Ukraine announces plans to quit CIS
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced plans to quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and terminate parts of a friendship treaty with Russia. Mr. Poroshenko urged the government to present a proposal to lawmakers on Ukraine’s full withdrawal from the CIS, of which Kyiv has been an associate member since the group was formed following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “Ukraine has never been a [full] member of the CIS and [given] CIS’s failure to denounce Russia’s aggression [in Ukraine], I would ask that we, together with the government, produce a proposal regarding an official termination of our participation in the statutory organs of the CIS,” Mr. Poroshenko said at a security forum in Kyiv on April 12. Mr. Poroshenko also told the forum that he would propose a draft bill before Parliament for “an immediate and unilateral termination of individual articles” of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and Russia that were “incompatible with [Ukraine’s] national interests and its right to self-defense.” Ukraine has been fighting against Russia-backed separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk since April 2014, after Russia seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” The conflict has left more than 10,300 people dead and some 1.6 million people displaced. Full members of the CIS include Russia and eight former Soviet republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Obozrevatel.ua and Pravda.ua)
Putin, Merkel discuss Nord Stream
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed the situation in Syria and a controversial gas pipeline project in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin says. Mr. Putin criticized the air strikes carried out by the United States, Britain, and France against Syrian government facilities, the Kremlin said in a statement on April 17. He told Ms. Merkel that strikes were an “act of aggression” that violated the U.N. Charter and “dealt a substantial blow” to efforts to end the seven-year war in Syria, it said. The United States says the April 14 strikes targeted the Syrian government’s chemical-weapons infrastructure following a suspected poison-gas attack that killed dozens of civilians in what was then the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, on April 7. According to the Kremlin, both leaders stressed the importance of an “objective investigation” into the suspected attack in Douma by inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Russia claims there was no chemical-weapons attack but has not provided evidence of that assertion. Mr. Putin and Ms. Merkel also discussed the Nord Stream 2 project, a pipeline running from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany, the Kremlin said. Critics say the pipeline would increase European dependence on Russia for energy and enrich its state-owned energy companies at a time when Moscow stands accused of endangering European security through alleged election meddling and other actions. The United States, Poland and the Baltic states oppose the project. Ms. Merkel appeared to signal a decrease in support for the planned pipeline last week, saying on April 10 that there were “political considerations” to take into account. She said that she had told Mr. Putin by phone that the project could not go ahead without clarity on Ukraine’s role as a gas transit route. Nord Stream 2 would decrease Russia’s reliance on Ukraine as a route for pumping its gas further West, into the European Union. (RFE/RL)
U.S. welcomes Ukraine’s NATO aspirations
U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison visited Kyiv on April 12 and participated in the Kyiv Security Forum, speaking on a panel that focused on Ukraine’s partnership with NATO. According to the U.S. Mission to NATO, the ambassador reaffirmed U.S. support for NATO’s Open Door policy and welcomed Ukraine’s membership aspirations. “Accession to NATO membership is a long one for many countries,” Ambassador Hutchison said. ‘The Annual National Program is the next step NATO and Ukraine can do together.” She welcomed Ukraine’s progress in defense and democratic reform, and urged the country to “stamp out corruption.” The ambassador met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and underscored the commitment of both the U.S. and NATO to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Ambassador Hutchison concluded her trip by visiting the Maidan Memorial, where she tied a ribbon of remembrance in memory of the scores of brave Ukrainians who gave their lives for the dream of a better Ukraine in 2014, the U.S. Mission to NATO reported. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Man denies sabotage charges in Crimea
Ukrainian national Yevhen Panov pleaded not guilty to sabotage charges as a Russia-imposed court in annexed Crimea started his trial on April 16. Mr. Panov called the charges against him “fantasies created by the investigators” and rejected them. Russian authorities arrested Mr. Panov and another Ukrainian national, Andriy Zakhtey, in August 2017 and charged them with being a “saboteur group” that was planning a series of terrorist attacks on the peninsula. Mr. Zakhtey, who pleaded guilty in an agreement with investigators, was tried in February and sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Kyiv has rejected Russian charges against the two men and has called their arrests “a provocation.” Russia has prosecuted and imprisoned several Ukrainians on what rights activists say are trumped-up, politically motivated charges since Moscow seized control of the Crimea region in March 2014. In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Savchenko resumes hunger strike
Ukrainian lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko, who is in jail pending trial on charges of plotting a terrorist attack on Parliament with grenades and automatic weapons, has resumed a hunger strike. Ms. Savchenko’s lawyer Oleh Solovey said on April 16 that his client had to stop the hunger strike after she fainted during a lie-detector test on April 13. According to Mr. Solovey, Ms. Savchenko agreed to stop the hunger strike for three days in order to be able to complete the polygraph. He said she feels well now and can submit to the test on April 17. Ms. Savchenko announced the hunger strike on March 23 as a Kyiv court placed her under two-month pretrial arrest. One day earlier, fellow lawmakers voted to strip her of her immunity from prosecution and authorized her arrest. Ms. Savchenko and Volodymyr Ruban are accused of plotting to overthrow the government, carry out a “large-scale terrorist attack” in central Kyiv, and kill senior officials. Mr. Ruban was detained earlier in March while crossing into government-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, allegedly with large amounts of weapons and ammunition hidden in a shipment of furniture. Ms. Savchenko maintains her innocence and says her arrest was illegal. (RFE/RL, with reporting by pravda.ua)
Police investigate grenade attack
Ukrainian authorities say they are investigating a rocket-propelled-grenade attack on a building that houses the offices of two of Ukraine’s top independent news outlets in central Kyiv as “hooliganism.” The attack on an entrance to the Kyivmiskbud building, located in Kyiv’s Pechersk neighborhood not far from the government quarter, occurred around 2 a.m. local time on April 13, Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry, citing the Kyiv police department, said in a statement. Police arrived at the scene after neighbors reported hearing an explosion. Across the street from the Kyivmiskbud building they discovered a spent tube used to fire a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). Photos of the RPG tube published by Hromadske.TV and Ukrayinska Pravda, two independent media outlets with offices inside the building, show it to be one similar to those used by forces fighting in eastern Ukraine. Other photographs showed damage to the office building’s exterior, as well as that of a neighboring restaurant. The Internal Affairs Ministry said investigators were looking through security-camera footage and explosives experts were combing the site for clues. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv)
UWC on electronic declarations for activists
The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has called upon the governing authorities of Ukraine to annul legislation which requires civic activists working on preventing and combating corruption to electronically submit public declarations of their assets. The need to annul the requirement for civic activists to submit e-declarations was articulated by Ambassadors of G-7 countries and leaders of the European Union. “The Ukrainian World Congress calls upon the governing authorities of Ukraine to expedite the adoption of legislation that will eliminate the requirement for civic activists to submit electronic declarations of assets, and any liability of those who failed to file such declarations,” stated UWC President Eugene Czolij, according to an April 11 release. (UWC)
Ukrainian soldier killed in the east
Ukraine says one of its soldiers has been killed and five wounded in clashes in the country’s east. The Defense Ministry said on April 17 that Russia-backed separatists violated a frequently breached ceasefire 52 times during the previous 24 hours, firing artillery, machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars. Meanwhile, the militants claimed that Ukrainian government forces violated the ceasefire by shelling the separatist-controlled town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region. Ceasefire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords – September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed to resolve the conflict – have failed to hold. A new ceasefire agreement was reached in late 2017 and was meant to begin on December 23, but both sides have accused each other of repeated violations since then. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DAN and TASS)
Family of four killed in mine blast
Ukrainian police say a missing family of four has been killed in an anti-tank mine explosion near the frontline in the eastern region of Luhansk, an area the United Nations has called one of the most mine-contaminated places on Earth. Police officers discovered the bodies of a couple – both the man and the woman were 57 years old – their 38-year-old son, and his common-law wife, also 38, near the charred remains of a Chevrolet Niva. The incident took place in a wooded area near the Siversky Donets River, which marks the frontline between territory controlled by government forces and Russia-backed separatists. The family members were residents of Pischane village in the Stanytsia Luhanska district of the Luhansk region and were reported missing by a neighbor on April 7, according to police. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) identified one of the women as Nina Vasylivna, a Pischane community leader who talked with the organization days earlier about raising chickens and growing vegetables in greenhouses to feed residents of the frontline village. Police believe the family drove over an anti-tank mine with the car, resulting in a large blast that killed all four. Photographs posted to the website of Ukraine’s National Police show tire tracks beside a swathe of scorched earth several meters wide, the destroyed car, and what appears to be one of the bodies splayed out nearby. Investigators first classified the incident as a homicide but have since changed it to a terrorist act. Forensic experts, bomb disposal technicians and members of an investigative team were working at the scene. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called the area of eastern Ukraine where fighting has entered its fifth year “one of the most mine-contaminated places on Earth.” UNICEF and the ICRC have both repeatedly called on all warring parties to immediately end the use of mines, which they say have contaminated communities and put residents – especially children – in constant danger of injury and death. (RFE/RL)
World Bank reports on Ukraine
The World Bank stated on April 10 that “Ukraine’s economy grew by 2.5 percent in 2017, the second year of modest growth, according to the World Bank’s latest Ukraine Economic Update. Growth in manufacturing, services and construction was robust, but weaknesses in the agriculture and mining sectors, together with delays in key reforms to further strengthen investor confidence contributed to the modest overall growth performance.” The World Bank also noted: “Economic growth is projected at 3.5 percent in 2018 if pending reforms in anti-corruption, land markets, state-owned banks and privatization can be advanced in the next few months. This would provide an important signal to investors. If reforms are delayed, growth could drop below current levels in an uncertain macroeconomic environment as financing risks rapidly increase.” In addition, it reported that “Ukraine faces major financing needs to repay public debt and fiscal pressures from higher public sector wages and social benefits in 2018 and 2019. Mobilizing adequate international financing by completing pending reforms in the months ahead will be important to maintain macroeconomic stability.” Other items noted in the report: “Meeting the fiscal deficit target of 2.5 percent of GDP in 2018 will require improving targeting of housing utility subsidies, making further wage increases contingent on measures to optimize the school and hospital network and public-sector staffing, and identifying affordable options to update public sector pensions. …The recently adopted reforms in education, health, and public administration seek to improve compensation for teachers, doctors and public servants to strengthen incentives and attract quality personnel. Achieving this in a fiscally affordable manner will require coordinating further increases in salaries with time-bound measures to optimize staffing and the school and hospital network.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily, based on the World Bank’s Ukraine Economic Update)