White House offers Ukraine $1 billion
WASHINGTON – The White House has offered to provide a third $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine that would be contingent on the country’s continued progress toward eliminating corruption and reforming taxes. Vice-President Joe Biden, in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on November 5, said the United States was ready to help Ukraine, but Kyiv must first enact economic reforms. The U.S. financing and a $1.7 billion loan disbursement from the International Monetary Fund have been held up by squabbling between the Ukrainian Parliament and the Finance Ministry over proposed tax cuts. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned on November 4 that the near-deadlock over the level of planned tax cuts threatened to derail the government’s 2016 budget and Western financing that is linked to it. Lawmakers want steep cuts that the Finance Ministry says are not sustainable. “We now have many allies in the West and these allies will stand with us so long as we show political will, responsibility and the unchanging nature of our goals and values as we carry out reform,” he said. “We must all speak in one language.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters)
Ex-justice minister arrested
KYIV – A Ukrainian court on November 6 ordered the arrest of former Justice Minister Olena Lukash on corruption charges, a day after she was detained in connection with an investigation into deadly Maidan shootings of February 2014. The charges against Ms. Lukash include misappropriation of state funds worth about $2.5 million, as well as forgery and abuse of her office. The November 6 arrest order by Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District Court granted her the possibility of paying bail of 5.1 million hrv ($221,000 U.S.) within the next five days. Prosecutor Vladislav Kutsenko says Ms. Lukash was not being charged in connection with the Maidan shootings during opposition protests in 2014 that brought down the pro-Russian government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. However, Mr. Kutsenko said Ms. Lukash was being questioned as a witness in that case. More than 100 people were killed on and around Kyiv’s central Independence Square – known as the Maidan – by sniper fire on February 18-20, 2014. An ongoing Ukrainian investigation has not yet identified who was behind the attacks. Ms. Lukash served as Ukraine’s justice minister in 2013 and early 2014. She was dismissed on February 27, 2014, days after Yanukovych was toppled from power and fled to Russia. In February 2015, Ukraine’s procurator general requested that the Internal Affairs Ministry and Security Service of Ukraine arrest Ms. Lukash on suspicion of involvement in masterminding the shootings of antigovernment protesters. In May, the Procurator General’s Office filed charges in absentia against Ms. Lukash for the alleged mismanagement of public funds, forgery and abuse of office. Ms. Lukash said on November 6 that she was certain her friends would deposit her bail and that the court would ultimately acquit her of the corruption charges. She also said she considered the court order for her arrest to be unfounded. (RFE/RL Ukrainian Service, with reporting by the Associated Press, Interfax and UNIAN)
Korban transferred to house arrest
KYIV – A Ukrainian court has ordered house arrest for Ukrop party leader Hennadiy Korban until December 31. Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district court issued the ruling on November 6. Mr. Korban’s lawyer, Oksana Tomchuk, said the court’s decision would be “most likely” appealed. Mr. Korban, 45, was initially detained on October 31 on suspicion of involvement in organized crime, embezzlement and kidnapping, and released 72 hours later as prosecutors failed to issue an arrest warrant against him. He was detained again on November 3 after investigators obtained some more “evidence” of his alleged “involvement into a number of crimes.” Ukrop activists say Mr. Korban, a former deputy governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, is being harassed for political reasons. Mr. Korban’s party, the Ukrainian Union of Patriots (known as Ukrop), was officially registered in September 2014.(RFE/RL, based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax)
Warplane crashes during training flight
KYIV – Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says a Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25 military plane crashed during a training flight near Zaporizhia on November 11, killing the 23-year-old pilot. A Defense Ministry spokesman did not specify the cause of the crash. But an Interfax correspondent reports that the plane crashed in a field close to a motorway near the village of Ternovka in the Volnianka district of the Zaporizhia region after it clipped a power transmission line. The Soviet-era SU-25 aircraft was designed during the 1970s to provide close air support for ground forces. It has been used repeatedly by the Ukrainian air force against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began there in 2014. Several SU-215s used by Ukrainian government forces have been shot down by pro-Russian separatists in the conflict. Pro-Russian separatists also have indirectly acknowledged their use of the warplane against Ukrainian forces during fighting near Debaltseve in February of this year. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters, TASS and Interfax)
Mariupol elections on November 29
KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament voted on November 10 to set November 29 as the date for local elections in the eastern city of Mariupol and the nearby town of Krasnoarmiysk. The localities, which are on government-held territory in the turbulent Donetsk region, were supposed to participate in regional elections last month. However, hundreds of polling stations in the localities did not open for the elections because of an unspecified “mistake in the ballots,” the Internal Affairs Ministry said at the time. Much of the surrounding Donetsk region and the neighboring Luhansk region are controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The two self-declared separatist republics agreed last month that they would postpone their own elections until sometime next year. The concession by the separatists was made after negotiations between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris. No date has been set for elections in the separatist-held regions. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Interfax)
Lavrov for Minsk deadlines’ extension
BERLIN – Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov says it is clear that deadlines on political reforms in Ukraine under the Minsk agreements need to be extended into 2016. Mr. Lavrov issued the statement after meeting in Berlin on November 6 with the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Ukraine to discuss the next steps toward ending Ukraine’s conflict. The meeting took place amid a growing awareness that progress on a peace plan has been slower than hoped for in the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014. The conflict also has soured relations between Russia and the West, which accuses the Kremlin of playing a direct military role in the conflict. Russia continues to deny that it is sending its troops and weaponry into eastern Ukraine, despite growing evidence to the contrary. The trust-building pact reached in Minsk has sharply deescalated the violence, but the situation in eastern Ukraine remains fragile. After the November 6 talks in Berlin, Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: “We can be glad that the ceasefire regime has been observed to a certain extent.” But he said “some serious challenges” remain, including organizing fair local elections in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine. He said the delivery of humanitarian assistance to eastern regions also is vital. The chief monitor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ertugrul Apakan, said earlier in the week that the ceasefire has been “largely holding” since September but that the situation remains “volatile.” There have been sporadic outbreaks of violence, but there also have been exchanges of prisoners under the Minsk agreements. Officials at the Berlin talks acknowledged that on many points, parties to the conflict are lagging behind the timetable set down under the Minsk agreements to end the conflict. That suggests that the aim of completing all the steps by the end of 2015 is no longer achievable. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Interfax and TASS)
Poroshenko congratulates Trudeau
KYIV – President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine had a phone conversation on November 5 with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada. Mr. Poroshenko congratulated Mr. Trudeau on assuming the office of Prime Minister of Canada on November 4. He noted significant support of citizens received by the Liberal Party in the parliamentary elections. Mr. Trudeau said the Ukrainian president was the first foreign leader who congratulated him and with whom he had a conversation as prime minister. He underlined the important role of Ukrainians in the life of Canada. President Poroshenko noted the fact that two Ukrainians had been appointed to the new Canadian government – Chrystia Freeland and MaryAnn Mihychuk. He also thanked the prime minister for Canada’s constant support of Ukraine in its struggle against the Russian aggressor. Prime Minister Trudeau assured that Canada would further help Ukraine in the protection of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the implementation of systemic internal reforms. In the course of the conversation, the president invited the new prime minister to make a friendly visit to Ukraine. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress)
U.S. Mission to OSCE cites hostages
VIENNA – U.S. Ambassador Daniel B. Baer of the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on November 5 spoke before the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, stating: “The United States condemns again in the strongest possible terms the continued detention of Ukrainian citizens Nadiya Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov and Oleksander Kolchenko by Russia.” Mr. Baer added: “The United States continues to closely monitor Ms. Savchenko’s trial. We note that Ms. Savchenko’s trial will resume later this month, and we expect that the court will allow her sister, Vira Savchenko, to testify during the trial. Mr. Sentsov’s lawyer has stated that the Supreme Court of Russia is scheduled to hear an appeal from Mr. Sentsov on November 24. This is an opportunity for the Russian justice system to right itself consistent with its international obligations and overturn this miscarriage of justice.” The U.S. ambassador went on to underscore that “Russia’s continued detention of these three hostages is also a violation of the commitments it has made, including under the Minsk Package of Measures in February, when Russia pledged it would ‘ensure release and exchange of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons.’ ” He reiterated that Russia should “adhere to international law regarding the treatment in detention of Nadiya Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov and Oleksander Kolchenko. The charges against all three hostages should be dismissed, and all three hostages should be released immediately and allowed to return to Ukraine – along with all other Ukrainians held by Russia for politically motivated reasons.” (U.S. Mission to the OSCE)
Ukraine, Baltic leaders slam pipeline plan
RIGA – Ukrainian and the Baltic leaders have criticized a planned second Nord Stream pipeline to funnel natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The project would cost Ukraine $2 billion a year in lost revenues as it takes away business from the land-based pipeline that transits Ukraine and Poland, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a press conference with Baltic leaders in Riga on November 5. Poland and Slovakia would also lose $300 million and $800 million, respectively, in annual pipeline revenues, while it would deprive the European Union of real energy independence. “We do believe that this project has nothing based on economic issues – it is more a political one,” he said. Mr. Yatsenyuk, whose government has been fighting Russian-backed separatists since last year in eastern Ukraine, called on the European Union to “seriously” examine the issue. He warned against allowing Moscow to “facilitate a bottleneck and to control the energy market of the EU, too.” Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma said she was “highly concerned” about the project and called for a thorough EU review of the proposed seabed pipeline. Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas questioned whether the plan was in compliance with EU rules. “It is quite clear that it would have a very significant negative impact on the gas supply of Ukraine,” Roivas said. Gazprom agreed in June with Western European partners Anglo-Dutch Shell, Germany’s E.ON, and Austria’s OMV to build the Nord Stream-2 pipeline to Germany to bypass conflict-torn Ukraine but also neighboring Poland. The route under the Baltic Sea from Russia would have a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per year and would double the flow of the existing Nord Stream pipeline currently linking the two countries. No time frame was given for the deal. For both Germany and Russia, the new pipeline would eliminate the uncertainty about winter gas supplies caused by a constant tug of war between Ukraine and Russia over gas issues, while it would boost Germany as a distribution hub for Russian gas in Western Europe. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Agence France-Presse and Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
Council of Europe blasts Odesa inquiry
KYIV – The Council of Europe says the Ukrainian government’s investigations into violence that killed 48 people amid separatist tensions in the southern city of Odesa in May 2014 have fallen short of European standards. Presenting its findings in Kyiv on November 4, the council said the official probes into last year’s street clashes and the deadly fire in Odesa’s Trade Union Building “failed to comply with the requirements of the European Human Rights Convention.” Its report also concludes that substantial progress “has not been made” in investigating the violent events and the deficiency has undermined authorities’ ability to bring to justice those responsible. The unrest was part of a wave of protests and counterprotests that swept Ukraine following the Euro-Maidan ousting of former President Viktor Yanukovych in late February in Kyiv. On May 2, 2014, clashes broke out in Odesa between what were said to be pro-Russian supporters of greater federalism in Ukraine and pro-union rivals. As the fighting turned deadly and police failed to restore order, the pro-federalism protesters retreated into the Trade Union Building, where they were surrounded by pro-unionists. The two sides exchanged shots and hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows at each other, with each subsequently blaming the other for the fires that broke out in the building. The Council of Europe’s report does not seek to determine the cause of the fires. It simply notes that official forensic examinations suggested the fires started in five places and that “other than the fire in the lobby, the fires could only have been started by those inside the building.” The panel also takes note of a report by a local non-governmental organization, the 2 May Group, which says the fire spread to the building after a barricade in front of the entrance was set ablaze as a result of the exchange of Molotov cocktails. However, the International Advisory Panel does fault the subsequent official investigations into the events for failing to fully establish what happened because “certain forensic examinations were not diligently carried out.” It notes that the first forensic report on the fire was prepared in July 2014 without any on-site inspection of the Trade Union Building. Nine months later, the panel says, an interagency complex forensic examination was ordered in April 2015 and, at the end of August, was still under way. More generally, the panel says it considers the official investigations into the Odesa events “ineffective,” in part because of the authorities “failing to show sufficient thoroughness and diligence in initiating and pursuing” the inquiries. The Council of Europe panel cites as “the most striking example of a lack of diligence” the fact that “the first real efforts to investigate an unexplained delay of over 40 minutes in the arrival of firefighters to the Trade Union Building were not made until December 2014.” The report of the International Advisory Panel also finds that the government’s investigation into the street violence and fire, plus a separate inquiry into the conduct of emergency services staff during the fire, “lacked institutional and practical independence” and expressed “concern” about the prosecution and trials of suspects, particularly decisions to terminate the proceedings against two suspects on grounds of lack of evidence. As well, it faults authorities for not taking “coordinated measures” to inform victims and next-of-kin about the progress of the investigations. The International Advisory Group in Ukraine is led by a former chairman of the European Court, Nicolas Bratza, and includes a former judge of the European Court, Volodymyr Butkevych, and Oleg Anpilogov, a former prosecutor of Ukraine. The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organization, with 47 member states, including Ukraine. All of the member states have signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights, a treaty designed to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law. (RFE/RL)