Ukrainian troops on alert
KYIV – Tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalated one day after Moscow claimed it thwarted an incursion into Russia-held Crimea by Ukrainian saboteurs, with Kyiv putting troops near the peninsula on highest alert and Russia announcing increased security measures and new naval exercises in the Black Sea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he wants to speak directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin and several Western leaders amid the spike in tensions. Mr. Poroshenko’s office said on August 11 he had asked the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry to arrange telephone conversations with Mr. Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and European Council President Donald Tusk. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said on Twitter on August 11 that the “U.S. government has seen nothing so far that corroborates Russian allegations of a ‘Crimea incursion’ & Ukraine has strongly refuted them.” He also noted, “Russia has a record of frequently levying false accusations at Ukraine to deflect attention from its own illegal actions” and added that the U.S. view is that “Crimea is, and will always remain, part of Ukraine.” Following a request from Kyiv, the United Nations Security Council was due to discuss the rising tensions in Crimea during a closed-door meeting in New York later on August 11. On August 11, the Ukrainian president announced that he had instructed all military units near Crimea and in eastern regions near separatist-held territory to be at their highest level of combat readiness. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had said on August 10 that an FSB employee and a soldier were killed while repelling what it described as attempts to get Ukrainian “saboteurs” into the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. The FSB also said it had detained several men – both Ukrainian and Russian citizens – and confiscated weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the pro-Western government in Kyiv of using “terror” tactics to seek to ignite a new conflict and destabilize Crimea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the Russian allegations preposterous fantasies and a pretext for Moscow to make more military threats against Ukraine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP and Reuters)
Ex-lawmaker charged with separatism
KYIV – A court in Kyiv has formally charged a former member of Ukraine’s Parliament with providing support to Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country. The Pechersk District Court in the Ukrainian capital on August 8 also ordered Volodymyr Medyanyk to be held for two months in pretrial detention. According to the court, the case against Mr. Medyanyk is linked to the July 30 arrest of the former leader of the pro-Russia Party of Regions, Oleksandr Yefremov. Mr. Yefremov is now on trial in Kyiv on charges of financially supporting Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk. Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk has killed more than 9,500 people since April 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax)
Separatist leader injured in attack
LUHANSK, Ukraine – The leader of a Russia-backed separatist group in eastern Ukraine has been injured in an assassination attempt, the separatists say. Igor Plotnitsky, the head of a group that calls itself the Luhansk People’s Republic, “was wounded this morning as a result of a powerful explosion that occurred near his car,” the official separatists’ news agency reported on August 6. The report said Mr. Plotnitsky was being treated at a local hospital along with several other people who suffered injuries in the blast in the city of Luhansk. A top official in the group, Serhiy Kozlov, said Mr. Plotnitsky was in stable condition and that there is no threat to his life. The Interfax news agency on August 7 quoted an anonymous source at the hospital where Plotnitsky is being treated as saying that his condition is stable, and that there had been no complications overnight. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for Kyiv’s military operations in the east, said the Ukrainian side was not involved in the attack. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP, TASS and Interfax)
Bribe-taking judge can’t be prosecuted
KYIV – Ukraine’s chief anticorruption prosecutor said on August 10 that a judge who served under ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych has been caught accepting bribes. Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytskyi said Mykola Chaus, a judge in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi District Court, was caught by anti-corruption detectives accepting a $150,000 bribe on August 9 from an unnamed figure. But Mr. Kholodnytskyi said Mr. Chaus cannot be detained because he has immunity from prosecution under Ukraine’s Constitution. Mr. Kholodnytskyi said “physical evidence was seized at the scene of the bribe transfer,” including a glass jar full of cash that Mr. Chaus allegedly used to accept bribes. If convicted, Mr. Chaus could face a prison sentence of up to 12 years. Mr. Kholodnytskyi called on Ukrainian lawmakers to revise “the old legal system,” saying that it was helping so-called “untouchables” in Ukrainian society. Mr. Chaus had worked on some of Ukraine’s most sensitive cases under Mr. Yanukovych – including numerous cases against pro-European protesters whose Maidan rallies led to Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster from the presidency. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and UNIAN)
“Significant progress” in Sheremet case
KYIV – Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko said “significant progress” has been made in the investigation into the murder of Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed in a car blast in Kyiv, where he lived, but the information is not public, according to a UNIAN correspondent. “There is no information about the Sheremet case that can be made public. We’ve made significant progress in the investigation, but it cannot be disclosed to the public,” Mr. Lutsenko announced at a briefing in Kyiv on August 10. Sheremet was killed in a car explosion in the center of Kyiv on July 20. Police are probing his death as a deliberate homicide. The FBI is engaged in the investigation, and its laboratories have taken samples of the chemicals used in the improvised explosive device planted under the journalist’s car. More than 500 witnesses have already been interviewed in the Sheremet case. Investigators are probing four theories for motives behind the murder: professional activity, hostile private relations or personal motives, the Russian angle (attempts to destabilize Ukraine) or an attempt on the life of Ukrayinska Pravda founding editor Olena Prytula, who was Sheremet’s partner and also used the same car. (Ukraine Today, with reporting by UNIAN)
Kyiv to open Investment Promotion Office
KYIV – Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman announced on August 8 at a Cabinet of Ministers meeting that Ukraine will open an Investment Promotion Office and appoint a commissioner for investment. A release from the Cabinet of Ministers stated, “The office will engage in development of the investment potential of Ukraine, in promoting the country in the world, attracting top international investors and supporting their investment.” The office will be established before September 1 as an advisory body to the prime minister, and a nominee for director of the office will be submitted to the government for approval. The NIS Enterprise Fund has agreed to provide organizational and financial support for establishing the office. The Cabinet of Ministers also approved the introduction of a government commissioner for investment, “who will coordinate the activities of the future office and be responsible in the government for the issues related to investment support. The duties of the government commissioner are entrusted to First Deputy Finance Minister Oksana Markarova.” The release also explained: “The office will cooperate with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, trade missions, business-ombudsmen, …as well as business associations, including international ones such as the American Chamber of Commerce, the European Business Association and embassies.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress)
Experts predict population crisis
KYIV – Experts predict a population crisis in Ukraine this year due to the war. However, the demographic situation could be improved with the implementation of state policy. The director of the Ukrainian Institute of Research of Extremism, Oleh Zarubinsky, and his deputy, Bohdan Petrenko, explained that Ukraine saw a decline in the birth rate in 2013-2015, and although the major consequences of the demographic crisis generally reveal themselves two years after the beginning of any crisis, the steepest decline in the birth rate is projected as early as in 2016. “Along with the war and low standards of living, the country will experience the general European trend of population aging and a reduction in the number of children per family. Therefore, even restored peace and economic recovery will not completely settle the demographic crisis. It is impossible to resolve the problem using economic methods only. Other factors such as increasing parental values, family education and other areas that promote the traditional values of a Ukrainian family should be encouraged,” Mr. Petrenko stated at a press conference in Kyiv on August 2. Experts say that the general trend of boosting the birth rate, seen in Ukraine since 2002, reveals a clear link between the demographic situation and the crisis in the country. Accordingly, the GDP growth since 2000 indirectly pushed the birth rate up from 2002. The 2008 crisis was the reason behind a decline in the birth rate from 2010. Delayed births due to the economic crisis translated into a rise in births in 2012. Mr. Petrenko said the demographic situation could be improved with the implementation of state policy. However, the director of Institute for Demography and Social Studies under the Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ella Libanova, is not so optimistic. She predicts a further decline in the country’s population. “Under any conditions, the population of Ukraine will decrease because the potential of demographic growth has been exhausted – we have more 75-year-old women in our population than 5-year-old girls. This is because Ukrainian women have not given as many births as necessary for the simple reproduction of generations since the 1960s. Accordingly, each generation is smaller than the previous one,” Ms. Libanova explained. (Ukraine Today, with reporting from UNIAN)
Tensions amid Russian military build-up
KYIV – Tensions are reportedly high among residents of northern Crimea as long convoys of heavy Russian weaponry continue to be sighted not far from the occupied peninsula’s border with the Ukrainian mainland. Crimean Tatar activists have reported armed checkpoints being erected at scattered sites around the peninsula, and unusually large concentrations of Russian hardware in northern regions. The border crossing between Ukraine proper and the Russian-annexed peninsula had been shut for several hours on August 7, causing long backups of traffic. Photos and videos posted on the website of the Crimean Human Rights Group, a local non-governmental organization, showed Russian military trucks being transported on trains on August 6 near Kerch, an eastern port town that is opposite Russia’s Stavropol territory. Vadim Skibitsky, a representative of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s military intelligence division, told the online news portal Ukrayinska Pravda that the movement of troops and equipment appeared related to the upcoming major Russian military exercise called Kavkaz 2016 slated to begin next month. He also tried to downplay any immediate danger to local inhabitants. Russia seized Crimea in March 2014 in the aftermath of the Euro-Maidan protests in Kyiv, that forced President Viktor Yanukovych to flee. Moscow later declared it had annexed the peninsula, a move that has been rejected across the globe. Its naval base at Sevastopol is the home for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. (RFE/R:, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Krym.Realii and Ukrayinska Pravda)
$120 M stolen by Yanukovych-era tax service
KYIV – A total of 3 billion hrv or $120 million (U.S.) was stolen by a group of tax inspectors during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. That’s according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, speaking on August 10. Earlier this week police officers arrested the ex-deputy head of Ukraine’s State Fiscal Service Andriy Golovach and his accomplices, the former heads of various district tax inspectorates. He is said to have personally stolen 200 million hrv (more than $80,000) from Ukrainian budget. The Ukraine’s former Minister of Taxes and Duties Oleksandr Klymenko was at the head of the illegal tax gang. He has been hiding from police for more than two years. According to Prosecutor General Lutsenko, those involved in the criminal scheme reimbursed VAT for a fake company. This money was then forwarded further by Mr. Klymenko. Part of the stolen money was transferred to now ousted President Yanukovych and ex-Prime-Minister Mykola Azarov. The aforementioned politicians managed to benefit from the criminal schemes before Maidan events in Kyiv and the further resignation of the whole oligarchical clan. In particular, they spent the laundered sums on constructing the scandalous helicopter field for Mr. Yanukovych in Kyiv’s city center. The prosecutor general said minor participants in the scheme could get reduced sentences if they are ready to assist the investigators. Ukraine’s Office of the Public Prosecutor reports having evidence against 10 more former tax inspectors, suspected of cooperation with the Yanukovych family. They are to be named in a month. (Ukraine Today)
Man who lied about his age pleads guilty
HARRISBURG, Pa. – A Ukrainian man who lied about his name and his age while attending Harrisburg High School in Pennsylvania has pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Artur Samarin, 23, faces up to 40 years in prison after entering the plea for fraud and sex charges. Mr. Samarin, who called himself Asher Potts, had also been accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl. The arrest affidavit said Mr. Samarin told a detective he had sex with the girl in the fall of 2014, when he was 22. Mr. Samarin had been a well-liked student at the Pennsylvania high school and had been accepted into a college in Florida before authorities discovered he was considerably older and was a Ukrainian citizen who had overstayed a student work visa. He also faces federal fraud charges and could be deported. He is reportedly negotiating a plea deal; his federal trial has now been pushed back to September 6. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and ABC27.com)
Website leaks more personal details
KYIV – A Ukrainian nationalist website has published an e-mail archive that contains copies of identification cards and personal information about Ukrainian and international journalists. The new leak, which allegedly comes from a disenchanted separatist official, was published on August 4. It contains thousands of e-mails – including some e-mails that contain photographs and copies of journalists’ travel identification. On August 3, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukrainian Internal Minister Arsen Avakov, praised the website, Myrotvorets, saying it has become an electronic mass-media resource. Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Information Policy Tetyana Popova, who spoke strongly against the website, announced her resignation on August 3 to protest what she said were attacks on journalists and freedom of speech. The Myrotvorets online project had raised concerns about the safety of journalists in May when it leaked names and contact information for thousands of correspondents who have reported from parts of Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. The website claimed it was targeting enemies of Ukraine – ”because these journalists collaborate with fighters from terrorist organizations.” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko condemned the May leak, but Myrotvorets was never closed. RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, Kyiv Post and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine evacuates citizens from Aleppo
DAMASCUS, Syria – The Ukrainian Embassy in Syria is urging its citizens to flee the combat areas following the worsening security situation in Aleppo, the Ukrainian diplomatic mission wrote on Facebook on August 10. The Embassy and the Honorary Consulate General in Aleppo have organized the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from Aleppo to Ukraine via Damascus and Beirut. For all questions on registration documents for the Ukrainian consular staff of the Ukrainian Embassy in Syria, especially those which are critical, the embassy in Lebanon can be contacted instead. Meanwhile the United Nations called for an urgent ceasefire in the divided Syrian city, where it said 2 million people lacked access to clean running water. The humanitarian workers said access is needed to deliver food and medical supplies, and for technicians to repair electricity networks that drive water pumping stations, which were heavily damaged in attacks on civilian infrastructure last week. (Ukraine Today)