Biden to visit Ukraine in December
WASHINGTON – The White House announced November 13 that U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden will visit Ukraine in early December amid efforts to forge a lasting peace in the war-torn nation. Mr. Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and members of the Ukrainian Parliament, as well as non-governmental groups. “This will be Vice-President Biden’s fifth trip to Ukraine since taking office in 2009,” the White House said. Mr. Biden has spoken by telephone regularly with Messrs. Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk. President Barack Obama has never visited the country. More information about the vice-president’s schedule will be forthcoming at a later date. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by the AP and AFP; Office of the Vice-President)
Rada passes anti-discrimination rules
KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament has voted for changes to the country’s Labor Code that include protection against discrimination for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The amendments prohibit any discrimination in the workplace on the basis of “race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, sex gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic, social and foreign origin, age, health, disability, or suspected presence of HIV/AIDS, family and property status, family responsibilities, place of residence, or participation in a strike.” The legislation says, “The idea is that, if a person is working, we cannot discriminate” against them. The protections for members of the LGBT community were adopted on a sixth vote, only after Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Groysman announced that lawmakers “stand for family values and will never support gay marriage.” The adoption of the anti-discrimination rules is required by the European Union in a package of so-called “visa-free reforms.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Poroshenko condemns separatist attacks
KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has condemned an uptick in attacks by pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine. “We see there is a net escalation in the conflict in the east [amid] a rise in the number of [separatist] attacks,” Mr. Poroshenko said. “I have given orders to open fire in response as soon as our troops’ lives come under threat,” he warned. Fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists has intensified after weeks of relative calm. Mr. Poroshenko’s comments to Ukrainian TV on November 15 came hours after the Ukrainian military said one of its soldiers was killed and eight wounded in attacks by pro-Russian separatists in the past 24 hours. A day earlier, Kyiv reported five soldiers killed in direct attacks from the separatist side in the previous 24 hours – the highest daily death toll in two months. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors the implementation of the ceasefire, warned on November 13 that this month’s increase in violence threatened to derail the peace process. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)
Artillery could be returned to frontline
KYIV – Ukraine’s military says it will be “forced to return artillery and mortars” to its eastern front line if fighting in the country’s east escalates further. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko made the comments on November 16 as fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists intensified after weeks of relative calm. Ukraine says six of its soldiers have been killed around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk over the weekend despite a September ceasefire agreement. “I have given orders to open fire in response as soon as our troops’ lives come under threat,” President Petro Poroshenko warned on November 15. Meanwhile, separatists in Donetsk said Kyiv breached the truce dozens of time over the past week. More than 7,900 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Reuters)
Second round of local elections
KYIV – A second round of local elections has been held across most of Ukraine. Voters headed to the polls on November 15 to choose mayors and council representatives in Kyiv and 28 other cities across the country. Election authorities said voter turnout was at 34 percent. Exit polls released after the first round of elections held on October 25 indicated the government of President Petro Poroshenko would retain its dominant position in the west and center of the country. But in the south and east, voters favored the Opposition Bloc, formed from the remnants of the party of the former pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych who was overthrown in early 2014 after months of street protests. Elections were not held in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists and on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in March 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by UNIAN and TASS)
Klitschko re-elected as Kyiv mayor
KYIV – Voters in the Ukrainian capital appear to have re-elected Mayor Vitali Klitschko by a 2:1 majority over challenger Boryslav Bereza. The Kyiv vote was one of dozens of second-round contests across Ukraine on November 15. Despite the two-thirds margin of his runoff victory, Mr. Klitschko’s failure to win outright in late October against a divided field along with setbacks suffered by his party – UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform), which was allied with President Petro Poroshenko’s Solidarity party – hint at frustration that has taken hold among Kyivans, including some of his earliest supporters, observers noted. Voter turnout for the second-round vote was reported to be 28 percent. (RFE/RL)
Dynasty descendant now mayor
KYIV – The French descendant of one of the Russian Empire’s richest family dynasties this week became mayor of the Ukrainian town of Hlukhiv, where his family made its fortune. Michelle Tereshchenko, 61, took office in the Sumy Oblast town after receiving more than 65 percent of the vote in Ukraine’s local elections on October 25. He is a descendant of the famed Tereshchenko dynasty of industrialists and philanthropists, who made their fortune in sugar-beet production. He was born in Paris after his family fled to France during the Bolshevik Revolution. His family ties – the Tereshchenkos built most of the 19th-century town center – served him well in the elections. Now he promises to establish the “true eastern border of Europe” in the small town a few miles south of the Russian border. Mr. Tereshchenko told AFP that he hoped to establish a flourishing, corruption-free democratic government like the one his grandfather had hoped to establish in tsarist Russia. “It failed in Russia. But it will succeed in Ukraine,” he said. Mr. Tereshchenko first made headlines in March when Ukrainian President Poroshenko granted him citizenship. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Euromaidanpress.com)
ICC: No crimes against humanity on Maidan
THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A preliminary probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) suggests that Ukraine’s security forces used “excessive and indiscriminate” force in the 2014 Euro-Maidan protests, but are not guilty of crimes against humanity. ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a report released on November 12 that The Hague-based organization had opened a tentative investigation into the conflict. The months-long pro-Western uprising began in November 2013 on Kyiv’s Maidan (Independence Square) and led to the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian government and the deaths of some 100 people, mostly protesters. Ms. Bensouda said that “While these considerations tend to indicate that alleged crimes do not amount to crimes against humanity,” she added that the ICC did find that “serious human rights abuses did occur” on the Maidan. Ms. Bensouda said that although the attacks on the protesters constituted an “attack directed against a civilian population,” there was “limited information… to support a conclusion that… it was either widespread or systematic.” She said the ICC’s preliminary probe was continuing in the Russia-annexed Crimea and eastern Donbas region, where more than 7,900 people have been killed in fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. Ukraine’s Parliament has accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction to probe crimes committed on its territory from November 2013 onward. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP)
Cold threatens 700,000 children
GENEVA/KYIV – The lives of some 700,000 children and the wider population are at risk if repairs to the water network in Ukraine’s conflict-affected regions are not urgently made, UNICEF warned on November 13. Families living in the conflict-affected areas try to keep their houses heated by putting bricks on the gas oven. They are desperate to keep their children warm during these freezing months in eastern Ukraine. Central heating systems in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts rely on water, but conflict-related damage to pipelines and infrastructure, as well as debris from destroyed bridges, are hampering the flow of water. This increases the possibility of freezing that could result in a system shutdown, affecting water, heating and electricity supplies leaving children and adults without heating in extreme cold. “We need to do all we can to protect the most vulnerable children during the winter months,” said Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF representative in Ukraine. “This means ensuring humanitarian access to areas where water infrastructure is damaged to repair it. It is unimaginable to even contemplate one single family without heating at this time of the year,” she added. “The reality is that we need to repair damage to water infrastructure in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts right now,” said William Fellows, head of UNICEF Ukraine’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene section. “Not only are people’s lives in danger due to lack of heating and drinking water because of damaged infrastructure, but the time and costs to re-start any system failure would be extensive,” he added. UNICEF called for ensuring safe humanitarian access to non-government-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine to provide life-saving supplies to children, remove unexploded ordnance and urgently repair the infrastructure to keep the water supply, sewage and heating systems functioning. (UNICEF)
Russia proposes Ukraine debt restructuring
ANTALYA, Turkey – Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to restructure Ukraine’s $3 billion debt to Moscow. Speaking on November 16 on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) major economies in Turkey, Mr. Putin proposed lifting a December deadline for the debt repayment. Mr. Putin said that, rather than seeking $3 billion in repayment this year, Moscow would be willing to agree to annual payments of $1 billion from 2016 to 2018. “Not only have we agreed to restructure the Ukrainian debt, but we have proposed even better restructuring conditions than those asked from us by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said. Russian officials had previously insisted that Ukraine must pay the bond in full on December 20, and threatened legal action if Kyiv missed the deadline. Mr. Putin said that Russia was asking for guarantees for the repayment from the United States, the European Union, or global financial organizations. “Since our [Western] partners are so confident that the credit status of Ukraine will only grow and that there is no reason to even doubt that we shall be paid $3 billion next year, then our partners should not have any problem with issuing guarantees for [our] loan,” the Russian president said. “We agreed with our partners that we’ll discuss details of our proposals comprehensively in the nearest future,” he added. Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said the IMF has until December 8 to respond to the proposal. He also said that if the Russian proposal is accepted, Russia still expects Ukraine to make a coupon payment for the bond in December. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry said it “hasn’t received any direct information and has no comment at this time.” Ukraine needs to restructure its debt in order to qualify for a $17.5 billion IMF loan granted to help lift the economy out of a recession. In August, a creditor group reached a $15 billion restructuring agreement with Kyiv that included a 20 percent principal write-down and a four-year maturity extension. But Moscow refused to participate in the deal, saying Ukraine’s $3 billion debt to Russia – issued under Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych before he was ousted in February 2014 – was sovereign and should be treated differently to the private creditors. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP, Reuters, Interfax, TASS and Bloomberg.com)
Poroshenko presents award to Soros
KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on November 12 presented U.S. financier and billionaire philanthropist George Soros with Ukraine’s Order of Liberty. “Your intense activities during recent years have extremely promoted the democratic change that we now have happening in Ukraine,” the president told Mr. Soros in presenting one of the country’s highest honors. He said Mr. Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation had played a big role in the development of Ukraine’s statehood in the past 25 years. Mr. Soros, 85, said after receiving the award that it was a great honor for him personally and for the International Renaissance Foundation. Mr. Soros’s charitable organizations have given billions of dollars to countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, with charities operating in some 25 countries. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax and TASS)
Mosque vandalized in annexed Crimea
SYMPEROPOL, Ukraine – Unknown attackers have broken the windows of a mosque on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia last year. The Spiritual Directorate of Crimea’s Muslims said on November 16 that the attackers threw dozens of bricks at the mosque’s windows in the village of Zavet-Leninsky. The incident took place over the weekend. Local Imam Rustem Akhmetshayev filed an official complaint with the local law enforcement authorities. In September, unknown individuals vandalized posters depicting the Grand Mosque being constructed in Crimea’s capital, Symferopol. The majority of Crimea’s Muslims are Crimean Tatars. Many of them have openly protested Crimea’s annexation by Russia in March 2014. (Crimean Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Russia to ban food imports from Ukraine
MOSCOW – Russia has announced it will ban all food imports from Ukraine starting on January 1, 2016. Russian Economy Minister Aleksei Ulyukayev told TV channel Rossia-24 on November 18 that Russia was taking the action “because Ukraine has joined the sanctions against the Russian Federation – economic and financial.” Russia has been slapped with Western sanctions for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Moscow, which denies any role in the conflict, has already imposed its own food bans on the European Union, the United States and other Western countries. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the pending Russian action will cost Ukraine’s economy some $600 million in 2016. On the other hand, Mr. Yatsenyuk noted that the Ukrainian economy was now less dependent on Russia. “While earlier our dependence was 35 percent, now it’s at the level of 12.5 percent,” the prime minister said on November 18, according to a statement on his Cabinet’s website. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and DPA)