Leaders remember Heavenly Hundred
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and European Council President Donald Tusk on February 19 honored the memory of the Heavenly Hundred, the victims of Maidan clashes in the center of Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity five years ago. “We, together with President of the European Council Donald Tusk, have honored the memory of the Heavenly Hundred heroes. Eternal memory and glory. Heroes never die,” Mr. Poroshenko wrote on Twitter that morning. The Ukrainian president also shared a photo of him and Mr. Tusk visiting a memorial cross with the names of those killed in the center of Kyiv. Memorial bells were also heard ringing, the presidential press service said. “Petro Poroshenko and Donald Tusk also familiarized themselves with the blueprints of the National Memorial Complex of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and the Museum of the Revolution of Dignity whose construction is planned at the site of the death of the victims of Maidan clashes,” it said. On February 11, 2015, President Poroshenko had signed decree No. 69/2015 “On honoring the feats of the participants in the Revolution of Dignity and commemorating the Heavenly Hundred Heroes.” The document set February 20 as the date to commemorate Heavenly Hundred Heroes Day “in honor of courage, strength of mind and perseverance of citizens who gave their lives during the Revolution of Dignity (November 2013 through February 2014), defending the ideals of democracy, defending human rights and freedoms, Ukraine’s European future.” (Interfax-Ukraine)
President signs constitutional amendment
President Petro Poroshenko has signed a constitutional amendment committing Ukraine to becoming a member of NATO and the European Union. Addressing the Verkhovna Rada on February 19, Mr. Poroshenko said he saw securing Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the EU as his “strategic mission.” Ukraine should “submit a request for EU membership and receive a NATO membership action plan no later than 2023,” the president told the Verkhovna Rada. However, he acknowledged that his country needs to come a “long way” to meet the criteria of joining both institutions. European Council President Donald Tusk attended the signing of the constitutional amendment in the Parliament building. Addressing the lawmakers in Ukrainian, Mr. Tusk, who is Polish, said that “there can be no Europe without Ukraine.” He also warned Ukrainian politicians against using populist and nationalist tactics ahead of the March 31 presidential election, in which Mr. Poroshenko is running for a second five-year term. “Be resolute in rejecting temptations of radical nationalism and populism, as you have done so far,” Mr. Tusk said in his speech. The EU official also warned lawmakers against “internal conflicts,” which he said only benefit “that third country,” hinting at Russia. Mr. Tusk was on a three-day visit to Ukraine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA, AFP and AP)
EU ready with new Russia sanctions
European Union diplomats have agreed to impose asset freezes and visa bans on a number of Russians involved in the capture and detention of 24 Ukrainian seamen during an incident near the Kerch Strait in November 2018, several sources familiar with the negotiations who are not authorized to speak on the record have told RFE/RL. The exact number of people to be sanctioned has not been established yet, but it is believed to be around eight individuals who are either officers who were involved in the Kerch Strait incident or Russian judges who oversaw the subsequent detention of the Ukrainians. The incident occurred on November 25, 2018, when Russian Coast Guard vessels fired on and then captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels and their crews while they were on their way to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. Moscow accuses them of illegally entering Russian territorial waters. The Kerch Strait, near the Ukrainian region of Crimea that Moscow annexed in 2014, is a narrow passage that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. A push to adopt the sanctions in December 2018 floundered due to French, German and Italian opposition. However, according to diplomats, the continued detention of the crews by Russia has brought the EU together on the matter of additional measures. EU foreign ministers were to discuss Ukraine when they met in Brussels on February 18, but the sanctions are expected to be approved by EU ambassadors later this month. (RFE/RL)
No justice for Euro-Maidan’s victims
Amnesty International says the Ukrainian criminal justice system has “resisted and obstructed justice” when dealing with the human rights violations committed by police during the Euro-Maidan protests five years ago. Colm Ó Cuanachain, senior director at the office of the London-based group’s secretary-general, made the comment on February 19, which marked the fifth anniversary of the protest movement’s worst day of violence. “Five years is a long time to wait when it comes to justice, and for most victims who suffered at the hands of Ukrainian police, justice is still not even in sight,” he said during a trip to Kyiv. In February 2014, Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanuko-vych was pushed from power following months of massive protests known as the Euromaidan and fled to Russia. More than 100 people were killed and 2,500 injured in clashes with security forces, some of them shot dead by snipers. The death toll included at least 13 police officers, according to Ukrainian authorities. As of the end of 2018, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office had identified 441 suspects, most of them former law enforcement officers, according to Amnesty. The rights watchdog said that the cases of 288 individuals had been sent to court, 52 of them resulting in court decisions. Out of 48 convictions, “only nine custodial sentences were handed down,” it added, and not one of those jailed was a former police officer. “Promises were made, strong words were said by the post-Yanukovych authorities, but time and facts speak volumes,” Mr. Cuanachain said. “Until all those responsible, including those in command, are brought to account there can be no sense of justice.” (RFE/RL)
“Ukrainian Canadians” exhibit launched
The Museum of Ukrainian Diaspora in Kyiv on February 13 launched a new multimedia exhibit, “Ukrainian Canadians.” It covers the history of the first settlers from the end of the 19th century until the present day. The materials are dedicated to well-known Ukrainian Canadians – scientists, writers, politicians and public leaders. The exhibit showcases some of the oldest Ukrainian publications in Canada as well as archival documents, including photos, documents, personal belongings of Mykola Plawiuk, the last president-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic. Also part of the exhibit is artwork by William Kurelek, a well-known artist of Ukrainian descent whose fame goes far beyond Canada. Some of his paintings showcased at the exhibit have never been shown to the public before. The materials were gathered from all over the world, as reported by the director of the museum. The Museum of the Ukrainian Diaspora was opened in May 1999 as a branch of the Kyiv History Museum. The museum collection is displayed in eight halls of an old restored house in the center of Pechersk, one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Kyiv. The museum tells the life stories and shows the personal belongings of composers, choir masters, writers, poets, choreographers, singers and other famous Ukrainians who emigrated or those who were born to Ukrainian families abroad. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Official charged in Handziuk killing
A high-ranking regional official suspected of organizing the killing of Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Kateryna Handziuk last year has been arrested. The Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kyiv on February 15 ordered that Vladyslav Manher, head of the Kherson Oblast Council, be held in pretrial detention until March 3 or pay a 2.5 million hrv ($91,000 U.S. ) bail. He has been charged with organizing a contract murder with “special cruelty.” Mr. Manher was transferred to a detention center. His lawyers said they would appeal the ruling. The Prosecutor General’s Office announced on February 11 that Mr. Manher was a suspect in the high-profile case. Handziuk, a 33-year-old civic activist and adviser to the mayor of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, died in November 2018, three months after she was severely injured in an acid attack. The killing outraged Ukraine, with activists accusing the authorities of failing to complete the investigation or identify the mastermind. Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on February 11 that prosecutors had obtained enough testimony from witnesses about Mr. Manher’s alleged role in Handziuk’s death, adding that the attackers had received “no less than $4,000.” According to a document posted by Mr. Lutsenko on Facebook, Mr. Manher felt “personal enmity” toward Handziuk because of her efforts to expose “illegal deforestation” in the region. If convicted, the 48-year-old Mr. Manher could face up to life in prison. Mr. Manher said earlier this week in a televised interview that he had nothing to do with the deadly attack. Five suspects, including a police officer, were detained last year on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Handziuk. Two of them have been placed in pretrial detention, and the others are under house arrest. Handziuk’s death came amid a wave of attacks on Ukrainian civic activists. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Three Crimean Tatars detained in Crimea
Russian-imposed authorities in Ukraine’s occupied Crimea region have detained three Crimean Tatar activists, according to a Ukrainian human rights group. Crimean Solidarity said that officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on February 14 detained Rustem Emiruseyinov, Eskender Abulganiyev and Arsen Abkhayirov. Their homes and the houses of their relatives in the central town of Oktyabrske were also searched, said the non-governmental organization, which has members in both Crimea and Ukrainian government-controlled territory. The FSB’s branch in Crimea said the three activists were suspected members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir religious group. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global organization based in London that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate. The group can operate legally in Ukraine. However, Russia’s Supreme Court banned it in 2003, branding its supporters “extremists.” Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-installed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s seizure and illegal annexation of the peninsula in March 2014. (RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Crimea Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Election monitors from Russia barred
Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to ban Russian citizens from serving as election monitors in the country. The draft legislation was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on February 7, ahead of next month’s presidential election and parliamentary polls later in the year. According to the bill, Russia will not be able to send observers to the elections – even under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which both Ukraine and Russia are member states. The OSCE has submitted a list of candidates for the presidential election observation mission, and it included two Russians. But the proposed legislation, which must now be signed by President Petro Poroshenko to go into effect, says that election observers cannot be citizens of a country recognized by the Ukrainian Parliament as an “aggressor state or occupying state.” The Verkhovna Rada declared Russia an “aggressor state” in January 2015, after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014. Following the passage of the bill, the head of the State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee called into question the “openness and democratic nature of the election process in Ukraine.” Moscow will raise the issue at the next OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session later this month, Leonid Slutsky said. Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, Kurt Volker, said that Ukraine “needs” OSCE observers, even if some are Russian citizens, “to prove it adheres to democratic standards.” Ukraine “needs to have confidence in its own democratic institutions,” he tweeted. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by DPA, AFP, AP and Interfax)
Tymoshenko goes low in campaign
As she slipped from the top spot in pre-election polls, Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko offered explosive and seemingly unsubstantiated claims this week in an apparent effort to climb back atop an expanding field. The first accusation came on February 4, when the former prime minister accused President Petro Poroshenko’s re-election campaign of attempting to buy Ukrainians’ votes for 1,000 hrv ($36). Without providing proof, she urged Ukraine’s internal affairs minister and prosecutor general to launch probes into the matter. Members of Mr. Poroshenko’s party, in turn, accused Ms. Tymoshenko’s camp of bribing voters and improperly collecting their personal data. But it was the kickoff of Tymoshenko’s nationwide campaign tour on February 5 in her hometown of Dnipro that especially resonated with her critics on social media. She told a crowd of supporters waving blue-and-yellow posters adorned with her “I Believe!” slogan that U.S.-born acting Ukrainian Health Minister Ulana Suprun was “sent by foreigners” who want to “experiment on Ukrainians.” The full video of the campaign stop was published on Tymoshenko’s Facebook page. But it was a clip that highlighted the “experiment” comment shared by activist group Euromaidan that quickly spread across Ukrainian social media. Ms. Tymoshenko’s campaign has not commented on the remarks since. Ms. Tymoshenko’s allegations came after five of six independent polls showed her falling behind Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian who portrays a president on a popular TV series and is now running to be the actual president of Ukraine. Many of the same polls showed Mr. Zelensky defeating Ms. Tymoshenko should the two advance to a second round. Mr. Poroshenko has polled third in four of the same surveys and second in the other two. All of them put his popularity at below 18 percent. The first round of Ukraine’s presidential election is set for March 31, with a possible two-candidate runoff on April 21. Ms. Tymoshenko occupied the top spot in an analysis of “populists and liars in Ukrainian politics” conducted by the Kyiv-based think tank Vox Ukraine in February 2018. Vox Ukraine wrote that Ms. Tymoshenko “corroborates her statements with statistics: 70 percent of her quotes contain data.” However, it continued, “patent untruth can be found in 26 percent of Tymoshenko’s statements” and “manipulations were discovered in nearly half of [the Fatherland party] leader’s quotations.” Vox Ukraine alleged that “[Tymoshenko]’s favorite rhetorical technique is to take correct statistical data and distort it beyond recognition.” (Christopher Miller of RFE/RL)