Trump praises Ukraine’s ‘good progress’
U.S. President Donald Trump has praised Ukraine for making “good progress” amid difficult conditions sparked by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea Peninsula. Mr. Trump met his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21. “I wouldn’t say it’s the easiest place to live” but “it’s getting better and better on a daily basis. I do hear very good things. Ukraine is coming along pretty well,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Poroshenko in front of reporters before the start of their private meeting. Speaking in English, Mr. Poroshenko said he believed that the two countries had improved security and economic cooperation. He followed those comments in a televised briefing by saying the two leaders had a shared vision on a “new level” of defense cooperation. “We discussed all areas of this cooperation, including cooperation with the Defense Ministry and other institutions,” he added, saying the meeting with Mr. Trump lasted an hour. He did not say whether there had been any progress on a defensive-weapons initiative. The United States has imposed sanctions on Moscow for its activities in Ukraine, including the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv’s forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since it erupted in April 2014. Mr. Poroshenko said the U.S. president supported a proposal to deploy U.N. peacekeepers “including on the uncontrolled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, which would prevent the possibility of penetration by Russian troops or Russian weapons.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Poroshenko signs language bill
Ukraine’s president has signed into law a controversial bill that makes Ukrainian the required language of study in state schools from the fifth grade on. Petro Poroshenko signed the measure on September 25 after days of criticism, particularly from Ukraine’s ethnic minorities. The bill does not outlaw instruction in other languages; students can still learn their native languages as a separate subject. But that hasn’t assuaged the fears of groups such as Poles, Romanians and Hungarians, all of which have sizable ethnic communities in Ukraine. Russia has been particularly vociferous in its criticism, with the Foreign Affairs Ministry asserting this month that the law was designed to “forcefully establish a mono-ethnic language regime in a multinational state.” Mr. Poroshenko in signing the bill insisted that it “is in harmony with European standards and is an example for neighboring countries,” according to a statement on the presidential website. “The law raises the role of Ukrainian as a state language in the education process,” he said. “The law ensures equal opportunities for all… It guarantees every graduate strong language skills essential for a successful career in Ukraine.” Language has become a hot-button issue across the country, particularly in eastern regions where the majority of the population speaks Russian as its first language. The bill’s language requirement overturns a 2012 law passed under Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia two years later amid mass street protests. That legislation allowed for minorities to introduce their languages in regions where they represented more than 10 percent of the population. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP)
Romanian president cancels Ukraine visit
Kyiv has voiced disappointment after Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said he would not travel to Ukraine next month in protest over a bill that obliges schools to teach in the Ukrainian language only. Mr. Iohannis said the bill “drastically limits” the access of minorities to education in their native language, adding that the cancellation of his visit is a very strong signal. A Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman on September 22 confirmed that the visit had been canceled. “We are disappointed that the Romanian side doesn’t want the leaders to have dialogue,” she said. Mr. Iohannis told reporters on September 21 that the legislation, if signed into law by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, “will drastically limit the access of minorities to education in their native language.” He added, “We are deeply hurt by this.” Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, he said, “We have many Romanians in Ukraine.” Mr. Iohannis said that he and Mr. Poroshenko had planned a visit together in Ukraine’s western region of Bukovyna, where many ethnic Romanians live. Ukraine’s ethnic Romanian minority numbers some 400,000 people. “The legislation comes at the wrong time and the entire approach, as far as I am concerned, needs to be questioned,” Mr. Iohannis said. He described his decision as “an extremely… tough diplomatic signal.” The Romanian president said he personally told Mr. Poroshenko about his decision when he met him on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, adding that Mr. Poroshenko was in “a pensive mood” after his discussion with Mr. Iohannis. Romania has withdrawn an invitation for the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andriy Parubiy, to visit Bucharest, Mr. Iohannis said. He also said he had withdrawn an invitation for Mr. Poroshenko to visit Bucharest. The bill, approved on September 5 by the Verkhovna Rada, says the Ukrainian language will be the main language used across the country for school classes above the fifth grade. Hungary, Moldova and Russia have also denounced the legislation, calling for it to be revised. Around 8 million Russians, making up some 17 per cent of the population, are the largest minority in Ukraine. There are an estimated 140,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials reject charges that minority languages will be sidelined. They note that the law guarantees students from national minorities of Ukraine the right to study in municipal institutions using their language along with Ukrainian. It says classes for students from national minorities should be taught in their languages as well as Ukrainian. (RFE/RL’s Moldova Service, with reporting by Agepress.ro, AP, Interfax and DPA)
RFE/RL condemns Semena verdict
RFE/RL President Thomas Kent has condemned the sentence of Crimean journalist Mykola Semena, describing it as “part of an orchestrated effort by Russian authorities in Crimea to silence independent voices.” On September 22, a court on Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula found RFE/RL contributor Mr. Semena guilty on a separatism charge. The court handed him a two-and-a-half-year suspended sentence, meaning Mr. Semena would not be imprisoned unless he violates the terms of the verdict. The separatism charge stems from an article Mr. Semena wrote for RFE/RL’s Krym.Realii (Crimea Realities) website in 2015. The Kremlin-installed prosecutor in Crimea charged that the article had called for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity. (RFE/RL)
DNR opens office in France
Envoys of the Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region have opened up a new representative office in the southern French city of Marseille. The center, which was formally unveiled on September 25, was the latest effort by separatist officials to try and legitimize their authority in eastern Ukraine, where war broke out in March 2014. The office of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was organized with the help of a small right-wing French political party known as the National Center of Independents and Peasants. Hubert Fayard, who heads a branch of the party and is heading the new center, said the goal was to “inform French people of developments in the Donbas,” the region encompassing much of the eastern Ukrainian industrial heartland. “France, as we know, does not officially recognize [the separatists in the Donbas] but this does not prevent us from this activity, from informing people, establishing humanitarian contacts,” Mr. Fayard was quoted by the Russian state-run news agency TASS as saying. A spokesman for France’s Foreign Affairs Ministry last week said the government had no plans to recognize the new center in Marseille. According to TASS, similar centers have been opened in other European countries including Finland, Greece, and Italy. An office in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava was shut down in June after the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry sent a note of protest. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS)
Needed: independent anti-corruption court
Transparency International on September 20 called on Ukraine to create an independent anti-corruption court to strengthen the country’s efforts to fight corruption. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed creating an anti-corruption chamber within the current court system. But the anti-corruption watchdog group said that would not win the trust of Ukrainians. “Ukraine should adopt an independent anti-corruption court to ensure that nepotism and cronyism play no part in how justice is delivered in Ukraine. President Poroshenko understands the urgency of the situation, but his proposal of a chamber within the current system will not work,” said Jose Ugaz, chairman of Transparency International. “People do not trust the judiciary to hold the powerful to account because the courts have shied away from this in the past,” he said. Unlike many European countries, the group said Ukraine does not have a judicial system with a reputation for independent and fair justice based on the rule of law. “There is no reasonable alternative to the anti-corruption court. With proper political will from the president and Parliament in place, the court can be established within a reasonable time. Political will is the key ingredient and that is what we are missing now,” said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine. To ensure the court cannot be undermined by special interests, the group said judges should be elected through open competition. Also, it said the court and its judges should be provided with security details and receive adequate resources and compensation to ensure independence. (RFE/RL)
Yanukovych’s justice minister detained
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general has said that former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych’s justice minister has been detained over allegations that he participated in an illegal coup d’état in 2010. A court in Kyiv has placed Oleksandr Lavrynovych, 61, in provisional detention for 60 days, Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said in a statement on September 15. Mr. Lavrynovych is accused of having participated in a coup d’état due to his role in pushing for the adoption of a controversial constitutional reform that increased the powers of the president. The reform was adopted in 2010 by Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, but not by the Verkhovna Rada, making it illegal, according to Mr. Lutsenko. The pro-Western opposition in Ukraine at the time said the reforms amounted to a coup d’état. Unlike other top officials from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russia government, Mr. Lavrynovych remained in Ukraine after pro-European protests in February 2014 forced out Mr. Yanukovych, who fled to Russia, where he lives in exile. The ex-president is on trial in absentia in Kyiv, accused of high treason and having violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Interfax)
Explosion injures two pilgrims in Uman
A celebration of Rosh Hashanah in the central Ukrainian city of Uman has been marred by an explosion that authorities say lightly injured two Israeli pilgrims. Ukraine’s National Police said that an unidentified explosive device went off early in the morning on September 21 in a garage near the site where pilgrims are celebrating the Jewish New Year. A 13-year-old boy from lsrael sustained cuts on his left hand and was treated by medical personnel, and an Israeli man who was hit by debris from the blast refused medical assistance, the police said in a statement. Followers of the Breslov Hasidic movement come to Uman every year to mark the Jewish New Year by praying at the grave of the movement’s founder, Reb Nachman, who died there in 1810. More than 30,000 pilgrims from 14 countries came this year for the ceremonies, which end on September 22. By the Jewish calendar, the year 5778 started at sunset on September 20. The number of pilgrims traveling to Uman for Rosh Hashanah has increased dramatically since Ukraine gained independence in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and made it much easier for most foreigners to enter the country. (RFE/RL)
Kazakh citizen gets suspended sentence
A court in northeastern Kazakhstan has handed down a suspended prison sentence to a local man convicted of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Authorities in the city of Semei said on September 20 that the man, whose name was not disclosed, was convicted of illegally participating in armed conflicts abroad, illegally possessing firearms, and gave him a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence. According to the authorities, the man joined the separatists in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk in July 2016 and fought against Ukrainian government forces until December 2016. At least three other Kazakh citizens have been jailed in Kazakhstan on similar charges since fighting between government forces and separatists broke out in eastern Ukraine in April 2014. In November 2016, a court in the northwestern city of Aqtobe sentenced one of them, Maksim Yermolov, to three years in prison. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Yk-news.kz and KazTAG)
Sentenced for fighting with separatists
A court has sentenced a Belarusian man to a two-year suspended sentence for fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The court in the eastern city of Vitebsk, Belarus, on September 26 found Alyaksey Yarshou, 29, guilty of illegally participating in armed conflicts abroad. The trial was held behind closed doors. The prosecution is the first known case involving a Belarusian citizen found to be fighting alongside separatists, whom Russia has backed with irregular forces and heavy weaponry. In two earlier cases, two Belarusian men were found guilty of fighting alongside Ukraine’s armed forces in the conflict, which has killed at least 10,000 people since erupting more than three years ago. Large-scale fighting in the region, known as the Donbas, has mainly ebbed, though outbreaks of intense fighting have periodically broken out. (RFE/RL’s Belarus Service)
Huge ammo-depot blast in Ukraine
Massive explosions at an ammunition depot in central Ukraine have prompted the evacuation of more than 30,000 people and the closure of airspace over the region, the country’s emergency response agency has said. The blasts late on September 26 sparked a blaze at the depot near Kalynivka in the Vinnytsia region, some 270 kilometers west of Kyiv, the September 27 statement said. Ukraine’s military prosecutor’s office said investigators were treating the explosions and fire as an act of sabotage, Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) spokeswoman Olena Hitlyanska said on September 27. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who arrived in Vinnytsia hours after the blast, said that “external factors” were behind the incident. National Police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said in a statement on September 27 that hundreds of police officers from surrounding regions were providing security and safe evacuation of people at the site. Some 600 National Guard troops were deployed to the area to assist with the evacuation of the residents and to ensure the protection of their property from looters, the National Guard said in a statement. Some 1,200 Ukrainian firefighters were working to contain the blaze, UNIAN reported. Witnesses said that after an initial loud explosion, bright flashes were visible in the night sky. Witnesses said the sound of explosions could be heard as far away as Kyiv. A volunteer of the Avtoevrozile organization of Vinnytsia, Ihor Rumyantsev, said that he saw about 10 buses arrive to evacuate people. Early on September 27, Mr. Rumyantsev said the explosions started to increase, doubling in size, prompting people to hide in their cellars. Trains going through Kalynivka were rerouted, according to oblast authorities. Residents posted video online showing what appeared to be a fire burning, lights flashing and smoke billowing into the night sky. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)