Senators cite ‘step in right direction’
On October 26, U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) issued a statement after the Trump administration issued guidance for implementation of the Russia sanctions legislation adopted in July by the U.S. Congress. Sens. McCain and Cardin stated, “The administration’s announcement is a step in the right direction toward holding Russia accountable for its attack on our election. By issuing guidance for the implementation of the sanctions legislation, the administration is slowly but surely carrying out the law that Congress passed overwhelmingly this summer. We are encouraged that the sanctions list includes many targets from the Russian defense and intelligence sectors that Congress previously identified and look forward to more closely reviewing the list to ensure that it is comprehensive. As the implementation moves forward, Congress will continue to conduct oversight of each step to ensure the administration is following both the letter and the spirit of the law – including persuading entities to stop doing business with those on the list, coordinating with European allies and other key partners, and briefing and consulting Congress on a regular basis.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
U.S. envoy meets freed Tatar leaders
Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, met with Crimean Tatar leaders Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, who were released from custody in their Russian-occupied homeland this week. Ambassador Volker met with the two Tatar leaders in Kyiv on October 28, where they arrived the previous day. Messrs. Umerov and Chiygoz – deputy chairmen of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing body that has been outlawed by Russian authorities – were unexpectedly released and flown to Turkey on October 25, thanks partly to an intervention by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Mr. Volker, who arrived in Kyiv on October 27, said the release of Messrs. Umerov and Chiygoz was a good sign, but said Russia should follow up with more positive moves in eastern Ukraine as well. “The fact that they were released is a small positive sign,” Mr. Volker told Reuters. “It’s the kind of thing you hope you could build on that, Russia would build on that with some other steps with the [eastern region of] Donbas,” he added. Ambassador Volker said Russian aggression is responsible for the war in the east, but that Moscow could change its position once it understands the conflict is counterproductive for its own interests. “The real issue is Russia’s decision-making. Until now, Russia has been holding this territory, keeping this conflict alive, hoping that it provides some leverage over Ukraine,” Mr. Volker said. “The reality has sunk in. I believe that this has actually produced the opposite. It has produced a Ukraine that is more unified, more nationalist, more anti-Russian, more Westward-looking than ever existed before.” The envoy also said Washington was “actively considering” supplying lethal defensive weapons to Kyiv, a move strongly opposed by Russia. “No one has any worry about someone defending themselves unless they are an aggressor, so it should not be that controversial an issue,” Ambassador Volker said. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, and Interfax)
Tatar leaders vow to return to Crimea
Crimean Tatar leaders Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, who were released from custody in their Russian-occupied homeland on October 25, arrived in Kyiv and defiantly vowed to return to the Black Sea peninsula. Messrs. Umerov and Chiygoz, deputy chairmen of the Mejlis, spoke to journalists on October 27 at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport upon arrival from Ankara. They said they would return to Crimea in the near future – despite being in the dark about the conditions of their release and not knowing whether Russia would permit them to travel there. “I will go back home for sure,” Mr. Umerov said. He said that two weeks before he and Mr. Chiygoz were released, two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers in a hospital where he was being held urged him to write a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for clemency. “I rejected their request and nobody told me anything about my possible release or conditions for my return to Crimea,” Mr. Umerov said. Mr. Chiygoz also said he had made no request for clemency or transfer and emphasized that he “will not hide” from the Russian authorities. “If they arrest me again after I return to Crimea it will be their problem,” he said. Both men expressed their thanks to the European Union, the United States, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), international organizations, their lawyers, and the presidents of Turkey and Ukraine for their efforts to secure their release. They said they will continue to “fight” for the release of all Ukrainian citizens in Russian custody and the restoration of Kyiv’s sovereignty over Crimea. (Crimean desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AFP and Interfax)
EU calls for release of detainees
Citing the “good news” about the release of Crimean Tatar Mejlis Deputy Chairs Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who were sentenced in Crimea in September, in breach of international humanitarian law, the European Union stated on October 25: “The European Union does not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation and therefore does not recognize the application of Russian law in the peninsula.” The statement went on to note: “The European Union has consistently advocated for their unconditional release and appreciates the efforts of all those who also worked for this outcome. The European Union expects Russia to reverse the decision to ban the activities of Mejlis, the self-governing body of the Crimean Tatars, and respect the rights of the Crimean Tatars, including those of freedom of assembly and expression. All illegally detained Ukrainian citizens on the Crimean Peninsula and in Russia must be released immediately.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Poroshenko meets with Volker
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko met with U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker on October 27. The Presidential Administration reported: “The parties coordinated further steps to strengthen the international presence in the Donbas, both in the framework of the efforts of the Normandy format and on the international platforms, primarily the U.N. Security Council. The interlocutors discussed the security situation in the region and noted the fundamental importance of ensuring proper implementation of the Minsk agreements, primarily in terms of consolidation of permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of Russian occupying forces and equipment from Ukraine.” The Presidential Administration also noted: “The parties paid considerable attention to the issue of the release of hostages illegally detained in the occupied territory and in Russian prisons. The Special Representative of the President of the United States received the relevant appeal from the families of the hostages. The President is hopeful for his effective support, first of all in contacts with the Russian side, aimed to ensure their early release and return home.” The statement from the Ukrainian president’s office also reported: “Kurt Volker highly appreciated the approval of the law of Ukraine on creating the necessary conditions for a peaceful settlement of the situation in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. It was noted that the given decision was a clear signal to confirm the true commitment of the Ukrainian side to a peaceful settlement. During the meeting, the schedule of the nearest contacts and negotiations in the Normandy format and in the framework of the activities of the Special Representative of U.S. President for Ukraine Negotiations was discussed.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Lawmaker injured, two killed
A bomb blast that Ukrainian authorities have described as a terrorist act killed two people and injured five others in Kyiv, including National Deputy Ihor Mosiychuk of the nationalist opposition Radical Party. The explosion occurred late on October 25 as Mr. Mosiychuk and several other people were leaving a local television station in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district. A spokeswoman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Olena Hitlyanska, wrote on Facebook on October 26 that the agency launched criminal proceedings into a suspected act of terrorism conducted by an organized terrorist group. “Investigators are looking into all possible leads at this point; it has been established that unknown individuals blew up a motorcycle at the site where the lawmaker was passing by,” Ms. Hitlyanska wrote. The Internal Affairs Ministry said that one of the dead was a 30-year-old guard and special police officer. Ms. Hitlyanska was quoted as saying that the other person who was killed was a passer-by she described as a local resident born in 1981. Internal Affairs Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said earlier on Facebook that the explosion appeared to have been caused by a motorcycle parked near the exit of the TV station, and looked like “an attempt on somebody’s life”; Mr. Mosiychuk’s office said it was an attempt to assassinate him. “There was an attempt on the life of Ihor Mosiychuk, a direct explosion when he was coming out of the building of Espreso TV6,” the lawmaker’s office said on Facebook. “The assassination attempt against Mosiychuk is linked to his professional activities and political views,” Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko wrote on Facebook. “Clearly, this is the work of our enemy’s secret services,” he said in an apparent reference to Russia. Speaking after surgery on October 26, Mr. Mosiychuk said he believed those behind the bomb blast are most likely in Russia and that it was carried out by agents of Russia in Kyiv. He said the hospital where he is being treated was cordoned off by guards. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed accusations of Russian involvement as “baseless.” In a regular conference call with reporters, Mr. Peskov said the allegations were part of an “anti-Russian campaign that has unfortunately swept across Ukraine and Kyiv.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, AFP and Reuters)
Suspect in SBU killing is arrested
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief Vasyl Hrytsak says a woman suspected of killing a top regional security officer earlier this year in the southeastern city of Mariupol has been arrested. Mr. Hrytsak said late on October 31 that the woman, Yulia Prasolova of Donetsk, was arrested in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, as she was attempting to obtain a passport. According to Mr. Hrytsak, Ms. Prasolova received $15,000 from Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk for placing an explosive device in the car of Col. Oleksandr Kharaberyush. He was killed when his vehicle exploded on March 31. The government-controlled city of Mariupol is about 30 kilometers from the frontline in the conflict between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed forces that has killed more than 10,000 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Saakashvili addresses Kyiv protesters
Hundreds of protesters joined a rally organized outside the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv by the Movement of New Forces, the political party led by Mikheil Saakashvili. Addressing the October 29 demonstration, the former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast called on the Ukrainian government to meet the protesters’ demands by November 7. “[November] 7 will honestly be the last chance that we give [to the government] to accept our demands. We suspect that they won’t accept them,” Mr. Saakashvili said. “We cannot keep standing here forever,” he added. “We cannot keep freezing here forever.” Protesters set up tents outside the Verkhovna Rada building on October 17, calling for the cancellation of parliamentarian immunity, the creation of an anti-corruption court, amendments to election laws, and legislation on impeachment of the president. The protests were initially called by Mr. Saakashvili, a onetime ally of President Petro Poroshenko, but many of Ukraine’s opposition political leaders have also joined the protests. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)