This week in history 

December 1: World AIDS Day. December 1, 1853: a Russian naval squadron commanded by Admiral Nakhimov defeats the Turks at Sinope on the Black Sea. December 1, 1991: an all-Ukrainian referendum confirms the independence of the Ukrainian state. Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first President of Ukraine.  December 2, 1864: St. Petersburg sees the premiere of Hulak-Artemovsky's opera A Cossack Beyond the Danube. December 2, 1805: Napoleon defeats the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz. December 3: International Handicapped Day. December 4, 1925: the first issue of the newspaper Komsomolets Ukrainy (Communist Youth Leaguer of Ukraine) is published in Kharkiv. December 4, 1941: Kyiv's Ivan Franko Theater is evacuated to Semipalatinsk starts performing there. December 5, 1917: the Ukrainian State Academy of the Arts opens in Kyiv. December 5, 1994: as nuclear powers the US, UK, and Russia sign a memorandum in Budapest on security guarantees for Ukraine. December 6: Ukrainian Armed Forces Day. December 6, 1240: Batu Khan's forces seize and lay waste Kyiv after a long siege. December 6, 1932: the Soviet Ukrainian press announces that villages are being blacklisted for not providing the state grain. December 7, 1932: the Ukrainian Research Association is founded in Prague. December 7, 1934: USSR Council of People's Commissars decrees the cancellation of bread, flour, and cereals ration coupons.