NEWSBRIEFS

Ruslana benefit raises $38,000

KYIV - The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund announced that Ruslana's May 17 benefit concert in Kyiv raised $38,000 in aid for three Ukrainian medical and rehabilitation centers. Dnipropetrovsk City Children's Hospital No. 3 will receive a respirator valued at $17,400, Kyiv City Children's Hospital No. 2 will receive artificial respiration equipment valued at $12,600, and the Dzherelo Children's Rehabilitation Center in Lviv will receive $8,000. Thousands attended Ruslana's concert held in the courtyard of Kyiv's Arena Entertainment Complex on the Khreschatyk's West End. All proceeds raised went to charity. Dr. Zenon and Nadia Matkiwsky founded the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund in 1989. Since then, the charity has delivered to Ukraine humanitarian aid valued at more than $53 million. (Kyiv Press Bureau)

Yushchenko to head election list

KYIV - Our Ukraine People's Union leader Roman Bezsmertnyi, who is also vice prime minister for administrative-territorial reform, told journalists in Kyiv on June 14 that President Viktor Yushchenko will head the election list of a coalition the Our Ukraine People's Union intends to build for the 2006 parliamentary elections. According to Interfax, he said: "We still hope that the coalition will include the parties named by the president - the Our Ukraine People's Union, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the People's Party [headed by Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn]." Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the same day that her Fatherland Party is ready to support Mr. Yushchenko not only in the 2006 parliamentary elections but also in the next presidential election, which is expected in 2009. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv, Prague to tackle guest worker issue

KYIV - Ukrainian President Yushchenko said after his talks with his Czech counterpart, Vaclav Klaus, in Kyiv on June 14 that the two countries' foreign ministries will soon prepare a draft agreement on the temporary employment of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic, the CTK news service reported. According to Mr. Yushchenko, some 200,000 Ukrainians seeking temporary jobs in the Czech Republic are the main problems in bilateral relations. "We have both accepted it as a problem. An agreement that will solve these issues must be worked out," President Klaus commented on Ukrainian guest workers in his country. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Senior officer arrested for smuggling

KYIV - Maj. Gen. Serhii Savchenko, former commander of the Ukrainian military contingent in Iraq, has been arrested on charges of smuggling, Interfax reported on June 13, quoting the Procurator General's Office (PGO). The office did not provide any more details of the arrest. According to Channel 5, Maj. Gen. Savchenko is being charged with the smuggling of foreign currency. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Case opened against former SBU officer

KYIV - The Procurator General's Office has opened a criminal case against former deputy chief of the Security Service of Ukraine, Volodymyr Satsiuk, charging him with abuse of office and forgery, and issued a search warrant for him. Mr. Satsiuk, who is reportedly hospitalized at an unknown location, told the June 14 issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine that he is innocent and sees no reason to escape justice. Moreover, an Odesa district court on June 13 ordered the arrest of former Odesa Mayor Ruslan Bodelan, whom prosecutors accuse of abuse of office. Mr. Bodelan's whereabouts are unknown. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM seeks French support for EU bid

PARIS - Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine said after talks with her French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, in Paris on June 13 that she is confident the door to the European Union remains open despite confusion caused by Dutch and French voters' rejection of the EU Constitution, Reuters reported. "I'm sure that when the French said 'no,' it wasn't 'no' to Ukraine, to the desire of the Ukrainian people to become a European nation," she said. She also said that the two sides signed 11 agreements and memoranda on mutual cooperation, including in the spheres of aviation, defense and security. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Temporary halt to foreign adoptions

KYIV - Ukraine will temporarily stop accepting applications by foreigners to adopt children, the government announced on June 13, according to the Associated Press. Kyiv said the move is needed while it creates a new department to better protect children's rights. Applications that have already been submitted will continue to be processed, said Ukraine's Ministry of Youth and Sport. The new department is expected to be operating within two months, at which time applications will be accepted again, said ministry spokesman Mykola Yabychenko. The Verkhovna Rada is expected to consider the measure to create the new department and to ratify Ukraine's participation in The Hague Convention treaty on international adoptions this week. "We will do everything possible to guarantee that not even one child will suffer,'' said Youth and Sport Minister Yurii Pavlenko. The Associated Press reported that 2,081 foreigners adopted Ukrainian children in 2004, while there were 1,536 domestic adoptions. (Associated Press)

Gongadze's killers plead guilty

KYIV - Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun said on the UT-1 television channel on June 12 that policemen charged with killing Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze in 2000 have pleaded guilty. "The admission of guilt confirms that we're moving in the right direction," Mr. Piskun said, adding that the Gongadze case will go to court in July. Mr. Piskun said the investigation has not yet found out who ordered the slaying of the journalist. "We are sticking to facts, and evidence has so far been insufficient," he noted. Mr. Piskun also said Ukrainian investigators have passed to their U.S. colleagues a list of 92 questions to be answered by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, whose secret tapes suggest that former President Leonid Kuchma and other top officials may have been involved in the Gongadze murder. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Three states to form joint battalion

BRUSSELS - Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko and his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts, Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Gediminas Kirkilas, respectively, signed a letter of intention in Brussels on June 10 to form a joint battalion, the so-called UkrPolLitBat, Interfax reported, quoting the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The battalion is most likely to be formed on the basis of the Ukrainian-Polish UkrPolBat, which is performing a peacekeeping mission as part of a multinational brigade in Kosovo. The brigade also includes a Lithuanian platoon. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Gas controversy affects relations

MOSCOW - Aleksandr Medvedev, a deputy chairman of Gazprom's board in charge of exports for the Russian natural-gas giant, said on June 10 that the company is insisting that Ukraine pay full price for gas that reportedly disappeared from an underground storage facility operated by the Ukrainian monopoly Naftohaz, RTR reported. Ukrainian representatives have said the gas is not missing, but that there are technical obstacles to its retrieval, and offered to compensate Gazprom. Gazprom reportedly has rejected the compensation as insufficient. President Vladimir Putin reportedly spoke by telephone with his Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko about the gas problem, RTR reported (see also Ukrainian item below). (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin downplays dispute over gas

ST. PETERSBURG - Speaking with Ukrainian Parliament Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted a solution to the dispute between Russia's Gazprom and the Ukrainian authorities over gas at an underground storage facility operated by Ukraine's Naftohaz, RIA-Novosti reported. Mr. Putin noted that some $1.3 billion worth of gas is at issue. "We naturally are not asking that the debt be paid tomorrow, but it must be solved," he explained. "A lot was done to rid Ukraine of the status of an unreliable partner, [so] it would be unpleasant to start everything again from the beginning." Aleksandr Ryazanov, Gazprom's deputy chairman, said in Kyiv the same day that the gas has been found but that the sides have failed to agree on a price, RIA-Novosti reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine faces looming gas crisis

KYIV - The international ratings agency Fitch said in a press release on June 10 that Ukraine is facing "its second energy-related crisis in three months, this time over the price of natural gas," Interfax reported. According to Fitch, the crisis is linked to an ongoing dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine over the disappearance of 7.8 billion cubic meters of Gazprom gas, worth approximately $400 million, from the underground storage facilities of Ukraine's national gas transportation company Naftohaz Ukrainy. The controversy, according to the agency, has led to Gazprom's threatening to raise the price of natural gas supplied to Ukraine from $50 per 1,000 cubic meters to $160. In response, Ukraine has threatened to raise the price for transporting gas across the country from $1.09 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers to $3.35. In April and May Ukraine suffered a fuel crisis connected with a dispute between the government and Russian oil traders over the price of gasoline. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moldova OKs Kyiv's Transdniester plan

CHISINAU - The Moldovan Parliament on June 10 endorsed the plan for the settlement of the Transdniester conflict that was proposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko earlier this year, ITAR-TASS reported. The legislature noted in a special resolution that the plan does not include provisions for pulling Russian troops out of Transdniester or establishing reliable border control on the Transdniester stretch of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border. Therefore, the resolution reads, these two problems should be tackled additionally, "with support from international community and Ukraine's vigorous cooperation." Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, who attended the parliamentary session jointly with other government officials, told lawmakers that Mr. Yushchenko's plan is the most promising of all documents that have ever been discussed between Chisinau and Tiraspol. The Parliament also adopted two appeals to the international community, calling for assistance in democratizing and demilitarizing the separatist region of Transdniester. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada asks president to sack Nemtsov

KYIV - On June 3, 250 lawmakers of the Verkhovna Rada requested that President Viktor Yushchenko dismiss Russian liberal politician Boris Nemtsov from his post as presidential adviser, Ukrainian media reported. A motion to fire Mr. Nemtsov was prepared by National Deputy Oleh Tiahnybok, who called Mr. Nemtsov "a disciple of the Russian liberal empire's anti-Ukrainian idea" and accused him of "unprecedented interference" in Ukraine's domestic affairs. Mr. Nemtsov, who vocally supported Mr. Yushchenko during the Orange Revolution, was nominated to his non-salaried post in February. He has recently harshly criticized Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, saying the government's policies are pushing potential investors away from Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kozaks pledge allegiance to Yushchenko

KHORTYTSIA ISLAND - President Viktor Yushchenko and a group of Cabinet ministers on June 4 visited Khortytsia Island on the Dnipro River in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, which is the cradle of Ukrainian Kozaks, Ukrainian media reported. "Today I signed a decree setting up the council of Ukrainian Kozaks, consisting of representatives of Kozak organizations, and appointing a presidential adviser for Kozak issues. I want their work to become a bridge linking Kozaks with the authorities and public organizations," Mr. Yushchenko told Kozak leaders gathered on the island, who pledged loyalty to him and recognized him as their hetman. Ukraine is currently reconstructing the historic Kozak stronghold the Zaporozhian Sich on the island. Five years ago Mr. Yushchenko joined Ukrainian Kozaks, but before the 2004 presidential election he was expelled, reportedly for systematic failure to pay membership dues. On June 4 Mr. Yushchenko received a horse as a gift, while Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was declared by the Kozaks to be the female symbol of Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada requests prosecutor's dismissal

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on June 1 adopted a non-binding resolution recommending that Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun dismiss Zakarpattia Oblast Prosecutor Yurii Bents for the latter's role in the beating of three opposition lawmakers by a police squad in Uzhhorod on May 20, Interfax reported. The same resolution urges law-enforcement authorities to punish all those responsible for the beating of Social Democratic Party-United (SDPU) legislators Tamara Proshkuratova, Nestor Shufrych and Volodymyr Voyush, who tried to prevent the transfer of hospitalized former Zakarpattia Oblast Chairman Ivan Rizak to a prison cell. The resolution followed a parliamentary hearing on the Uzhhorod incident. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk, who is leader of the SDPU parliamentary caucus, said during the hearing that President Viktor Yushchenko's government is failing to pass a "test of democracy." He said: "Had I known in 1991 that lawmakers would insult each other in the session hall ... and that there would be permissiveness rather than democracy, I wouldn't have signed the Belavezha agreement [on the dissolution of the Soviet Union]; I would rather have cut my hand off." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv seeks settlement in Gongadze suit

KYIV - The Ukrainian Cabinet intends to settle amicably the "Gongadze vs. Ukraine" case that is being considered by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and is offering to pay 100,000 euros ($123,000 U.S.) to Myroslava Gongadze, the wife of slain journalist Heorhii Gongadze, Interfax reported on June 1. Ms. Gongadze claims in the case that the death of her husband in 2000 was the result of a forced disappearance and that state authorities failed to protect his life. According to Interfax, the Ukrainian government on May 31 adopted a resolution pledging to bring to justice all those responsible for the journalist's murder and offering the money to the widow in exchange for her waiving the right to make any complaints against Ukraine concerning the facts described in the current lawsuit in Strasbourg. (RFE/RL Newsline)

$1B left country during revolution

KYIV - Anna Tsyhanenko, head of the Procurator General's Office's department to combat money laundering, told journalists in Kyiv on June 1 that some $1 billion was illegally transferred "through banks and other financial institutions" from Ukraine in November-December 2004 - that is, during the period of the Orange Revolution, Interfax reported. The prosecutor said the illegal capital outflow involved "well-known people" as well as budgetary and private funds. Ms. Tsyhanenko added that the Procurator General's Office has already opened six criminal cases connected with those transfers. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Minister says economy accelerates

KYIV - Economy Minister Serhii Teriokhin told journalists in Kyiv on May 25 that Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) will rise to 5.6 percent year-on-year in January-May from 5 percent in the first four months of this year, Ukrainian news agencies reported. According to Mr. Teriokhin, the highest GDP growth rates are observed in the sectors of food processing (16 percent), chemical industry (14.3 percent), and machine building (11.9 percent). The government expects to achieve 8.2 percent growth in GDP this year, after last year's officially reported 12.1 percent rise. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Government to contest 22 privatizations

KYIV - Borys Sobolev, deputy state secretary in Ukraine's Presidential Secretariat, said at a roundtable on the investment environment in Ukraine in Kyiv on June 8 that the government will continue to challenge in court the privatization of 22 companies, while abandoning claims regarding other privatized businesses. Mr. Sobolev added that lawyers at the Presidential Secretariat are mulling the adoption of a legal act that could grant amnesty to companies privatized under questionable circumstances. Last week, State Property Fund Chairwoman Valentyna Semeniuk said her organization is currently challenging in court the privatization of 194 facilities. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Former SBU chief rejects allegations

KYIV - Ihor Smeshko, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said in a statement on June 8 that the recently voiced allegations that he was involved in arms smuggling are a "cynical lie," Interfax reported. Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun said at a news conference in Kyiv the previous day that Mr. Smeshko and two other officials have been implicated in an illegal arms deal. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko winds up trip to Turkey

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko has returned to Ukraine from a June 6-8 official visit to Turkey, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported. Mr. Yushchenko met with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and other government officials in Ankara and with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomew I in Istanbul. "Our countries don't have problems in the political sphere," Mr. Yushchenko told a Turkish-Ukrainian business forum in Istanbul on June 8. "We have a common strategic line towards the European Union." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Scale of reprivatizations still unclear

KYIV - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told journalists in Kyiv on June 9 that he has instructed the government to shorten the list of companies that are to be subject to resale because of their questionable privatizations in the past, Interfax reported. Mr. Yushchenko said he discussed this issue with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko last week. "At that time I obtained a number of [reprivatization] projects that, mildly speaking, did not satisfy me, and I gave them back to the government for reworking," the president noted. "I think this issue [will be resolved] within a few days." Last month, Kommersant-Daily published a list of 29 Ukrainian companies that was allegedly compiled by Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh for the government to review their questionable privatizations. Prime Minister Tymoshenko denied that such a list exists, adding that her Cabinet was working out a law on the revaluation of privatized properties in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 19, 2005, No. 25, Vol. LXXIII

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