Zelenskyy seeks tougher EU sanctions
On the second and last day of his visit to Brussels, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has called on the European Union to step up sanctions against Russia. Following talks with European Council President Donald Tusk on June 5, Mr. Zelenskyy thanked the EU for its “unwavering support” and called for the “strengthening of sanctions to get peace back in Ukraine.” The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia – including asset freezes and visa bans on Russian individuals and entities – after Moscow seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and began supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed some 13,000 people. Mr. Zelenskyy said that under his leadership Ukraine will continue to pursue EU integration, calling it “an assurance of the independence of the Ukrainian state, the welfare of the Ukrainian people, and the accelerated economic and technological growth.” He said that “countering Russian aggression and the consolidation of international support in the struggle for Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity” was among his key priorities. The Ukrainian president also vowed to implement reforms and intensify the fight against corruption. Mr. Tusk said that by making his first foreign trip as president to EU and NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital, Mr. Zelenskyy was sending “a strong and important signal.” The EU “will always be determined to help Ukraine strengthen its democracy and the rule of law, fight corruption, stabilize its economy, and pursue energy sector reforms,” he said, adding that the bloc will remain “committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP)
NATO referendum part of path to West
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised to hold a referendum on NATO membership – a move strongly opposed by Moscow – as the country embarks on a path of European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Speaking in an interview on June 5 with RFE/RL that also ran on Ukraine’s 1+1 channel, the recently elected President Zelenskyy said Ukraine and its people had the right as a sovereign nation to choose the alliances they desire, regardless of outside opinions. “I said that we need to inform each Ukrainian about what NATO is like, which is not so terrible, and when Ukrainians are ready, we will definitely bring this issue to a referendum, and Ukraine will definitely be in NATO,” said the former comic actor with no prior political experience who took over as president two weeks ago. A day earlier, Mr. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s “strategic course to achieve full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO” remained unchanged from the goal of his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. Moscow has made explicit its opposition to NATO’s further expansion, especially as regards to Ukraine and Georgia. Tbilisi is also seeking to become a member of the Western military alliance. NATO and the European Union have invested heavily in Ukraine and its 44 million people who, in addition to the conflict and Russia’s occupation of Crimea, face entrenched corruption and major economic hurdles. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has called Ukraine a “highly valued partner” that does not “recognize Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
New bill on security cooperation
On May 31, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-Texas) introduced the U.S.-Ukraine Security Cooperation Enhancement Act. The bill “Amends previous NDAA statute by increasing specific lethal military assistance to Ukraine; Provides anti-tank, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft defense systems to the Ukrainians, as well as other necessary defense articles to defend its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity against Russian aggression; Requests the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress that reviews U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, including areas of need for Ukraine to effectively deter Russian aggression; Advises the president to determine, if appropriate, whether Ukraine should be designated a Major Non-NATO Ally until it achieves accession as a NATO member state.” Rep. Engel stated, “In the face of unrelenting Russian aggression, the Ukrainian people have shown extraordinary resolve and commitment to democracy. The U.S. must continue to support them with effective security assistance and tougher sanctions on Russia, Putin, and his oligarchs as long as these assaults against Ukraine continue. I’m pleased to join with Ranking Member McCaul on this legislation to enhance the U.S.-Ukraine security partnership.” Rep. McCaul said, “The United States must maintain a decisive and forceful approach to confront Putin’s belligerent behavior and send a strong message that we will not stand by while Russia threatens our allies. By continuing to provide security assistance to Ukraine that furthers its implementation of defense reforms and achievement of NATO interoperability, we can better equip our ally with sophisticated lethal weapons to defend itself and deter Russian aggression. As the world’s lead defender of freedom, the United States must employ all tools necessary to protect our shared values. I look forward to working with Chairman Engel and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this legislation to support our ally Ukraine.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Three soldiers killed, three wounded
Ukraine says three of its soldiers have been killed and at least three others wounded in clashes with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on June 5 that the casualties resulted from a battle with separatist fighters who opened fire with machine guns, anti-tank missiles, sniper rifles and grenade launchers, violating a ceasefire 16 times in a 24-hour period. Heavy weapons, including anti-tank missiles, are banned under the Minsk peace agreements. A previous ministry statement was unclear, leading to reports that four soldiers had been killed. The ministry also said that Ukrainian armed forces killed at least one separatist and wounded another one. Since April 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv’s forces and the Russia-backed militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ceasefire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords – September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict – have contributed to a decrease in fighting but have failed to hold. A new ceasefire agreement was reached on March 8, but both sides have accused each other of repeated violations since then. (RFE/RL)
UWC calls for detained sailors’ release
Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) welcomed and echoed the decision on May 25 of the U.N. maritime tribunal that Russia must release three Ukrainian naval vessels captured by Russia in November 2018 and release 24 detained sailors. The Hamburg-based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea delivered its ruling on the case Ukraine brought against Russia. The attack by Russia in the Kerch Strait, which links the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, marked a flashpoint in Russia’s continuing military conflict against Ukraine, including the 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea. Tribunal president Jin-Hyun Paik said that judges decided Russia must “immediately” return the three ships to Ukraine’s custody, and release the sailors and allow them to return to Ukraine. A UWC statement called upon the international community to increase sanctions against Russia in response to its continued and escalating violations of international law. “Russian vessels should be barred entry into all ports worldwide until Russia complies with this order,” stated UWC President Paul Grod. ”This is yet one more example of Russia’s continuing violation of international law and human rights violations.” (UWC)
Officers face charges over boy’s fatal shooting
Two traffic police officers who are suspected of fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy while firing bullets in the yard of a home outside Kyiv last week now face premeditated murder charges. In a June 4 ruling, a court in the capital ordered Volodymyr Petrovets and Ivan Prykhodko to be jailed in pretrial detention for two months. Messrs. Petrovets and Prykhodko were detained after authorities said a boy was hit by a bullet one of them fired when they were shooting at aluminum cans in the yard of a home in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky while drunk and off duty on May 31. They were initially charged with hooliganism and inflicting bodily harm. After the boy died in the hospital on June 3, the Prosecutor General’s Office said the charges were changed to premeditated murder. Prosecutors gave no details about the reason for the premeditated murder charges and Mr. Prykhodko’s lawyer disputed them in court on June 4, saying that the boy’s death was an accident. According to media reports, after the incident occurred district police initially said that the boy had fallen and hit his head on the pavement, but when he was hospitalized doctors found that he had a gunshot wound. A lawyer for the slain boy’s family said that the gun the shots were fired from had mysteriously disappeared, possibly during a search, and that the weapon had been fired by the son of one of the officers, who was at home at the time of the incident. The lawyer, Oleksandr Shcherbina, also said that the officers were not tested for alcohol levels after the shooting so it has not been established that they were drunk. The chief of police in the district where the shooting occurred was fired and the head of the National Police, Serhiy Knyazev, said later on June 3 that he accepted Kyiv regional police chief Dmytro Tsenov’s resignation over the situation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed condolences to the boy’s relatives and vowed that “all those guilty will be punished in accordance with justice.” Amid political tension ahead of snap parliamentary elections that Mr. Zelenskyy has scheduled for July 21, some of the parties in the Verkhovna Rada have called on Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov and other top officials to report to the legislature on the matter. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Current Time and Ukrayinska Pravda)
Russia rejects Ukraine’s case in U.N. court
Russia has argued that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) lacks jurisdiction in Kyiv’s case over Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The court in The Hague, the Netherlands, on June 3 started holding public hearings in the case, with Russia’s representatives vehemently rejecting Ukraine’s allegations that Moscow supported terrorist activities in the conflict opposing Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east. Ukrainian representatives presented Kyiv’s arguments on June 4, and a second round of arguments was to be held on June 6-7. Ukraine filed the case at the ICJ in January 2017, accusing Russia of violating the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It said Moscow had stepped up its interference in Ukraine’s affairs since 2014, “intervening militarily… financing acts of terrorism and violating the human rights of millions of Ukraine’s citizens, including, for all too many, their right to life.” The case also includes claims of Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) by a missile over the conflict zone in July 2014. Russia denies involvement in the tragedy in which all 298 people on board the aircraft were killed. An international investigative team has determined that the Buk missile that struck the passenger jet came from Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and was fired from territory held by the separatists. In The Hague, the Russian representatives told the ICJ that Kyiv failed to produce new evidence to show that Russia was involved in funneling arms and money to the separatists and in the downing of MH17. “The case brought by Ukraine should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” Dmitry Lobach, a Russian ambassador-at-large, said. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by DPA, Reuters and AFP)
Rada refuses to dismiss Groysman
The Verkhovna Rada has rejected Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman’s resignation after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on May 20 called on the government to step down. Only 97 lawmakers voted on May 30 in favor of Mr. Groysman’s resignation – far short of the 226 votes needed to accept the prime minister’s resignation. The vote came the same day as Mr. Zelenskyy’s office announced that the president had formally asked the Parliament to dismiss Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak and Security Service chief Vasyl Hrytsak. The president’s office added that a move to dismiss Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko was pending. A day after his inauguration, Mr. Zelenskyy issued a decree disbanding the Parliament and calling snap elections in July, and proposed changes in the electoral process. However the Ukrainian Parliament, at a May 22 emergency session, voted against debating amendments proposed by Mr.,. Zelenskyy, underscoring the challenge he faces from the very start of his five-year term. The two votes against the president’s proposals appear to highlight a standoff between lawmakers and Mr. Zelenskyy, a political novice who has no formal support in the current Parliament. (RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters, TASS, and Interfax)
Four killed in military helicopter crash
An Mi-8 military helicopter crashed late on May 29 during a training exercise in western Ukraine, killing three crew members and their commander, Ukraine’s military has said. The press service said that contact with the helicopter was lost at 11:27 p.m. local time (2027 GMT/UTC) on May 29. Rescue services and law enforcement agencies worked at the scene of the crash overnight and continued on May 30. Representatives of the Defense Ministry, the General Staff, and the Ground Forces command were en route to the site. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the crash on Twitter, writing, “It’s not a good morning.” Mr. Zelenskyy said he had ordered Gen. Ruslan Khomchak, the Ukrainian army chief, to “investigate the circumstances of the tragedy under his personal control.” (RFE/RL)
France, Germany urge resumed peace talks
France and Germany are seeking the resumption of stalled peace talks regarding the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Western nations’ foreign ministers say. Germany’s Heiko Maas and France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian made the comments on May 30 after what they called an “exceptionally good discussion” in Kyiv with the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. France and Germany have been the key forces behind the so-called Minsk peace process, bringing in Ukraine and Russia for talks aimed at ending the war with Moscow-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine. “We are going to take advantage of the moment to relaunch the Minsk peace process… because for the moment we are in an impasse and that is unacceptable,” Mr. Maas said. “We are going to continue to try and make peace possible in this country, in the east of Ukraine. After these talks, I am certain it is possible,” he said, adding that Mr. Zelenskyy had said peace was the “absolute priority.” Messrs. Maas and Le Drian in a joint statement called on Moscow to display “the political will and responsibility to restore an atmosphere of confidence [with the Ukrainian government] rather than stoke tensions.” He added, “Some gestures are expected from Russia, particularly the release of 24 sailors held illegally,” referring to the seizure and detention by Russia of Ukrainian sailors off Crimea in 2018. Western leaders have demanded that Russia release the servicemen, and the incident has led to the imposition of additional sanctions on Russia. In their joint statement, Messrs. Maas and Le Drian called for the “unconditional release” of the sailors. “We raised the issue of the… incident that occurred last November,” they said. “We also met with the families of the sailors who have been held in Russian jail since November in breach of international law, in order to show our support for the families who are missing their loved ones,” they added. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA, AFP and Interfax)
Bartholomew: Kyiv Patriarchate does not exist
The Patriarchate of Constantinople has reinstated the episcopal status of former head of the (non-canonical) Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret as former metropolitan of Kyiv, while the so-called Kyiv Patriarchate “does not exist and never existed,” Patriarch Bartholomew said in a statement. The dead of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Sergey Tomilenko, posted a scan of the official address to Ukrainian journalists from Patriarch Bartholomew, who met with him in Istanbul last week, on his Facebook account. In his address, Patriarch Bartholomew reiterated his support for Ukraine and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and insisted that granting it autocephaly “had nothing to do with politics or geopolitics,” as the Mother Church of Constantinople has seen that, “for decades, if not centuries, Ukraine was not able to enjoy complete freedom from external influences, especially from the Russian State.” He continued: “As for Filaret, he was restored to his episcopal dignity as former Metropolitan of Kyiv. The so-called ‘Patriarchate of Kyiv’ does not exist and never existed.” Patriarch Bartholomew added: “We also profess, now that autocephaly has been granted, that it is the responsibility of the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, His Eminence Metropolitan Epifaniy, to lead this historic Church, strengthening the unity of the Ukrainian people, inspiring Christian values based on the Gospel, and making the gift of freedom a means to spread the good news of the New Testament.” (Interfax)
Hungarian Court orders arrest of ship’s captain
A Hungarian court has ordered the arrest of the Ukrainian captain whose cruise ship collided with a pleasure boat on the Danube, capsizing the boat and killing at least seven South Korean tourists. The Budapest court on June 1 ordered the 64-year-old captain, identified as Yuriy C. from the Black Sea port of Odesa, for one month. The captain, who was detained on May 30, one day after the collision, has denied any wrongdoing, and no formal charges have brought against him yet.
Balazs Toth, the captain’s lawyer, told AFP that the court had granted bail, but that prosecutors were appealing forcing his client to remain in detention. “He is devastated by the number of victims and is asking constantly that condolences are conveyed to their families,” Mr. Toth said. It is so far unclear what caused the accident, in which the 135-meter cruise ship hit the smaller pleasure boat in Budapest, causing it to sink. Officials say seven South Korean citizens survived the crash and seven are confirmed dead. Nineteen South Koreans and two Hungarians are listed as missing and all are feared dead. Hungarian efforts to recover bodies were hampered by high water levels. Serbia and Croatia, which are on the Danube south of Budapest, have been asked to help in the search. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and AFP)