The committee that awards the Pulitzer Prize is facing fresh calls to revoke the top honor in American journalism from New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty over his false reporting from the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

The petition launched by the U.S. Committee on Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness calls on the Pulitzer board to rescind Duranty’s 1932 prize for correspondence.

At issue is Duranty’s minimization and denials of the forced famine in Soviet Ukraine that led to the deaths of millions in the early 1930s, and his fawning coverage of communist dictator Joseph Stalin.

Known as the Holodomor, meaning to kill by starvation, the famine followed Stalin’s collectivization and grain seizure policies, and the Ukrainian government alleges that it was an intentional genocide intended to subdue an independence movement.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9644289/Pulitzer-Prize-board-faces-fresh-calls-strip-Walter-Durantys-1932-award-Soviet-reporting.html

The Ukrainian energy company that was paying President Biden’s son Hunter $1 million a year cut his monthly compensation in half two months after his father ceased to be vice president.

From May 2014, Burisma Holdings Ltd. was paying Hunter $83,333 a month to sit on its board, invoices on his abandoned laptop show.

But in an email on March 19, 2017, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi asked Hunter to sign a new director’s agreement and informed him “the only thing that was amended is the compensation rate.”

“We are very much interested in working closely together, and the remuneration is still the highest in the company and higher than the standard director’s monthly fees. I am sure you will find it both fair and reasonable.”

After the email, the amount listed on Hunter’s monthly Burisma invoices was reduced to $41,500, effective from May 2017. The amount was paid in Euros, at the rate of between 35,000 Euros and 36,100 Euros per month, based on currency fluctuations at the time.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/26/hunter-bidens-ukraine-salary-was-cut-after-joe-biden-left-office/

🔵 Bucking the world recession, Ukraine’s IT exports increased by 20% yoy, to $5 billion, according to new figures from the National Bank of Ukraine. IT now accounts for 8.3% of total exports, putting it in fourth place after food, metals, and migrant labor. In 2013, IT accounted for 1.3% of Ukraine’s exports. “Ukraine has earned a reputation in recent years as one of the world’s leading IT outsourcing destinations, but many feel it is time for the country to move up the tech food chain,” Peter Dickinson wrote in an Atlantic Council blog: “Ukraine’s Booming IT Sector Defies the Coronavirus Crisis.”

🔵 Of the 100 best IT outsourcing firms in the world, 11 are based in Ukraine, according to the 2021 Global Outsourcing 100 list, a ranking compiled annually by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals. Designed to help companies find the right IT help, the list includes from Ukraine, in alphabetical order: Ciklum, Eleks, Infopulse, Innovecs, Intellias, Miratech, Nix, N-iX, Program-Ace and Sigma Software.

More at https://ubn.news/

A commander of a US Space Force unit was fired and put under investigation for anti-Marxist comments he made during a podcast.

Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, a former fighter pilot, was a commander of a unit that detected ballistic missile launches and was relieved of his duties on Friday by Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, Military.com reported.

Lohmeier earlier this month self-published a book titled, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.”

Last week Lohmeier spoke about his book and criticized Critical Race Theory with L. Todd Wood, host of the podcast “Information Operation.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/space-force-unit-commander-removed-post-decrying-marxism-military/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law allowing to call up reservists for military service without announcing a mobilization, his office said Wednesday.

The move comes amid a massive Russian troop buildup near Ukrainian borders and a flareup of cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

The new law, passed by Ukraine’s parliament in late March, will allow the country to “quickly equip the military units of all state defense forces with reservists, thereby significantly increasing their combat effectiveness during military aggression,” Zelenskyy’s office said in a statement.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday that the Russian buildup across the border is continuing and is “expected to reach a combined force of over 120,000 troops” in about a week and urged the West to beef up sanctions against Moscow by targeting entire sectors of the Russian economy.

Moscow has rejected Ukrainian and Western concerns about the buildup, arguing that it’s free to deploy its forces and stressing that they don’t threaten anyone. At the same time, the Kremlin has warned Ukrainian authorities against trying to use force to retake control of the rebel east, saying that Russia could be forced to intervene to protect civilians in the region.

https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-adopts-military-reservist-law-160654696.html

On April 17, the Czech Republic expelled 18 Russian diplomats it identified as spies with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and General Directorate of the Armed Forces (GRU).

The Czech foreign affairs and interior ministries said they found evidence that Russian operatives were behind a 2014 explosion at an ammunition depot in the town of Vrbetice, which killed two people.

https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/explainer-were-russian-spies-behind-czech-arms-depot-explosions-in-2014.html

Russia has moved more than 50 fighter jets from Stavropol to the annexed Crimea, TASS reports with reference to the press service of the Southern Military District of the Russian Federation.

The crews of the Su-25SM3 aviation unit of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Army of the Southern Military District, stationed in Stavropol, are relocated to the military airfields in Crimea.

At the same time, the Su-25SM3 Squadron stationed in Crimea was relocated to the Ashuluk test site in the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation.

“During flight tactical exercises, crews of Su-27SM, Su-30SM and Su-24M, Su-25SM3 and Su-34 bombers will carry out missile launches and bombings of naval targets,” the statement reads.

http://uawire.org/russia-deploys-50-fighter-jets-to-annexed-crimea

Russia has announced the that it is closing the Kerch Strait for warships of Ukraine and other countries during its military exercises, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

According to Kyiv, the decision comes into force from next week and will be in effect until October. It extends to parts of the Black Sea adjacent to the Kerch Strait.

“Such actions of the Russian Federation are yet another violation of the norms and principles of international law. They are intended to usurp the sovereign rights of Ukraine as a coastal state. It is Ukraine that has the right to regulate navigation in these areas of the Black Sea,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Kyiv believes that in this way Russia provokes not only on land, but also at sea. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on the international community to increase pressure on the Kremlin.

A day earlier, an incident between Ukrainian and Russian border guards occured near the Kerch Strait.

According to the press center of the Ukrainian Navy, Russian FSB boats tried to block way for several Ukrainian boats on combat duty.

http://uawire.org/russia-closes-kerch-strait-to-ukraine