Fourth anniversary of Euro-Maidan
Ukraine marked the Day of Dignity and Freedom, a holiday commemorating the beginning of the Euro-Маidan protests that started in November 2013 and pushed President Viktor Yanukovych from power three months later. President Petro Poroshenko and his wife, Maryna, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and Verkhovna Rada Chair Andriy Parubiy placed flowers and lit candles at a monument on Kyiv’s Independence Square (Maidan) on November 21. The monument honors the Heavenly Hundred, or Heavenly Brigade, a term for protesters who were killed in crackdowns by security forces during the protests. A day before the ceremonies, a senior prosecutor said that murder investigations launched in an effort to hold people responsible for the deaths of protesters are on hold because the cases have been transferred to an investigative body that does not yet exist. Serhiy Horbatyuk, chief of the directorate for in-absentia investigations at the Prosecutor General’s Office, said that cases involving corruption accusations against senior officials in the Yanukovych administration were also effectively halted. He said that, by law, the murder probes were to be transferred from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the State Investigation Bureau, but that the bureau has not yet been created. However, Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko said on November 20 that his office would continue to investigate the Euro-Маidan killings and that the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) would continue handling cases against Mr. Yanukovych and his allies. The Euro-Маidan movement began when protesters gathered in central Kyiv after Mr. Yanukovych announced he was postponing plans to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union and would seek closer economic ties with Russia. Addressing paratroopers at a ceremony at Kyiv’s St. Michael Square on November 21, President Poroshenko thanked soldiers for their contribution in what he called the “fight against Russia’s terrorist armed troops in Ukraine’s east.” He continued: “We haven’t emerged from the zone of turbulence and we are still paying for two decades of strolling the sidewalks of the so-called ‘Russian World,’ but strategically we are on the right path. Millions of participants in the Revolution of Dignity brought Ukraine to that path.” He announced that, from now on, November 21 will be marked also as Ukrainian Paratroopers Day. During the ceremony, the paratroopers replaced their Soviet-style blue berets with dark red ones to symbolize what President Poroshenko called “the blood shed by our paratroopers in battles against the Russian aggressors.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Merhat Sharipzhan in Prague)
Prisoner swap appears to be closer
Ukraine and pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine appear to be moving closer to a new round of prisoner exchanges after a flurry of comments from Kyiv, Moscow and militant groups. Yuriy Tandit, an adviser to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), on November 18 told Ukraine’s Channel 5 that the “most important thing is that it happens fast, because many of the men have been there for a good three years.” Optimism has grown over the past few days after the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 15 told separatist leaders Aleksandr Zakharchenko of the Donetsk region and Igor Plotnitsky of Luhansk by phone that he favored a prisoner swap with Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Messrs. Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky supported a swap in principle but “pointed out that the issue will have to be worked out further on with representatives of Ukraine.” The SBU on November 16 said it welcomed “any steps” by Russia that would facilitate exchanges of people held by Kyiv and the Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Tandit said the SBU was prepared to hand over the hundreds of separatist fighters being held by Ukrainian authorities in return for Ukrainian troops held by separatists. Reports say Ukraine has 306 separatist fighters in custody, while the separatists are holding 74 government soldiers. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv, TASS and DPA)
Trump to get plan on weapons for Ukraine
Senior aides will present U.S. President Donald Trump with a $47 million plan to finance and sell high-tech defensive weapons to Ukraine to bolster its efforts to repel Russian aggression in the region, ABC News reported, quoting a State Department source. ABC News on November 18 said the plan would supply Ukraine with weapons that include portable Javelin antitank missiles. News reports say a shoulder-mounted weapon Javelin costs about $126,000 per launcher and $78,000 for each missile. A spokesman for the National Security Council (NSC) told ABC on November 17 that the agency had “no announcement at this time.” The NSC decided earlier this week to green-light the presentation of the package, ABC said. Any decision on the matter has to be approved by the U.S. Congress, as well as President Trump. During a visit to Ukraine in August, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis signaled his personal support for providing weapons to Kyiv. That comes in sharp contrast to the previous White House administration, which feared that supplying weapons could escalate the situation and tensions with Russia. But such a move would also represent a reversal from the Republican party platform on sending lethal weapons to Ukraine. During the 2016 presidential campaign, after Mr. Trump became the party nominee, the Republican platform was shifted from supporting “lethal defensive arms” to Ukraine to more vague language calling for “appropriate assistance.” A State Department official told ABC that a meeting will be held in the coming weeks to discuss the “public messaging” related to the sale. (RFE/RL, with reporting by ABC News, AP, and The Hill)
Klebnikov killing suspect detained In Ukraine
Russia has named a man detained at its request in Ukraine under the accusation of involvement in the assassination of an American journalist in Moscow 13 years ago. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on November 18 that it had detained a Russian citizen allegedly involved in Paul Klebnikov’s killing, but it did not name him. Russian Internal Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk on November 20 identified the man as Magomed Dukuzov, from Russia’s North Caucasus region of Chechnya. Ms. Volk said Mr. Dukuzov, born in 1978, was detained in Kyiv and was suspected of “involvement in perpetrating several contract killings, including the killing of the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of Forbes, Paul Klebnikov.” The journalist, who had written at length about corruption in Russia, was shot dead outside his office building in Moscow in July 2004 shortly after being appointed the first editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. Russian authorities said the Klebnikov murder was a response to his investigative work, which included books on Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel leader Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev. Prosecutors later accused Mr. Nukhayev of masterminding the crime. Mr. Dukuzov was one of the initial suspects in the case, but disappeared before he could be apprehended and was put on the international wanted list in 2004. Three Chechen men, including Mr. Dukuzov’s brother Kazbek, were arrested and tried for carrying out the hit. All three men were acquitted in May 2006. A retrial the following year was suspended as Mr. Dukuzov could not be found. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP, TASS and Interfax)
Eighth anniversary of Magnitsky’s death
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert on November 15 released a statement on the eighth anniversary of the death of Sergey Magnitsky. “We honor the memory of Sergey Magnitsky, who died on November 16, 2009, while in custody in a Moscow prison. An investigation by Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council found that Magnitskiy had been severely beaten in prison, and members of the Council said his death resulted from beatings and torture by police officials,” the statement noted. “Magnitsky uncovered a vast tax fraud scheme perpetrated by Russian officials and was imprisoned by those whose crimes he uncovered. Russian authorities have failed to hold those responsible for his death accountable and instead, in recent months appear to be increasingly propagating conspiracy theories designed to distract attention from the crime.” The State Department spokeperson said: “In honor of Magnitsky’s extraordinary courage, we continue to support efforts to hold those responsible for his treatment in prison and subsequent death accountable, including implementation of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.” (U.S. Department of State)
HRW denounces persecution of Tatars
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea have “intensified persecution” of Crimean Tatars for their opposition to Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian region in 2014. In a report released on November 14, the New York-based rights group said that “Russian authorities and their proxies have subjected members of the Crimean Tatar community and their supporters, including journalists, bloggers, activists and others to harassment, intimidation, threats, intrusive and unlawful searches of their homes, physical attacks and enforced disappearances.” The report said that complaints lodged with Russian-imposed authorities are “not investigated effectively.” It added that Crimean Tatar media and organizations that criticized Russia’s actions in Crimea have been banned – including the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing body. “Russian authorities in Crimea have relentlessly persecuted Crimean Tatars for their vocal opposition to Russia’s occupation since it began in 2014,” said Hugh Williamson, HRW’s Europe and Central Asia director. “They have portrayed politically active Crimean Tatars as extremists and terrorists, forced many into exile, and ensured that those who choose to stay never feel safe to speak their mind.” Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they called a persistent campaign of oppression targeting members of the indigenous Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and other citizens who opposed Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014. The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland. (RFE/RL)
Belarusian KGB arrests Ukrainian journalist
The Belarusian Committee for State Security (KGB) says it has arrested a Ukrainian journalist on suspicion of espionage, accusing him of being a military intelligence agent – a claim immediately rejected by Ukraine. In a statement on November 20, the KGB said that Pavlo Sharoyko was arrested on October 25. The statement came three days after the head of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists, Serhiy Tomilenko, identified Mr. Sharoyko as a correspondent of UA: Ukrainian Radio, said he was detained in Belarus on October 25 and demanded his release. The Belarusian KGB statement alleged that Mr. Sharoyko was an agent of the Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and had been working under the cover of a journalist. It claimed that Mr. Sharoyko confessed to having created a network of agents in Belarus to gather information “related to Belarus’ military and political spheres.” Such statements are sometimes extracted under duress, and there is no way to verify the claim. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry rejected the Belarusian KGB’s claims in a November 20 statement. “The Public Relations Service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine has been authorized to state that… this information is not true,” the Main Intelligence Directorate said in a statement. Belarus-based rights group Charter97 quoted Mr. Sharoyko’s colleagues as saying he had been working on stories related to the search for Pavlo Hryb, a 19-year-old Ukrainian citizen who disappeared in Belarus after being arrested and was later found to have been sent to Russia, where he faces terrorism-related charges. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus and Ukrainian services)
Journalists’ Union demands release
The head of Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists (NUJU) is demanding the release of a Ukrainian radio correspondent being held in Belarus. NUJU Chairman Serhiy Tomilenko said on November 17 of the arrest of Pavlo Sharoyko: “The detention was carried out by the KGB of Belarus,” adding that Mr. Sharoyko is only being allowed representation provided by the Belarusian authorities. The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed Mr. Sharoyko’s detention and said the ministry’s Foreign Policy Department was taking measures to protect the journalist’s rights. The journalist’s detention was first reported on November 17 by Zurab Alasania, director-general of the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine. In a tweet, Mr. Alasania said the Belarusian Embassy had not responded to requests for information. He wrote that “unofficial information” indicated the journalist is being held on espionage charges, although that could not be confirmed. The journalist’s wife, Olena Sharoyko, said in a brief comment to UA: Ukrainian Radio that “I can’t contact him. I can only write him letters.”
She added that Belarusian authorities had told her nothing. Mr. Tomilenko said his group is also attempting to contact the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv and the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk. He added that the International Federation of Journalists, the European Federation of Journalists, and the OSCE representative on freedom of the media are being alerted. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AFP)
Ukraine expels Belarusian diplomat
Ukraine has expelled a Belarusian diplomat amid a spy scandal between the two neighboring countries. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maryana Betsa said on November 21 that a Belarusian diplomat had been declared persona non grata and expelled from Ukraine in response to the Belarusian government’s decision the previous day to expel diplomat Ihor Skvortsov from the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk. The name of the expelled Belarusian diplomat was not disclosed. Belarusian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Andrey Shuplyak refused to comment to RFE/RL on Ms. Betsa’s statement. Belarusian officials said on November 20 that Mr. Skvortsov had been allegedly involved in espionage. According to Minsk, Mr. Skvortsov coordinated the “spying activities” of Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Sharoyko, who Belarusian authorities accused of being a military intelligence agent – a claim rejected by Kyiv. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service and UNIAN_
Saakashvili says he’s ready to be PM
Mikheil Saakashvili, the former governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast, told a protest rally in Kyiv that he is ready to “create a new government of Ukraine” and to become the country’s prime minister. “Ukraine needs an urgent formation of a new government,” Mr. Saakashvili told several hundred people in a tent city of protesters outside the Parliament building on November 19. “I’m ready to spearhead this process jointly with you and to head this government if necessary.” He added, “Let’s create a new government of Ukraine… But above all, we will find those Ukrainians who care about Ukraine, who will respect and develop Ukraine.” Anti-government protesters set up a tent city outside the Verkhovna Rada building on October 17, calling for the cancellation of immunity from prosecution for national deputies, 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 demonstrations. Mr. Saakashvili, who heads the opposition Movement of New Forces party, told protesters that if the authorities fail to meet their demands, they should begin a “popular impeachment” of Mr. Poroshenko and other leaders starting on December 3. “December 3 will be the beginning of ‘popular impeachment,’ …December 3 is Day X for all of us. Let us get organized. I will be traveling across the country to raise people peacefully.” President Poroshenko has said the real goal of protest organizers is to destabilize Ukraine. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, has accused Mr. Saakashvili and his supporters of plotting a coup backed by foreign financing. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS, Interfax and the Kyiv Post)
NABU investigating prosecutor general
Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators have opened a criminal case into suspected unlawful enrichment by the country’s powerful prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko. The case against Mr. Lutsenko was opened by the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) on October 30, after it was presented with an order from the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv, NABU spokeswoman Svitlana Olifira told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on November 17. Ms. Olifira said that no person in particular had spurred the court into action and that the pretrial investigation is ongoing. But Renat Kuzmin, the former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor-general under former President Viktor Yanukovych, wrote on Facebook that the case was opened at his written request. Mr. Yanukovych fled from Ukraine to Russia in February 2014 following months of Euro-Маidan street protests. Mr. Kuzmin followed in June 2014 after he became a suspect in the criminal probe of the unlawful arrest of Mr. Lutsenko in 2010 when he was an opposition politician. “Pursuant to my statement, NABU registered the case and began a criminal investigation into Lutsenko’s illegal enrichment,” Mr. Kuzmin said in a post that included a copy of his letter to NABU. Mr. Lutsenko has not commented on the NABU investigation. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Christopher Miller in Kyiv)
New bill aims to protect businesses
The Ukrainian Parliament has passed a bill that amends existing legislation to protect businesses against extortion, harassment and illegal searches by law enforcement agencies. The bill, initiated by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and supported by Ukraine’s business community, envisages compulsory video recording of every search and the presence of a lawyer during all property seizures. Moreover, prosecutors must now justify the necessity of any seizure of original or copied documents during searches. Law enforcement agents will also be prohibited from seizing computer hardware and required to make copies of any data they gather under the supervision of relevant experts. A majority of 312 lawmakers voted in favor of the law, according to the press service for the Verkhovna Rada. Businesses in Ukraine often complain of harassment from law enforcement agencies. A common tactic used to interrupt, intimidate and extort businesses is what is often referred to in Ukraine as a “mask show”– a search by armed agents who wear masks to conceal their identities. Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook ahead of the November 16 vote in Parliament that the bill would help stop the bullying. Ukraine climbed slightly up the latest World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index released this month, moving from 80th place last year to 76th place. While business leaders and experts say Ukraine has made some economic reform achievements even as the country fights a war against Russia-backed militants in its eastern regions, the consensus is that it still has much room for improvement. (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)
Judges in Crimea convict “saboteur”
Russian-appointed court officials on Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula have convicted a Ukrainian citizen on charges of attempted sabotage and illegally possessing weapons, sentencing the man to five years in prison. The Sevastopol City Court on November 16 also issued a fine of 200,000 rubles ($3,300) against Dmytro Shtyblykov. Mr. Shtyblykov was arrested in Crimea in November 2016 along with two other Ukrainian citizens, Volodymyr Dudka and Oleksiy Bessarabov. At the time of the arrests, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the three of being members of a Ukrainian “saboteur group from the main intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry rejected the FSB’s allegations, calling them “another fabrication of the Russian secret services aimed at justifying its own repressive measures against local residents and to discredit Ukraine in the international arena.” Rights activists say Russia has jailed several Ukrainians on politically motivated charges since Russian military forces occupied Crimea in early 2014 and, less than a month later, annexed the territory from Ukraine in an illegal referendum. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Interfax)
New Kyrgyz ambassador to Ukraine
A brother of Kyrgyzstan’s president-elect, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, has been appointed as Kyrgyzstan’s new ambassador to Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan’s presidential website said on November 16 that President Almazbek Atambaev had signed a decree appointing Jusupbek Sharipov as Bishkek’s ambassador to Kyiv. Mr. Sharipov is an older brother of Mr. Jeenbekov, who is scheduled to be inaugurated as president on November 24. Mr. Jeenbekov has five brothers and four sisters. Since 2013, Mr. Sharipov has been based in Kuwait, where he has been serving as Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador to several Arab states in the Persian Gulf region. (RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service)
Situation unclear in Luhansk “republic”
Amid reports that local “separatist” leader Igor Plotnitsky has fled to Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 22 that Moscow is closely following the situation in the parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk that are controlled by Russia-backed forces. Speaking to reporters in Moscow, Mr. Peskov said “there is an understanding” in the Kremlin about who may be behind the tensions in what the separatists call the “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LPR), but did not elaborate further. On November 21, armed men in unmarked uniforms took up positions in the center of the provincial capital, Luhansk, in what appeared to be part of a power struggle among the separatists. Media reports in Russia said on November 22, citing unofficial sources, that Mr. Plotnitsky and his family had fled to Russia amid the tension. Moscow controls part of the Ukrainian state border in the Luhansk region. Ukrainian lawmaker Anton Herashchenko told reporters in Kyiv on November 22 that Mr. Plotnitsky was in Russia. However, the separatists’ television channel in Luhansk reported on November 22 that Mr. Plotnitsky was in Luhansk and showed a video in which he was shown leading a meeting of de facto government members and was heard accusing the de facto former police chief, Igor Kornet, of “attempting to overthrow the government.” However, it is not clear the video was shot in Luhansk. Earlier reports said that several trucks with armed military personnel arrived in Luhansk during the night of November 21-22. Aric Toler, a researcher working for the Bellingcat open-source investigations organization, reported that the personnel in the trucks were Russia-backed separatists from the adjacent Ukrainian region of Donetsk, parts of which are also controlled by separatists in a self-proclaimed entity called the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR). Parts of the two regions have been held by Russia-backed separatists since Moscow fomented unrest there following the ouster of Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. Mr. Peskov on November 22 refused to comment when asked about the possibility the two separatist entities could merge in the future. “That is an issue for the two republics,” he said, using the separatists’ term for the areas they control. Earlier on November 22, the head of Russia’s presidential directorate for cooperation with the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Mikhail Arutyunov, rejected reports that Moscow supported Mr. Kornet in his standoff with Mr. Plotnitsky, saying that the situation was the “LPR’s internal affair and nobody turned to the Kremlin asking for help.” Media reported on November 22 that LPR police and DPR security forces jointly stormed the separatists’ de facto prosecutor’s office in Luhansk and arrested the self-proclaimed LPR chief prosecutor, Vitaly Podobry, and de facto “military prosecutor,” Sergei Razno. It was not clear if forces loyal to Mr. Plotnitsky or to Mr. Kornet were involved in the arrests. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Rusvesna.su, UNIAN, Novaya Gazeta, Interfax, TASS and Meduza)