U.S. announces $200 M in security aid
The United States will provide $200 million in additional security funding to Ukraine. The U.S. Defense Department on July 20 announced it will provide the funding for “training, equipment and advisory efforts to build the defensive capacity of Ukraine’s forces.” The new funding will “support ongoing training programs and operational needs,” the statement said. The United States has provided a total of more than $1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when neighboring Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and fomented a separatist conflict in parts of eastern Ukraine. More than 10,300 people have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict. Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November 2016 determined the conflict to be “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” (RFE/RL)
Portman praises release of funds
U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised the Department of Defense’s release of $200 million in security assistance to fund additional training, equipment, and advisory efforts for Ukraine’s forces. “This is good news, and it sends a clear message that America stands with the Ukrainian people in their struggle to secure a democratic, prosperous, and independent future in the face of Russian aggression,” said the senator. ”When I was in Ukraine in April, I pressed the Ukrainian parliament to pass these defense reforms, and the release of these funds marks another important milestone toward fulfilling America’s promise to stand with Ukraine. As co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, I have worked to author several provisions authorizing expanded U.S. military assistance — including lethal aid — and establishing the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. I look forward to the full implementation of this bipartisan legislation to help the Ukrainians defend themselves against Russian aggression.” (Office of Sen. Rob Portman)
U.S. on Ukraine’s energy reforms
The U.S. State Department on July 24 issued a statement welcoming Ukraine’s progress on energy reforms. Department spokesperson Heather Nauert stated: “The United States is pleased to note that the government of Ukraine has welcomed an important announcement made today related to reform of the Ukrainian energy sector. The supervisory boards of Ukrainian state-owned Naftogaz and Main Gas Pipelines of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), committing to separate the production and transmission portions of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned gas company. This reform is consistent with market-oriented policies encouraged by the EU, the United States and the international community.” She futher noted that “Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Frank Fannon traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, from July 22 to 24, and played a key role in this effort. In meetings with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, committee chairs of the Verkhovna Rada, and other senior officials, Assistant Secretary Fannon stressed the United States’ staunch opposition to Nord Stream 2 and broader Russian attempts to use energy to harm Ukraine and undermine European security. Assistant Secretary Fannon also discussed the critical importance of continued energy sector reforms to advance a transparent and competitive energy sector as key to the success of a stable, prosperous, democratic, and free Ukraine.” The statement also explained that the new MOU “sets a course for the creation of a gas transmission system operator that will function under anti-corruption and corporate governance standards,” and added: “The Trump administration places a high priority on energy security, and these actions represent a positive step for Ukraine as an important transit country for gas delivered to Europe, and also for European energy security more broadly.” (U.S. Department of State)
Merkel, Russian officials discuss Ukraine
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met July 24 in Berlin with Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov and the chief of Russia’s military General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, to discuss the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. The meeting was also attended by Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas, Merkel’s spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said in a statement, adding that the talks were arranged in a telephone call last week by Chancellor Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The focus of the talks was the situation in the Middle East, in particular in Syria. The conflict in eastern Ukraine was also discussed,” added Ms. Demmer. The meeting also touched upon “ongoing work within the ‘Normandy format’ to fulfill the Minsk agreements” as well as several bilateral issues, the ministry said in a statement, referring to the 2015 Ukraine peace plan brokered by France and Germany in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The so called “Normandy four” consists of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, DPA and Interfax)
EU to sanction six more Russian entities
European Union ambassadors have decided to add six Russian entities to its asset freeze and visa ban list for being involved in the recent construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge – a 19-kilometer-long bridge linking the mainland of southern Russia with the Crimean peninsula. According to the EU, Russia’s construction of the bridge since Moscow illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine has contributed to the destabilization of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. EU officials who spoke to RFE/RL on July 18 on condition of anonymity say a formal decision to add the six entities to the sanctions list is expected in the coming days. At present, the sanctions list contains the names of 155 individuals from Russia and Ukraine and 38 entities. The Kerch Strait Bridge was opened for cars and buses in May. It contains a four-lane highway and two lines of railway tracks that are still under construction. The $3.7 billion Russian construction project began in 2016. (RFE/RL, with reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels)
Joyous crowd greets champion Usyk
Elated Ukrainians greeted boxer Oleksandr Usyk at the airport in Kyiv as he returned home after defeating Russia’s Murat Gassiev in Moscow to unify the cruiserweight division’s four titles. A choir sang a Ukrainian folk song and the crowd chanted, “Glory to Ukraine!” when Mr. Usyk appeared in the arrivals section of Boryspil airport. Mr. Usyk expressed his gratitude to all who came to greet him and said he had devoted his victory “to our fathers.” Asked about his future plans, the champion said that he hopes to rest for a while. “I haven’t seen my children for a month and a half. I’m dreaming about taking a shower and just… having a rest,” Mr. Usyk said. Despite facing an away crowd in Moscow amid political tension on July 21, Mr. Usyk controlled the fight with his jab to add Mr. Gassiev’s WBA and IBF titles to his own WBC and WBO belts. Mr. Usyk, a former Olympic gold medalist, holds all four major titles after just 15 professional fights, all of which he won. The Crimean-born boxer has said he was forced to leave the peninsula after Russia seized it from Ukraine in 2014. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Femen founding member found dead
A founding member of the prominent protest group Femen, Oksana Shachko, has died in Paris in an apparent suicide, fellow members say, mourning the loss of a woman they called “a heroine of our time.” Femen co-founder Anna Hutsol told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service on July 24 that Ms. Shachko was dead, following reports that her body was found in her Paris apartment the previous day. “As far as I know, she was concerned that everything is going badly in the world,” Ms. Hutsol said. “RIP. The most fearless and vulnerable Oksana Shachko has left us,” a post on the Femen website said. “We mourn together with her relatives and friends and [await] the official version from the police. At the moment it is known that yesterday, July 23, Oksana’s body was found in her apartment in Paris. According to her friends, she left a suicide note.” The second secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris, Oksana Lovha, confirmed Ms. Shachko’s death to Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. There was no public comment from French authorities, and Lovha said Ukrainian diplomats were awaiting further details from police. Founded in Ukraine a decade ago, Femen is known mainly for protests in which activists often bare their breasts – sometimes exposing slogans written on their skin – and disrupt political events or gatherings. A native of Ukraine who had lived in Paris in recent years, Ms. Shachko, 31, was one of a group of Femen activists who rushed Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Hannover, Germany, in 2013. Femen now has branches on at least four continents. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by the BBC)
U.N. urges Ukraine to protect Roma
The United Nations has called on Ukraine to take “immediate action” to end what it called the “systematic persecution” of the country’s Roma minority population. “We unequivocally condemn these heinous acts of intimidation and violence against members of the Roma minority in Ukraine,” a panel of U.N. experts said in a statement on July 18. “We are also seriously concerned at the growing hatred and racially motivated violence against this community – and in particular against its most vulnerable members – women and children,” the experts added. The experts urged Ukrainian authorities “to take all appropriate measures to comply with their international human rights obligations, including with regard to the protection of the rights of individuals belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities.” Just hours after the U.N. experts issued their call for action, a court in Kyiv’s Holosiv district on July 18 placed Serhiy Mazur, coordinator of the Sich C-14 ultranationalist group, under two months of house arrest in connection with a May attack against a Roma camp near Kyiv. Mr. Mazur was detained after police searched his apartment in Kyiv on May 10 and charged him with hooliganism. The Council of Europe has estimated there are 260,000 Roma in Ukraine out of a population of 48.5 million. There have been at least six reported attacks on Romany camps in western Ukraine since April 2018, allegedly by members of right-wing extremist groups. The latest violence was on July 2 when media reports stated that a 30-year Romany woman was killed in the city of Berehove. Local authorities in Berehove said unidentified attackers slashed the woman’s throat. In late June, a 24-year-old Romany man from a village in western Ukraine was killed in an attack by a group of masked men on a Romany camp in a forest outside the city of Lviv. Seven people were arrested in connection with that attack. (RFE/RL)
Hryb case halted for investigation
A court in Russia halted the trial of a 20-year-old Ukrainian man charged with abetting terrorism shortly after it got under way, sending the case back for additional investigation. Pavlo Hryb, who denies the charge and whose family contends he was set up by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), went on trial at the North Caucasus Regional Military Court in Rostov-on-Don on July 23. But the court said it found that the formal charge against Mr. Hryb was based on a clause of the Criminal Code that had not been in place at the time of the alleged crime. There was no indication that he would be released from custody. Mr. Hryb pleaded not guilty after the hearing began, saying that “critical mistakes have been made during the investigation.” Mr. Hryb went missing in August 2017 after he traveled to Belarus to meet a woman he met online. Relatives believe he walked into a trap set by the FSB, which later told Ukraine that Mr. Hryb was being held in a detention center in Russia on suspicion of abetting terrorism. Russian investigators accuse the young man of using the Internet to instruct a teenage girl in Russia’s southern city of Sochi to carry out a terrorist act using an explosive device. Mr. Hryb’s father, Ihor Hryb, has argued that the case against his son was Russian retaliation for Internet posts that were openly critical of Russia’s interference in Ukraine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS, Rapsinews, and RIA Novosti)
Police search Crimean Tatar’s home
Police in Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Crimea region have searched the house of detained Crimean Tatar Muslim Aliyev. Mr. Aliyev was arrested in 2016 along with five other men for what Russia-controlled authorities said was “membership in the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group,” which is banned in Russia but legal in Ukraine.The arrested men and their supporters say the case is politically motivated. Crimea-based human rights group Crimean Solidarity says the search of Mr. Aliyev’s house was conducted on July 19 as part of a separate investigation of his daughter, Gulsum Aliyeva, who is facing charges of inciting ethnic strife. Authorities have not commented on the search. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of repression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars and others who opposed Moscow’s seizure of the peninsula. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL/s Ukrainian Service)
Ex-defense minister has asylum in Belarus
A Ukrainian court ruling has revealed that former Defense Minister Mykhaylo Yezhel, who is wanted in Ukraine for the alleged misuse of state finances, has received political asylum in Belarus. According to a ruling by Kyiv’s Solomianka District that allowed Mr. Yezhel’s trial in absentia and was made public on July 18, Mr. Yezhel and his family live in Minsk as political refugees. Mr. Yezhel served as Ukraine’s defense minister between March 2010 and February 2012. In May 2013, he was appointed ambassador to Belarus. In 2014, after Russia-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled by mass anti-government protests, Ukrainian authorities charged Mr. Yezhel with misuse of 43 million hrv ($1.6 million) from the state treasury. In 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dismissed Mr. Yezhel from the post of ambassador, but Mr. Yezhel did not return to Ukraine. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by depo.ua and obozrevatel.ua)