversary of Ukrainian Settlement in Australia. The XIII National Ukrainian Festival was a real cultural extravaganza with groups from throughout Australia performing.

Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky of Kyiv, Ukraine, has given the Vatican control over a plot of land in the nation's capital city to the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Ivan Yurkovych, to be used by the papal delegation. The mayor explained that it is routine to provide space for foreign embassies. The Catholic presence in Kyiv, long considered a stronghold of the Orthodox Church, has been a delicate issue since the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church moved its primatial see from Lviv to Kyiv.