Meeting to form independent UOC is set
President Petro Poroshenko says senior figures from Orthodox communities in Ukraine will meet on December 15 in a bid to form a new, unified, independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Speaking on December 5, Mr. Poroshenko said that the “unity gathering” will be held at St. Sophia Cathedral and attended by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. The meeting could be a crucial step in years of efforts to create a Church in Ukraine that is independent of Moscow and has the imprimatur of Patriarch Bartholomew, the “first among equals” in the global Eastern Orthodox faith. Announcing an event he said was “long-awaited” and “important for the whole country,” the Ukrainian president said those gathered would determine the status of “our new Church” and elect a leader. It is also expected to adopt a charter. According to Mr. Poroshenko, Patriarch Bartholomew will present the Church with a Tomos, a decree granting it independence – known in church parlance as autocephaly. Patriarch Bartholomew announced the decision to recognize Ukraine’s request for an autocephalous Church in October. Representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, led by Patriarch Filaret, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Makariy will attend the December 15 meeting. Representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate will not attend. “Our stance has not changed,” said Archbishop Kliment, asserting that “the creation of the Ukrainian autocephalous Church does not meet canonical norms.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Poroshenko: Russia has no ‘veto’
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said changing the country’s Constitution to state Kyiv’s aim of joining NATO and the European Union as strategic state goals will send a strong “message” to Moscow that “we are parting completely and irrevocably.” Addressing lawmakers in the Ukrainian Parliament on November 22, Mr. Poroshenko said Russia, “being an aggressor state,” will not have a “veto” on whether Ukraine joins the two Western organizations. Relations between Moscow and Kyiv have deteriorated after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and shortly thereafter began supporting militants in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has left more than 10,300 people dead since April 2014. President Poroshenko was speaking before lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill in its first reading to alter Ukraine’s Constitution to include as the country’s strategic goal membership in the EU and NATO. “By fixing in the Constitution the obligatory course toward joining NATO and the European Union, we are sending a message to Moscow: we are parting completely and irrevocably,” Mr. Poroshenko said, according to the UNIAN news agency. “Russia, being an aggressor state, does not have and will not have a veto on our accession to either NATO or the European Union.” Mr. Poroshenko stressed that this is the sovereign right of Ukraine as a country, “which confidently walks its own path.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Current Time, UNIAN and Interfax)
EU to sanction nine people
The European Union is now expected to add nine individuals allegedly involved in the organization of last month’s elections in the areas controlled by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to its sanctions list, according to sources in Brussels. The bloc’s ambassadors agreed to the move on December 5, several EU sources familiar with the matter who could not speak on the record told RFE/RL. The sources said only five people were initially expected to be added to the list but several countries led by Poland called for another four individuals to be included. The bloc’s foreign ministers are due to agree to the move when they meet in the Belgian capital early next week. The nine individuals would join 155 other people from Russia and Ukraine who are currently subject to EU asset freezes and travel bans. The bloc has also frozen the assets of 44 entities from both countries since Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2014 and its support for separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. Kyiv and its international backers, including the European Union and the United States, have denounced the November 11 polls in the areas held by the separatists in the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions as a sham. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)
Russia ‘partially’ unblocks Azov ports
Kyiv says Russia has “partially” unblocked Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov, allowing Ukrainian ships to pass through the Kerch Strait for the first time since November 25, when Russian forces seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels and detained 24 crewmen. “Berdyansk and Mariupol are partially unlocked,” Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said on December 4, as NATO reiterated its call on Russia to allow “unhindered access” to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. “Vessels make their way to the entrance and exit through the Kerch Strait toward Ukrainian ports.” The minister said that ships navigating through the Kerch Strait to and from Ukrainian ports “are stopped and inspected by Russia as before, but the traffic has been partially restored.” Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry later said that the country had resumed grain shipments from the Sea of Azov. The naval confrontation between Russia and Ukraine topped the agenda of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting with their Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Klimkin, in Brussels. At their Brussels meeting, the foreign ministers “restated NATO’s solidarity with Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “We recognize Ukraine’s aspirations to join the alliance, and progress has already been made on reforms. But challenges remain, so we encourage Ukraine to continue on this path of reform. This is crucial for prosperity and peace in Ukraine.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, AP and AFP)
NATO chief demands ships’, sailors’ release
The head of NATO has demanded that Russia release Ukrainian sailors and naval vessels it seized in a confrontation at sea, while Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says concerns that Moscow could seek to create a “land corridor” linking Russia to Crimea are “absurd.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke on December 3 as Russia continued to hold the 24 Ukrainian seamen in Moscow jails on border-violation charges Kyiv rejects. “Russia recently seized Ukrainian ships and sailors near the Kerch Strait. There is no justification for this use of force. We call for calm and restraint. Russia must release the Ukrainian sailors and ships,” Mr. Stoltenberg said on the eve of a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers who will address that issue, among others. Russia, he said, “must also allow freedom of navigation and unhindered access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian vessels – military as well as civilian – have the right to navigate through the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov.” Russia has been holding the sailors – crewmen from three Ukrainian naval craft – since the confrontation on November 25 in which Russian Coast Guard ships rammed a Ukrainian Navy tugboat and fired on the boats before special forces boarded them. Mr. Peskov dismissed concerns that Russia could seek to gain access by land to Crimea by seizing or helping the separatists to seize territory on the Azov shore from Mariupol to the isthmus further west that links the Ukrainian mainland to Crimea. “It’s an absolutely absurd claim. It is another attempt to generate tension. Regretfully, attempts like this will most likely continue as we approach” the Ukrainian presidential election scheduled for March 31, he said. Mr. Peskov claimed that “Russia has never invaded anything or created any corridors anywhere.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, TASS and Interfax)
Putin and Trump speak briefly
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he and U.S. President Donald Trump briefly discussed the recent naval confrontation in the Black Sea between Ukrainian and Russian naval ships. Mr. Putin gave few details of the conversation, which happened December 1 on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina. “We spoke in passing. I replied to his questions about the incident in the Black Sea,” Mr. Putin was quoted as saying. “He has his position, I have mine,” Mr. Putin said, adding that neither had changed as a result of the exchange. The White House confirmed that Presidents Trump and Putin spoke during a dinner with world leaders at the G-20 summit. “As is typical at multilateral events, President Trump and the first lady had a number of informal conversations with world leaders at the dinner last night, including President Putin,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a December 1 statement. On the eve of the summit, Mr. Trump announced that he would not hold a formal one-on-one meeting with Putin, citing the previous week’s clash in the Kerch Strait, in which Russia detained three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors. Speaking to reporters, Mr. Putin lamented the lack of a formal meeting. “It is unfortunate that we can’t hold a full-format meeting,” he was quoted as saying. “I think it is very much needed, in connection with issues of strategic stability, especially after [Trump] announced that the United States plans to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.” Mr. Trump announced last month that he was withdrawing the United States from the 31-year-old treaty, which eliminated an entire class of missiles and is considered a cornerstone of strategic stability between Moscow and Washington. Meanwhile, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on December 2 that he hoped it would be possible for the two leaders to meet properly before too long. “Of course, a new meeting is possible,” Mr. Ushakov said. “Now we need to again have talks about preparing such a meeting.” When asked where that meeting might happen, Mr. Ushakov cited a G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, in June next year as one option. “But it seems to me that it’s very important for us and for them to find a way of meeting before then,” he said. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS and AFP)
G-7: Russia’s seizure of ships ‘unjustified’
The Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized countries have called Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian vessels unjustified and demanded the release of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors, saying the standoff had “dangerously raised tensions.” In a November 30 statement, the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the EU’s high representative, called on Russia “to release the detained crew and vessels and refrain from impeding lawful passage through the Kerch Strait.” The statement underscored: “There is no justification for Russia’s use of military force against Ukrainian ships and naval personnel.” The G-7 urged “restraint, due respect for international law, and the prevention of any further escalation.” The group reiterated that it “does not, and will never, recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula” while reaffirming its “unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Ukraine imposed martial law in 10 regions that mostly border Russia or the Sea of Azov after the recent sea confrontation. The decision marked the first time Kyiv has taken such a step since Russia seized Crimea in March 2014. Western leaders have criticized Russia and called for the release of the Ukrainian servicemen. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and AFP)
Russia rejects $1.3 B arbitration ruling
Russia says it will not accept an international arbitration ruling obliging Moscow to pay Ukraine’s biggest state-run bank $1.3 billion in compensation for loss of business and assets in Crimea following Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014. The Russian Justice Ministry said in a statement that the arbitration court’s November 26 decision was invalid because “the arbitration panel does not have jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit of Ukraine’s Oshchadbank against the Russian Federation.” The ministry said: “The Justice Ministry of Russia will take all necessary measures to ensure the representation and protection of the Russian Federation’s interests over this arbitration ruling.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on November 27 declined to comment on the matter, saying he did not have any information about it. Oshchadbank said on November 26 that the court ruled in the bank’s favor, and the bank will now take “all possible measures” to get the money back from Russia. The law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represented Oshchadbank in the case, said the decision to award the sum had been made unanimously by three members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Oshchadbank official Andriy Pyshnyy encouraged other Ukrainian companies to seek international arbitration “to restore justice” over property seized in Crimea. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by RBK, Interfax, Reuters, and AP)
Most new European HIV cases in Ukraine, Russia
Almost 160,000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in Europe last year, with three-quarters of the new cases arising in Ukraine and Russia, two European health agencies said on November 28. While the number of new cases was lower than in recent years in the 53 countries comprising the European region, in many instances the diagnosis came too late and the victim had already reached an advanced stage of infection, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization’s European office. Their report estimated that one in five people with HIV in Europe were unaware of their status, with late detection increasing the risk of “ill health, death, and onward HIV transmission.” In Ukraine, Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe, the high proportion of new cases was mainly attributed to transmission through heterosexual sex and intravenous drug use, the report said. The overall trend suggested the European region would not achieve the United Nations target of eliminating HIV/AIDS by 2030. The 53 countries in WHO’s European region have a combined population of nearly 900 million. Around 508 million of those live in the 28 member states of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. In total, more than 2 million people are affected by HIV in Europe, the report said. Some 37 million people worldwide are infected with HIV. Vytenis Andriukaitis, European commissioner for health and food safety, said that, to make further progress, health officials will have to “overcome the stigma of HIV infection and treatment and continue our efforts in dispelling false beliefs about how HIV and AIDS are spread.” Since the start of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than 77 million people worldwide have become infected with HIV and almost half of them died of AIDS. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by DPA and Reuters)
SBU blames cyberattack attempt on Russia
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it has thwarted a massive cyberattack and blamed Russia for the attempted attack that targeted the country’s court system. The SBU said in its December 4 statement that hackers used falsified accounting documents to target computers of the country’s judiciary system. The SBU said the alleged hacking was “massive” but provided no detail about the extent, timing, or severity of the hacks. Ukraine has been hit regularly by major cyberattacks and hacking attempts since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and Russian-backed militants launched a war in eastern regions that has killed more than 10,000 people. In December 2015, the country’s electrical grid was targeted with coordinated cyberattacks that caused major disruptions in power supplies. The SBU blamed Russia. However, U.S. government agencies, who later pinpointed the intrusions, stopped short of blaming Moscow. Private researchers, however, blamed a Russian hacking group that is believed to have links to Russian security agencies. (RFE/RL)
Klyuyev’s bid to suspend EU sanctions denied
The president of the European Union’s General Court has dismissed Andriy Klyuyev’s attempt to have the bloc’s sanctions against him suspended. Mr. Klyuyev was the head of the administration of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. His assets in the EU were frozen in 2014 after the collapse of the government amid pro-Western street protests. The EU at the time argued that Messrs. Klyuyev and Yanukovych, as well as others close to the regime, “were responsible for the misappropriation of Ukrainian state funds or for abuse of office, causing a loss to Ukrainian public funds.” The sanctions have been prolonged every year since then. But in June, the European court annulled the sanctions against Mr. Klyuyev from March 2017 to March 2018, arguing that “EU member states had failed to dispel doubts that existed as to the reliability of the information provided by the Ukrainian authorities concerning the proceedings brought against Mr. Klyuyev.” Mr. Klyuyev remained under sanctions after the court’s decision, however, as the European Council had extended the restrictive measures by one year, before the court ruled. In light of its prior decision, Mr. Klyuyev had asked the court to suspend the sanctions against him, arguing that the EU once again had failed to dispel doubts about the reliability of the information provided by Ukrainian authorities when it established its sanctions list. The court’s president in denying Mr. Klyuyev’s request said he failed to establish that the need to suspend the sanctions was urgent. He dismissed his motion, but said the court at a later date will look into whether the current measures against him are lawful. (RFE/RL)