Kremlin sees U.S. role in resolving conflict
The Kremlin says the United States could play a role in helping resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict given Washington’s influence in Kyiv. “The U.S. can undeniably use the influence it has over Kyiv to make Ukraine fulfill its Minsk agreements obligations as soon as possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on October 8, noting that Moscow wouldn’t back Washington joining the Normandy format talks to settle the conflict. Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France currently comprise the so-called Normandy Four, though they have not met for peace talks since October 2016. A deal announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week that would allow local elections in separatist-held parts of eastern Ukraine under certain security conditions has potentially opened a path for the Normandy Four to hold talks as they look to find a solution to end the fighting, which has killed more than 13,000 since April 2014. Separately in Minsk, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said, “It won’t be possible to resolve the conflict without the participation of the United States.” He added, “The Ukrainian conflict is not just a challenge to us, it needs to be addressed. If we put our minds to it, then we are capable of anything. If not, we will gather and talk but it won’t be enough,” he added. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax, TASS and Reuters)
EU nominee: Balkans, Ukraine top priorities
The EU’s proposed new top diplomat wants to make the Balkans and the “eastern front of Europe” the 28-member bloc’s main foreign-policy priorities. At his confirmation hearing on October 7 before the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Josep Borrell highlighted growing tensions in the bloc with Russia, while lamenting that the world had “dramatically… changed for the worse” over the past decade. He said the EU’s international standing was under pressure from China’s ascending power, disputes with the United States, and an assertive Kremlin. “The Balkans and the eastern front of Europe, that’s the priority of our external policy,” the current Spanish foreign minister told members of the European Parliament. During his opening 15-minute speech, Borrell argued that the EU cannot “have ambitions to be global players if we cannot sort out problems at our own borders.” He emphasized a “balanced” approach toward Russia, amid uneasiness among Poland and the Baltic states over what they see as rapprochement efforts by countries like France and Finland toward Moscow. Mr. Borrell, 72, said the best way “to address Russian expansionism is to help and reinforce Ukraine, their resilience and capacity for reforms and become a prosperous country.” Noting that Russia was under EU sanctions for seizing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 and for “destabilizing” eastern Ukraine by backing “separatists,” he said, “We should continue extending the sanctions against Russia until we see tectonic changes” on the part of Moscow. He also said that the EU had given Ukraine $16.5 billion in assistance in the past five years, adding, “we have to continue helping them, because if we really want to face – let’s say – the cold challenge from the east, the best way is to create a ring of democratic and prosperous countries on our eastern border, and it’s not going to be free [of monetary costs].” Mr. Borrell also emphasized the need to bolster the EU’s efforts to counter disinformation “because it is a weapon.” Thus, he said, “let me stress from the beginning of my intention to engage on the reform and integration process in the Western Balkans [and to] support democracy and [the] territorial integrity of Ukraine.” It is foreseen that the new European Commission, including Mr. Borrell as EU foreign-policy chief, will assume office on November 1. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Ukrayinska Pravda)
Honcharuk unveils development plan
Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has released a bold five-year action plan for Ukraine on the government’s website that sets development of human capital and the economy, defense, quality of life, and European integration as priorities. Billing his Cabinet as the “technocratic government,” Mr. Honcharuk on September 30 promised to “continuously invest in science, education and culture” while seeking to create conditions for the delivery of “quality and accessible services to people.” In five years, the prime minister wants the economy to grow by 40 percent. To achieve this goal, Mr. Honcharuk told journalists at a briefing in Kyiv that gross domestic product (GDP) should rise by 5 percent next year, and increase by at least 7 percent in 2021-2024. To ensure the higher growth rates, Ukraine needs to draw $50 billion in investment over the next five years, the prime minister said. Among other goals of Mr. Honcharuk is achieving a minimum monthly salary of nearly $174 at the current exchange rate. “In addition, the #Technocratic government aims to ensure that each family’s utility bills do not exceed 15 percent of their income,” he said. All government services are to be transferred online, and there will be 24,000 kilometers of roadwork completed. Demographic trends will be reversed as the population will start to rise due to the birthrate exceeding the death rate and as more Ukrainians repatriate than emigrate, Mr. Honcharuk said. And environmental pollution will be reduced by 20 percent. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Ukraine Business News)
Аnti-trust probe into Akhmetov’s DTEK
Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee (AMKU) has opened an anti-trust probe into the country’s biggest power producer, DTEK, owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. In an October 7 explanatory statement on the regulator’s website, the AMKU accused a unit of Mr. Akhmetov’s energy holding located in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk of “abusive economic practices.” DTEK subsidiary Zakhidenerho has been allegedly taking advantage of its “market presence” there, where its coal-fired plant accounts for 90 percent of electricity production in three regions at the so-called Burshtyn Energy Island. In a statement, DTEK said the accusation was groundless, calling the probe “an artificial administrative intervention in market competition.” Burshtyn is a part of the power grid that is separated from Ukraine’s energy system and connected to the EU’s ENTSO-E system. In August, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau had accused DTEK officials of manipulating tariffs on electricity generated from coal with energy and utilities regulators that allegedly forced consumers to overpay $747 million in 2016-2017. DTEK allegedly benefited by $560 million in the scheme. The energy producer denounced the allegation, saying in an August 8 statement that there was “no legitimate basis for suspicions set out in the investigation.” (RFE/RL)
Prosecutor on case of Hunter Biden
Ukraine’s top prosecutor says he doesn’t know of any evidence showing illegal activity by the son of former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, but that his office is reviewing several closed cases, including ones related to a gas company where Hunter Biden worked. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on October 4, Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said he had not been contacted by any foreign lawyers about the case surrounding Burisma, the gas company that hired Mr. Biden in 2014. A July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where the U.S. leader pressed for an investigation of the Bidens has become the focal point of an impeachment inquiry. In answer to a question about whether he had evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden’s son, Mr. Ryaboshapka said, “I have no such information.” When asked whether Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, had contacted him, the Ukrainian prosecutor stressed that no foreigners had been in touch with his office, adding that “prosecutors are outside politics.” (RFE/RL)
Prosecutors probe Saakashvili’s expulsion
Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s deportation from Ukraine in 2018. The Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said on October 7 that the investigation was launched after Mr. Saakashvili filed a complaint over the “abduction and violent actions against” him and “his illegal” deportation to Poland last year. In May, Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reinstated Mr. Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship almost two years after it was removed by Mr. Zelenskyy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. In February 2018, Mr. Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv, taken to the airport, and flown to Poland. Days later, Ukraine’s border service banned him from entering Ukraine until February 13, 2021. Mr. Saakashvili was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed to the Odesa governor’s post by President Poroshenko in 2015. When relations between Messrs. Poroshenko and Saakashvili soured over reform efforts and the fight against corruption, the Ukrainian president sacked Mr. Saakashvili from the governor’s post in November 2016. In July 2017, after Mr. Saakashvili created the Movement of New Forces opposition party, Mr. Poroshenko issued a decree that stripped Mr. Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by 112.international and UNIAN)
Kremlin interested in prisoner exchange
The Kremlin has said it is interested in an “all for all” prisoner exchange with Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on October 4 that “certain work is being done in that direction,” adding, “Everything depends on readiness of the two sides.” Mr. Peskov’s statement came a day after Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko said that “a wide-scale prisoner exchange” would be carried out next week. On September 7, Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 70 prisoners in a move praised by the West as an opportunity to improve tense relations between Kyiv and Moscow. The exchange was the first major prisoner swap between the two countries since 2017. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax, UNIAN, and TASS)
State Department OKs sale of Javelins
The U.S. State Department has approved $39.2 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine, including a second batch of the world’s deadliest anti-tank missiles to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia-backed separatists. The deal approved on October 3 includes 150 Javelin missiles and 10 launch units and adds to the 210 missiles and 37 launchers that Ukraine bought from the United States in April 2018. The Javelin missile systems are meant to be used in the event of a large-scale escalation in the war and not for offensive purposes, U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said. “The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements,” the State Department said in a notice to Congress. The latest sale must still be approved by Congress, where support for Ukraine remains strong and where initial approval was earlier given for the sale. Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the Javelin deal will not help Ukraine’s defense capabilities but will dent the country’s budget. “What Ukraine really needs today is a settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict, an end to the crisis in many fields, a better situation in the economy and struggle against corruption, the harmonization of internal political processes and the search for identity,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on October 3. U.S. Air Force General Tod Wolters, the supreme allied commander, told reporters on October 3 that he supported sending additional Javelins to Ukraine beyond those already agreed upon. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP, AFP and DPA)