Anniversary of Maidan bloodshed
With paper angels, flowers and fond words for the dead, Ukraine marked the anniversary of a bloody crackdown on the Euro-Maidan protests that drove a Moscow-friendly president from power four years ago. The annual commemorations honor protesters who were killed in clashes with security forces in Kyiv on February 20, 2014 – a group of victims Ukrainians call the Heavenly Hundred. On Twitter, President Petro Poroshenko praised those killed as “true angels who protected Ukraine.” He noted: “They gave the most precious thing they had – their lives – for a better destiny for all of us, and forever became the guides for future generations of free Ukrainians.” Some 1,000 paper angels were affixed to trees lining Kyiv’s Instytutska Street, where some of the protesters were killed. Mr. Poroshenko and his wife, Maryna, were among many who laid flowers at a memorial in Kyiv’s Independence Square – Maidan Nezalezhnosty – known as the Monument to the Heavenly Hundred. The Euro-Maidan movement began in November 2013, when protesters gathered on the Maidan after then President Viktor Yanukovych announced he was postponing plans to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union and would seek closer economic ties with Russia. Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured in the protests. (RFE/RL)
Poroshenko signs law naming aggressor
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he has signed into law a bill that supporters say will help Kyiv restore control of territory held by Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country. Mr. Poroshenko made the announcement in a February 20 tweet, saying the law does not violate Ukraine’s “international obligations,” including the Minsk accord. The September 2014 and February 2015 pacts are aimed at halting the war in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,300 since April 2014. The bill, which passed last month with the support of 280 lawmakers in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, makes no reference to the Minsk agreements, raising questions about whether it could hamper efforts to end the fighting between the separatists and Kyiv’s forces. Russia has denounced the legislation, saying it threatens to escalate the violence in eastern Ukraine. The law labels Russia an “aggressor” and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts held by the separatists as “temporarily occupied territories.” That same designation was previously given to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia seized in March 2014. The law signed by Mr. Poroshenko also places all military and law enforcement activities in eastern Ukraine under the control of the Ukrainian army’s top command, a move that formally ends what Kyiv has until now referred to as an “anti-terrorist operation” in the area. The legislation was opposed in Parliament by the Opposition Bloc, a successor to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions that reformed after he was driven from power in February 2014 following months of mass street protests by pro-EU protesters. Opposition Bloc lawmakers argued that the law would not help reintegrate the separatist-held areas and would undercut the Minsk accords. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting in Kyiv from RFE/RL’s Christopher Miller)
EU renews sanctions on Russian officials
European Union ambassadors have prolonged the asset freezes and visa bans on 150 Russian officials and Moscow-backed Ukrainian separatists for another six months, EU diplomats told RFE/RL. The measure was also rolled over for 38 entities on the sanctions list. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record, said the measures would be formally adopted in the coming days. Asset freezes and visa bans were first imposed by the EU on people responsible for actions against Ukraine’s territorial integrity in March 2014, after Russia occupied and seized control of Crimea. Those sanctions have been extended every six months. The EU diplomats said that Russia’s new ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, remains on the EU sanctions list. The Russians under EU sanctions also include Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Armed Forces General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov and state TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov. The entity list is dominated by Russia-backed battalions operating in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, as well as companies from the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. The EU’s economic sanctions against Russia, which mainly apply to the country’s energy and banking sector, are up for renewal in July but a decision is expected when EU leaders meet in Brussels in late June. The same month the EU officials are also expected to revisit the bloc’s investment ban on Crimea. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)
EU to drop sanctions on Klyuyev, Lukash
European Union diplomats are set to prolong sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych but abandon the punitive measures imposed on two of his associates – one of whom was the proxy owner of a lavish estate outside Kyiv that became a symbol of Yanukovych’s excesses after he was pushed from power in 2014. EU diplomats who were not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL on February 20 that the EU has concluded that there was not enough evidence to keep Serhiy Klyuyev and former Justice Minister Olena Lukash on the list of people targeted with sanctions for alleged involvement in embezzlement of state funds under President Yanukovych, who was elected in 2010. Sanctions against the other 13 people remaining on the list will be prolonged for another year by EU ambassadors on February 21, the diplomats said. They include Mr. Yanukovych, his son Oleksandr Yanukovych, former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov, and Serhiy Klyuyev’s brother Andriy, who was Mr. Yanukovych’s chief of staff. Shortly after the collapse of his government, the EU imposed asset freezes and other measures against Mr. Yanukovych and others who, according to the EU, “were responsible for the misappropriation of Ukrainian state funds or for abuse of office causing a loss to Ukrainian public funds.” Serhiy Klyuyev, a businessman and Parliament member who formerly represented Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, was the nominal owner of Mezhyhiria, the outlandishly outfitted Yanukovych residence outside Kyiv that was swarmed by Ukrainians after he fled. It became a symbol of both his expensive tastes and the corruption that critics say marked his rule. Mr. Klyuyev is believed to have fled Ukraine after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity in 2015. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels)
One Ukrainian soldier killed
Ukraine says one of its soldiers has been killed and seven others wounded in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east. The Defense Ministry said on February 21 that separatists violated a frequently breached ceasefire 15 times during the previous 24 hours, firing artillery, machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars. Meanwhile, the separatists claimed that Ukrainian government forces violated the ceasefire 14 times using the same types of weapons. Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Kyiv’s forces and the separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax and TASS)
More deaths from measles outbreak
The number of deaths caused by measles in Europe quadrupled to 35 last year, the European regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported. A total of 21,315 measles cases were recorded in 2017 in Europe, compared to 5,273 cases the year before, the WHO office said in a report released on February 19. Ukraine, with 4,767 measles cases, was among the three countries most affected by the outbreak, along with Romania and Italy, WHO said. Those three countries have experienced a range of challenges, WHO said, including declines in routine immunizations, low coverage among some marginalized groups and interruptions in vaccine supply. The Copenhagen-based agency said large outbreaks of the disease – defined as 100 or more cases – affected 15 of the 53 countries in the region. “Every new person affected by measles in Europe reminds us that unvaccinated children and adults, regardless of where they live, remain at risk of catching the disease and spreading it to others who may not be able to get vaccinated,” Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, said. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA)
Little progress seen on peacekeepers
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has seen little progress in talks about a United Nations peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Stoltenberg made the comments during a February 17 roundtable following his meeting with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of world leaders, senior officials and policy experts. “It remains to be seen if it’s possible,” Mr. Stoltenberg said of the proposal to deploy a U.N. peacekeeping force to end fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Discussions of the proposal ramped up in September 2017 after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested deploying such a mission along the line separating the Ukrainian military and the separatists. But common ground on the issue has proved elusive. Ukraine and the West worry that a peacekeeping force along the frontline rather than the Russia-Ukraine border would cement Moscow’s control over separatist-held areas and allow Russian fighters and weapons to continue to flow into Ukraine. Mr. Stoltenberg, who described his meeting with Lavrov in Munich as “useful,” said it was “too early to say” what kind of solution could be reached on the issue of U.N. peacekeepers in Ukraine. He added that the two officials discussed implementation of the Minsk accords – 2014 and 2015 peace deals that have failed to stem the violence in eastern Ukraine – and that the conflict in Ukraine is the primary reason for the “deterioration” of NATO-Russia ties. (RFE/RL)
Poroshenko and Mattis meet in Munich
Ukraine’s Presidential Administration reported on February 17, that, in the framework of the Munich Security Conference, President Petro Poroshenko met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and expressed gratitude for the firm position of the U.S. in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Presidential Administration’s report on the meeting noted: “The two sides discussed the situation in the Donbas and expressed their concern over the ongoing attempts of Russia and its supporters to undermine the peace process. They also discussed the need to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Donbas in accordance with the U.N. principles and the goals of the Minsk process. The head of state expressed appreciation for Washington’s important decisions on strengthening the capabilities of the armed forces of Ukraine and Ukraine’s defense capability. Washington’s latest decisions are a signal against any intentional escalation of the situation in the Donbas, which, due to Ukraine’s new defensive capabilities, will increase the price of such an aggression. Jim Mattis reaffirmed commitment of the United States to restore Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and noted a significant progress made by Ukraine in reforming the security and defense field. The parties discussed further steps to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capability and noted the priority of the development of strategic partnership between Kyiv and Washington. U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker also attended the meeting.” (Ukrainian Canada Congress Daily Briefing, with news from the Presidential Administration of Ukraine)
Protesters say Poroshenko must go
A few thousand protesters in Kyiv called for the removal of President Petro Poroshenko. The anti-Poroshenko rally on February 18 was called by opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili – who was expelled from Ukraine on February 12 – as part of what he has labeled an anticorruption campaign. Officials estimated that some 2,500 people gathered to demand Mr. Poroshenko’s resignation, while some 3,000 police were deployed to keep order. The French AFP news agency estimated that the crowd numbered as many as 10,000 people. Smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities in western and central Ukraine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA and AFP)
Ukrainian jailed on sabotage charges
The top Russian court in Ukraine’s Moscow-controlled Crimea region has sentenced Ukrainian national Andriy Zakhtey to six and a half years in prison on sabotage charges that Kyiv contends are unfounded. The tribunal, which Russia calls the Supreme Court of Crimea, issued the sentence after convicting Mr. Zakhtey of plotting sabotage, illegal weapons carrying, illegal purchase of state awards, and documents forgery. In addition to the prison sentence, the court fined Mr. Zakhtey 220,000 rubles ($3,900). Russian authorities arrested Mr. Zakhtey and another Ukrainian national, Yevhen Panov, in August 2017 and charged them with being a “saboteur group” that planned a series of terrorist attacks on the peninsula. Mr. Zakhtey pleaded guilty in an agreement with investigators that stipulated he would not be represented by a lawyer. Details of the deal were unclear, but it may have enabled him to avoid a longer prison sentence. Mr. Panov is expected to be tried separately. Kyiv has rejected Russian charges against the two men and has called their arrests “a provocation.” Russia has prosecuted and imprisoned several Ukrainians on what rights activists say are trumped up, politically motivated charges since Moscow seized control of the Crimea region in March 2014. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)