Poroshenko calls on Russia to ‘repent’
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Russia to recognize the famine of 1932-1933 that killed millions of people in Ukraine under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin as genocide, “or at least repent for it.” He made the call at an event in central Kyiv on November 25, the official Holodomor Remembrance Day. He also said that “the time has come” for Ukraine to adopt legislation against denying the genocide. “Not recognizing the Holodomor is as immoral as denying the Holocaust,” the president said. Ukraine and about a dozen other countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The Holodomor Remembrance Day is marked in Ukraine every year on the fourth Saturday of November. President Poroshenko urged “all political forces” in Ukraine to unite for the sake of the country, saying the Holodomor was “a terrible echo of an unforgiving loss” of Ukrainian statehood and independence. “Would the Holodomor and the Great Terror of the 1930s, the deportation of the 1940s, and the Russification of the 1970s be made possible if we, Ukrainians, had preserved the independence proclaimed a hundred years ago?” he asked. He also said that Russia’s ongoing “aggression against us is a continuation of the same policy to destroy Ukraine with other methods.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AFP)
Tillerson cites continuing Russian threat
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has stressed Washington’s commitment to European security, especially as Russia continues what he called its “aggressive behavior.” In a speech on November 28 at a Washington think tank, Mr. Tillerson said the United States would be the first to respond to any attack on a European ally under NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause. Some European leaders have expressed concern that the administration of President Donald Trump may pull back from the alliance after demanding that European members spend more on their own defenses. Speaking at the Wilson Center, Secretary Tillerson accused Russia of pursuing policies to “drive apart” Washington and its European allies. He said Russia’s military interventions in Georgia and Ukraine, and interference in European elections and politics were unacceptable and “not worthy” of a responsible member of the international community. “While the West continues to seek a productive new relationship with post-Soviet Russia, thus far it has proved elusive,” he stated. The secretary of state repeated Washington’s support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, and called on Moscow to fulfill the terms of the Minsk agreements on ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He said Ukraine was the key to better bilateral ties. “What I’ve said to the Russians is: we are never going to get [the U.S.-Russian] relationship back to normal until we solve Ukraine,” Mr. Tillerson said. “It just sits there as an enduring obstacle and we’ve got to address it.” Mr. Tillerson said U.S. sanctions on Russia would remain in place “until Russia reverses” the actions that put them in place. (RFE/RL)
More killed and wounded in east
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry on November 29 said one Ukrainian soldier was killed and two were wounded in the previous 24 hours as Russia-backed separatists shelled government positions in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions. A ministry statement said the militants shelled government positions 27 times since the morning of November 28. It said Ukrainian forces returned fire 11 times. The Ukrainian military claimed that ceasefire violations by the separatists disrupted plans for Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and U.N. representatives to visit the towns of Travneve and Hladosove. It said they had planned to assess the humanitarian situation in the two towns, which are close to the front line in the Donetsk region. On November 24, Ukraine’s military said that five of its soldiers were killed and four wounded in the east of the country. Four of the soldiers were killed in a gunfight the previous day near the village of Krymske that lasted around eight hours. Krymske lies around 30 kilometers west of Luhansk, where tensions had escalated between separatist factions that control the city. “Five of our soldiers have died over the past 24 hours,” Oleksandr Turchynov, chief of the National Security and Defense Council, said in televised remarks on November 24. “It is a very serious problem for us.” He added that “a conflict situation is under way between various criminal groups that make up the occupational administration on the occupied territories.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS)
Ukraine Caucus calls for journalist’s release
On November 21, chairs of the U.S. Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Sander Levin (D-Mich.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), commented on the targeting of journalists in Russia, including the continued imprisonment of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko by Russian authorities. Their joint statement read: “We remain troubled by the targeting and detention of journalists by Russian authorities for no crime other than seeking the truth. Freedom of the press is a fundamental principle of democracy, transparency and the rule of law. The wrongful treatment of journalists like Roman Sushchenko is part of a larger trend of politically-motivated persecution and violation of fundamental human rights by Russian authorities. We join the international community in calling for their swift release.” Mr. Sushchenko was arrested on September 30, 2016, while on a private trip to Moscow by the Russia security service known as the FSB on charges of espionage. He is being detained in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison and his arrest has been prolonged. He is a permanent correspondent of Ukrinform in Paris and has worked for the news service for 15 years. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
MFA protests Sushchenko’s detention
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reacted to the November 27 ruling by a Russian court that prolonged the detention of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its absolute protest regarding the Moscow City Court’s ruling as of November 27, 2017, to extend the custodial term of Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is illegally detained in Russia under fabricated charges, for another two-month term until January 30, 2018. The court once again rejected the defense’s request to change Roman Sushchenko’s precautionary measure for non-custodial, which proves a continued pressure and prejudication of Russian judicial organs,” the ministry’s statement noted. “The purposeful political character of the case against Roman Sushchenko was confirmed by the closed judgment session, as well as the denial to grant access for a consular officer to participate in the session as a public defender in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.” The MFA added: “Ukraine calls upon the international community, international human rights institutions and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media to take all appropriate legal and political actions to release and return Ukrainian citizen and journalist Roman Sushchenko to Ukraine.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Kremlin on change of leaders in LPR
The Kremlin says a change of leadership for Russia-backed “separatists” in Ukraine’s eastern region of Luhansk will not affect the implementation of the Minsk peace agreements. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 27 that “continuity” remains, “especially on the issue of the implementation of the Minsk agreements” and on “initiatives” to exchange prisoners. “Luhansk People’s Republic” (LPR) leader Igor Plotnitsky’s resignation was announced by a website of the Luhansk-based separatists on November 24 in the midst of a fierce power struggle that unfolded over several days. The website said Mr. Plotnitsky resigned for health reasons and that Leonid Pasechnik, the self-proclaimed security minister of the LPR, would be acting leader “until the next elections.” Moscow has provided political, military and economic support for forces that gained control over parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, sparking a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014. Moscow denies involvement in Ukraine’s internal affairs, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax, TASS, Gazeta.ru and RIA-Novosti)
Tymoshenko on Minsk negotiations
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said the Minsk process for resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine has failed to produce results and needs to be accompanied by a parallel peace process based on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. In an interview in Brussels with RFE/RL, Ms. Tymoshenko said the Budapest Memorandum – under which Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom assured Ukraine’s territorial integrity in exchange for Kyiv’s renunciation of nuclear weapons – should be “the basis of diplomatic negotiations on the establishment of peace in Ukraine.” She criticized the government of President Petro Poroshenko for “forgetting” about the existence of that document. Ms. Tymoshenko, who heads one of Ukraine’s largest opposition parties and who is currently nearly even with Mr. Poroshenko in public opinion polls for the 2019 presidential election, emphasized that “Ukraine and Russia are warring countries today” and “Russia is in a state of war against Ukraine.” Ms. Tymoshenko told RFE/RL that “the path to peace” lies through establishing a “completely different negotiation format” involving all the Budapest Memorandum signatories. There is no point, she said, in negotiating with the leaders of the Russia-backed separatist units, because “they are absolute marionettes.” At the same time, she said, Ukraine must step up its military response to Russian aggression “by every minute and every second strengthening our army.” She urged the United States to “enable Ukraine to acquire” high-tech defensive weapons. Ms. Tymoshenko confirmed that her Batkivshchyna party intends to contest both the parliamentary and the presidential elections scheduled for 2019. According to a poll conducted in November, Ms. Tymoshenko had 14.4 percent support, compared to 16.1 percent for Mr. Poroshenko. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Diplomat says Nord Stream 2 unlikely
A U.S. diplomat has dismissed the idea that the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline will ever be built. Speaking to European journalists in a telephone briefing on November 29, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John McCarrick said that U.S. officials “don’t see the possibility that Nord Stream 2 can be built.” He added, “That is not something we are going to assume is going to happen.” When pressed for details, Mr. McCarrick, who works at the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, responded that “there is a variety of reasons why it shouldn’t happen. …The bottom line is we are against this. We don’t see this happening, so why would I entertain any other sort of option or possibility?” Earlier this year, the United States introduced sanctions that call for penalties against European companies that participate in the Nord Stream 2 and other Russian energy projects in Europe. If built, the pipeline will run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, bypassing several European transit countries. It is scheduled to be completed by 2019. Berlin has so far supported the pipeline, which would deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Germany from Russia. Several EU members in Central and Eastern Europe have expressed concern that the project would strengthen Moscow’s hand by increasing European reliance on Russian natural gas. They have also voiced concern that it would reduce gas-transit revenues for Ukraine, damaging the country’s fragile economy at a time when its forces are fighting Russia-backed separatists who control part of two eastern provinces. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels)
Gathering of alleged crime bosses
Police in Kyiv detained more than 60 people at an alleged gathering of organized crime bosses in the Ukrainian capital. Authorities said the arrests were made late on November 26 during a raid by National Police and Ukrainian special forces at a restaurant in Kyiv’s historic Pushcha-Vodytsia neighborhood. A statement from Ukraine’s National Police force said those gathered in Kyiv included powerful crime bosses who were able to “influence the criminal situation in Kyiv and other regions” of the country. Andriy Kryshchenko, the head of the Kyiv branch of the National Police, said the 60 suspects were taken to police headquarters for questioning. “It turned out that most of them have criminal records and have served sentences for committing various types of crimes in prisons,” Mr. Kryshchenko said. He also said knives and hand guns with “suspicious licenses” were seized from suspects during the late night raid on the restaurant. He said several of the detained suspects had dubious identification documents. Mr. Kryshchenko said investigators will decide after completing their probe what charges, if any, will be filed in the case. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)