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Four years after Euro-Maidan revolution, mother of slain protester still seeks justice

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KYIV – The first protester was mowed down by sniper fire on February 20, 2014,  exactly at 8:59:34 a.m. on Instytutska Street leading up towards Kyiv’s government quarter. Thirty minutes and 23 deaths later, another sniper shot killed Ihor Kostenko near the October Palace on the same street.

The death toll of Euro-Maidan protesters – known as the Heavenly Hundred – ended that day with 48 at 4:57:55 p.m., according to a joint investigation by Talionis and Censor.net that the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) corroborates with official statistics.

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Saakashvili deported as public hungers for new political leaders

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KYIV – The political standoff between erstwhile allies President Petro Poroshenko and ex-Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili came to a denouement on February 12 – at least on Ukrainian soil – when the latter was forcibly deported to Poland. The former Odesa Oblast governor whom the president had appointed as part of a team of foreign reformers in the wake of the Euro-Maidan revolution was seen being dragged by the hair from a Kyiv restaurant. The Border Guard Service confirmed the same day that the 50-year-old former college chum of Mr. Poroshenko had been flown back to Poland from where he re-entered Ukraine in September after the president stripped him of citizenship. The scene encapsulated an atmosphere devoid of rule-of-law and the nation’s mood – 70 percent of the public, according to multiple polls, are disillusioned with all current political forces in office. Mr. Poroshenko and his allies are seen as moving too slowly on reforms, whereas those in opposition are seen as too radical to replace them.

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As Kyiv skirts reforms, public faces higher borrowing costs

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KYIV – Ukraine must service more than $21 billion of debt over the next two years as it struggles to further unlock a $17.5 billion economic recovery lending program with the International Monetary Fund that has been hampered by compliancy issues. Kyiv has eschewed the principal demand of Western backers and lenders to create an anti-graft corruption court, among other requirements, in order to access cheaper credit. Meanwhile, Ukraine has the distinction of being the slowest performing economy in Europe in 2017. The country’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) reached $110 billion, climbing only 2 percent, in what economists and business associations attribute to official reluctance to strengthen the judiciary and instill the rule of law that would enable secure investments. An end-of-year survey by the local chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACCU) of 184 respondents found that the “most corrupt state institutions are the courts,” according to 71 percent of those polled.

Sports

Usyk wins WBC belt in Riga

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RIGA – Ukrainian cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk’s (14-0, 11 KO) hand is raised following a majority-decision, 12-round victory over Mairis Briedis (23-1, 18 KO) in Riga, Latvia, on January 27. The Symferopol native of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea won the World Boxing Conference belt with the nearly even-scored bout (115-113, 115-113, 114-114) adding to his World Boxing Organization title. The fight was part of the internationally promoted World Boxing Super Series tournament that is designed to unite all four cruiserweight titles among the sport’s four major governing bodies. Usyk, 31, is scheduled to fight on May 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, against Russia’s Murat Gassiev (27-0-1, 19 KO) who unified the IBF and WBA titles. Gassiev won on February 3 in Sochi against Yunier Dorticos (22-1, 22 KO) of Cuba by 12th-round TKO.

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U.S. and Moscow envoys discuss U.N. peacekeepers for Donbas

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KYIV – The U.S. saw more “openness” from the Russian side, while Moscow said it was “quite doable” to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Ukraine based on America’s proposals, following talks on January 27 between the designated envoys of each country on the Donbas war. 

It was the fourth meeting since last July between Ambassador Kurt Volker and his Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov, who have similar mandates to find a lasting peace in the “hot war” as described by the veteran American diplomat. 

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Ukraine shows solidarity across nation on Day of Unity

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KYIV – Ukraine’s ages-long pursuit of stable statehood came into focus on January 22, when the country commemorated the Act of Unity proclaimed 99 years ago between Ukrainian lands that were part of the Austro-Hungarian and tsarist Russian empires.

Although short-lived, in 1919 the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) based in Kyiv, which stretched as far as the Kuban region to the southeast, united with the Western Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR) that comprised most of eastern Galicia, parts of Bukovyna and the Carpathian Mountain region.

Ukraine

UCCA President Futey looks back on first year in office

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KYIV – Almost every week last year, Andriy Futey found himself on the road, whether in California, Georgia, North Carolina or Ukraine. He wasn’t job or house hunting. The president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) was using his first year in office doing outreach. It’s part of a plan to “revitalize” the country’s biggest advocacy group for Ukrainian Americans. The trips, albeit exhausting and costly, are what Mr. Futey, 52, says were designed to bring former member organizations back into the fold, establish new chapters and enlist new groups, to get the youth more involved, and re-discover the UCCA’s core mission of advocacy starting at the local level.

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Controversial bill on war-ravaged Donbas passes amid human rights concerns

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KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament passed a controversial bill that pro-presidential lawmakers say aligns legislation closer to reality on the ground in war-torn Donbas.

Exactly 280 deputies – 56 more than needed – voted on January 18 for President Petro Poroshenko’s measures to name Russia as an aggressor state and designate areas Kyiv doesn’t control as “temporarily occupied territories” in a law that could potentially limit the human rights of residents in the two easternmost oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk.

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Freed Luhansk blogger talks about his love for Ukraine

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KYIV – In between comments and pictures of his beloved tabby cat on Facebook, Eduard Nyedyelaev, 46, would publish critical posts about the Kremlin proxies who have occupied Luhansk since April 2014.

He often employed deeply ironic language reminiscent of the style that Soviet writers used to avoid censorship. But the subtext was always clear: he didn’t care much for the Moscow-controlled authorities who were running his native city in easternmost Luhansk Oblast.

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Dismantling of oligarchic economy main goal for 2018, say experts

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KYIV – Ukraine can expect to see its economy grow only modestly over the previous year by 2.9 percent, or to $113 billion, if declared, albeit muted, reforms continue, say three Kyiv-based policy centers and an economist in Washington.

Despite Russia’s unprovoked war that Kyiv has managed to contain, the country’s biggest internal national security threat remains corruption from within, they say. It includes existing quasi-monopolies that the oligarch-economic machine has managed to preserve, and a disjointed judicial system that enables the takeover of businesses and land from their rightful owners, domestic or foreign.