Viva Ukraine 11, February 2015

№11, FEBRUARY 2015

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MAGAZINE

A valentines card for a soldier The magic exhibition «The Black Pearl»

by Oleksandr Korovai Fountains of illusions in Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia) Poroshenko congratulated Ukraine on the Day of Unity of Ukraine

A Kharkiv citizen is one of the three most beautiful girls in the world

Foundation «HELP TO THE MILITARY OF UKRAINE» (“DOPOMOHA VIISKOVYM UKRAINY”) Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, volunteer battalions and the National Guard have a strong need for moral and material support. We, Kharkiv volunteers, constantly gather and deliver food products, body armor, camouflage cloaks, radiosets, warm clothes, toiletries, and a lot of other things that help our soldiers survive and be efficiently equipped. We deliver these articles to the very frontline.

We turn to international funds, to our communities and expatriate communities, to people who just care: we must survive and defend our country.

Any help from you will be greatly appreciated and will go directly to the hands of those who need it more than anybody else these days.

Tel. +38096 070 20 42, +38099 796 55 32 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005992399186 e-mail: avegagroup@gmail.com

№11, February 2015

INSIDE:

Social and political magazine № 11, February 2015 license No20601-10401Р of 28.03.2014

Founder and Chief Editor Butt Umair Ahmad The published materials express their authors’ point of view that may not coincide with the editorial team’s official standpoint.

The editorial team does not carry responsibility for the content of advertisements.

The magazine is published in Ukrainian and English.

Some copies are distributed through diplomatic missions of foreign states in Ukraine and embassies of Ukraine in different countries of the world.

Translated by Natasha Pradan.

Circulation: 10 000 copies The telephone numbers of the editorial office:

+380 577816557 +380 949779557 www.viva-ukraine.com info@viva-ukraine.com 3

Kharkiv has held workshops on robotics..............................

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Two Ukrainian short-length films won at the film festival in New York.................................................................................

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«Warm railings» with poems by Ukrainian writers will be installed in Kyiv ......................................................................

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Two Ukrainian pupils won a prestigious competition held

by Google...............................................................................

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The magic exhibition «The Black Pearl» by Oleksandr Korovai....................................................................................

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Kharkiv will host an exhibition of Petrykivsky painting .........

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A photo exhibition dedicated to the Revolution of Dignity was opened in Lviv.................................................................

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The best photos of Ukrainian nature in 2014........................

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To get out in 60 minutes. A new entertainment «Escape room».......................................................................................

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The first municipal bicycle rental of Ukraine will be opened in Lviv........................................................................

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The future is already here: electric vehicles for taxi services were demonstrated in Kyiv.....................................

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Sculptures come to life before your very eyes or The Street Art Festival...............................................................................

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A restaurant based on the «Game of Thrones» is opening in London for three days........................................................

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Lego is ahead of «Monopoly» and a Barbie doll in the ranking of the best toys..........................................................

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In memoriam. Kuzma Skryabin................................................

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Fountains of illusions in Zakarpattia Oblast..........................

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Poroshenko congratulated Ukraine on the Day of Unity of Ukraine.....................................................................................

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The leader of the group «Lyapis Trubetskoy» asked Ukraine to give him the right to permanent residence.....

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A valentines card for a soldier..............................................

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A Kharkiv citizen is one of the three most beautiful girls in the world..................................................................................

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№11, February 2015

Kharkiv has held workshops on robotics In the modern world robots constitute an increasingly large share of our lives, they become its integral part. News feeds are full of notes on new developments. What are they, robots? How do they function? How are they set up? How can one make a robot? The answers to these questions were given at the workshops on robotics, which was held on January 10-11 in Kharkiv.

Today there are already 1.8 million different robots throughout the world — for industrial and household use, those created for entertainment, and this number is growing rapidly.

The robotics market numbers tens of billions of dollars per year.

The world has been robotized globally and there is no doubt that robotics is a profession of the future. Therefore the Robotics Center Boteon offered workshops for people to get familiar with the basics of electronics, programming and robotics.

On Saturday and Sunday, January 10-11, it held free fascinating lectures and workshops for children and adults. At the classes one could learn about the place of robotics in the modern world and the prospects for its development and could find out how to create a simple robot having only 10 minutes.

Also the participants were demonstrated a robobeetle, a humanoid robot, a mobile platform of the Robotics Center Boteon.

The goal of the Center is maintenance and development of robotics, advanced research laboratories and groups engaged in research in the fields of robotics, mechatronics,

programming, construction and innovation. On the site of the Center there are video tutorials and training materials on Robotics, as well as information on adult and children’s courses Botbase, RoboKid, RoboProfessional, Boteon Education.

It can be added that the interest of the new Kharkiv generation in robotics and inventions has been gradually increasing. In the autumn of 2014 Kharkiv pupils became the winners of the All-Ukrainian School Tournament of Young Inventors and Innovators, and the silver medal at the robotics competitions in Slovakia was given to the robot «Wiggle» developed by teachers and alumni of KhNURE and KhPI.

Two Ukrainian short-length films won at the film festival in New York According to “Press Ukraine”, two Ukrainian short-length films from Rivne won at a time at the New York Film Festival of Art Film. In the nomination «Feature film» the winner was the film «The Tunnel» by Victor Bulyha, in the category «Musical movie» it was the video for the song «One Mercy» by Serhii Zinchuk.

At the film festival in New York, «The Tunnel» created by Victor Bulyha from Rivne was nominated the best feature film.

The movie won the prize of the Online Festival of Art Film. «The Tunnel» entered the Top-10 of the best films of the festival,» the author notes. Looking at the diploma Bulyha noticed an interesting thing: «The diploma pictures Kyiv Monument to the Founders under the Statue of Liberty, and Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral – quite at a distance. It’s very symbolic and important: Kyiv is located in the center of civilization, while Moscow is the world’s outcast,» Victor commented on his reward.

“The Tunnel” starred the actor of Rivne region music and dramatic theater, the Honored Artist of Ukraine Andrii Kudelia, a musician Serhii Zinchuk and a journalist of the local TV channel Kateryna Yarova. Filming took place in the «Tunnel of Love», which is located in Klevan, Rivne region.

In addition, the festival awarded the video for the song

«One Mercy» written by a citizen of Rivne Serhii Zinchuk that starred in «The Tunnel». The operator for both the movie and the clip is Dmytro Maxymchuk. The film was shot by ordinary residents of Rivne.

Ukrainian short-length films will go to the International Film Festival «Festival of Festivals», which will take place in St. Petersburg.

We shall note that the online festival was attended by 67 short-length films from Germany, Israel, the UK, Poland, India and so on.

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«Warm railings» will be installed in Kyiv An unusual art object called «Warm railings» will appear in the center of the capital. This was stated in a social network by one of the authors of the idea, Ivan Melnychuk.

The idea of creating such railings belongs to the Polish artist Elzhbeta Yablonska and its implementation — to the architect Ivan Melnychuk. The authors of the project are planning to replace the railing along the pedestrian walkway and steep stairs on the right side of Ivan Franko Street where hundreds of Kievers first raise to Yaroslaviv Val Street.

The first poles of the railings have already been installed, and it is planned to make them warm by the end of the winter.

«We have been working on the implementation of the project for two years already. And now we have entered the final stage — we have collected all the approving papers. The total length of the railings is 112 meters. And most importantly — they are going to be warm!

«Curious citizens will also be able to read poems and ministories by Ukrainian writers and poets, which will be applied to the railings with a special laser engraving. The railings will be divided into sections, separated by pillars, names of the writers will be engraved there, and their works will be printed on the top of each section to make it easy to read. The font was selected at the competition among Kiev students,» the architect says.

According to him, the repertoire will include lyric poetry and philosophy, instructive and amusing mini-stories about unusual street residents.

Poles and Ukrainians work on the implementation of the «Warm railings» together. The estimated cost of the project is about 20 thousand euros. «The funds for creating the project were gathered in Poland and Ukraine. We are plannng to use special equipment to heat the railings to a temperature of + 28 ° C. Also there will be sensors that will turn off the electricity at night when no one walks the streets. And, of course, if the weather is warm, the railings will not be heated. We have already submitted a draft of the technical specifications to «Kyivenergo» and received their approval,» Melnychuk says.

For now no one knows when the new railings will become warm. The authors promise that it will happen by the end of the winter, however, it is possible that it will be made only next year. The railings will be protected by a guardrail to avoid any damage by cars.

In Shevchenko Regional State Administration the project is said to be approved: «Moreover, we expect that next year we will make the second part of the railings in the street warm as well,» Oleh Hariaha, the head of the district, says.

Two Ukrainian pupils won a prestigious competition held by Google This year there are two Ukrainian pupils among the 24 winners of the contest Google Code-in 2014. In June, the winners will visit the Californian office of Google where they will meet Google engineers. It is stated in the official blog of Google.

Therefore Ilya Kowalewski and Stanislav Kryvenko are among the winners of the prestigious competition. In early June, they, along with the other winners, will go to the main headquarters of Google in Mountain View (California, the US) for four days. During this trip the students will attend the awards ceremony, meet Google engineers, spend a day in San Francisco and will get an opportunity to make new friends with similar interests.

Google Code-in is a competition for developing open source software for students from around the world. This time 658 students completed 3 236 objectives during 7 weeks of the competition.

The participants wrote code, added new features to the programs, corrected errors, created documentation, developed logos and looked for new interesting ways to show other students the exciting process of coding, evaluated face recognition functions in the program of coping with disasters,

created videos that teach others the principles of software etc.

Note that it is not the first time that Ilya Kowalewski becomes the winner of this contest. Thus, in 2013 he was one of the 20 winners.

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The magic exhibition «The Black Pearl»

by Oleksandr Korovai On January 10 Oleksandr Korovai’s solo exhibition «The Black Pearl» opened on Lviv. The exhibition was held in the Art gallery of Madame Palmgren, which is popular among the citizens of Lviv, up to January 22. The information is provided by the press service of the Lviv City Council.

«Art is a great magic. A kind of alchemy. The artist transforms simple material things - paper, a pencil, pastel, canvas, a can of paint, a brush — into spiritual and extremely valuable articles of art. This way alchemists tried to get gold from common staff,» the arrangers of the exhibition claim.

Why does it have such an unusual name? «Because the works of Oleksandr Korovai are real black pearls, unique, exquisite and amazing, like all his creation,» the arrangers point out and invite everybody wishing to plunge into the world of magic, where the author provides an opportunity to experience the tenderness hidden under the armor of self-defense, kindheartedness, which needs protection.

All the paintings are decorated in the same way: on black paper, in small cardboard round «windows». They really look like black pearls of various sizes. They are pastel paintings. Blue, white and gold colors dominate. All the works could be divided into two groups: into images of women and images of men. An interesting fact is that the latter ones are images of guardian angels in the way the artist sees them. In fact, they wear headgear. After all, as the author explains, if it is a guardian, he should be not with a halo, but with a «militant», «knight-like» helmet.

The biggest disadvantage of the exhibition is that the works are located behind glass, and the lighting is poor, so the light reflects from the frames and it is almost impossible to see the details of the paintings, which are written in dark colors themselves.

As for the idea, Oleksandr Korovai says that it occurred to him by accident when he saw black paper in a store. Then he decided to ‘get’ the light out of the darkness, to create a «space».

Although «The Black Pearl» is an exhibition of pastel works, it includes an oil painting. The artist put it there for the guests to see that he is not only a drawing artist, but also a painter.

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Kharkiv will host an exhibition of Petrykivsky painting From February 3 to March 10, 2015, Kharkiv regional center of culture and art will host the exhibition of decorative painting «Petrykivka born in Kharkiv».

One of the traditional types of folk art - Petrykivka decorative painting - has long gone beyond the borders of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, where it originated and developed as the art of painting houses.

Thanks to the inspired work of masters of the National Union of Folk Art of Ukraine, distinguished Honored Masters of Folk Arts of Ukraine, spouses Tamara and Oleksandr Vakulenko, this art is developing in Kharkiv as well.

The exhibition will feature creative achievements of Petrykivka artists from Kharkiv oblast. In recent years, the interest to Petrykivsky painting has significantly increased among Kharkiv citizens: here Tamara Vakulenko is establishing and developing a school of Petrykivka. This can be considered a significant phenomenon in the pictorial art culture. The school has already united a lot of young talented artists: Aliona Kychkina, Liudmyla Lysunova, Olha Tretiak and others. They deserve to become the pride of Slobozhanshchina in the future. This is a perfect example of the fact that the development of the school and

education of new masters continues.

More than 30 authors will present their work to the audience. The exhibition will feature both paintings and works of decorative art. During the exhibition a series of workshops on Petrykivka will be held.

A photo exhibition dedicated to the Revolution of Dignity was opened in Lviv According to the press service of the Lviv City Council, the photo exhibition “Human Factor. Last Edition” dedicated to the anniversary of the revolutionary events at Maidan Nezalezhnosti was opened at the corner of Virmenska and Krakivska Str. on December 28.

«This exhibition is a continuation of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the people who came out to protest against the system in the winter of 2013-2014. The first three waves of the exhibition were exposed during the Revolution of Dignity, on Maidan barricades,» the message states. Lviv photo exhibition lasted until January 11.

The exhibition includes photographs of the tragic events of January 18-22 2014 taken by 40 different photographers.

The pictures include works

by Lviv photographer Victor Gurniak who died in the ATO area.

The arrangers point out that Lviv is the first city after Kyiv where these photographs are exhibited.

They also plan to show the photos in other cities of Ukraine, in particular Kharkiv, Odesa. The arrangers were

invited to present the exhibition in Poland.

The photos from the exhibition can be purchased for 1,000 UAH. The funds will be used to help participants of the ATO and their families. Half of the proceeds of each photo will be transferred to the volunteers who support the army.

The second half of that sum will be used to help the families of the photographers killed at the war, soldiers of the volunteer battalions Victor Gurniak and Anton Kireev, the wounded photographer Kostiantyn Chernichkin and the mobilized photographer Vitalii Lazebnik who is still serving in the conflict zone.

Also, this money will be used to buy equipment (body armor, helmets) for photojournalists who are working in the ATO area.

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The best photos of Ukrainian nature in 2014 The photo contest «Wiki loves Earth» is embodied by the NGO «Wikimedia Ukraine» - Ukrainian official representative of the Wikimedia Foundation, which takes care of Wikipedia and its sister Wikiprojects. The project aims at spreading free knowledge about the natural inheritance of Ukraine and the world. The photos received during the contest will be used to illustrate articles in Wikipedia and other Wikiprojects. During the competition 12 053 photographs have been downloaded, from which a professional jury chose ten best pictures.

The competition involved photos illustrating natural attractions according to the official list of monuments of Ukrainian natural heritage. Unfortunately, not all natural monuments are even counted by the state. An unpleasant «discovery» of the contest was that a well-known botanical phenomenon the «Tunnel of Love» — a green tunnel in the forest formed with thickets of trees, shrubs that interweave and form an amazing dense tunnel of arch shape - is not a natural attraction... This botanical phenomenon is a place of pilgrimage for tourists and couples in love, a landmark of Rivne region. But even the law (though its protection sometimes seems quite ephemeral) has nothing to do with it.

«Photos of all natural monuments, regardless of their significance, are important for spreading free knowledge about the natural legacy, in particular through articles in Wikipedia.

The uploaded images were of different quality, but lots of them of them were excellent. We also spent a month writing articles to 1.

Fall in the Tunnel of Love, © Myroslava Rakovets Wikipedia on monuments to assist the process of disseminating information on natural objects requiring protection,» the international coordinator of the «Wiki loves Earth» project Aliona Zubchenko says.

At the ceremony rewards were given to the winners in the categories for the largest number of natural monuments photographed in each region of Ukraine and for the best pictures from all regions, as well as participants who photographed the largest number of objects in general throughout the country, and the authors of the ten best photos.

10 photos to represent Ukraine at the international stage of the competition were chosen.

The names of the winners of the first three places: Vitalii Bashkatov, Dmytro Balkhovitin, Anastasiia Sak.

«Demerdji mountain». Landscape reserve «DemerdzhiYaila», Crimea, © Vitalii Bashkatov

2.

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«The view from Mount Hoverla on the Carpathian National Park». The Carpathian National Natural Park, IvanoFrankivsk oblast, © Dmytro Balkhovitin

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«Aktovskyi Canyon». The Regional Landscape Park «Granitesteppe lands of Buh», Mykolaiv oblast, © Anastasiia Sak

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«Winter Kukul». Carpathian National Natural Park, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast; Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Zakarpattia oblast © Volodymyr Khirash

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«Shaan-Kaya in the clouds.» Yalta Mountain Forest Natural Reserve, Crimea, © Oleksandr Chernykh

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«Grygorivka mountain valley looking at Hoverla and Petros». Carpathian National Natural Park, Zakarpattia oblast © Maksym Prysiazhniuk

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«The morning palette». The Regional Landscape Park «Zuievskyi», Donetsk oblast, © Vitaii Bashkatov

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«Upon Mount Hoverla.» Carpathian National Natural Park, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast; Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, Zakarpattia oblast, © Robert Labchuk

10. «The Peninsula». The botanical reserve «The New World», the hydrological natural monument «Coastal aquatic systems between the New World and Sudak», Crimea, © Vitalii Bashkatov

Svitiaz Lake at dawn». Shatsky National Natural Park, Volyn oblast, © Pavlo Mokrytskyi

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To get out in 60 minutes. A new entertainment «Escape room» Getting out of a room having one hour is a new game for Ukraine, while throughout the world escape quests have been popular for several years. The essence of the game is a child’s play, especially considering that this is quite related to games behind locked doors. Players are closed in a room that is filled with riddles, puzzles, enigmas and other pieces of a story. One can get out of the room only after revealing its secrets. Yet the participants have only one hour to make all the tips add up to the story.

A specific feature of such quests as escape rooms is that they harmoniously unite intellectual challenges and a special atmosphere of a game and an adventure combined. Escape rooms as an idea made a kind of revolution in the world of amusement. After all, the Internet took over the lion’s share of entertainment. It is not necessary to go to the cinema — one can use a laptop to watch a film. Buying books became optional — one can read on e-book or a tablet, or a phone.

Chat forums, dating sites, social networks. Communication and entertainment moved to the World Wide Web. But then, quests and quest rooms suddenly appeared on the stage. And a miracle happened: a consumer got out of Facebook and went to communicate with people made of flesh and blood.

Escape rooms emerged from computer games. Actually it descends from the browser quest of the type “escape the room” Crimson Room. The idea itself developed in the early 2000s. If the game was limited to one basic plot, in reality “escape room” quests number hundreds of thousands of stories around the world. Escape rooms can either look like residential apartments and cinematic spaces or «government facilities» - hospitals, laboratories and prison cells.

One of the first “escape rooms” - Claustrophilia — was opened in Budapest in 2011. But today there are more than fifty escape rooms. Needless to say, such games are very popular in Europe, Asia and of course in the USA. Over time, the new way of entertainment spread throughout the world. Today we as well have an opportunity to enjoy the charms of this unusual entertainment.

The point is that a team consisting of 2-4 people is closed in a room for one hour. During this time, they need to solve puzzles, find all the clues and codes, open all the locks and get out. Some quest rooms provide «tips» from the manager who watches the game, some don’t. Some of them include elements of virtual reality, a detective or even of a «chamber of horrors». But what is surely necessary when being in any escape-room is the ability to think, intelligence, logic and attentiveness.

At the same time one will surely not need the ability to do the splits or stand on the head, muscles and physical preparation, the skill of fighting like Jackie Chan. Also, be aware that the technological advances of recent decades — phones, iPads, iPods and other gadgets are strictly prohibited in such places. If you failed to open the door during the given time, don’t get nervous, you will not stay there forever. All in all, it’s just a game, and at the end of an hour the arrangers will open the door and let the team out. And then it will be up to you — either you will be told all the secrets of the room, or you will be able to come back later and try your luck one more time.

There are already several companies in Kyiv, each creating its quest rooms, for example, Vzaperti, Escape Quest, Qimnata, Exit Game, Qroom, Pid zamkom, za7zamkami, Inside, RoomQuest, Klaustrofobiia, Kvestiia, Quest u realnosti, Quest Guest House.

Kharkiv companies are Quest-Room, Smart Room, KEYHOLE, Izoliatsiia. In Odesa there are Lovushka, Myshelovka, Kvesthaus. Also, such quest rooms function in Lviv, Odesa and other cities of Ukraine.

One game costs from 250 to 500 UAH per team. Each room gets its own story, a script and selected thematic goals.

For example, the quest «The Office of the KGB» from Escape Quest required furnishings of those times, and the arrangers 10

№11, February 2015 specially looked for them at the flea market and on the Internet. So the room is full not only with a special atmosphere, but even with the smell of old staff.

Quests of this type are universal and very simple. At least, you will probably not have to climb ventilation shafts, get keys out of a terrarium or cut away the locks. At the same time you will surely need to look the room up and down in search of clues, decipher codes and perform simple physical or chemical experiments.

The game will not work for those who suffer from claustrophobia, though quest rooms do not necessarily look like gloomy panic rooms — they can resemble ordinary apartments with windows, standard furniture and lots of detail. But there are very different scenarios, for example, «A Scientific Laboratory» from Escape Quest, “A Jailbreak» from Qroom, «A Time Travel» from Pid zamkom, «Saw» (based on the widely-known horror films) from Qimnata, «A Cinema» from Vzaperti and even «Looking for the Golden Loaf» from Quest Guest House.

Rooms have different levels of difficulty, so all the beginners are recommended to try «easy» rooms first and then, after gaining experience, switch to more difficult ones.

The following quests are usually much easier, because people are aware of where things can be hidden, how to twist locks, what switches can be used for. However, everybody is warned that outlets, air conditioning and basically everything in the room are real, so one doesn’t need to wrestle and unscrew anything. But sometimes this desire is irresistible.

The arrangers say that the audience of escape rooms is represented by people of different ages and jobs. Although mainly, of course, they are young and active people.

By the way, the best results are usually shown by mixed teams, which include both men and women, as they take different approaches to tasks and pay attention to different things.

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Escape Quest “All of us are people of the computer era, and here one can touch everything, press buttons, twist locks, click switches.

This causes a genuine delight. It’s like a computer game in reality”, this way Yaroslav Kaplan, one of the founders of Escape Quest in Kyiv, explains the phenomenon of the popularity of quests. “Even those who failed to pass the quest are satisfied because for an hour we let people dip into another reality».

The first room, which was opened by Escape Quest, was “The Office of the KGB». This is the easiest quest made by its creators. It is perfect for the first time. An elaborated interior and articles of the Soviet times will help you stir your intelligence to find the code to open the door.

«The script is written so that the room could be visited by people with different backgrounds. We actually sell good emotions. It rather needs using logic, than any special knowledge,» Yaroslav says.

The idea to create such a quest in Kyiv came up a year ago, when escape rooms became popular in Russia. It was implemented together with the founders of Dream Family Zhenia and Ihor.

«All the scripts are written by me,” Yaroslav says. “But writing is one thing, and creating it is a completely different one. And here comes Ihor. I tell him something like «you turn the key, and the lamp on the ceiling lights up. And I don’t know how to do it». And he always answers “it is possible” and makes everything come true.

As for lots of other quest rooms in Kyiv, Yaroslav answers like this: «We are not afraid of competition, we consider them more as partners. Because now people can come to us only three times, as long as there are no more rooms. That is why our clients go to them and vice versa - we get people from other companies. A professional league of quest makers starts forming in Kyiv».

Of course, none of the creators of Ukrainian escape rooms is at a stop. They create new exciting quest rooms based on unusual scenarios. So if you want to have a great, funny, and unusual evening with friends — you can book a quest room and challenge you brain. Try to get out of a prison cell, a psycho’s lab or the office of the KGB. You are sure to enjoy it.

Then comes more difficult «A Scientific Laboratory» - a little world under the auspices of Einstein, Mendeleev and Newton.

You have the same 60 minutes, but now you have to fight formulas, science and its laws.

The third room — «An Abandoned Shelter» — is the hardest escape room, which requires breaking the security system to avoid being buried in the shelter. In 60 minutes it is to be selfdestructed.

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The first municipal bicycle rental of Ukraine will be opened in Lviv Ukraine’s first municipal bike rental system will appear in Lviv already in 2015. Two Ukrainian companies veliki.ua and «Traffic Management» won a grant to create a municipal bicycle rental established by the German NextBike Gbmh and GIZ (the German Agency for International Cooperation).

The authors of the idea won a grant established by the German foundation GIZ, and it got a chance to come true.

«Under the terms of the grant GIZ partially covers the issue of equipment, and we are to find money for the operation and development of the network here, in Ukraine. Today we need to invest 155 thousand euros in the project to create a system consisting of the first five stations, 55 bicycles and 70 parking spaces,» the authors of the idea say.

The start of the project is scheduled for the summer of 2015, but according to the company veliki.ua, the preparations were already held in 2014.

Both private and partly public investment programs were involved in developing the network. Abroad, such municipal rentals often get subsidized by municipal budgets and partly by attracting investments, payments from advertising on the bikes. In its turn, the Lviv City Council promised to solve any bureaucratic issues that may arise.

It is assumed that the first 5 bicycle stations will be opened in Lviv as early as in the summer, and now the authors of the idea are carrying out a survey among Lviv citizens, trying to get their opinion on where these stations should be located.

«After the survey we will send out a call for the places where the stations should be created to the Lviv City Council,» the authors of the initiative point out.

The following year, if the funding is good, Lviv will get 20 rental stations more, and the ultimate goal of the project is having created about 50-60 such stations by 2019, so that one could ride a bike around the whole city.

Similar municipal bike rental networks have long been functioning in Europe, the US, China, Japan and Russia. Creation of such a network in Ukraine was repeatedly discussed, but for various reasons the project failed to realize.

The future is already here: electric vehicles for taxi services were demonstrated in Kyiv The future is not far off: according to vgorode.ua, Kyiv hosted a demonstration of electric cars that will serve as taxis.

The experiment will be started in Lviv, and if it is successful, it will be continued in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine. The make of the electric vehicles is Nissan Leaf.

The arranger of the project Shooter Kostiantyn Yevtushenko says that this way he is trying to attract the widest audience possible to the idea of switching to electric cars. He also wants to draw officials’ attention to the unreasonably high taxation of electric cars in Ukraine.

“If taxi services, food delivery, courier services and car services that work with government agencies start using electric cars, we will not only improve the environmental situation in our cities, but also get rid of the dependence of our eastern neighbor. We’d better pay for Ukrainian electricity than buy Russian fuel, giving money to the aggressor country,” Yevtushenko believes.

According to him, the whole world started switching to electric transportation. This decision is extremely important for cities with high levels of exhaust emissions. Electric cars showed

great results in such cities Madrid, Barcelona, London, Berlin.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade supports this initiative. It has already developed the appropriate changes to the Tax Code. The activists of the movement for electric cars hope that very soon they will get support of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

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Sculptures come to life before your very eyes or

The Street Art Festival Ukraine’s first festival of street theater art will be held this winter, from January 2 to March 8. Fair theatrical traditions of genuine fun, understandable to everyone, will come to life this winter in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrivsk. The festival of living statues and mimes, previews of which took place in late November, will extend its genre boundaries and will become a festival of street theater art. Mimes will get the company of jugglers, stiltwalkers, clowns, magicians, puppet theaters, illusionists, living sculptures and any other actors troupes or single actors working in the format of street theater. The participants of the festival will walk in a colorful parade through the corridors of the shopping center flooding the elevators and escalators.

The festival program will be competitive at the same time: the holders of the three prizes will be awarded with 10, 25 and 50 thousand UAH correspondingly. Although was only 8 troupes participated in this preview, there were more than 20 mini-troupes and single actors from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Kryvyi Rih and Moscow who enrolled into the festival. The youngest participants are only 14 years old. The winter venue of the festival is the shopping center «Dafi».

«At first glance, is may look odd: a street theater located at the mall. But, firstly, in winter in our latitudes street performers just can’t work outdoors, and, secondly, a shopping center is, by and large, a modern version of a fair where street theater originated and flourished,» Alina Hanbabaieva, the representative of Kharkiv Organizing Committee of the festival, says. The arrangers also remind that this year many street artists almost lost a season because they couldn’t work on the Crimean embankments. The winter festival is the only

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№11, February 2015 opportunity to catch up, as all the proceeds will be given to the actors.

The decision to expand the format of the festival was made after the preview. The basic rules of the contest were finished after it as well. In particular, the arrangers introduced penalties for unfair competition, such as trying to work on foreign soil. «Everything will be just like in the real streets and squares or at real fairs: each actor has his own territory and his «hat» for collecting money,» Solomiia Kirsa, the representative of Dnipropetrivsk Organizing Committee of the festival, says.

A Kyiv mime Oleksandr is surprised that even in warm weather it is difficult to meet a «living statue» in Kharkiv. He notes that 3 hours of work in Kharkiv «Dafi» brought him as much money as a day in a Kyiv street would bring: «But it’s not about the money, I want Kharkiv citizens to get the joy my colleagues and I try to give people in the streets». By the way, the participants will not only get money from visitors, but also will be able to hand out their business cards, because it is likely that some of the guests of «Dafi» are just looking for actors for their events.

So actors can use the festival as an additional promotional platform. But either collection of fees, or promotion should be organically woven into the fabric of the performance, the members of the Organizing Committee say. The contestants will be evaluated by the professional jury basing on four criteria: originality of the image, acting technique and interaction with the audience, costumes and props, scenic charm. «Think about the way the story you are telling can be interesting in this city in these times. Look around - you’ll see a lot of stories from real life,» Oleksandr Hlumov, the artistic director of the Dnipropetrivsk theater Quasar, advises to the contestants. Another member

of the jury, Vladyslava Makohonova, an associate professor of philosophy of Dnipropetrivsk National University, adds: «The audience should notice you in the crowd. You should dress so that not to strike one’s eye, but to crash into one’s memory».

Their Kharkiv colleague, an actress and singer Ellen Brochet, believes that “street theater gives us a simple childlike faith in the fact that everything will be fine, and this is its main value”.

Apart from Ellen Brochet, the jury that will evaluate the participants included directors, actors and acting teachers.

Among them there are Armen Kaloian, the actor and director;

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№11, February 2015 Alha Ksendziovska, the actor, performer, clown; Cedric Gras, the representative of the French Institute in Kharkiv; Serhii Moskalenko, the actor and the TV presenter. Apart from the evaluations of the jury, one of the participants of the festival will also get the audience award.

The audience voting will take place on the site of «Dafi»: to avoid any manipulations with the results the management of «Dafi» specially acquired a voting module. To assess the level of the participants, the organizers arranged a preview in a crowded place, as any street art is contact and interactive.

A mime Nataliia Shapovalova, a student of the performing department of Kharkiv University of Arts, said that the hardest part is getting people to believe in the illusion:»Children are always interested, they always like it. And adults can also be very interesting, there are even some stories, some plots that unfold. If anyone is interested to make advances - it’s always very nice and very interesting both for the actor, and the audience».

Thus, the festival started on January 2 in the shopping center «Dafi» in Kharkiv. The artists of street theater genres perform in Kharkiv every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 17:00 to 20:00.

And since February 6, as befits to a colorful actor booth, the festival goes to Dnipropetrivsk, where it will also perform on Fridays and weekends in Dnipropetrivsk «Dafi» up to March 8.

Up to that date the jury will have evaluated all the participants, will have determined the winners, and the audience will have named their favorites.

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A restaurant based on the «Game of Thrones» is opening in London for three days Fans of the American fantasy television series will get an opportunity to visit the feast of kings from the «Game of Thrones» HBO TV channel, which is preparing to release the fifth season of the «Game of Thrones», has organized an offer interesting for all the fans of the series. According to The Independent, a themed restaurant will be opened with the assistance of HBO in London just for three days, from February 13 to 15.

The slogan of the themed restaurant is the phrase “All Men Must Dine”, which is the renewed slogan of the series «All Men Must Die.» The decorations of the restaurant will be made in the style of a «private, clandestine meeting of the Small Council in King’s Landing».

Employees of The Wandering Chef created a corresponding menu for the «one-of-a-kind epic banquet» that includes ‘The Lies of Tyrion Lannister and his Proclaimed Innocence’, or

poached veal tongue with beetroot, horseradish and ‘Oldtown Mustard’, and other delicacies and drinks, «worthy of the kings».

The only way to become a guest of the restaurant is to win a seat at the table on the HBO site.

This offer is dedicated to the release of the series’ fourth season on DVD and Blu-Ray. The premiere of the fifth season is scheduled for April.

Lego is ahead of «Monopoly» and a Barbie doll in the ranking of the best toys Lenta.ru reports citing The Daily Express that Lego was recognized as the best toy in the world ahead of «Monopoly» and Action Man toys. The corresponding ranking was made up by the resource ToyNews toy by interviewing toy manufacturers and other professional members of the industry.

According to the publication, in the past Lego has already been included in the top list of the best toys, but only now it became the leader of the list based on the opinion of manufacturers and not the public, as it used to be.

Lego is a series of toys. Each of them is a set of pieces for assembling and modeling various objects. Since 1949, these bricks are manufactured by a group of companies called Lego Group headquartered in Denmark.

Since then Lego has expanded its activities by creating movies, games, contests, and by opening six themed amusement parks.

The hit-list also included racing cars and tracks Scalextric (that took the fourth place). The fifth place was given to board games Subbuteo. The sixth and the seventh places were given both to Rubik’s Cube and toys from «Star Wars». The last in the top ten were Matchbox cars, a Barbie doll and playing cards.

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In memoriam. Kuzma Skryabin On Monday, February 2, a traffic accident claimed the famous Ukrainian singer, the leader of the band «Skryabin» Andrii Kuzmenko. Kuzma had a wife Svitlana and a 18-year-old daughter, Mariia- Barbara. Kuzma Skryabin left a great mark in the music history of the independent Ukraine. The whole generations grew up listening to his songs, and his career was bright and unique in a way.

The editors of TSN.ua prepared a special project dedicated to the memory of the famous musician. The whole team of «Viva Ukraine» along with the editors of TSN.ua expresses condolences to his family and suggest that all the readers looks back at the life and career of Kuzma, who will continue living for many years in the hearts of millions of his fans.

Andrii Kuzmenko was born in Sambor, Lviv oblast. As a child he dreamed of becoming a driver of a sanitation truck.

Kuzma’s mother was a music teacher, under her influence Andrii graduated from a music school specializing in playing the piano. The first onset of melomania happened thanks to “Lady Madonna” by The Beatles. Kuzma heard it while listening to a collection of foreign musical performances in 1979.

In 1983 Kuzma heard a program «Vse tsia dolia» (“The Fate is to Blame”) on the third program of the Polish radio that included a performance by the Scottish band The Exploited. It captivated him and made him love punk music.

It gave Andrii a second wind, and he decided to distribute punk among the youth. Therefore he created a band called “Lantsiuhova reaktsiia” («The Chain Reaction»). For rehearsals they used the events hall of the school, where Kuzma studied. In 1985 Kuzma finished school and, as he dreamed of becoming

a neurologist, the boy tried to enter Lviv Medical Institute, but he failed.

The birth of Skryabin One year later, Kuzma met Volodymyr Shkonda who had similar tastes. At first they just listened to music, and later they started playing it. Shkonda played the guitar, Kuzma played the piano. Kuzma believed this group to be the first step of creating «Skryabin».

In 1987, after returning from the army, Kuzma was admitted to Lviv department of dentistry. He had to pay for education, and he didn’t have the necessary sum of money. It put him off being a doctor, as he wasn’t interested in dentistry. But as his parents insisted on his attending the university, Kuzma continued studying.

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№11, February 2015 In 1987 he wrote the songs “Lucky Now, Brother”, “Da to uzh est”. The starting point for creating the band «Skryabin» was the decision taken on June 29, 1989. Then the future participants of the band decided to record the song Feel the Pain and its Ukrainian version — «Chuiesh bil».

«Skryabin» is believed to be the pioneers of the Ukrainian electronic music. During its entire existence, the group has incorporated a mixture of different genres and styles. The first album «Chuiesh bil» bordered between synthpop and New wave music.

From late 1989 to 1991 the band experimented with music, so the sound was close even to Psychedelic Rock (Chuiesh bil, Vosho). In general, the first songs differed due to using synthesizers, bass guitar and drums at the fore, which was characteristic of post-punk bands.

After recording the album «The Fish Language» (“Mova Ryb”) in 1992, the band turned to techno music. In those times this genre was very popular and won popularity among young

people worldwide. While playing techno, «Skryabin» kept using more harmonic synthpop as the basis of their work.

Andrii Kuzmenko himself repeatedly emphasized his love for the band «The Cure», the influence of which was also quite significant - from depressive and romantic lyrics to the orchestration.

In the mid-1990s, «Skryabin» returned to synthpop combined with techno and released the album «The Birds» (“Ptakhy”), somewhat similar to the works of a German DJ «Maruscha».

Another band that influenced the music by «Skryabin» is the neoromantic «Camouflage». The albums «The Tales» (“Kazky”), partly «The Fish Language», «Technofight» convey the specific features of this style.

After the collapse of the old team, the mood and the direction in the work changed. The main change was the transition from electronics to a live music. Thus the electronic component was minimized. The first echo of the pop-rock genre was the album «The Fashionable Country» (“Modna Kraina”),

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№11, February 2015 though recorded by the old team, but in another, lighter pop performance.

In 2002 Skryabin published the record called «Winter People»(“Ozymi Liudy”), where the songs like «Love to pay», «One’s Own Country» (“Sam Sobi Kraina”), «The Hero» (“Heroi”) formed the final direction of their music in subsequent years.

After the single with Iryna Bilyk «To Keep Silence» (“Movchaty”) it was further confirmed by using the usual canons of pop music. The last stage of the transformation was the release of «The Nature» (“Natura”), when there was almost nothing left from New wave music.

Kuzma was not only a musician, but also a writer, a TV presenter, an actor and a producer. At the beginning of the new millennium Kuzma started acting as the emcee at his own hit parade «The Hot Seven» (“Hariacha Simka”), which lasted until 2002.

In 2006 Kuzmenko proved to be a talented writer after the publication of his own book, his autobiography «Me, Pobieda and Berlin» (“Ya, Pobieda and Berlin”). It was enormously popular and was republished several times.

In 2009 he created the band «Paiuschiie trusy» and helped the band «DZIDZIO» to gain popularity. The same year he was a member of the jury of the literary award «Book of the Year BBC» (“Knyha Roku BBC”). In October 2014 he launched his own Internet radio called «S.R.A.K.A». According to him, it was playing the music he listened to, while driving the car.

The day before the tragedy the band «Skryabin» presented a new video for the song «The Dolphins», which was the last one for Andrii Kuzmenko.

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№11, February 2015 «Come into the cold water, Do not be afraid to wet your feet, To swim with dolphins through kilometers of ice over the sea...» Kuzma sings.

Each video of «Skryabin» used to be a hit and will remain in the hearts of fans forever.

The End of the Movie A few days before his death, on January 24, Andrii Kuzmenko released his very last song with a symbolic name «The End of the Movie» (“Kinets Filmu”).

The song was recorded back in 2014. Originally they planned to include it in the previous album. But later it was decided to leave the track for the next album, it was planned to be included in the record «25», which would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the creative activity of the group. The album was to be the band’s 21th studio full format album.

In the words of the song «The End of the Movie» (“Kinets Filmu”) the fans see kind of a prophecy. Commenting the song at Soundcloud where the track was released, fans pay attention to the words in the chorus: «And now it is the end of the road... And now it is the end of the book, the story is over and it will not be retold one more time».

Besides, the official website of the band «Skryabin» published an excerpt that was supposed to be included into a song of the new album.

«Well, why do we always leave this life Often in a way that we do not want, And we wait for a sign and don’t notice at all That we let ourselves come to the razor edge».

10 facts about the musician 1.

He dreamed of becoming a driver of a sanitation truck. He believed that it was «romantic».

2. He owed his melomania to the mother – a music teacher.

3. At the request of the parents he studied at the department of dentistry.

4. He is the author of the group «Paiuschiie trusy» and the first tutor of the band DZIDZIO. 5. The first onset of his melomania was due to the song Lady Madonna by The Beatles.

6. He had a machine gun at home so that in case of an attack he could protect his family from aggressors.

7. He admitted that in 2004 he campaigned for Yanukovych because he was «forced» by the management of the TV channel, where he worked.

8. He was the author of the autobiography, «Me, Pobieda and Berlin», which became a hit.

9. Kuzmenko always hid his wife from journalists.

10. He dedicated the song «A Revolution in Fire» (“Revolutsiia u Vohni”) to the latest events in Ukraine.

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№11, February 2015

Fountains of illusions in Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia) A unique thermal fountain pool was created in Transcarpathia, analogues of which can be found only in some countries of Europe and America. On January 2 Transcarpathians held the opening of the largest in Ukraine jacuzzi fountains with «coffee», «wine», «beer» and «vodka». The unusual fountains were included in the National Register of Records of Ukraine.

The fountains are located in the health and recreation complex «Kosyno» in Berehivskii district.

Nataliia Skytalinska, a member of the opening’s organizing committee says it took a year to move from conception of the project to its implementation. “We made a lot of work.

In October 2013 the designer prepared sketches, then the engineers got into the game,” Nataliia Skytalinska says. “In the center of the pool basin there is a crane-looking fountain installed at a height of 11 meters. In the distance the audience gets the impression that the crane hangs in the air. The total height of the construction is 15.7 m. Thermal water will be supplied with the help of huge sculptures: a 5.3-meter bottle of wine, a 3.2-meter coffee cup, a 3-meter flask of vodka and a 4.8- meter mug of beer. The figures are handmade. It took the painters and sculptors over 5 months to make them. The

substance, of which the sculptures are made, is fiberglass, which is used for car manufacturing».

The chief engineer of the thermal baths Andrii Susol says: «First, we were going to make it 6 meters high, then we switched to 8 meters. When we finished working on the design and decorative solutions, we got the idea to make it much larger than anything of the kind we had seen in Europe».

The chief engineer of «Kosyno» also said that the project required the work of 125 painters, sculptors, designers and craftsmen during 14 months. The construction of the pool

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basin needed more than 2000 m3 of concrete and 71 km steel reinforcement, which, for comparison, is the distance from the thermal waters of Kosyno to Uzhgorod through Mukachevo.

“The fountain «The Golden Crane Of Health Kosyno» hourly serves 330 m3 of thermal water. While passing through the neck of a crane, it goes through 80 special fountain aero conductors, fills with air and significantly enhances its therapeutic properties.

The total height of the fountain is almost 16 meters and it is the height of a five-story building,» the chief engineer claims. The diameter of all the construction along with the other fountains is 46 meters. The weight of it hanging in air is 2.5 tons, the length of the illusion crane is 9 meters.

Victor Biliak, the head of the operation department of «Kosyno», adds that they used new technologies to make the pool and bought expensive equipment used to pump sea water. An interesting point is that each of the figures has a special aroma: the coffee cup — that of coffee, the wine bottle — that of wine etc. The entire system can be managed via the Internet. Tourists are thrilled, because as they cure their bodies, they also soothe the souls swimming in thermal water with flavors of different drinks. Ukrainians have never seen such a wonder.

The director of the National Register of Records recorded 5 records at once in Transcarpathia: The largest thermal jacuzzi

fountain with beer, wine, vodka, coffee and The largest thermal jacuzzi fountain «The Golden Crane». Lana Vietrova, the representative of the National Register of Records of Ukraine, arrived to fix the records. It turned out that the fountain pool is the largest in Ukraine — it is 46 meters in diameter. This is the first record fixed in 2015. Lana Vietrova presented honorary diplomas to the representatives of the recreational complex and commanded to switch on all the fountains.

Though the fountain pool is located outdoors, it is not cold to swim there in winter as the thermal water is got from wells with the depth of 1200 meters and the temperature of 55 degrees.

On the surface it is cooled to 38 degrees and fill the pools with it.

This water is good for the locomotor system, it cures rheumatism, kidney diseases, arthritis, radiculitis, and even obesity. It also calms the nerves, improves the immune system and strengthens the body. Two hours in the thermal baths will cost 150 UAH, children under 6 years can use them for free.

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№11, February 2015

Poroshenko congratulated Ukraine on the Day of Unity of Ukraine According to the press service of the head of the state, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko congratulated his compatriots on the Day of Unity and assured that no one would ever be able to undermine our consonance.

Poroshenko said that the historical Unification Act, proclaimed on January 22, 1919, was a symbolic document that outlined the geographical and mental borders of the united Ukraine.

«Our enemy has made a huge mistake — it wanted to destroy us, but instead it made us stronger than ever,» he said.

The President pointed out that now almost 100% Ukrainians defend the idea of a single country and the majority «sees it is a unitary, not a federal state».«Over the past year, tens of thousands of soldiers, hundreds of thousands of volunteers, millions and millions of citizens rose to the defense of the unity and territorial integrity,» the President said.

He pointed out that the Day of Unity has never been such a great, hard-won and deserved holiday for Ukrainians as now.

«No one will ever be able to undermine our unity,» Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

He is convinced that with «unity in thoughts, a single Ukraine in hearts» Ukrainians altogether will forever stay «the only Ukrainian political nation, which parts, all ethnic groups, will feel equally comfortable».

The leader of the group «Lyapis Trubetskoy» asked Ukraine to give him the right to permanent residence The leader of the group Brutto (former «Lyapis Trubetskoy») Siarhei Mikhalok and his producer Anton Azizbekian turned to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture Viacheslav Kyrylenko, asking for help in obtaining the right to permanent residence in Ukraine.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Culture, Mikhalok explained that the fact that the group «Lyapis Trubetskoy» had supported the revolutionary events in Ukraine was negatively interpreted by hostile authorities of Belarus and Russia that were creating barriers for the full-scale creative process. Therefore Brutto leader and his producer decided to get a permanent residence in Ukraine without giving up the Belarusian citizenship.

According to Mikhalok, in 2015 his group is planning holding two nationwide concert tours, creating a new album and making videos in Ukraine.

In his turn, Kyrylenko sent a letter to Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov asking to provide Mikhalok and Azizbekian with the permanent residence in Ukraine as soon as possible.

As you know, «Lyapis Trubetskoy» is a Belarusian punk rock band formed in September 1989. In the mid-2000s «Lyapis

Trubetskoy» with Mikhalok as its leader started using lyrics full of sharp social criticism. As a result, “Lyapis Trubetskoy” entered the Belarusian musical blacklist. In 2014, concerts of the group in Russia were canceled due to»anti-Russian statements». «Lyapis Trubetskoy» supported the Revolution of Dignity from the very beginning. The song «Warriors of Light» has become one of the unofficial anthems of Maidan.

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A valentines card for a soldier On the eve of Saint Valentine’s Day, some people believe that today is not the right time for holidays, heart-shaped cards and romance. But how can it be the wrong time for «words of love»? Maybe, St. Valentine’s Day is not a great holiday, but it is a wonderful occasion to tell our soldiers that we not just wait for them, but love them with all our heart. Maybe, it is just a case when valentines cards, little pink and red hearts, which make many people feel sick in time of peace, will be appropriate. In different cities of Ukraine volunteers collect valentines, photos, handmade things and chocolates to please the military.

In Kharkiv the arrangers of the campaign “The Army of Gifts. A Holiday for a Soldier” suggests that girls greet the military with photo valentines.

“It will be very good if it is your beautiful kind photo, on the back of which it is written that we love and wait for them,” the arrangers say. One can also record video greetings and send to the arrangers using Facebook. Then the video will be recorded on CDs. As it is much harder for volunteers to go there than before, it is pointless to pass big things, it’s better to sign valentines cards.

In Kharkiv photo valentines can be brought to the warehouse of the “Private-TV” (Pushkinska Street, 79) on weekdays up to 7 pm.

In Kirovohrad postcards, pictures and valentines for the military are being collected in O.M.Boichenko Kirovohrad Regional Library for Youth in the sociocultural activities department (Dekabrystiv Street, 6/15) from January 29 to February 10. The campaign «Valentines for the Military» (“Valentynky dlia viiskovykh”) was created by the public initiative “Army SOS”.

And on February 8 from 12.00 to 15.00 the library will hold a new meeting of the creative mood studio «lUCK» (“фАРТ”), the main topic being «A Romantic Valentines Card». Valentines are small heart-shaped greeting cards with good wishes, words of love, proposals or simply jokes. On the occasion of St. Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated soon, the library staff offer the citizens of Kirovohrad to try making a valentines card by themselves. It can be kept or sent to soldiers. The cards will be delivered right to the ATO area by volunteers within the campaign «Valentines for the Military.»

And in Cherkasy children make sweet valentines for the

fighters. Cherkasy Regional Library for Children hosts workshops on making valentines. Pupils carefully cut hearts out of pink and red paper, drew bunnies and wrote their kind wishes.

“I wish you to be healthy and mighty. To live in peace,” a 3rd-grade pupil Lisa reads aloud smiling. “I also wrote my phone number. The warrior may call me back...”.

Next to Lisa 9-year-old Danylko carefully writes the following words: «I wish you happiness, health and strength. I wish you to return alive. Glory to Ukraine!». He attaches the card to a chocolate bar.

“This is already the third workshop for children, which is held here. We still have a few more ahead,” an employee of Cherkasy Regional Library for Children Inna Kosenko. “We invited several forms to participate and none of them refused.

We have already gathered a box of sweet valentines for the soldiers”.

Having prepared the surprises, the children read a... prayer over each of them. Then they carefully put the valentines to a box.

“These sweet surprises will go to Debaltsevo,” the master of folk art Galyna Tymoshenko says. “The workshops are free.

I provide the pupils with materials for making valentines. The only thing we ask for is bringing chocolate bars for the fighters.

After all, sometimes the guys don’t even have an opportunity to have a meal, so they need something nutritious, for them to just get it out of a pocket, eat and then keep performing the task. As for the kids’ wishes, they raise the morale of the soldiers enormously”.

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A Kharkiv citizen is one of the three most beautiful girls in the world On January 25 Miami hosted the contest «Miss Universe 2014». The winner was a 22-year-old Colombian Paulina Vega, but Ukraine has all the reasons to be proud - 20-year-old Diana Harkusha from Kharkiv is the 2nd Runner-Up, thus being one of the three most beautiful girls in the world. The top five also included the representatives of the Netherlands, the United States and Jamaica.

The winner, a beauty Paulina Vega is the granddaughter of the famous tenor Gaston Vega. She got the main symbol of the competition — a diamond crown and a cash prize of 300 thousand dollars. And our Ukrainian Diana Harkusha was ranked third at this prestigious pageant and received the title of the 2nd Runner-Up. Diana Harkusha became «Miss Ukraine Universe 2014» when Anna Andres from Lviv refused the title for «personal reasons». In her photo blog the girl left a post, which stated that she would not take part in the global beauty contest. Under the rules, the winner who refuses to continue to represent her country should pass the title and the crown to the 1st Runnerup. So 2 months before the competition Diana became the representative of Ukraine.

In a very short time Diana together with the arrangers prepared everything necessary to adequately represent our Ukrainian girl. After all, this year the Ukrainian participant got special attention because of the difficult situation in the country.

Responding to the question from Facebook users about Ukraine’s greatest contribution to the world Diana said that Ukraine itself strongly requires extraordinary support of its people.

She calls upon the world to support the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people. We shall recall that at the competition of the national costumes the Ukrainian representative wore the outfit called The Bride of War. According to the designer Liudmyla Bushynska, it embodies Ukraine as a young beautiful girl who for her lover who died defending their homeland. The headgear — a crown of thorns with red poppies and a black veil — was developed by a designer and stylist Juliia Virts. In the closing speech the Ukrainian came to the stage in a luxurious red dress by the Lebanese couturier Zuhair Murad from the collection Haute Couture Fall-Winter 2014/2015.

Diana Harkusha wants to become a lawyer. Now she is a student of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. She also plans to get a second degree in Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. Diana’s career as a model started in 2012, when a sophomore of the Law School, a future prosecutor Harkusha was nominated the most beautiful girl in Kharkiv.

Then she won the contest «Miss Kemer Inernational- 2013» and became second in «Miss Ukraine Universe 2014», then taking over the main prize. Now Diana joined the three most beautiful girls in the world. The contest «Miss Universe» has already been held 63 times; this year there were 87 participants. So we can congratulate Diana on excellent results and wish her not to stop there.

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