TulipGirl

Not-quite-First Lady Lyudmyla Yanukovych, recently ranted in Donetsk :

«Dear friends, I’m fresh from Kyiv, I can tell you what’s going on there. It’s simply an orange orgy there! So, there’s rows and rows of felt boots – all of it of American make! See! And mountains of orange oranges. And the background is “Orange sea, orange sky…” [a line from a popular kids song – tr.] Gosh! It’s just… It’s a nightmare! And look here guys: those oranges ain’t just any oranges – they’re loaded. People take an orange, eat it – and take another one. See! And the hand keeps reaching, keeps reaching for it. I was on my way here, there was news. They said – people in the square are getting poisoned, on a mass scale. Frequent hospitalizations. They bring people in with meningitis! What have we come to! And they keep standing, keep standing! Eyes simply glazed over! Just like that!»

Excuse me a moment.

Bwa haha haha haha!

Yeah. Riiiiiiiight.
However, please pray for the general health and continued peacefulness of the protesters. The weather is frigid, and it’s been snowing a lot. Some people have been sick, but there are medical clinics set up as well as ambulances available.

From Maidan

From Le Sabot

From Neeka

From Orange Ukraine

From International Support for Ukrainian Democracy

Crocodile’s Collection

by Maia, at House of the Dog

It’s been amazing to see the outpouring of interest in and support for Ukraine and her people. The big daddies are keeping it in front of their readers on a daily basis–especially Instapundit, but also Andrew Sullivan, NRO’s The Corner, PowerLineBlog and Hugh Hewitt.

Over at LoboWalk, Daniel’s Ukraininan wife Anna has started translating news stories into English. Hooray!

The following are some helpful links, but is in no way an exhaustive list.

UkrBlogs, in and out of Kyiv:
Hubby, at Le Sabot
Neeka’s Backlog
Foreign Notes
obdymok
Orange Ukraine
Ukraine, Oh My!
LoboWalk
The Argus
Fistful of Euros
Daniel Drezner
The Periscope
SCSU Scholars
A Step at a Time
EuroPhobia

UkrNews in English:
Kyiv Post high integrity
PORA News
Maidan News
Ukraine Now
Ukraine Observer
ObozRevaTel
Mirror Weekly
Google News – Ukraine
EinNews – Ukraine
Hotline News

There are several reports of Kuchma planning on declaring martial law and possible attempting to raze the tent city at 8pm local time. Please pray that peace will prevail, Kuchma will not use violence, and the protesters will remain level-headed.

And Yushchenko has issued this statement,

“Ideas of force resolutions are appearing from time to time. Mr. President, I’m appealing to you: God forbid the government should resort to force. You will confront unimaginable power, and these 500 thousands, who are standing in this square, will grow tenfold.”

“If any preparations for resolution by force come to light, we will break off negotiations immediately.”

“I would like to appeal to people who wear the military uniform. Remember one thing – weapons always speak in unison with the truth, they never work against your own people.”

Update: As of now, my Ukrainian friends who are following the news or have been in the center have not seen any actions against the demonstrators or tent city. Maidan continues to report concerning developments.

As Neeka says, “many believe that all these rumors are based on the very real threats that keep being averted through pressure and negotiations.”

However Chairman Volodymyr Radchenko of the The Council on National Security and Defense of Ukraine says the use of force against the protest participants is “impossible.”

2 am update here, from Hubby.

I was excited to find an evergreen wreath and taper candles in the traditional advent colors a few weeks ago. Last year, we our advent wreath was a bit ad hoc with votives on a glass tray. This is the first year we will be incorporating lighting the advent candles and reading the Advent Scripture into our Advent rhythm. For the past 5 years, we’ve been observing Advent with singing hymns, praying, and going through the Scriptures with a Jesse Tree that Auntie L gave us.

The purple candle for the first week of Advent represents prophecy. These are the Bible passages we’ll be reading this week.

Sun. Is. 40:1-5
Mon. Is. 52:7-10
Tue. Is. 40:9-11
Wed. Gen. 3:8-15
Thu. Gen. 15:1-6
Fri. Deut. 18:15-19
Sat. Ps. 89:1-4

And the first Advent hymn the boys requested was:

Joy to the World!

Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Saviour reigns:
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.
Trinity Hymnal #149

“. . .We were told that she went up to the guards in front of the entrance, guards in full riot gear, masks and shield, in ranks twenty deep. She went up to one and said, “I am a babushka [translated roughly as “grandmother” but used for every older woman grandmother age] from the village. I came here to find out how you are. Are you fine? Are you hungry? Maybe your parents are somewhere worrying about you?“Babushka has come from the village with some warm socks for you. Maybe your feet are cold and you need some socks?” She talked to this fellow in this way and won him over. He lowered his shield to expose his face and he was grinning at her while she spoke to him.

Today, she was supposed to come over and see us. She likes to do this especially since she has a new grandson she dotes on. But today she can’t be bothered with that sort of thing. She is part of the revolution. Getting out of bed this morning, she went to the store, bought bread and sausage and is on her way down to make sure that the protestors are fed and taken care of.

Before she left, she called her husband in the village. She had been planning on going back home and letting him come to take part but, when she called, she told him “There is nothing for you to do here. There are enough men here already. A woman’s touch is what is needed here to help take care of the people down at the square. So I will stay here. You don’t need to come.” (This is terribly un-PC but that is the way she is and the way of life is in the village.)

Read the rest.

I’m tired of people outside of Ukraine trying to frame what is going on here as a “US/EU vs. Russia” thing, and so condescendingly refusing to see this is all about Ukraine. It is Ukrainians who have risen up, joined together, and finally have hope that things here can change.

The above story is from ForeignNotes who lives here in Kyiv, and is about his mother-in -law. This is the real story of this rally. Each day, a million individual gestures of freedom and unity are joined together to make up the big picture on the Square.

I sure wish ForeignNotes would allow anon comments. hint, hint.

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has declared the November 21 election to be invalid! They have also voted no-confidence in the CEC. This is reported by the ever-reliable The Kyiv Post. (No registration required right now–that should be a permanent change, imo.)

These votes are non-binding, but still, are hugely significant!

Update: Just got an e- from our friend Pasha, “Hi, here is some info. You might have heard of it! Did you watch our parliament conference live on different chanels? There’re some good results but did you see corruption and desire to leave some power in the hands of Yanukovich’s “region party”… As soon as I find the info in English, I’ll link to it.

Orange Ukraine, Helping to pull 48 million chestnuts out of the fire. is a brand new blog to watch. It’s authored by former Peace-Corps volunteeer and freelance journalist Dan McMinn, who lives in Kyiv with his Ukrainian-born wife. Keep checking back–Dan really understands the situation here.

Photos from Kyiv and around the world are being collected by Crocodiles Ukrainian Election 2004 site. It was especially neat to see the pics from Chicago, where my Mom lives and where I attended my first political rally (skipping school, naturally.)

AidUkraine is run by a Ukrainian in diaspora and has some good info. Note, they are asking for donations. And while it looks legit, I cannot personally vouch for this group..

I just found SCSU Scholars through I-can’t-remember-who. Someone deserves a link here. *blush*

I’ve read some so-called analysis of what’s going on in Kyiv, where it is clear the reporter or whoever just doesn’t get it. On the other hand, here’s King–who has lived, studied and worked in Ukraine.

Check out his maps–hopefully they will help convey another point in the grand scheme of election corruption.

On our way home from Thankgiving Dinner yesterday, our taxi took us near the center, but not close enough for the boys and I to see the heart of the demonstration. We did see many people walking to and from the rally, all wearing orange, waving flags, and sometimes chanting “Yu-shchen-ko!”

J8, budding politico that he is, was sure to ask our taxi driver, “Are you for Yushchenko?” Of course he was, and that opened a whole conversation.

“It’ll be much better for our country when there isn’t corruption,” Oleg said. “We need to be more like Europe.” Oleg has a friend in Canada and has thought of moving there with his daughter, but he needs money, a job there–and he just can’t leave his mother here in Ukraine. Sadly, we know a lot of Ukrainians who have wanted to leave–the corruption here has been too oppressive and until now, escape seemed the only solution. Now there is hope that things really can change.

The boys kept injecting their own comments and cheers for Yushchenko, as Oleg and I talked. We drove past the Central Elections Committee building, and Oleg pointed it out and told me what it was like the other day when there were so many protesters. We saw a group of 30 or so people waving flags and cheering in front of a government building that is quite a ways from the center. While Maidan and Khreshatyk are still the center of activity, it seems obvious that the demonstration is growing and spreading.

Oleg asked me why I supported Yushchenko. “Look at the economic plans he had in the past–the dollar/grivnia exchange rate has been constant since we moved here. His past plans were responsible for that, so I think his plans for the future will be sound, too. I really believe he is a true reformer.”

At one point Oleg asked if anyone in the US knew what was going on here. “The world is watching,” I went on to tell him about all the people I’ve heard from (online especially) who care about what is going on here. He was visibly moved knowing that people around the world are watching–and care.

In the midst of the current Ukrainian excitement, we’ve had some “normal” family times as well. Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with some other families from the US. We all had some special things that we had sent from the States–a videotaped football game, pecans for pie, cranberry relish, French’s onion topping for green bean casserole. . . We had a time of worship and thanksgiving, and enjoyed the traditional meal with all the trimmings. The kids got to play outside in the snow, there was a bonfire for roasting apples, and it a wonderful evening.

We also had birthday cake with our friends–C turned 4 yesterday and T is 7 today. I’ll have to adjust my acronyms. *grin* I can’t believe that my baby is now four, especially when I think back to how T7 was only four when we first arrived here. They’ve both grown so much and totally delight my heart.

Yesterday, November 25th, Victor Yushchenko’s parallel government issued its first decrees, focusing renewal of democracy in Ukraine and on safety issues for the Ukrainians who are protesting corruption in government.

Read them here.

“Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn. . . gathered with parliament faction leaders to discuss the possibility of convening an extraordinary parliament session to unblock the current political crisis. . . . (Lytvyn) believes the current predicament can be resolved “independently” and is seeking to determine the role of parliament during the emergency.”

(Via the ever-reliable Kyiv Post)

From Victor Katolyk, translated from the very reliable korrespondent.net.

“korrespondent.net
The negotiations between Kuchma, Yanukovych, and Yushchenko will be held at 18:00 in the presence of international mediators. Yushchenko refused to hold eye-to-eye meetings with Kuchma or Yanukovych.

The negotiations will be mediated by Xavier Solana, Jan Kubish, Alexander Kwasniewski (President of Poland), Valdas Adamkus (President of Lithuania) and, possibly, other European and Russian diplomats.”

Please pray that these will be fruitful, and that in negotiating an outcome, the people of Ukraine will not be subject to compromises that dash their hopes of freedom.

(Via Fistful of Euros)