ý is pronounced as English "shch" ("sh" + "ch" quickly)

"y" is "oo". The shch sound is signified by that strange looking W
letter they nicked from hebrew (apparently).

The letter which I typed (and which your newsreader cannot show
correctly) is indeed similar to "W" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shcha_(Cyrillic)
for the image of that letter).