Six soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine’s military said on January 1 that two of its soldiers were killed and five wounded after an explosive device damaged a military vehicle in the eastern part of the country, where the conflict with Russia-backed forces persists despite a longstanding ceasefire deal. In a separate statement on January 17, the Defense Ministry said two other soldiers were wounded as the militants violated the ceasefire three times in the previous 24 hours using machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars. On January 12, Ukraine’s military said one of its soldiers was killed and four wounded in clashes during the previous 24 hours. A day earlier, the military said three soldiers were killed by separatist shelling. Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Kyiv’s forces and the Russia-backed militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax and TASS)
New OSCE chair to visit Ukraine, Russia
Italy’s foreign affairs minister says he will visit Ukraine and Russia in the coming weeks to “intensify” efforts to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as he took up the post of chairperson-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). “Our main testing ground is the search for a solution to the Ukrainian crisis,” Angelino Alfano told a meeting of the OSCE in Vienna on January 11, announcing that he planned to visit Ukraine and Russia on January 30-February 1. Ceasefire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords – September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict – have failed to hold. The latest ceasefire agreement was meant to begin on December 23, 2017, but both sides have accused each other of ceasefire violations since then. Presenting his agenda as chairman of the OSCE, Mr. Alfano urged the sides to fully implement the Minsk agreements, adding that recent “mutual provocations have created a climate that risks compromising the confidence-building measures adopted thus far by the parties.” A recent exchange of prisoners between Kyiv and the separatists was one of the “few positive signs,” but much more needed to be done, especially on humanitarian access, the Italian minister added. The OSCE supervised the long-awaited prisoner swap, which enabled hundreds of former captives to return to their homes for the New Year holiday. Hundreds of unarmed observers are monitoring the conflict as part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. Discussions about deploying a peacekeeping force have heated up since September 2017, when Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed deploying U.N. peacekeepers along the line separating Ukrainian government forces and the Russia-backed separatists. That plan swiftly drew criticism from both Kyiv and the West, largely because of concerns that deployment only along the frontline would cement Russian control over separatist-held territory and do nothing to stop Russia from sending fighters and weapons into Ukraine. Mr. Putin later said he was open to adjustments to his initial proposal, but no agreement has been reached. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP and DPA)
Russia deploys second division to Crimea
Russia has deployed a new unit armed with the advanced S-400 air-defense system in the Ukrainian region of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Russian media are reporting. Russian state media reported on January 13 that Moscow had deployed the new division outside the city of Sevastopol, where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based. It is the second S-400-equipped division deployed to Crimea, after Moscow based one near the northern port town of Fedosia in early 2017. The S-400 is capable of striking airborne targets up to 400 kilometers away and ballistic missiles up to 60 kilometers distant. Russia annexed the Ukrainian region in March 2014, prompting the United States, the European Union and others to impose economic sanctions against Moscow. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters, RIA Novosti and TASS)
Police, protesters clash near Rada
Police and protesters have clashed near the Ukrainian Parliament, where lawmakers discussed legislation on the “reintegration” of regions held by Russia-backed separatists. The clashes on January 16 started after some of the protesters torched tires and burned a Russian flag in an area near the Verkhovna Rada and a tent camp set up by anti-government protesters last year. Police and firefighters extinguished the burning tires and threw them toward the tent camp. Law enforcement officers also used a chemical spray during the confrontation. Ukraine’s national police reported that one officer was wounded in the scuffles, and one protester was taken into custody. Kyiv police said earlier that more than 3,800 officers were deployed near government buildings and the Parliament ahead of the session in the Rada. They greatly outnumbered the few dozen protesters. Demonstrators want lawmakers to swiftly pass a “reintegration” bill that states that Russia – which controls Crimea and backs separatists who have held parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts in eastern Ukraine since 2014 – is an aggressor. The bill has been a hotly contested issue even before it passed in a first reading in October 2017, amid scuffles between lawmakers. Opponents of the bill are displeased because they say it uncouples the issue of Russian-occupied Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and could lead to the restoration of trade with the territories under the control of the Russia-backed separatists because it does not include language to support the current ban, Rada Deputy Speaker and Samopomich party member Oksana Syroyid told Channel 5 news. Yuriy Boyko, leader of the Opposition Bloc, formerly the Party of Regions, claimed the bill “contradicts all international agreements and treaties” that Ukraine is party to in regard to solving the conflict, notably the February 2015 deal known as the Minsk accord. Supporters of the bill, including lawmakers from the president’s ruling party and the People’s Front party of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, say it is necessary for the defense of the country, the possible expansion of international sanctions against the Kremlin, the peace process and potential compensation for losses stemming from Russia’s military actions. “Legislative recognition of these facts will extend to the Kremlin the international legal obligations of the invader,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said on Facebook on January 15. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Christopher Miller in Kyiv and Reuters)
Anti-corruption court might be discussed
The Verkhovna Rada said that lawmakers might discuss a bill on the creation of a Supreme Anti-Corruption Court, which President Petro Poroshenko proposed last month amid rallies demanding the adoption of such a law. The creation of an anti-corruption court has been one of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions for Ukraine to qualify for the next loan tranche of around $2 billion. However, both the IMF and World Bank are not satisfied with the Ukrainian draft law on the anti-corruption court, Ukrayinska Pravda reported. The online newspaper reported on January 15 that the IMF has told the Poroshenko administration that it did not support the bill in its current form because it would not guarantee the court’s independence. Ukrayinska Pravda published what it said was the text of a January 11 letter from the IMF mission chief for Ukraine, Ron van Rooden, in which he wrote that the IMF has “serious concerns about the draft law.” The letter noted: “Several provisions are not consistent with the authorities’ commitments under Ukraine’s IMF-supported program.” On January 16, Ukrayinska Pravda cited a letter from the World Bank’s country director, Satu Kahkonen, to the presidential administration to express the bank’s concerns about the bill. “We believe that the draft law requires … revisions to bring it into alignment with the recommendations of the Venice Commission and satisfy the requirements of the World Bank’s estimated $800 million Policy-Based Guarantee to support key reforms in Ukraine,” she said in a letter dated January 15. Ukraine’s backers have repeatedly urged the country to step up its fight against corruption. Western governments say tackling graft is crucial to curbing Russian influence. Progress on reforms has been stalled since 2016, raising concerns in Ukraine and the West that little will be done ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, based on reporting by Ukrayinska Pravda)
PrivatBank cited for ‘coordinated fraud’
Ukraine’s central bank says an investigation into the country’s largest lender, PrivatBank, shows that it had been “subjected to a large-scale and coordinated fraud” over at least a decade. The fraud resulted in the bank, which was taken under state control in 2016, suffering a loss of at least $5.5 billion, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said in a statement on January 16. One of PrivatBank’s former main shareholders, Igor Kolomoisky, dismissed the results of the probe as “nonsense.” The NBU commissioned the independent audit conducted by the global investigation firm Kroll and other international companies. NBU Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova said that the findings have been passed to the Prosecutor General’s Office for use in a possible criminal investigation into the deals made before PrivatBank was nationalized. PrivatBank’s nationalization occurred in December 2016 with the backing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after risky lending practices left it with a capital shortfall of more than $5.5 billion. At the time, the central bank estimated that 97 percent of its corporate loans had gone to companies linked to Mr. Kolomoisky and the other main shareholder, Hennadiy Boholyubov. Mr. Boholyubov has said that authorities in Kyiv declared PrivatBank insolvent on grounds that were fabricated and unfounded, creating an “artificial hole” in the balance sheet. Mr. Kolomoisky, a former oblast governor, has turned to the courts to challenge the nationalization, and tried to prevent Ukrainian authorities from cooperating with external companies to investigate the reasons for PrivatBank’s insolvency. Mr. Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest men, served briefly as head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast before President Petro Poroshenko dismissed him in 2015, accusing him of setting up a private militia and trying to take over a state-affiliated oil company. Mr. Kolomoisky had been credited with preventing the spread of separatist sentiment in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (now called Dnipro Oblast) following Russia’s seizure of Crimea in March 2014 and backing of armed separatists further east in the Donbas. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, Ukrayinska Pravda and Interfax)
Khan’s Palace in Crimea jeopardized
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) reported: “There are compelling grounds for fearing that Russia’s so-called ‘restoration work’ on the world-renowned Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai could forever destroy this vital monument of Crimean Tatar cultural heritage.” The group noted that “Photos smuggled out of the site are alarming, as is the lack of any experience in restoration work of the construction company and Moscow architectural firm commissioned to carry out the work.” The Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai was placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List back in 2003, but the necessary work for establishing its international status was unfortunately not completed, the KHPG explained. According to Edem Dudakov, the former head of the Crimean Committee on Inter-Ethnic Relations and Deported Peoples, if the work now under way continues, the complex, which includes the palace itself, a hall for receiving visitors, two mosques, a harem and other buildings, will lose any chance of gaining UNESCO recognition in future. “It is also a major attack by an occupying force on a monument of considerable historical and cultural importance for the Crimean Tatar people and for Ukraine. The complex was built as the main residence of the monarchs of the Crimean Khanate – the state of the Crimean Tatar people – and was the political, religious and cultural center of the Crimean Tatar community until the collapse of the Khanate in 1783,” the Kharkiv organization said. Well-known Crimean Tatar rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov announced recently that a team of lawyers and legal experts was planning a legal battle to protect the Khan’s Palace from what he called an “unjustified attack on the historical heritage of the Crimean Tatars, a site of cultural heritage.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
FinCEN ready to assist Ukraine
Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance reported that, during his working visit to the United States, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk met Deputy Director Jamal El-Hindi of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Finance Ministry’s release noted: “The parties discussed current issues related to the cooperation of FinCEN with Ukrainian state agencies and possible areas for future cooperation. Jamal El-Hindi stated that FinCEN is satisfied with its cooperation with Ukraine, especially with the State Financial Monitoring Agency. He also said that he will be closely watching the establishment of the Financial Investigation Service in Ukraine (FIS), which shall be a united body to fight financial crimes against the state. Special attention during the meeting was paid to the interaction between the FIS and other state agencies, especially the State Financial Monitoring Agency, which is needed to ensure effective investigations. Also, Jamal El-Hindi stated that his agency is ready to support Ukraine in establishing this new effective state body.” The Finance Ministry also noted that it had previously agreed that the organization of training for the future employees of the FIS will be supported by the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)