Culture/Arts

Jamala triumphs at Eurovision

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A victory for Ukraine and Crimean Tatars

KYIV – Crimean Tatar R&B/soul-style singer Jamala succeeded in drawing the world’s attention to the Russian government’s persecution of her people by winning the annual Eurovision Song Contest with her song “1944” about Stalin’s mass deportations and genocide. Jamala finished second among public voting and in second place among juries during the contest’s final round on May 14, placing her ahead of the flashy yet standard fare of pop music presented by runner up Dami Im of Australia and third-place finisher Sergey Lazarev of Russia. Given the contest’s prohibition against political songs and gestures, Jamala consistently said she was singing only about history leading up to the event, enabling her to participate. Yet on the contest’s eve, she confirmed what was widely suspected that “1944” was just as much about the present. “Of course, it’s about 2014 as well,” she said in an interview published on May 13 on the guardian.com news site.

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Verkhovna Rada approves Lutsenko as Ukraine’s procurator general

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KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament voted on May 12 to approve the president’s nomination of Yuriy Lutsenko as procurator general. He will be expected to accomplish what his three post-Euro-Maidan predecessors failed to do: prosecute and convict corrupt key state officials, both past and present. Mr. Lutsenko’s election came after the Verkhovna Rada voted earlier that day to amend the law setting the qualifications for the country’s top prosecutor, namely, removing the requirements for a law degree and 10 years’ experience working as a prosecutor. An electronics engineer by trade who built his career in politics, Mr. Lutsenko lacks both requirements, which are widely viewed as essential for any top prosecutorial post. Critics accused the president of leading the effort to change the law in order to place a political ally into a key post that’s supposed to be independent.

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Groysman acts to renew slipping Western support

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KYIV – The new Cabinet of Ministers that emerged in Ukraine in mid-April drew swift skepticism from Western authorities as it was cleared of foreign-born reformers, among them Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, who was being considered to lead a technocratic government. Instead, insiders – many with shady pasts – took the reins. “If the elites make the assumption that they could engage in political games as opposed to actually governing, that they can go slow on reform, that they don’t have to be serious about Minsk, they may find that in fact the West has turned away,” former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer told the ninth annual Kyiv Security Forum the day after the Cabinet was announced. That turning away has already begun to occur in places like the Netherlands, where a referendum rejected integration with Ukraine; France, where the National Assembly voted to end sanctions against Russia; and even in the U.S., where the likely Republican nominee has called for a new Russia reset and even scaling down NATO. To reverse these trends, newly appointed Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman swung into damage control after two months of crisis that stalled reforms, taking immediate steps aimed at restoring the Western confidence needed to maintain Ukraine’s financial stability.

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President needn’t look far to combat corruption

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KYIV – During a mid-April phone call, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko received his latest exhortation from U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden to combat corruption in order to receive the latest U.S. financial aid. Yet Mr. Poroshenko himself and his political associates are alleged to be involved in numerous corruption scandals that have been brewing in recent weeks. The following is a snapshot of these scandals. • Offshore dealings as president: Mr. Poroshenko claimed in January that he placed the assets of his Roshen confectionary empire into a blind trust, managed by a foreign bank, which was beyond his influence. Yet the Panama Papers leak in early April exposed that claim to be false, revealing that the Ukrainian president instead created offshore companies and corresponding bank accounts, illegal activity for a president.

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UUARC aids victims of 2015 Mariupol attack

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KYIV – Liubov Kozhura was at a Mariupol playground with her 10-year-old grandson Mykola and 6-year-old granddaughter Liubov on what was an otherwise ordinary morning on January 25, 2015, when a missile came crashing down, killing them both. Though unable to compensate for such tragic losses, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) made its latest contribution to minimize the suffering from the Donbas war by distributing $100 in financial aid to those like Ms. Kozhura at an April 9 gathering. She had surgery performed on her legs and stomach, damaged by shrapnel, at the expense of a Dnipropetrovsk hospital, but the aid from the UUARC helped cover her bills for the medicine involved, which she had to pay for herself. Ninety-eight such injured victims of the terrorist attack received these donations of $100 each, which were distributed with the help of local Red Cross volunteers. Upon learning they came from the Ukrainian American community, the attack victims expressed their gratitude with applause and with tears in their eyes, said Vira Prinko, UUARC’s Kyiv representative, who coordinated the distribution.

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Failed vote in Rada on top prosecutor calls into question parliamentary coalition

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KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confidently declared this week that Ukraine’s political crisis is over after the new Cabinet was elected on April 14. Yet the voting in the Verkhovna Rada at the April 21 session proved otherwise. Rada Chair Andriy Parubiy asked national deputies to vote to include on the daily agenda a bill that would relax requirements for the procurator general, aimed at enabling Yuriy Lutsenko, the current head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, to become the president’s nominee. Despite noting that the president considered the bill’s approval “urgent,” Mr. Parubiy could muster only 177 out of the needed 226 votes in favor. The failure not only threatened the president’s planned nomination of Mr. Lutsenko, but also called into question whether a parliamentary coalition exists at all, particularly after the questionable means that were used to form it.

Ukraine

Ukraine’s reshuffled Cabinet of Ministers

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Continuing the listing from last week, following are the Cabinet ministers approved on April 14 by the Verkhovna Rada. (The brief profiles were prepared by Kyiv correspondent Zenon Zawada.)

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, 51: He has served for 18 months, largely responsible for managing finances and personnel rather than developing military strategy. He is currently leading a recertification process that will result in two-thirds of the ministry’s leadership being dismissed, as well as departments being cut. Monthly reports of corruption still emerge from the Defense Ministry, indicating it’s being exposed yet at the same time continuing in a time of war. Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin, 48: He has served for nearly two years, leading the effort to challenge Russian diplomacy and well-financed information wars.

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Verkhovna Rada approves new Cabinet to be led by Volodymyr Groysman

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KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament voted on April 14 to approve a reshuffled Cabinet of Ministers, including its new prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, the parliamentary chairman who has long been a close political ally to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The votes put an end to a political crisis that began in mid-February, when the pro-Western Samopomich and Batkivshchyna factions announced they were abandoning the coalition government after an attempt to dismiss Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk failed. As a result, a new political configuration has emerged between the establishment parties resistant to reforms – consisting of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People’s Front – and three pro-Western opposition forces, including Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party, that claim to want a faster pace for more serious, structural reforms.

“Of course, I am aggrieved and disappointed that after a year and several months, three political forces have placed themselves outside the European and democratic coalition,” said Mr. Poroshenko in his address near the start of the parliamentary session. “As political commentators bitingly put it, an even wider opposition has formed instead of a wide coalition. Yet the opposition is an inalienable attribute of democracy.

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Dutch referendum rejects Ukraine-EU association pact

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KYIV – Citizens of the Netherlands rejected their government’s ratification of the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement in an advisory, non-binding referendum held on April 6, giving the Russian government a symbolic geopolitical victory in its war against the Ukrainian state. About 61.1 percent voted against their government ratifying the agreement, compared to 38.1 percent who were in favor. Only 22 out of 390 municipalities voted in support. Voter turnout was 32.2 percent, surpassing the 30 percent threshold for it to gain official recognition. The referendum was held after both the upper and lower chambers of the Dutch Parliament had already voted to approve the agreement.

Ukraine

Yegor Soboliev: Western support for Ukraine is greater than ever

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KYIV – A key reason for the Samopomich Party’s popularity (it ranks first in some polls) has been the passionate pursuit of reforms by Yegor Soboliev, the 39-year old deputy head of the party’s parliamentary faction, who holds the chairmanship of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction. Under his leadership that began in January 2015, the committee has filtered, approved and in some cases rewritten anti-corruption laws, including those needed to establish a visa-free regime with the European Union. Mr. Soboliev spearheaded legislation that created the National Agency to Search, Recover and Administer Illegally Gained Assets. The Ukrainian Weekly interviewed Mr. Soboliev on March 15 at his office in the Verkhovna Rada committees building on Sadova Street. Also participating in the interview and posing questions was Vasyl Troubich, a master’s degree student in international affairs at George Washington University.