Kuleba: De-occupation of Crimea inevitable
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba says Russia’s departure from the Black Sea Crimea Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, is “inevitable.” In an interview with RFE/RL, Mr. Kuleba said that Crimea’s “de-occupation” won’t be stopped, even by the controversial constitutional amendments – one of which reiterates the “inviolability of Russian borders” – approved in a vote in Russia on July 1. “We insist that this [annexation] is temporary, that an illegal occupation is taking place, emphasizing that this is a temporary phenomenon, it is illegal and, under international law, this is an act of occupation,” Mr. Kuleba said. He added that it was very unlikely Russia will agree to take part in talks directly focusing on Crimea’s de-occupation, so the notion of the peninsula returning to Ukrainian hands must be gradually included on the agenda by Ukraine and the international community. “Russia, as the occupying power, should strictly meet its obligations, in accordance with international law. …Namely, they should not violate human rights in Crimea, they should not militarize Crimea, they should not draft local Crimean youth to the Russian Army, they should not block any media outlet expressing thoughts that differ from those of the Kremlin,” he said. “One must understand that if Russia fulfills all these obligations – it would be a very serious contribution to de-occupation of the peninsula,” Mr. Kuleba added, stressing that the international community should help bring such issues into focus when dealing with Russia. Mr. Kuleba also said that, after becoming a member of NATO’s Enhanced Opportunities Partner program last month, Ukraine will take part in core military exercises with the alliance’s troops and have more access to intelligence data on developments in Crimea, which are also crucial elements for the peninsula’s de-occupation. (Crimea Desk of RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, with reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Crimean Tatar activists are detained
Russian authorities have detained seven Crimean Tatar activists after searching their homes in different parts of Ukraine’s Moscow-controlled Crimea region. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement that it had detained “three leaders and four members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group” in Crimea on July 7. Since Russia forcibly annexed Crimea in March 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group, which is banned in Russia but not in Ukraine. The Crimean Solidarity rights group that has members in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine said on July 7 that FSB officers had detained Seyran Hayretdinov, Emil Ziyadinov, Ismet Ibragimov, Alim Sufyanov, Vadim Bektemirov and a legally blind activist, Aleksandr Sizikov, after their homes were searched. Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmila Denysova said that the seventh man detained by the FSB in Crimea was Zekirya Muratov. The house belonging to another Crimean Tatar activist, Dilyaver Memetov, was searched without his presence and Russia-controlled authorities are looking for him, Crimean Solidarity said. The authorities of the exiled Ukrainian regional authorities of Crimea condemned the searches and detainments and launched a probe into them. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine also voiced concern over the searches and detainments. “Russia has no right to harass and detain Ukrainians on Ukrainian soil. Russia must free all Ukrainian political prisoners,” the Embassy wrote on Facebook. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Moscow-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula. In its annual report on religious freedom worldwide, released in April 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that “[in] Russian-occupied Crimea, the Russian authorities continued to kidnap, torture, and imprison Crimean Tatar Muslims at will.” Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. (Crimea Desk of RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, with reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Defense cites alternative theories re MH17
Judges hearing the case against four suspects in the 2014 downing of a passenger airliner over eastern Ukraine have granted a defense request to investigate alternative theories about the incident. On July 3, the court in The Hague in the Netherlands ordered that defense lawyers and experts be granted access to the partial wreckage of the plane, which is being held at a Dutch military base. The suspects – Russians Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov, and Igor Girkin, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko – are being tried in absentia for involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which killed all 298 people on board. Following a six-year international investigation, prosecutors have argued that the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made Buk anti-aircraft system fired by Russia-backed militants who had acquired it from a Russian military base on the border between the two countries. Mr. Pulatov is the only defendant who has sent defense lawyers, while the other three men are being tried without representation. Moscow has denied any involvement in the conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine and has offered several possible theories about how MH17 was shot down, including that it was shot down by a Ukrainian Air Force jet or by Ukrainian ground forces using a Buk system. The international investigative team considered and rejected these explanations. Nonetheless, the court granted a defense request to investigate other scenarios, including the possibility that the airliner was being used as a shield for a military aircraft. “The defense has an interest in being able to test the scenario chosen by the Public Prosecution Service in the indictment that MH17 was shot down by a Buk,” Judge Henrik Steenhuis noted. He said the defense experts would be allowed to submit a report on their findings. The court also adjourned the trial until August 31 to give Mr. Pulatov’s lawyers a chance to meet with him. His lawyers say they have been unable to travel to Russia, where Mr. Pulatov resides, because of restrictions prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP, Reuters and AP)
Congress to Kyiv: negotiate with energy producers
Members of the U.S. Congressional Ukraine Caucus have asked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to find a compromise with renewable energy producers over prices as a months-long dispute threatens foreign investment. Ukraine’s Parliament was to hold the first of two readings on July 3 of a new bill that would cut prices for solar and wind energy producers by 15 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, the latest government proposal to unnerve the business community. Wind producers have agreed to the government’s proposal, while solar producers have asked for a two-year extension to the time frame for favorable pricing, saying the new price formula would otherwise crush their profitability and discourage new investment. In a July 2 letter addressed to Mr. Zelenskyy, House of Representatives members Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) called on the Ukrainian president to proceed with a “consensual approach” in talks with wind- and solar-energy producers. “Maintaining the integrity of this approach would be recognized as a substantial achievement and would bolster Ukraine’s credibility in attracting further foreign direct investment in its energy sector and other sectors of Ukraine’s economy,” they wrote. Rep. Kaptur, who is a co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, held a webinar last month with alternative energy producers operating in Ukraine to discuss the impact of the new bill on their businesses. Foreign investors, including American businesses, have poured more than $2 billion into Ukraine’s renewable industry since 2015, when the country passed legislation that offered favorable pricing over a 10-year period in order to attract needed investment. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a state agency, has committed $400 million in financing and political-risk insurance for Ukrainian alternative energy projects. Mr. Zelenskyy, who won in a landslide last year in part on a promise to attract more foreign investment to Ukraine, is now revisiting that earlier agreement, raising questions about his government’s respect for investor rights. Solar producers have said they would bow to the government’s price cut if it would extend the period of favorable pricing from 10 years to 12 years. However, the bill submitted to the Verkhovna Rada contains no extension. Solar investors in Ukraine warned in a June 23 letter to the government that it faces the prospect of having the industry’s success tumble “into a web of acrimony and litigation” if it doesn’t extend the time frame. Parliament could choose to amend the bill, which must pass two readings before being sent to the government. In the meantime, the Ukrainian government has stopped fully paying alternative energy producers for their output. With the onset of the coronavirus in March, the state has paid as little as 5 percent for the energy it has received from producers. The government’s decision to renege on an earlier power agreement is just the latest “big blow” for private investors in Ukraine who were initially emboldened by Mr. Zelenskyy’s promises to reform the economy and boost growth, Morgan Williams, the president of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), a Washington-based lobby group, told RFE/RL. (Todd Prince of RFE/RL)
Iran to compensate families of Flight 752
Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Ann Linde says Iran has agreed that it will compensate the families of foreign victims who died when a Ukrainian airliner was shot down after taking off from Tehran’s main airport in January, killing all 176 people on board. “We have signed an agreement of mutual understanding that we will now negotiate with Iran about amends, compensation to the victims’ next of kin,” Ms. Linde told the Swedish news agency TT, adding the agreement was reached following talks with ministers from the countries affected by the crash. It was unclear what sums would be paid out and when. Iran has said in the past that it wants to negotiate directly with the victims’ families. Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was heading to Kyiv when it was shot down by Iran’s air defenses on January 8 in what Iranian officials eventually acknowledged was a “mistake.” Many of the 176 victims were Iranian-Canadians, but there were also nationals of Afghanistan, Britain, Sweden, and Ukraine on board. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA and AFP)
Iran: No indication cyberattack led to downing
An Iranian military prosecutor says there is no indication that the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet in Iran in January was due to a cyberattack on the country’s defense system. Speaking on June 29 to some of the families of the victims, Gholam Abbas Torki, the military prosecutor for Tehran Province, reiterated that human error was the cause of the accident that killed all 176 people on board the Boeing 737 airliner. He said the operator of the air-defense system had not received permission from his superiors before firing two missiles at the airliner. “Twenty-six seconds passed between the first and second firing, but unfortunately during this time the operator also did not get permission for the second firing from the network,” Mr. Torki added. He said three people remain in detention over the downing of the Kyiv-bound aircraft, while three others have been released on bail. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) took responsibility for the unintentional shooting down of the airliner that came amid heightened tensions with the United States. The incident and the delayed admission of guilt – it was three days before the IRGC took responsibility – led to widespread anger and street protests. Iranian forces had been on high alert at the time of the tragedy, which came hours after Iran launched missile strikes on an Iraqi military base housing U.S. troops. The Iranian strikes were carried out in response to the killing of a top IRGC commander, Qasem Soleimani, in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad’s airport. Mr. Torki defended the delay and said that a preliminary investigation into the incident had been conducted “in the shortest term possible.” He also reiterated that Tehran will send the black box recorders from the plane to France for analysis. He said the recorders were “physically damaged” and that the data could only be recovered with “sophisticated” technology. (RFE/RL, with reporting by IRNA, ISNA, Reuters and AP)
Hundreds protest acting education minister
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in the Ukrainian capital to protest against the appointment of Serhiy Shkarlet as acting minister of education and science. Scholars, students, teachers and civil rights activists took part in the rally on June 30, accusing the rector of Chernihiv National University of Technology of plagiarism and expressing outrage over his past association with the Russia-friendly Party of Regions. The protesters held placards and put a toilet with a sign reading, “For Diplomas from Shkarlet,” next to a government building. One man wore a mask depicting Mr. Shkarlet and pretended to auction off diplomas. From the government building, the protesters marched to the Presidential Office where they staged a sit-in protest. The government appointed Mr. Shkarlet as acting minister of education and science on June 25, several days after a parliamentary commission refused to approve him to the ministerial post. The protesters gathered all their posters and passed them to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via the presidential office representatives. Mr. Shkarlet served as a council member for the Party of Regions in Chernihiv Oblast. He also ran for the Chernihiv Oblast Council under former President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
EU extends sanctions against Russia
European Union member states have formally extended a six-month extension of economic sanctions imposed against Russia over its role in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The European Council decided on June 29 to roll over the restrictive measures until January 31 next year because the “full implementation” of the Minsk agreements that sought to put an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine “has not yet been achieved,” the council said in a statement. European leaders had agreed to extend the sanctions beyond their current July 31 expiry date at their summit on June 19. The sanctions were first adopted in July 2014 over Russia’s support for militants in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people. Since then, the measures mainly targeting Russia’s financial, energy, and defense industries have been extended every six months. The EU has also imposed sanctions on Russia over its forcible seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014. (RFE/RL)
Hungarian foreign minister visits Kyiv
The Ukrainian and Hungarian foreign affairs ministers have met for the second time in less than a month as the two neighboring states seek to overcome an impasse over the language law in Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Hungarian counterpart, Peter Szijjarto, met in Kyiv on June 25 as they chaired a session of the Ukrainian-Hungarian Economic Cooperation Commission. After the talks, Mr. Kuleba said that officials from both countries will meet to discuss Ukraine’s controversial language law before a summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban can take place in Kyiv in July as scheduled. The minister said the sides planned to sign a memorandum during the summit that will “cover the whole range of issues concerning our bilateral cooperation.” On May 29, Mr. Kuleba had travelled to Budapest where he and Mr. Szijjarto discussed, among other things, the Ukrainian language law, which Hungary says restricts the right of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority of approximately 125,000 people to be educated in their native language. Budapest has been blocking NATO initiatives aimed at building closer ties with Ukraine since the country in September 2017 adopted the law that emphasizes the instruction of Ukrainian in publicly funded schools and curtails the teaching of minority languages such as Romanian, Russian and Hungarian. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)