Shmyhal on Medvedchuk’s trip to Crimea
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the stay in Russian-occupied Crimea by the head of the political council of the Opposition Platform – For Life party, National Deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, is an “unacceptable step.” In an interview with Radio Liberty on August 10, Mr. Shmyhal said: “I have a negative attitude. This is a very unacceptable step on the part of a Ukrainian politician, whoever he may be, whoever he is. Therefore, I have a critical negative attitude to this.” Earlier in the week, Mr. Medvedchuk’s press secretary Oleh Babanin confirmed to a correspondent of the Krym.Realii project that he had gone to annexed Crimea. “Viktor Medvedchuk is on vacation as a member of Parliament and is resting with his family in Crimea,” he said. (Interfax-Ukraine)
Ombudswoman: Russia holds 133 Ukrainians
Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova says Russia is currently holding 133 Ukrainian citizens on politically motivated charges, including 97 Crimean Tatars. In an August 10 post on Telegram, Ms. Denisova said 112 Ukrainian citizens “are being illegally held on the territory of the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied Crimea, while restriction of movement has been imposed on the rest, and they have to permanently stay in the places of their residence.” Ms. Denisova also said 62 wives of the jailed men remain on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. She said they need Ukraine’s support for their children to receive an education in their native languages. She also said 11 children urgently require medical assistance. “I call on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do everything possible to [secure the] release [of] Ukrainian political prisoners [in Russian custody] and ask the Ukrainian government to secure proper social protection for their families,” Ms. Denisova wrote. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Moscow-imposed authorities in Crimea. The Russian-installed officials have been targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Russia’s military occupation and illegal annexation of the region. In its annual report on religious freedom worldwide, released in April 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said Russian-installed authorities in the occupied region “continued to kidnap, torture and imprison Crimean Tatar Muslims at will.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Denisova: prisoners’ families must be protected
Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to do everything possible to release Ukrainian political prisoners and instruct the government to provide their families with adequate social protection. “I appeal to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a request to do everything possible to release Ukrainian political prisoners and instruct the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to provide their families with adequate social protection. I ask First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska to take each such family under her personal patronage,” Ms. Denisova wrote on her Facebook page on August 10. The ombudswoman also called on Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Cabinet members to urgently develop and submit to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration a bill on the regulation of the legal status and social protection of persons illegally deprived of their liberty as a result of armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as their family members, and to approve the relevant governmental social program. In addition, Ms. Denisova called on international governmental and non-governmental organizations, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine, to provide humanitarian aid to the prisoners and to help intensify the struggle in the international arena for their release. Among other things, the ombudswoman recalled the tragedy of the son of Ukrainian political prisoner Ruslan Suleimanov Musa, stressing that this is a consequence of the cynical occupation policy of the Russian Federation. The 3-year-old disappeared on July 24 and was found dead two days later in a drainage inlet. She also said that due to the lack of access to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, no state-owned organization can provide a systemic mechanism of social protection to the families of political prisoners. (Interfax-Ukraine)
Sheremet killing suspect under house arrest
A court in Kyiv has ruled to transfer one of the suspects in the high-profile 2016 killing in the Ukrainian capital of journalist Pavel Sheremet from a detention center to house arrest. The Kyiv Court of Appeals on August 11 ruled that Yulia Kuzmenko, a pediatric surgeon who has been in pretrial detention since December, can be placed under round-the-clock house arrest. Last month, the same court eased pretrial restrictions for another suspect in the high-profile case, a military paramedic, Yana Duhar. The court agreed to lift curfew restrictions for Ms. Duhar and said that she no longer needed to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. The third suspect in the case, Andriy Antonenko, remains in a detention center. Vladyslav and Inna Hryshchenko, a married couple who are suspected in another unrelated case, have been declared persons of interest in the case. All five took part in military operations in different capacities in Ukraine’s east, where government forces are fighting against Russia-backed separatists. The Internal Affairs Ministry and the National Police said in December that the group’s goal was “to destabilize the political and social situation in Ukraine” by killing Sheremet. Sheremet, a Belarusian-born Russian citizen who had made Kyiv his permanent home, was leaving his apartment to head to the studio where he hosted a morning radio program when an improvised explosive device planted under his vehicle exploded on July 20, 2016, killing him. Ms. Duhar, Mr. Antonenko and Ms. Kuzmenko were arrested in December as suspects in the case. Sheremet’s mother, Lyudmila Sheremet, told RFE/RL in December that she does not know if the suspects are guilty or not, but that she is afraid “that innocent people may be hurt” as officials try to show they’re making headway in the case. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine bans entry/exit to Crimea
The Ukrainian government has decided to temporarily close the checkpoints of entry into the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol as well as exit from it, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Nemchinov said following an extraordinary government meeting on August 8. This is linked to the Ukrainian president’s instruction to the Cabinet of Ministers to revise the mode of operation of the entry checkpoint to Crimea and Sevastopol. The decision is aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 on the territory of Ukraine, Mr. Nemchinov wrote in his Telegram channel. “Thus, the work of checkpoints of entry into and exit from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol will temporarily stop from 8 a.m. on August 9, 2020, until 8 a.m. on August 30, 2020, except for the passage of Ukrainian citizens and their families: whose place of residence is registered in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol in accordance with the procedure established by law, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property – for entry; whose place of residence is registered in the manner prescribed by law outside the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property – for exit; who agreed to self-isolate using the ‘Diy Vdoma’ application of the unified public website of electronic services from the moment of crossing the checkpoints of entry into the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and exit from it; persons with the purpose of ensuring the protection of national interests or in connection with the fulfillment of international obligations, representatives of diplomatic institutions and humanitarian missions leaving the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as their vehicles, cargo and other property,” Mr. Nemchinov said, citing the decision of the Cabinet. (Interfax-Ukraine)