U.S. congratulates new Church
The United States has congratulated Ukraine’s new national Orthodox Church on its autonomy from Russia, a move that has incensed Moscow and further heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine. In a statement on December 17, the U.S. State Department said it sent its congratulations to the new Church’s leader, Metropolitan Epifaniy, calling it “a historic moment for Ukraine.” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement: “The United States maintains unwavering support for Ukraine and respects the freedom to worship unhindered by outside interference. The right to religious freedom extends to all Ukrainians, including those choosing to join – or not to join – the new Orthodox Church.” (RFE/RL)
Bolton: No Trump-Putin meeting
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton says there will be no meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin while Moscow still holds the Ukrainian ships and sailors it seized near Crimea. “I don’t see circumstances in the foreseeable future where such a meeting could take place until the ships and the crews are released,” Mr. Bolton told reporters on December 13. Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy ships on November 25 and arrested 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. NATO has pledged support for Ukraine’s navy, with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg saying on December 13 that “Russia must immediately release the sailors and ships they seized and allow freedom of navigation including free access to Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov.” He added, “This is part of Russia’s pattern of destabilizing behavior.” Presidents Putin and Trump briefly discussed the matter on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on December 1, the Kremlin said. On the eve of the summit, Mr. Trump announced he would not hold a formal one-on-one meeting with Mr. Putin, citing the Kerch Strait incident. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and DPA)
EU prolongs economic sanctions
European Union leaders at a summit in Brussels on December 13 said economic sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine will be prolonged for another six months, with the official rollover expected next week. The sanctions, which mainly target the Russian banking and energy sectors, were first imposed in the summer of 2014 and have been extended every six months since then. “EU unanimously prolongs economic sanctions against Russia given zero progress in implementation of Minsk agreements,” European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted from the summit, referring to peace accords brokered by Germany and France in the Belarusian capital to end conflict in eastern Ukraine. The sanctions came in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and its support for “separatists” in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 over the past four-and-a-half-years. The measures were due to expire next month, but lifting them depends on whether the EU considers that Russia is respecting the Minsk peace agreements. EU leaders also discussed an incident in the Sea of Azov last month in which Russia seized three Ukrainian Navy ships and 24 crewmen. They also adopted conclusions that do not condemn Moscow for the incident nor do they call for more sanctions, but state that “The EU stands ready to adopt measures to strengthen further its support, including in favor of the affected areas of Ukraine.” The conclusions also state that “there is no justification for the use of military force by Russia,” adding that “the European Council requests the immediate release of all detained Ukrainian seamen as well as the return of the seized vessels and free passage of all ships through the Kerch Strait [between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea].” (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP, AP, DPA and Reuters)
U.S. conducts observation flight
The United States says it carried out an “extraordinary” flight over Ukraine under an international military surveillance treaty, amid what it called a pattern of “increasingly provocative and threatening activity” by Russia. The Pentagon said the flight took place on December 6, with tensions soaring between Ukraine and Russia following a naval confrontation last month. CNN has reported that the United States is also making plans to sail a warship into the Black Sea, but that has not been confirmed. Tensions between Kyiv and Moscow escalated on November 25, when Russia fired on Ukrainian naval vessels that were attempting to pass under a massive bridge that spans the Kerch Strait and links Russia with Crimea. Russia ultimately seized three Ukrainian ships and 24 crewmen, who remain in Russian captivity despite international calls to free them. “Today, the United States and allies conducted an extraordinary flight” under the Open Skies Treaty to “reaffirm U.S. commitment to Ukraine and other partner nations,” the Defense Department said in a statement. Since 2002, the Open Skies Treaty has allowed 34 signatory states to send unarmed observation flights over one another’s territory. These flights are usually scheduled well in advance, but the treaty allows “extraordinary” or unscheduled flights, if two participating members agree – in this case Ukraine and the United States. Russia’s “unprovoked attack” on Ukrainian vessels in the Black Sea is “a dangerous escalation in a pattern of increasingly provocative and threatening activity,” the Pentagon also said. It added that the United States “seeks a better relationship with Russia, but this cannot happen while its unlawful and destabilizing actions continue in Ukraine and elsewhere.” U.S. surveillance planes and drones regularly skirt Russia’s Black Sea coastline, as well as that of Crimea. Russian jets have been shown regularly confronting, and shadowing, the surveillance planes. CNN reported on December 5 that U.S. military officials have asked the State Department to notify Turkey of possible plans for a Navy ship to pass through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, the waterway that connects the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. “We routinely conduct operations to advance security and stability throughout the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to include the international waters and airspace of the Black Sea,” said Commander Kyle Raines, a spokesman for the fleet, which oversees naval operations in the region. (RFE/RL, with reporting by CNN, AP and TASS)
NATO pledges support for Ukraine
NATO has pledged support for Ukraine’s Navy more than two weeks after Russia seized three of Kyiv’s naval ships and arrested 24 sailors in the Kerch Strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. The alliance has been “supporting Ukraine to improve its naval capabilities, logistics and cyberdefense,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Brussels on December 13. NATO will also deliver secure communications equipment to Ukraine’s military by the end of this year, Mr. Stoltenberg said, according to an official transcript. Mr. Poroshenko welcomed NATO’s support as his country seeks to join the alliance. He described the seized Ukrainian naval crews as “prisoners of war.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by DPA and Reuters)
Poroshenko meets sailors’ relatives
President Petro Poroshenko met with the relatives of Ukrainian sailors taken prisoner by Russia in Russia’s naval attack at the Azov Sea on November 25. According to Ukraine’s Presidential Administration, Mr. Poroshenko said: “Today, the task was given to the minister of justice to complete the filing of a lawsuit against Russia for this act of aggression in order to ensure that those who gave these orders are brought to justice.” He noted that the Russian Federation “has fallen into this trap with its absolute hatred of Ukraine, with its malice.” The president stressed that the Ukrainian sailors are prisoners of war: “They are classical prisoners of war according to the Geneva Convention. And that is why our position will be very tough.” He emphasized the need to strengthen sanctions policy as regards the actions of the Russian Federation and said that a package of Azov sanctions was being discussed, which would deal with individuals who participated in the aggression against Ukrainian ships. Sanctions against Russian seaports and Russian ships also are planned. At the same time, the president said that “We must struggle for the Kerch Strait.” …We will not give up a single piece of Ukrainian land.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Ukraine Daily Briefing)
Court reinstates Fiscal Service head
A court in Kyiv has reinstated Roman Nasirov to the position of head of the State Fiscal Service after he was fired in January following his arrest on suspicion of embezzlement. Mr. Nasirov’s lawyer, Lyubomyr Drozdovskyy, told the Hromadske television channel that the Regional Administrative Court in the Ukrainian capital ruled on December 11 to immediately reinstate Mr. Nasirov to the post with financial compensation for the days he was absent from work. There was no official statement by the court or Ukrainian officials regarding the information, but Kyiv police sources confirmed to RFE/RL that Mr. Nasirov was reinstated. He is being investigated on suspicion of defrauding the state of 2 billion hrv ($70 million U.S.). He is one of the highest officials who had been expected to face prosecution in Ukraine, whose pro-Western government is under pressure from the United States, the European Union and donor organizations to tackle endemic corruption. Mr. Nasirov was arrested after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau accused him of signing off on grace periods for a number of taxpayers, including companies linked to a former lawmaker who fled the country in 2016 while facing a corruption investigation. Shortly after his arrest in March 2017, he was released on bail but ordered to wear an electronic bracelet and barred from leaving Kyiv without authorities’ permission. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Hromadske)
Crimean lawyer jailed for five days
A Russia-controlled court in Crimea sentenced prominent lawyer Emil Kurbedinov to five days in jail for a 2013 Facebook post made before Russian forces seized and subsequently annexed the peninsula from Ukraine. The court in Symferopol on December 7 found Mr. Kurbedinov guilty of the propagation and public demonstration of symbols of an extremist organization. The exact contents of the post were not immediately revealed. Mr. Kurbedinov, who was detained on December 6, called the accusation “absurd” and said that his arrest was politically motivated. He said he believes his arrest and trial were linked to his representation of one of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces on November 25 when three Ukrainian Navy ships were seized in the Sea of Azov. His lawyer, Aleksei Ladin, said at the trial that his client did not break any laws as the Facebook post in question was made prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and therefore Russian law did not apply to the case. Other clients of Mr. Kurbedinov in recent years have included defendants in Crimea charged in high-profile cases that human rights organizations and Western governments say are politically motivated. Since Russia seized and illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, Moscow has conducted a persistent campaign of oppression that targets Crimeans who oppose the annexation. Mr. Kurbedinov was released on December 12. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Pilot dies in fighter jet crash
A Ukrainian air force pilot was killed when his fighter jet crashed during a landing attempt on December 15, the country’s military announced. The Ukrainian General Staff said the Sukhoi Su-27 went down while returning from a routine flight to its base in the northern region of Zhytomyr. An investigation into the crash is under way. Su-27 fighter jets were designed by the Soviet Union and continue to be built by Russia. Depending on the model, they carry either one or two pilots. It was not immediately clear what model was involved in the December 15 crash. Ukraine lost a two-seat Su-27 in October during exercises with the U.S. Air National Guard. An American pilot, riding in the second seat, died along with his Ukrainian co-pilot. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, AFP and Interfax)
Activists urge reporter’s release
More than 20 journalists and human rights activists have called for the immediate release of Ukrainian blogger and RFE/RL contributor Stanislav Aseyev, who has been held for more than 18 months by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The group made the call in a joint letter dated December 12 as it was participating in an annual seminar organized by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Sundvolden, near Oslo. The signatories included the committee’s Secretary-General Bjorn Engesland, American journalist Simon Ostrovsky, Armenian reporter Yuri Manvelian, and Ukrainian human rights defender Svitlana Valko. Mr. Aseyev went missing in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on June 2, 2017, and weeks later Amnesty International said it had received information that the journalist was being held by the militants who control parts of the region. Participants at the Anna Politkovskaya Seminar called on the Russian government to “use any and all levers of influence available to it to pressure” the separatists to release him. They also expressed concern over “recent reports of Aseyev’s treatment at the hands of his captors who have allegedly denied him medicines and have held him in a cold and damp environment.” They also noted: “It is also believed that a ‘confession’ tape that has surfaced in the Russian media in which he admits to espionage was produced under severe duress.” Mr. Aseyev, who writes under the pseudonym Stanislav Vasin, “was the only independent journalist brave enough to continue to live and work in Donetsk when he was apprehended,” the letter also read. “He frequently reported on daily life in the war-torn city and was known for his even-handed treatment of both the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia groups fighting for control of the area,” it added. Ukraine’s National Union of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Amnesty International have all expressed concerns over Aseyev’s whereabouts. (RFE/RL)