Visa-free EU travel deal is signed
STRASBOURG – Representatives of the European Parliament and the European Council have signed a document in Strasbourg formalizing a long-awaited visa-liberalization deal with Ukraine. The deal was signed by the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, and Malta’s Interior Minister Carmelo Abela. Malta currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who was present at the ceremony, said the signing of the agreement represents a landmark in Ukraine’s history. “It is an absolutely historic day for Ukraine, for my 45 million nation, and I am absolutely confident that this is a historic day for the European Union,” Mr. Poroshenko said after the signing. “Ukraine returns to the European family. Ukraine says a final farewell to the Soviet and Russian empire,” he added. Mr. Tajani said the visa liberalization was a “good message” to “very pro-European” Ukraine. “The new rules on visa liberalization are the beginning of a new era,” he said. EU member states gave their approval on May 11, and the visa-free regime is due to enter into force on June 11. Ukrainian citizens who have biometric passports will be able to enter all EU member states other than Ireland and the United Kingdom without a visa for up to 90 days during any 180-day period. It also applies to four Schengen Area countries that are not in the EU: Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Marek Hajduk in Strasbourg and Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels)
Ukraine’s ‘divorce from Russian Empire’
KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the visa-liberalization deal with the European Union marks his country’s “divorce from the Russian Empire.” Mr. Poroshenko spoke on May 11, after the deal that will enable Ukrainians to travel to EU Schengen Area countries without a visa cleared a key hurdle in Brussels. “Today, Ukraine has finalized its divorce from the Russian Empire,” he told 1+1 television in an interview, in a remark that was posted on his website on May 12. “This is precisely how we should view this in philosophical terms,” he said. “It is an exit from a more than 300-year history… and today Ukraine is returning home.” Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have been severely strained since Russia seized Crimea in March 2014 and fomented unrest in eastern Ukraine, where a war between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,900 people. Russia’s interference in Ukraine, where Kyiv and NATO say it has supported the separatists with troops, weapons and other backing, prompted the European Union and the United States to impose sanctions on Moscow. (RFE/RL)
Rada backs ban on St. George ribbon
KYIV – The Verkhovna Rada has approved legislation introducing fines and potential jail time for people who appear in public wearing as a black-and-orange ribbon widely viewed a patriotic emblem in Russia, but which many Ukrainians see as a symbol of Russian aggression. Lawmakers on May 16 passed the bill taking aim at the St. George ribbon, which has become a state-embraced symbol of military valor in Russia, where it is associated with commemorations of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany. For many in Ukraine, however, the ribbon has come to symbolize Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war against government forces that has killed at least 9,940 people since April 2014. If signed into law by President Petro Poroshenko, the bill would introduce fines of up to 2,550 hrv ($96) for those who publicly use, display or wear the ribbon – and up to double that amount or 15 days in jail for repeat offenders. The bill, whose passage triggered angry responses from Russian officials, included an explanatory note saying it would help strengthen “public order.” It allows the display of the ribbon in several instances, including on official state documents, flags and awards issued before 1991, as well as in museums, on gravesites, and in personal collections and archives. Nationalist lawmaker Anton Herashchenko said the bill will help battle “Russian aggression.” In a May 16 Facebook post, Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the Ukrainian Parliament’s backing of the bill as “anti-democratic and anti-historical.” The bill was approved with 238 votes, 12 more than required for passage. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by UNIAN, Gordonua.com and Interfax)
Access restricted to Russian websites
KYIV – President Petro Poroshenko has imposed sanctions on several leading Russian social networks and search engines, ordering access to the sites to be restricted or blocked entirely in Ukraine. Russia reacted angrily hours after Mr. Poroshenko’s decree was published on May 16, calling it “unfriendly” and accusing Kyiv of censorship. The Internet companies named in the decree included popular social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki as well as prominent search engine Yandex and the Mail.ru Group. It ordered the “limitation or termination” of access to the sites, prohibiting Ukrainian web hosts from linking to them for a period of three years. “The challenges of hybrid war demand adequate responses,” Mr. Poroshenko wrote in a May 16 post on his own VKontakte page. “Massive Russian cyberattacks across the world – particularly the interference in the French election campaign – show it is time to act differently and more decisively.” He added that he would shut down both his VKontakte and Odnoklassniki accounts. The decree adds to a list of mainly Russian companies and individuals subject to sanctions in connection with Russian aggression against Ukraine. With relations in tatters, Russian social networks have been used by President Vladimir Putin’s government and pro-government groups to promote the Kremlin’s position in its standoff with Kyiv and the West over Moscow’s interference in Ukraine and other issues. Later on May 16, Mr. Poroshenko’s office accused Russia of carrying out an organized cyberattack on his website in response to Kyiv’s decision. “We have been witnessing Russia’s response to the presidential decree that mentioned closing access to Russian social media. The website of the president is affected by an organized attack,” the deputy head of the presidential administration, Dmytro Shymkiv, said in a statement. “The situation is under control thanks to our IT specialists and there is no threat to the work of the website,” he said. Other entities named in the decree are Internet security companies Kaspersky Lab and DrWeb, as well as the Russian media companies RBK, National Mediagroup, TNT, and Ren-TV. Ukraine has imposed sanctions on a total of 468 organizations and companies as well as 1,228 individuals in Russia, Crimea, and the separatist-held parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Current Time TV, TASS, Interfax, Reuters, AFP, DPA and Dozhd TV)
Freedom of speech vs. propaganda
KYIV – Ukraine’s sanctions on several Russian social networks and search engines drew fire from journalists and rights activists, who called it an attack on free speech. “Nothing can justify such a blanket ban! Blatant violation of freedom of expression,” the Eastern Europe and Central Asian desk of media-rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said on Twitter. Aric Toler of the open-source investigation unit Bellingcat, which has produced searingly critical investigations of Russia’s role in the Ukraine conflict, said VKontakte groups “are often the best source of information for civilians living near the front lines” in eastern Ukraine. “So, that’s now gone. Great job Poroshenko,” he wrote on Twitter. The well-known Ukrainian journalist Maksim Eristavi noted that the ban places Ukraine in the same camp as several governments widely criticized for their record on human rights and media freedoms. Meanwhile, influential Ukrainian journalist Yevhen Fedchenko, director of the Kyiv Mohyla School of Journalism and co-founder of the website StopFake.org, came to President Poroshenko’s defense. He said that banning VKontakte and Odnoklasniki “would be the greatest contribution to protection” of Ukraine’s information “sovereignty.” Mr. Fedchenko called the social networks “instruments of war” that spread propaganda, hate speech and “war mongering,” adding that they should be “discontinued temporarily.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Current Time TV, TASS, Interfax, Reuters, AFP, DPA and Dozhd TV)
Trump urges ‘peace’ after meeting envoys
WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump posted photos of his separate meetings with the top diplomats of Ukraine and Russia on Twitter and urged the two nations to “make peace.” He tweeted on May 11: “Yesterday, on the same day – I had meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin.” The tweet was accompanied by separate photos of Mr. Trump smiling broadly by each minister in the Oval Office. “LETS [sic] MAKE PEACE!” he wrote. Mr. Trump held a rare, unannounced Oval Office meeting with Mr. Klimkin after a meeting with Mr. Lavrov, who earlier on May 10 had met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the State Department. The State Department said that in their meeting, Mr. Tillerson told Mr. Lavrov that “sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered them.” (RFE/RL)
New claims in Sheremet car-bomb killing
KYIV – Ukrainian police investigating the car-bomb killing of a Belarus-born journalist are sifting through a new documentary film’s claims about the unsolved case, including that a current or former Ukrainian security agent was present when the explosive was planted. National police chief Serhiy Knyazev convened the Kyiv meeting on May 11, one day after the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Slidstvo.info screened their documentary about the July 2016 death of Pavel Sheremet, titled “Killing Pavel.” Filmed over the course of nine months, it tries to reconstruct the hours before the bombing through exclusive footage and interviews. One of the most intriguing assertions is that an agent or former agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), identified as Ihor Ustymenko, was at the scene when two unidentified individuals fixed the explosive to the red Subaru the night before the blast killed the 44-year-old reporter with news website Ukrayinska Pravda in downtown Kyiv early on July 20. The filmmakers found Mr. Ustymenko with the help of a researcher from the open-source investigative group Bellingcat who managed to identify the license plate of the gray Skoda car he was driving that night. In a bizarre interview, Mr. Ustymenko admitted being at the scene but denied knowing anything about the murder or seeing the bombers walk right past him. He claimed he had been hired as private security to protect someone’s children who were in the area. Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov said on May 11 that authorities would interview OCCRP journalists and Mr. Ustymenko in light of the new information. Ten months after the killing, the investigation has stalled. There has not been a single arrest, nor have any suspects been named. However, investigators believe the journalist was murdered because of his professional activities. (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)
Leader of 1953 Soviet gulag uprising dies
KYIV – One of the leaders of the 1953 Norilsk uprising, a major protest by inmates of the Soviet gulag prison-camp system, has died in Ukraine at the age of 90. Yevhen Hrytsyak died in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk on May 14. Mr. Hrytsyak was a leader of protests by thousands of inmates over prison conditions and alleged torture at several labor camps near Norilsk, a frigid mining city 400 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, shortly after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s death. The uprising lasted from May 26 to August 4, 1953. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Facebook that Mr. Hrytsyak was “one of fearless leaders of political prisoners, who stood against gulag system.” Mr. Hrytsyak spent many years in the gulag after he was arrested in 1949 and convicted of fighting in the ranks of a Ukrainian nationalist group in the beginning of the World War II. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)
PEN launches ‘Free Sentsov’ campaign
OTTAWA – PEN America stated on May 10, “Authors Chimamanda Adichie, Jonathan Franzen and Masha Gessen, film giants Wim Wenders and Agnieszka Holland, television hosts Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee, and other creative allies joined PEN America today in a letter calling on U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to press for the immediate release of Oleh Sentsov, a Ukrainian writer and filmmaker imprisoned in Siberia on terrorism charges widely considered to be a groundless attempt to silence his criticism of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.” PEN noted that Mr. Sentsov “was active in protesting Russian incursions in Crimea and Ukraine more broadly,” and said his “voice of opposition in Ukraine made him a ripe target for Russian stifling of dissent.” The letter notes: “Given President Putin’s brazen willingness to flout human rights norms and the rule of law, and his relentless targeting of dissenting writers, artists, activists and politicians, it would be irresponsible to ignore Sentsov’s plight.” PEN America’s letter came on the third anniversary of Mr. Sentsov’s arrest and disappearance from Crimea on May 10, 2014. Sentsov surfaced in Moscow and later said he had been tortured in an unsuccessful effort to extract a confession. His trial was riddled with irregularities, and the lead prosecution witness later recanted his testimony, saying it had been made under duress. Mr. Sentsov is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony. The charges against him have been decried by human rights groups worldwide as fabrications intended to shut down and intimidate opponents of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. Mr. Sentsov was honored with the 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award at the annual PEN America Literary Gala on April 25. The letter to Secretary Tillerson is available here: https://pen.org/urge-secretary-of-state-rex-tillerson-to-fight-for-oleg-sentsov/. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Four civilians killed in Avdiyivka
KYIV – Authorities in Ukraine reported that four civilians were killed when Russia-backed separatists fired into a residential area of the town of Avdiyivka on May 13. One person was seriously injured in the incident and has been hospitalized. Donetsk Governor Pavlo Zhebrivskyy posted on Facebook that the shelling happened in the evening and that three of the fatalities were women. Local police said two children who were in the area were not injured. More than 9,500 people have been killed in the fighting in parts of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk since April 2014. Although Russia denies military involvement in the conflict, the International Criminal Court in November 2016 determined the conflict to be “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)
Ukraine detains Eurovision prankster
KYIV – Ukraine’s internal affairs minister said police have detained a notorious prankster who jumped onto the stage during the Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv and bared his buttocks as a Ukrainian singer was performing. Arsen Avakov said in a May 14 Facebook post that police had detained Vitaliy Sedyuk, who performed the stunt on live television as Ukrainian singer Jamala was performing during the previous night’s Eurovision final. Minister Avakov said that Mr. Sedyuk had been detained by event security and police, and that he resisted the detaining officers. The minister added that Mr. Sedyuk had been placed in custody for 72 hours, and that he faced “hooliganism” charges punishable by up to five years in prison. Mr. Sedyuk had previously gained worldwide attention with stunts targeting the global entertainment elite, including trying to kiss actor Will Smith at a 2012 film premiere in Moscow and grabbing the microphone from British singer Adele as she accepted an award at the 2013 Grammy Awards. (RFE//RL, with reporting by Reuters)
Ukraine in top 30 for global open data
OTTAWA – Ukraine was ranked the No. 24 country on the Global Open Data Index (GODI), prepared by Open Knowledge International, it was reported on May 3. Last year, Ukraine ranked 54th. The survey assesses the openness of government data. Open Knowledge International stated, “By having a tool that is run by civil society, GODI creates valuable insights for government’s data publishers to understand where they have data gaps. It also shows how to make data more useable and eventually more impactful. GODI therefore provides important feedback that governments are usually lacking.” Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman stated, “Over the past year we’ve introduced a single open data portal, opened for free access most of the basic registries, joined the International Open Data Charter and approved a relevant roadmap of open data development. Open governance is a key to reforms in Ukraine.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Deripaska sues AP for libel
WASHINGTON – Lawyers for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, filed a libel suit against the Associated Press on May 15 in federal court in Washington. The suit claimed Mr. Deripaska was defamed by a March story reporting business dealings between Messrs. Deripaska and Manafort. Politico reported that the suit alleges the AP story falsely implied Mr. Deripaska “was paying Manafort for work aimed at advancing the goals of the Russian government and Russian president Vladimir Putin.” According to Politico, the suit says the AP story “created a false impression that Deripaska’s dealings with Manafort were intertwined with the Trump campaign when that work ended by 2009 and that Deripaska is tied to ongoing investigations of alleged theft of assets from Ukraine after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.” The suit says: “The AP had (and has) no basis for reporting that any contract between Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Manafort provided for the undermining of democratic movements,” and notes that “Mr. Deripaska did not make any payments to Mr. Manafort to undermine democratic movements.” The filing also noted that Mr. Deripaska’s lawyers asked the AP for a retraction and correction in late March, but the news agency refused. AP General Counsel Karen Kaiser said, “The Associated Press stands by its story,” and “will defend the lawsuit vigorously.” (Politico)