State Department OKs Javelin sale
The U.S. State Department has approved the proposed sale of Javelin antitank missiles and launch units to Ukraine in a deal worth about $47 million, the U.S. military says. “The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements,” the Pentagon said in a statement on March 1. “The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” it added. In December, Washington prompted protests from Russia when it decided to provide lethal defensive weaponry, which some U.S. officials said would include the Javelin anti-tank missiles, to support Kyiv in its nearly four-year conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said that Ukraine had requested 210 Javelin missiles, 37 command launch units, and related hardware. Training, technical assistance, transportation and other aspects of logistics will be included in the deal, it said. Officials in Ukraine and the United States had indicated that they were expecting the approval from the State Department. The notice of approval was required by law but does not mean a deal is finalized, the Pentagon said. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on February 28 said the first delivery of weapons from the United States was expected in weeks. “The first delivery of the weapons will take place in several weeks. We are talking about a number of different deliveries, starting with the anti-sniper devices, because many Ukrainian soldiers were killed by Russian snipers,” Mr. Poroshenko said. He added that other military equipment expected from Washington included tools for electronic warfare, air defense, and other kinds of weapons. “I cannot give all the details as the data is classified,” Mr. Poroshenko added. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv)
Poroshenko speaks with Pence
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko held a phone conversation with U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence. Ukraine’s Presidential Administration reported on March 6. A readout of the phone call noted: “The head of state informed the U.S. vice-president of the current situation in the Donbas and the ongoing provocations on the part of Russia-controlled militants who do not stop violating the announced complete ceasefire regime. In this regard, Petro Poroshenko underlined the importance of further pressure on Russia for ensuring proper implementation of the security aspects of the Minsk agreements. He expressed gratitude for the recent decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to roll over respective sanctions against Russia for a year. Vice-President Pence emphasized the importance of preserving sanctions against Russia until full implementation of the Minsk agreements and return of Crimea to Ukraine. … The Head of State emphasized that the provision of U.S. defensive weapons to Ukraine was an important positive signal for other partners of our country and a clear warning for the Russian aggressor. Vice-President Michael Pence stressed that U.S.A. would keep supporting Ukraine in its fight for territorial integrity and sovereignty. He also noted Ukraine’s progress in the implementation of reforms, particularly establishment of the anti-corruption court.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Ukraine ‘stabilizes’ gas supply
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says gas deliveries to Ukraine have “stabilized” after Russian gas giant Gazprom halted gas supplies to the country in the latest energy dispute between the two countries. “The difficult situation that arose due to the actions of Gazprom has been resolved thanks to the united actions of Ukrainians and the authorities. As of Saturday morning, we have a steep increase in gas supplies from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary,” Mr. Poroshenko was quoted as saying by Ukrainian media on March 3. “Today, we have a stable gas supply. We have enough gas in storage facilities from our own production and imports,” the Ukrainian leader added. Kyiv and Moscow were drawn into a new gas dispute on March 1 after Russia’s state-owned Gazprom unexpectedly decided not to restart supplies for Ukraine, forcing Kyiv to reduce supplies despite freezing temperatures and leading to the closing of many schools and universities. Gazprom said it had returned a prepayment to Ukraine and would not restart gas supplies because an additional agreement to the existing arrangements had yet to be reached. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman in a March 2 televised address attempted to reassure the public, saying that alternative supplies had been arranged after Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said it signed an urgent contract with Poland’s PGNiG. Mr. Groysman said he expected the country’s supply situation to be restored to normal within five days. Gazprom’s move followed a decision on February 28 by the Stockholm arbitration court stating that Gazprom must pay $2.56 billion to Naftogaz after weighing mutual claims and counterclaims related to gas supplies and transit after several years of commercial disputes. Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller on March 2 said the court’s ruling meant the company’s gas deals with Ukraine would no longer be commercially viable, so it had no choice but to ask the court to terminate them. Gazprom also has said it would terminate its gas contracts with Ukraine. The European Union has offered to mediate to resolve the dispute. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN and Interfax)
Ukraine sees Russian hand in Uzhhorod
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin has suggested that Russia was behind recent attacks on a Hungarian cultural center in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod. “Russian ears are sticking out everywhere,” Mr. Klimkin wrote on Twitter on March 5, in a reference to incidents on February 4 and February 27 in which Molotov cocktails were thrown into the building. Mr. Klimkin thanked police for apprehending suspects and expressed concern about what he called “attempts to destabilize” the situation in Ukraine. The chief of Ukraine’s National Police, Serhiy Knyazev, wrote on Facebook on March 4 that three suspects in the February 27 incident – which caused a fire that destroyed much of the first floor of the center – were detained in Ukraine. Without naming a country, he said that a foreigner suspected of being behind the attack remained at large. Mr. Knyazev also said that two men suspected in the February 4 attack had been arrested in neighboring Poland. Ukrainian police said earlier that the two Polish suspects arrested in Warsaw belonged to a radical group and that some of that group’s members have fought alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The attacks led to tension between Ukraine and Hungary, which has accused Kyiv of failing to protect ethnic Hungarians. More than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Zakarpattia, Ukraine’s westernmost region, mostly in towns and villages close to the Hungarian border. (RFE/RL)
CPJ concerned about journalists’ safety
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on Ukrainian authorities to investigate allegations that police attacked journalists covering a protest in the capital last weekend. The New York-based media watchdog said on March 5 that at least two journalists were injured in Kyiv two days earlier, when police dismantled a protest camp near the Parliament building. More than 100 opposition supporters were also detained amid clashes that left at least 20 people injured. “We call on all Ukrainian police to respect the right of journalists to cover political events without fearing for their safety,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said in a statement. “Ukrainian authorities must investigate attacks on journalists and punish those responsible to send a strong message that they support and protect a free press,” she added. A reporter covering the event for RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service said police used pepper spray against him during the police raid on the tent camp near the Verkhovna Rada. The Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened a criminal investigation into possible police obstruction of the journalist’s professional activities. Another journalist working for the independent television channel Hromadske said that a police officer kicked him and swore at him, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reported. Both journalists said they clearly identified themselves as members of the press. (RFE/RL)
Steps toward anti-corruption court
Ukraine’s Parliament on March 1 approved the first reading of legislation creating an anti-corruption court demanded by protest groups and the country’s external backers, although critics charge the effort does not go far enough. The draft law, which was presented by President Petro Poroshenko in December 2017, won the support of 282 of the 450 deputies in the Verkhovna Rada. In an apparent response to demands from Western allies as well as protesters camped outside Parliament in Kyiv, Mr. Poroshenko last year vowed to push for legislation creating an anti-corruption court. However, some reformers within Ukraine and allies in Europe have expressed concerns the legislation does not meet standards set by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, a group of independent experts in constitutional law, and the requirements of the International Monetary Fund. In January, the IMF said that “several provisions [of the bill] are not consistent with the commitments of the authorities,” adding, “In its current form… we would not be able to support the draft law.” Critics have charged that the current legislation does not ensure the selection of independent anti-corruption judges. Ahead of the vote, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy called on the lawmakers to support the proposed law, saying its text could be amended before the second and final reading. Maksym Burbak, the head of the People’s Front faction in the ruling coalition, said that “between the first and second readings, we will take into account all recommendations of the Venice Commission.” After the vote in Parliament, Mr. Poroshenko said in a televised speech that a final reading of the law “should be definitively approved in the spring.” He wrote on Facebook: “I call on MPs not to delay adoption as a whole.” Leaders of the European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have demanded anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine, which last year ranked 130th out of 180 countries rated by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. On February 28, the European Commission moved closer to approving a 1 billion euro ($1.22 billion U.S.) financial package to Ukraine, although officials said they were awaiting further signs by Kyiv that the reform process remained on track before the funds would be delivered. The IMF has called the establishment of an anti-corruption court a “benchmark” of Ukraine’s progress toward Western legal standards and has said it would help ease the release of its loans in the future. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters and AFP)
EU to give 24 M euros for humanitarian aid
The European Union on February 28 reported: “The European Commission has announced today 24 million euros in humanitarian assistance to address the needs of conflict-affected people in eastern Ukraine. The funding comes as the European Commission and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are organizing a high-level conference in Brussels to raise awareness about the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.” Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides said: “Four years of conflict have put a tremendous strain on the civilian population in eastern Ukraine. We cannot overlook that there’s a humanitarian crisis at the European Union’s doorstep. Supporting all those in need, wherever they are, is a priority for the EU. Our new aid package will provide essential assistance such as food, health care and education for children.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
EU prolongs sanctions against Yanukovych
European Union ministers have prolonged sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and 12 of his associates by another year, but lifted restrictive measures against former Justice Minister Olena Lukash and businessman Serhiy Klyuyev. The pair was removed from the sanctions list after EU officials decided that there wasn’t enough evidence against them. Ms. Lukash served as justice minister for less than a year. Mr. Klyuyev, a businessman and lawmaker from Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, was the nominal owner of Mezhyhiria, the lavish Yanukovych residence outside Kyiv that is now a museum. The EU imposed asset freezes against Mr. Yanukovych and his inner circle shortly after the collapse of his government in February 2014. The bloc accused the ex-president and his collaborators of misappropriation of Ukraine’s state funds. Apart from Mr. Yanukovych, the list includes his son, Oleksandr Yanukovych, former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov, and Mr. Klyuyev’s brother Andriy Klyuyev, who was Mr. Yanukovych’s chief of staff. Several people who are on the EU sanctions list have appealed their inclusion over the past couple of years at the European Court of Justice. A ruling on Andriy Klyuyev’s appeal is expected to be reached later this year. EU diplomats who are not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL that more names might be withdrawn from the list next year unless Kyiv provides additional evidence against them. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)
New ceasefire ‘violated almost immediately’
The Ukrainian military has accused Russia-backed separatists in the eastern region known as the Donbas of violating a new ceasefire agreement shortly after it went into force. The ceasefire, agreed to by in talks including representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, took effect on March 5 just after midnight. But Kyiv’s headquarters for military operations in the east said that the separatists targeted government positions near the city of Shchastia in the Luhansk region with grenade launchers, mortars and other weapons at about 1 a.m. It said that those attacks lasted about an hour and a half, and that separatists fired at another government position around daybreak. The Ukrainian military said that its forces did not return fire. The conflict in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions has killed more than 10,300 people since it erupted in April 2014, after Russia fomented unrest across much of Ukraine following the ouster of Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych. It has persisted despite the Minsk accords, Western-backed ceasefire and peace deals signed in September 2014 and February 2015, and several additional agreements to cease hostilities. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS)
Police dismantle protest camp
Police in Kyiv have dismantled a protest camp near the Verkhovna Rada building, detaining more than 100 supporters of opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili amid clashes that left at least 20 people injured. Andriy Kryshchenko, head of the Kyiv department of the National Police of Ukraine, said 13 protesters and seven police officers sought medical attention for injuries they sustained in violence that broke out during the March 3 police raid on the tent camp near Parliament. Authorities said nine grenades, an unspecified number of Molotov cocktails and five smoke bombs were seized by authorities during the raid. As police cordoned off the area, black smoke billowed into the sky as protesters inside the makeshift camp set tires on fire. The tent camp was set up last year by supporters of Mr. Saakashvili, a former Georgian president who became the governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region. Mr. Saakashvili later resigned from the Odesa governor’s post and went into opposition against President Petro Poroshenko. He was deported from Ukraine to Poland in February. “Police in riot gear approached from two sides and detained almost all the people [in the camp]. Trucks started dragging apart and demolishing the barricades,” lawmaker and Saakashvili ally Yehor Sobolev said. A police statement later on March 3 said a total of 111 people were taken to a Kyiv police station. Authorities said administrative cases were opened against four people and eight others were being held for questioning. The camp was an offshoot of a broader opposition movement that holds regular peaceful protests in Kyiv to demand the resignation of Mr. Poroshenko over stalled reforms. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting from Interfax and Reuters)
Yanukovych for talks with separatists
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has called for “direct peace talks” between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east to end a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014. At a press conference in Moscow on March 2, Mr. Yanukovych vowed to ask the European Union, the United States, and Russia to assist in organizing the talks to reintegrate the territories controlled by the separatists into Ukraine. “There is only one way to stop the war, which is to start peace talks with the mandatory participation of Donbas [separatists] and international observers,” Mr. Yanukovych said. According to Mr. Yanukovych, the law on reintegration of the territories under separatist control recently adopted by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada contradicts the Minsk peace agreements and “clearly shows” that Kyiv “has no desire to solve the crisis peacefully.” The Russia-friendly ex-president fled Ukraine in February 2014 following months of mass street protests in Ukraine and has been residing in Russia since. Russia’s subsequent seizure of Crimea and its backing of the separatists in eastern Ukraine have triggered waves of U.S. and EU sanctions targeting Russian officials, companies and economic sectors. Mr. Yanukovych also said at the press conference that in the note he wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2014, he never asked Putin to send troops to Ukraine. “I proposed to hold consultations in accordance with a procedure that is stipulated in the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation,” Mr. Yanukovych said. Answering a question about the investigation of the killings of Euro-Maidan activists in February 2014 by snipers in downtown Kyiv, Mr. Yanukovych placed the blame on the protesters themselves, saying the buildings that the snipers shot the protesters from were under the activists’ control. Mr. Yanukovych has been charged in absentia with high treason, violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and other crimes. His trial is under way in Kyiv. (RFER/RL, with reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Yanukovych: Never met Manafort face-to-face
Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych said on March 2 that he never had a face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort, despite Mr. Manafort’s extensive work for his government. Mr. Manafort, 68, is accused of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he and his partner Richard Gates did for Mr. Yanukovych’s administration from 2006 to 2014, when Mr. Yanukovych was ousted by pro-European Maidan street protests and fled to Russia. In an indictment issued by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Mr. Manafort is also charged with acting as a lobbyist for Yanukovych’s government without registering with the U.S. Justice Department. “I always met with him at the same meetings I had with the rest of my advisers. We have never had personal contacts as such,” Mr. Yanukovych said at a press conference in Moscow on March 2. Mr. Yanukovych said he also “did not personally sign any contracts with Paul Manafort.” He said, “I have not seen or heard Paul Manafort since I left Ukraine,” adding that he has never spoken about Mr. Manafort with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Mr. Mueller’s primary mission is to investigate alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign and alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A longtime political consultant, Mr. Manafort became Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman in June 2016 but was fired months later after revelations about the extent of his work for Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions. After Mr. Manafort left, Mr. Gates continued working with the Trump campaign and assisted Mr. Trump’s team in the transition period after he won the election. Mr. Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges on February 23 and is believed to now be cooperating with the Mueller investigation. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP and Interfax)
Russia, Ukraine swap detained guards
Russia has returned to Ukraine two of its border guards captured in October 2017, in exchange for two Russian border guards. The swap took place on March 2 near the Hoptivka checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Russian border, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the news, writing on Facebook that Kyiv would continue to do “everything possible” to secure the release of other Ukrainian citizens either being held in Russia-backed separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine or in Russia. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed it had handed over two Ukrainian border guards, Ihor Dzyubak and Bohdan Martson, who went missing in October and later were reported to have been detained by Russian authorities for allegedly crossing the border illegally. Kyiv handed to the Russian side two Russian border guards, Askar Kulub and Vladimir Kuznetsov, whom Ukrainian authorities detained in Ukraine’s Kherson region in June. The Kherson region borders Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014 after sending in masked troops without insignia and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States and most of the international community. Russian authorities have said that Messrs. Kulub and Kuznetsov lost their way and crossed the border by accident. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax-Ukraine)