Category: 2024

Lisa Shymko holds an M.A. in Political Science (University of Toronto) and a Four-year Honours B.A. with a Specialist in Canadian constitutional law and Soviet history and a Double Minor in Economics and Slavic Studies (University of St. Michael’s College – University of Toronto).

Ms. Shymko brings unique insight into all aspects of communications, having spent decades in the media, nongovernmental, and financial services sectors.

Her news articles and opinion pieces on global security issues have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The American Spectator, Maclean’s magazine, and Ukraine’s daily newspaper, The Day (Hazeta Den’).

Ms. Shymko served as a media advisor to Ukraine’s first ambassador to Canada— former Soviet dissident Levko Lukianenko — writing several editorials for the ambassador, including a 1993 op-ed for the Globe and Mail.

Lisa Shymko was appointed by the City of Toronto to serve on the Toronto Public Library Board, and was later elected Chair of its Services, Planning and Capital Committee. She has managed two international book exhibitions in the House of Commons in Ottawa and the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Ms. Shymko managed several international development projects, including the Ukraine-Canada Journalists Exchange Program for the International Renaissance Foundation of the Soros Foundations Network.

She was the founding Director of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Resource Centre at the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv, established by Canadian Friends of Ukraine in cooperation with the Government of Canada.

At the invitation of the Government of Canada, she has testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and collaborated on the drafting of historic Canadian legislation recognizing Ukraine’s Stalin-era famine as genocide, for which her efforts were officially acknowledged in the House of Commons in 2008. Between 2010–2015, she was part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s delegation on three official visits to Ukraine.

As Director of Corporate Communications for BCU Financial Group, she spearheaded the creation of Forum TV — a community-based television program supported by BCU Foundation and broadcast nationally on Rogers-OMNI, where she served as Supervising Director (2012–2017).

Ms. Shymko has chaired and held various board positions in several nongovernmental organizations, including the Ukraine Support Fund, BCU Foundation, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. In 2024, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the NATO Association of Canada.

As a member of the Canada Ukraine Foundation’s advisory committee for the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, she chaired the Canadian film premiere of Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story (2018) and edited the French translation of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory’s publication, entitled L’Holodomor: Génocide du Peuple Ukrainien, produced by the Canada Ukraine Foundation (2020).

Ms. Shymko is past Chair of Guardian Angels Ukraine, a veteran’s rehabilitation project which operated in Ukraine under the auspices of the LUCW, in cooperation with NATO’s Medical Rehabilitation Trust Fund (2014–2017).

She is a frequent speaker at international conferences, including the 2021 Virtual NGO Forum of the 65th Session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women and the NATO Association of Canada conference, Crisis Response: Is Canada Prepared? — Unrest on NATO’s Eastern Flank: Ukraine, Baltic States, Russia (2017).

Lisa Shymko is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including: The Presidential Order of Merit (2009, Ukraine); Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012, Canada); The Medal of Honour of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (2017).

Nadia Gereliouk holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. Nadia’s interests complement the variety of perspectives shared by the jury vis-à-vis new publications on Ukrainian themes.

Her research interests include contemporary feminist Ukrainian literature, autobiography studies, the politics of memory, the diaspora experience, and migration studies.

She has taught Ukrainian language courses at several Canadian institutions, including the Slavic Languages Department at the University of Toronto. In 2022, her list of books for readers who seek a better understanding of Ukraine, beyond the headlines, was published by The Globe and Mail.

In addition to serving on the board of BCU Foundation, Nadia also serves on the boards of several other non-governmental organizations, including the Toronto Ukrainian School Board, contributing to its ongoing curriculum development, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto Branch, the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada.

Among the charitable projects where Nadia serves as a board member is the Saskatoon-based non-for-profit Stream of Hopes Aid for Ukraine Inc., whose activities help disadvantaged children in Ukraine

Askold Krushelnycky is a British-born foreign correspondent for The Independent. In a career which has spanned four decades, Askold Krushelnycky has seen first-hand the brutality of the Russian regime. He has worked and lived in Moscow. As a journalist, in the 1980’s he accompanied Afghan Mujahideen to report on their fight against the Soviet invasion.

He has worked in London, Prague, Washington, and Kyiv, writing for The Sunday Times, The Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy, The National Review, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and The Kyiv Post. Since the early days of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2014, Askold has often been embedded with Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines and has reported on the war for leading international newspapers and journals. In the fall of 2024, he was with Ukrainian troops as they crossed into Russia.

Askold is the author of An Orange Revolution: A Personal Journey Through Ukrainian History published in the UK by Harvill Secker. 

Alexander J. Motyl is a painter, writer, and professor. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008 and 2013, he is the author of eleven novels and a collection of poetry. His artwork has been shown in solo and group shows in New York, Philadelphia, Westport, and Toronto and is part of the permanent collection of the Ukrainian Museum in New York and the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. He has done performances of his fiction at the Cornelia Street Café and the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. 

Motyl earned his PhD from Columbia University where he has lectured. He has also taught at Lehigh University, the Kyiv-Mohyla University, and Harvard University. He currently teaches political science at Rutgers University-Newark and the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. He frequently contributes opinion columns in such publications as Foreign Policy, 19FortyFive, and the Kyiv Post.

He is the author of eight academic books and numerous articles. He is the 2019 Laureate of the Omelian and Tatiana Antonovych Foundation. According to Academic Influence, Motyl was ranked sixth among the “Top Ten Most Influential Political Scientists Today.”  

Marko Robert Stech is a writer, literary scholar, and specialist in the history of culture.

He holds a PhD in Slavic Studies and a MASc in Engineering from the University of Toronto.

He holds several positions at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) of the University of Alberta and University of Toronto: director of CIUS Press and Scholarly Publications, overseeing the Press, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies and Ukraina Moderna; and project manager of the Hrushevsky Translation Project.

His novel, The Voice («Голос»), won the 2009 Mykola Gogol International Prize for Literature. He is the author of  Essays in Search of Sources («Есеїстика у пошуках джерел»), the experimental novel The Undying («Невмирущі»), and numerous other essays.

He is the compiler of the literary legacies of Ihor Kostetsky, Iurii Kosach, and Emma Andiievska; and a compiler and editor of an anthology of Ukrainian short prose in Czech translations.

He has written and produced over 100 episodes of the «Очима культури» TV series on Kontakt TV (OMNI TV, Canada). His writings have received several awards of recognition. He was awarded the Koshelivets International Literary Prize in 2008 (Israel), the Gogol International Literary Prize in 2009 (Ukraine), and the ‘Hlodoskyi skarb’ International Prize in 2014 (Ukraine).

John Sweeney – Author
Transworld. Imprint – Bantam — Publisher

A gripping and explosive account of Vladimir Putin’s tyranny, charting his rise from spy to tsar, exposing the events that led to his invasion of Ukraine and his assault on Europe.

In Killer in the Kremlin, award-winning journalist John Sweeney takes readers from the heart of Putin’s Russia to the killing fields of Chechnya, to the embattled cities of an invaded Ukraine.

In a disturbing exposé of Putin’s sinister ambition, Sweeney draws on thirty years of his own reporting – from the Moscow apartment bombings to the atrocities committed by the Russian Army in Chechnya, to the annexation of Crimea and a confrontation with Putin over the shooting down of flight MH17 – to understand the true extent of Putin’s long war.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and compelling testimony from those who have suffered at Putin’s hand, we see the heroism of the Russian opposition, the bravery of the Ukrainian resistance, and the brutality with which the Kremlin responds to such acts of defiance, assassinating or locking away its critics, and stopping at nothing to achieve its imperialist aims.

In the midst of one of the darkest acts of aggression in modern history -Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – this book shines a light on Putin’s rule and poses urgent questions about how the world must respond.

‘No one in the world will forgive you for killing peaceful people.’ – VOLODYMYR ZELENSKIY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE

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Bogdan Logvynenko – Author
Ukraїner — Publisher

The importance and timeliness of this book lie in the opportunity to give a voice to the people who survived the Russian occupation. In the foreword, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk writes, “It often lacks resonance against the backdrop of statements by politicians who suggest handing over the occupied territories to the aggressor country and satisfying its imperial appetites. The voice of the survivors makes such appeals immoral.”

Each story has its own narrator, people who agreed to describe their experiences. Alongside the eyewitness accounts of shelling, torture, and atrocities committed by the occupiers against civilians, there are life-affirming stories about saving an old oak tree, resistance to the Russians, and happy moments of liberation. After all, as one of the book’s heroes said, “We hear cannonades, but my heart is calm: these are Ukrainians.”

”De-occupation” differs visually from the rest of our books by the publishing house, as the photographs in it are in black and white and carry an additional emotional impact. At the same time, this makes the book more affordable for the general public. The publication is part of a multimedia project, so all the photos can be viewed in colour on the website, and you can also watch videos from the expedition if you like.

The book’s title and headings are set in the Volja font by Ukrainian type designer and graphic arts researcher Marcela Mozhyna. She created it as a tribute to the work of Nil Khasevych, a famous graphic artist of the mid-20th century who is considered the chief artist of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

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Yaroslav Trofimov – Author

Penguin Adult / Penguin Press (imprint) — Publisher

Our Enemies Will Vanish is a revelatory eyewitness account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance, written by Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war’s decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world’s great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to see-saw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people—people Trofimov knows very well.

For Trofimov, this war is deeply personal. He grew up in Kyiv, and his family has lived there for generations. With deep empathy and local understanding, Trofimov tells the story of how everyday Ukrainian citizens—doctors, computer programmers, businesspeople, and schoolteachers—risked their lives and lost loved ones. He blends their brave and tragic stories with expert military analysis, providing unique insight into the thinking of Ukrainian leadership and mapping out the decisive stages of what has become a perilous war for Ukraine, the Putin regime, and indeed, the world.

This brutal, catastrophic struggle is unfolding on another continent, but the United States and its NATO allies have become deeply implicated. As the war drags on, it threatens to engulf the world. We cannot look away. At once heartbreaking and inspiring, Our Enemies Will Vanish is a riveting, vivid, and firsthand account of the Ukrainian refusal to surrender. It is the story of ordinary people fighting not just for their homes and their families but for justice and democracy itself.

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Myroslav Laiuk – Author

Ukraїner — Publisher

During the most intense fighting for Bakhmut in the winter and in March 2023, the author spent days and nights with Ukrainian infantrymen and artillerymen, medics and chaplains, rescuers and children who remained in the city and its surroundings, where artillery shelling and street battles were a constant. It’s a story about the anti-aircraft gunner who has just shot down a Russian fighter jet, father and sons fighting side by side, and a member of Wagner who cherishes Nabokov. It’s a journey to places where dogs feast on the dead, where you are petrified by fear and desolation but also stunned with courage, resilience and even love. There, you see everything with a clarity as sharp as that from new spectacles. This vividness begs a question of whether there is room for nuance. Or is the pursuit of nuance merely the privilege of those who don’t fight for their very life and existence here and now? But also, whether the survivors are obliged to pursue this nuance? In his stories, the author opts for the fixation method, «photographing» with the text. The word «fixation» will be used in different meanings throughout the text. «Blending a poet’s skill with committed war reporting, Myroslav Laiuk illuminates the details, images, and personalities of war the way only a poet can. He re-discovers Ukraine for the reader, making the neglected loved.»

Peter Pomerantsev, British journalist and writer, author of the books «Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Possible» and «This is not Propaganda.»
«Each participant in the war forges their own path. Frequently, these paths are off-road, marred by potholes and rough asphalt. Myroslav has succeeded in gathering and conveying the profound anguish embedded in the stories of each of his characters. It is through books like this that entire generations will come to understand the monumental struggles of the Ukrainian armed forces.»

Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press photojournalist, Pulitzer Prize winner

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Mikhail Zygar – Author

SIMON & SCHUSTER (Scribner imprint) — Publisher

From one of Russia’s smartest and best-sourced young journalists comes the first work by a Russian author that reveals his country’s history of oppressing Ukraine, blames Russian culture for the war, and dismantles the imperial narrative that Putin used to justify a brutal invasion.

As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, independent Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar circulated a petition that was signed first by prominent Russian writers, artists, and filmmakers, and then by thousands of others. Russian soon enacted strict new censorship laws, and Zygar was forced to leave his country. In his time as a journalist, he has interviewed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and has had access to many of the major players in both countries, from ploticians to oligarchs. As an expert on Vladimir Putin’s behavior, he has spent years studying the Kremlin’s plan for Ukraine, and here, in clear, chronological order, he explains the nationalist myths and legends Russia has exploited to justify savagely invading its independent neighboring country.

Drawing on literature, formal histories, and his own reporting, Zygar details Ukraine’s rise to nationhood, from its ancient origins as a culturally and politically distinct region, often in direct conflict with Moscow, to a Soviet-controlled state that suffered terribly at the hands of Nazi soldiers in World War II and, before that, from Stalin’s forced-starvation policies in the 1930’s. Following the fall of the USSR, Ukraine emerged first as a post-Soviet oligarchic state and then as a progressive nation with increasing economic, cultural, and political ties to Europe and the US.

Of particular note is Zygar’s step-by-step account of the rise of Zelensky as a popular comic and television personality to a resolute symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Zelensky’s ascent came as new generation of Ukrainians, having grown up in an independent country, did not consider themselves to be part of Russia — a tipping point that led to war, as Putin could not tolerate losing Ukraine forever.

Authoritative and timely, this vital account is an unprecedented historical overview of the war that affects us all and continues to threaten the future of the entire world as we know it.

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