Steinmeier: Kyiv OKs new truce
KYIV – German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Ukrainian leaders have agreed to observe a new ceasefire for the country’s east. Mr. Steinmeier was speaking in Kyiv on September 14 at a joint press conference with his French and Ukrainian counterparts, respectively, Jean-Marc Ayrault and Pavlo Klimkin, following talks with President Petro Poroshenko. “We came with a promise from Moscow that effective [September 15] there will be a truce that will last at least a week,” Mr. Steinmeier also said, a day after the leaders of the Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared a unilateral ceasefire. The sides earlier agreed to abide by a truce to coincide with the start of the school year on September 1, but it failed to stop the fighting between government forces and separatists that has killed more than 9,500 people since April 2014. Mr. Ayrault urged the Ukrainian leadership to commit themselves more fully to the February 2015 Minsk agreement brokered by Berlin and Paris, saying, “There is no Plan B.” The peace plan envisages holding elections in separatist-held areas and partial autonomy for the country’s eastern regions. Mr. Klimkin said an agreement with Russia over “the sequence of steps and guarantees” for implementing the peace terms was needed. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, Reuters, DPA and AFP)
D.C., Kyiv to deepen defense cooperation
WASHINGTON – The United States and Ukraine have agreed to deepen defense cooperation, with a retired U.S. Army general being appointed special adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister. The Pentagon said in a statement released on September 8 that John Abizaid will advise Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak as Ukraine tries to reform oversight of its armed forces and root out the endemic corruption that has hobbled it in its fight against Russia-backed separatists. The announcement came as Washington and Kyiv agreed to cooperate further on defense technology and improve Ukraine’s forces. The announcement, however, includes no mention of offensive weaponry like Javelin antitank missiles, which Kyiv says would greatly fortify its forces against Russia-backed separatists. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter reiterated that in the statement, saying Gen. Abizaid’s appointment should not be interpreted as a signal of U.S. plans to help Ukraine in offensive operations. Gen. Abizaid oversaw U.S. Central Command from 2003 to 2007, when U.S. forces were in the depths of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP)
Criminal probe into Ukraine’s top cop
KYIV – Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko has announced that his office has opened a criminal probe of Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov, raising the specter of another public blow to a fractious ruling coalition. But while the September 14 statement was likely to erode confidence at home and abroad in the country’s center-right government, which has been accused of foot-dragging on cleaning up rampant corruption and nepotism, its effect on Mr. Avakov was less clear. The NGO activist whose complaint reportedly sparked the prosecutor general’s announcement said that as far as he knew, it was up to a special anti-corruption prosecutor – not Mr. Lutsenko’s office – to pursue the accusation. In a televised interview with Channel 24, Mr. Lutsenko cited a letter of complaint from Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, saying, “I receive more than a dozen letters from people, including Shabunin, whose letter was the premise for an inquiry into – you won’t believe it – Internal Affairs Minister Avakov.” Mr. Shabunin subsequently told RFE/RL that anti-corruption investigations into any minister’s actions fall under the jurisdiction of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). Moreover, he said, he never sent any letter to Mr. Lutsenko about Mr. Avakov. Mr. Avakov is a member of the national populist People’s Front party, which governs alongside Mr. Lutsenko’s party, the president’s Petro Poroshenko Bloc. He has gained clout as he survived one Cabinet reshuffle after another. He was reappointed to the job in April after Cabinet changes that accompanied the exit of fellow People’s Front member Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister in favor of Poroshenko ally Volodymyr Hroysman. Mr. Shabunin said his anti-corruption center brought to NABU’s attention a case involving 18 hectares of land near the northeastern city of Kharkiv that is thought to be owned by Mr. Avakov’s family. Mr.Lutsenko’s spokeswoman, Larisa Sargan, in a Facebook post downplayed suspicions that Lutsenko was in any way targeting Mr. Avakov. “The charges against the current internal affairs minister could be interpreted as a matter of the imagination that cannot be grounds for prosecution of the minister,” she said. Ms. Sargan suggested the anti-corruption center might be seeking to drive a wedge between the country’s law enforcement authorities with its allegations, adding. (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)
Dzhemilev nominated for Sakharov Prize
STRASBOURG, France – The European Parliament’s largest political bloc will nominate Crimean Tatar politician Mustafa Dzhemilev for the 2016 Sakharov Prize. The European People’s Party will nominate Mr. Dzhemilev on September 14. The European Conservatives and Reformists bloc – consisting of Britain’s Conservative Party and the Polish Law and Justice party-nominated him a day earlier. Mr. Dzhemilev is expected to be one of the three shortlisted candidates chosen by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Development committees vote on October 11. Members of the European Parliament will decide the winner on October 27. Mr. Dzhemilev is a Ukrainian lawmaker and a well-known Soviet-era human rights activist. A former chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people who strongly opposed Crimea’s occupation and annexation by Russia, he is currently living in Kyiv. The Sakharov Prize – with a cash prize of 50,000 euros ($57,206 U.S.) – has been handed out since 1988 to honor individuals and organizations who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms. (RFE/RL)
Chubarov: boycott Russia’s elections
KHARKIV, Ukraine – The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported that Crimean Tatar Mejlis leader Refat Chubarov has called on all Crimeans to boycott the Russian parliamentary elections which Russia is insisting on holding in annexed Crimea. His appeal coincides with a Ukrainian parliamentary resolution asking the international community to join Ukraine in not recognizing the elections in Crimea. Lists are being drawn up by the occupation administrations in Crimea of all public sector workers and even the staff of private firms, with them being threatened with dismissal or other penalties if they don’t turn up at the polling booths on September 18. In his address Mr. Chubarov called on Crimeans to boycott all stages of the election process. He stressed that Russia is well aware of the legal meaninglessness of these elections. It is hoping, however, by running them as though normal, to somehow validate the pseudo-referendum held at gunpoint soon after Russian soldiers invaded Crimea in February-March 2014. Mr. Chubarov stressed that the methods now being applied to coerce people into attending are illegal even according to Russian legislation. Boycotting the September 18 elections is a legal and non-violent method of opposing the Russian occupiers, he noted, calling it an act worthy of all honest people, and a way of showing support for political prisoners and their families. Mr. Chubarov is one of the Ukrainian national deputies who endorsed an appeal adopted on September 8 to the parliaments of other countries, parliamentary assemblies and international organizations. They are asked to refrain from taking part in observing the illegal parliamentary elections in Crimea and to not, under any circumstances, recognize the results. They are requested to issue official statements regarding the illegitimacy of any recognition of the elections on occupied territory. The Verkhovna Rada warned any foreign nationals who visit Crimea to take part in observing the event that criminal proceedings will be brought against them for illegally crossing into occupied territory. (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)
Soldiers killed in Ukraine’s east
KYIV – Ukraine says three government troops have been killed and 15 wounded in fighting with pro-Russia separatists in the country’s east. Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on September 13 that the deaths occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in the previous 24 hours. One serviceman remained unaccounted for, he said. Meanwhile, the separatists said violence in the Donetsk region resulted in the deaths of three of their fighters as well. The previous week, on September 9, Ukraine reported its first combat death since the new ceasefire went into effect on September 1. “In the past day, as a result of military activities, one of our soldiers died and two were wounded,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that day. He said the casualties were suffered during an attack by separatists around the eastern town of Mariinka near Donetsk. He added that the separatists also violated the truce by shelling the vicinity of the port city of Mariupol. Earlier that week, the separatists claimed the death of one its fighters. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, AFP and Interfax)
Separatists announce unilateral ceasefire
PRAGUE – The leaders of the separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have announced a unilateral ceasefire starting at midnight on September 14. In a recorded statement aired on Russian television on September 13, the separatist leader in Donetsk, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, said the separatists are “fully committed” to the Minsk peace agreements and see them as “the only solution.” Mr. Zakharchenko urged Kyiv to follow suit. The separatist leader in the Luhansk region, Igor Plotnitsky, made a similar announcement. It is the first time that the Russia-backed separatists have come with the idea of a unilateral ceasefire. But it was not immediately clear why the Russia-backed separatists made the announcement more than two weeks after the sides had already agreed to another temporary truce. The announcement came a few hours after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he expected the Verkhovna Rada to vote soon on constitutional amendments granting autonomy to eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax and TASS)
Protests against media crackdown in Crimea
WASHINGTON – International media groups have intensified efforts to support Mykola Semena, a Crimean journalist and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), calling on Russian authorities to allow him to leave the peninsula to receive medical care. In a joint appeal issued September 2, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) warned that Mr. Semena suffers from cardiac problems and would risk becoming permanently incapacitated without urgent treatment. Mr. Semena, who contributes to RFE/RL’s Crimea Realities website, was charged in April under the Russian Criminal Code for allegedly violating Russia’s territorial integrity after he wrote an article expressing the view that Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, should be returned to Ukraine. He is currently under house arrest in Symferopol. The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, the Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine and Ukraine’s Deputy Information Minister Emine Dzheppar have also condemned the criminal case against Mr. Semena and insisted he be permitted to receive medical attention in Kyiv. “Authorities in Crimea should drop the charges against Mykola immediately and allow him to receive the medical treatment he needs,” RFE/RL President Thomas Kent said. Referring to a month-long blockage of the Crimea Realities website in Crimea that shows no sign of abating, Mr. Kent added, “The case against Mykola is part of a concerted effort by Russian and Russian-backed authorities to obstruct RFE/RL’s journalistic mission to provide an independent press to residents of Crimea.” The website, published in the Crimean Tatar, Ukrainian and Russian languages, is blocked by a majority of internet providers in Crimea, following an order on August 1 by the counter-extremism and terrorism unit of the peninsula’s Moscow-backed prosecutor’s office. Nevertheless, residents using other means, and users in Russia and mainland Ukraine have continued to access the site, logging 1.7 million visits in August. Crimea Realities also reaches audiences in Crimea through radio broadcasts on medium waves. In an interview about his case with RFE/RL on August 31, Mr. Semena said, “I think several objectives are pursued here: to silence me, to prohibit me to work, or to force me to leave.” Mr. Semena was awarded a medal of honor for “outstanding merit” by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on August 30, in honor of the anniversary of Ukraine’s independence. (RFE/RL)
Savchenko: Russia sanctions must remain
BRUSSELS – Nadiya Savchenko, the former Ukrainian military officer who spent nearly two years in a Russian prison, says it is too early to lift sanctions against Russia because the situation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine is unchanged. The comments by Ms. Savchenko, made to RFE/RL in Brussels, came amid growing talk in some Western capitals about easing the economic measures imposed following Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014, and the subsequent insurgency it backed in the region known as the Donbas. Ms. Savchenko, who currently is a member of Ukraine’s Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said on September 9 that the European and U.S. sanctions against Moscow had been introduced “under certain conditions” that have never been met. “Crimea is still occupied, the Donbas is occupied by Russia,” Ms. Savchenko said. “I think that it is too early [to lift sanctions] because the usurper did not learn its lesson yet.” Ms. Savchenko, a military aviator, was captured in June 2014, and put on trial in Russia, charged with the killing of two Russian reporters covering the war. Freed in May as part of a prisoner swap, she returned to a hero’s welcome, and has spoken out regularly, calling for direct peace talks with Russia-backed separatists in the east. More than 9,400 people have been killed in the fighting since it erupted in April 2014, according to United Nations figures. (RFE/RL)
Russia open to out-of-court settlement
MOSCOW – Russia’s finance minister is planning to meet next month with his Ukrainian counterpart for talks on Kyiv’s multi-billion-dollar bond default. Talks mediated by Germany are being planned during International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington in early October, Anton Siluanov said on September 12, adding that he is open to an out-of-court settlement. It would be the first meeting between Mr. Siluanov and Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, who was appointed to the post earlier this year. In February, the Russian government filed a lawsuit at the High Court in London seeking to recover the $3 billion debt, which Ukraine failed to repay when it came due in December 2015. Hearings are expected to start in early 2017. Moscow claims it should be granted better restructuring terms than those accepted by Ukraine’s private creditors in a $15 billion debt overhaul last year, while Kyiv insists it cannot offer Russia a better deal than other creditors. “If Ukraine continues to make the same demands as in previous meetings, the negotiations will be completely unconstructive,” Mr. Siluanov said. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Bloomberg)