Chornobyl/Chernobyl update 

While the UNDP has opted to yank aid from Chernobyl and emphasize "The resolution embraces the forward-looking findings of a new report on Chernobyl by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, which concludes that, "after two decades, a return to normal life is a realistic prospect for most people living in Chernobyl-affected regions."  The UN resolution underlines the daunting challenges that the region still faces, but underscores that a "developmental approach," focusing on such efforts as job creation, investment promotion, and community development, holds potential solutions."

     For more on the Chernobyl disaster see wikipedia entry, Greenpeace report, and chernobyl.ifo site. For me, the whole UNDP resolution reads like a bad play, with the ground soil still being contaminated (stories about how it has killed wildlife and will effect the area for 100 years) but it does reflect the 'hands up in the air' approach signifying that yes, indeed there is NO real way to clean up after the largest nuclear disaster in the world and yes, the only answer is to make an even larger sarcophagus which does nothing to deal with what poison is inside and forcibly going into the ground and water underneath the site. This new report from UNDP is part of the turning wave to encourage more nuclear reactors being built in order to deal with the world's hunger for cheap energy and Europe's alternative to Gazprom/Russia. 

Kerch Strait update

According to news report, one of the two downed ships which was carrying sulfur is now leaking. So aside from copious amounts of oil, sulfur is going into the water. (Soon it will be the 'Dead Sea' from the Black or Azov Sea - so stock up on caviar now. No joke, sea life and birds are dying at a dramatic rate and with sulfur in the water, even more are slated for death's door.) It seems that Ukraine will try to recover some recompense from shipowners but will see if it pans out. (I don't know if the ships were even insured.) Clean up is reported to have been 80% accomplished but that is in regards to the oil on the surface (not that which went down and will suface when temperatures rise.)

It has been said that one of  the reasons for the diasaster in the Kerch Strait was smuggling contraband, namely that cargo was being transferred from ship to ship to evade customs. For full story see "Who Is is to be blamed for the Black Sea Oil Spill?" (and in ukr highlights  full story) In light of the fact that 150 ships were travelling in an area during a time when weather conditions should have indicated extreme caution in putting out to sea, does point to lawlessness on the high seas. (and a recent report from Itar-Tass supports that it was the captain's fault.)Greed always trumps caution. And the smuggling is pandemic as highlighted in a recent speech by the President. "President Vi[c]tor Yushchenko asked the Security Service and the Prosecutor's General Office to create a working group on drafting a special program on fight against smuggling." (Kyiv Weekly) For full story see 'Yushchenko Tries Another Customs Crackdown.'

On the political front, both Yushchenko and Yanukovych appear to be waiting on the results of an impromptu Ukrainian government committee before taking any stand on whether to try to fine Russia for the disaster (unlikely) and what to do about preventing further disasters (if anything). Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has been quoted as blaming at least part of the disaster a Russia habit of leaving things to chance. From Ukraine's perspective, this is a much more workable conclusion (one the two countries could work together to prevent in the future), than the idea IIU wrote about earlier in this space that the solution would be for Russia to build a bridge to Tuzla (thus gaining more of a foothold on Ukrainian territory it hopes to annex). It's only a glimmer of reasonable talk, and may have been charm pulled out because he was meeting with Yanukovych at the time, but it beats more Tuzla bridge talk.

Donetsk Mine Explosion

Bodies are being buried on this the National Day of Mourning for the victims. Death toll currently at 90. Funerals will continue until the end of the week although some miners may never be identified or located. With the closure of the mine, the entire community is facing total death and the rise in illegal mine digging not only for money but also for coal to heat one's home. (I cannot help but muttering 'wha zie' hell and Zvyahilsky in the same breath. See Ukrainiana for more about Zvyahilsky and Foreignnotes about the catastrophe.)

Unluckiest Miners on Earth

Dan - Particularly infuriating is Yanukovych's dismissal that these kind of natural disasters cannot be predicted, and could happen anywhere, implying that the government cannot, and thus should not, take any corrective action in the future. The statement is more than a little inadequate for explaining how Ukrainians can be second only to China in the rates at which they die in "unforseeable" mine disasters,  and the poor miners of of Zayadka can account for over half of those deaths in mines.

Let us postulate for a few moments that Yanukovych is right: this kind of tragedy cannot be averted by mere human responsibility. Then the answer is easy: this mine must be richer in bad luck than it is in coal. So rich, in fact, that instead of taking down sniffers for methane (which they are coerced into turning off anyway as part of an unspoken management focus on productivity over safety) they should be issued hand mirrors. When the mirrors crack, they'll know they've got to run.

Better yet, why not send down some unquestionably lucky men to turn the place around? Why, the Ukrainian Parliment right now is full of deputies who haven't been doing much in months, and aren't likely to start soon. They also must be extraordinarily lucky to be able to afford so many luxuries on deputy salaries. I'll even help. I'll give every man of them a rabbit's foot on his way down the hole.