Kyiv celebrates Day of Unity
Hundreds of Ukrainians have joined together to form a human chain across the Dnipro River in Kyiv to mark the 1919 Unification Act of the Ukrainian National Republic and the short-lived Western Ukrainian National Republic. In a statement to mark the Day of Unity on January 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that in the modern world the feeling of a nation as a whole arises not only through common traditions, culture and religion, but also because of the values that are “acceptable to every corner of Ukraine.” The statement said: “To be strong, one must become one. To become one, one must be strong. We need to keep that in mind.” Mr. Zelenskyy’s statement comes amid efforts to reinvigorate the moribund peace process with Russia, which has created uncertainty and division within Ukraine. “On Ukrainian Unity Day, we call on Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea and the Donbas, extending to its territorial waters,” the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv wrote in a post on Twitter. Mr. Zelenskyy, Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk and Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk took part in a ceremony marking the day by laying flowers at the monuments of prominent Ukrainian writer and thinker Taras Shevchenko and historian and political leader Mykhailo Hrushevsky. The Day of Unity has been marked as a national holiday in Ukraine since 1999, but the first “chain of unity” occurred on January 21, 1990, when the country was still part of the former Soviet Union. The outpouring of nationalism saw hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians stand in a chain that was so long it connected the capital with several other nearby cities. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Donetsk airport defenders remembered
A requiem liturgy was held at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv on January 21 to honor the fallen defenders of the Donetsk airport and all deceased combatants. Attending the memorial service in the Ukrainian capital were war veterans who defended the Donetsk airport from Russia-backed separatists, other combatants in the Donbas conflict, families of fallen soldiers and volunteers. The defense of the Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk International Airport lasted 242 days, from May 26, 2014, to January 22, 2015, and ended after two of its terminals as well as the dispatch tower were completely destroyed. Its defense became an emblem of the fighting spirit of Ukrainians; its defenders, both regular soldiers and volunteer fighters, became known as “cyborgs,” a moniker given to them by Russia-backed separatists for their resilience. Ukraine’s military says 101 soldiers were killed and 440 wounded while defending the airport. Nine combatants are still missing. Volunteers from the Right Sector, Dnipro-1, Karpatska Sich and other such formations also took part in defending the airport. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since it began in April 2014. The Kremlin officially denies that it is a party to the war and describes the events in the Donbas as “an internal Ukrainian conflict.” The Donetsk airport was built ahead of the 2012 European soccer championship that Ukraine co-hosted with Poland. Its estimated cost was $860 million. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Youngest research team headed to Antarctica
Ukraine is sending its youngest ever expeditionary team to Antarctica in March, the Ministry of Education and Science said in a press release on January 20. The average age of the 25th Ukrainian Antarctic expedition is 37. The 12-person team will be based at the Vernadsky Research Base, which Ukraine bought from Britain in 1996 for a symbolic 1 pound. “We want to give young people as much chance to further themselves and their scientific potential,” said Yevhen Dykiy, head of the ministry’s National Antarctic Center. “And for the same reason, half of the staff are ‘newcomers,’ meaning they will go to Antarctica for the first time this year.” The expedition consists of seven scientists, a doctor, a cook, a systems mechanic, a diesel electrician engineer and a system communications administrator. Two members of the team are women. Yuriy Otrub, a specialist at the National Antarctic Center, will lead the expedition; it will be his sixth winter at the research base. (RFE/RL)
Iran: Two missiles downed Ukrainian jet
Iranian officials have said that air defenses on high alert during heightened tensions after Iranian missile strikes “unintentionally” fired anti-aircraft missiles at the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800. The Iranian report also said Tehran has requested equipment from U.S. and French authorities to download data from the flight recorders but it has not yet received a positive response. Canada, Ukraine and other countries who had citizens on the flight have asked Iran to send the flight data and voice recorders to experts abroad for analysis. “We hope that we can go a little further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems; among them in particular is the return of the black boxes,” Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters on January 20 after a meeting in Kyiv with the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami. Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Ukraine, and Sweden – countries whose nationals were killed in the crash – issued a joint statement calling for a “thorough, independent and transparent” investigation. Most of the victims were Iranian and Canadian citizens. Canada has said France would be the best place to send the black boxes because it was one of the few countries with the ability to read them. However, Tehran has given mixed signals about whether the black boxes would be handed over. The Iranian official leading the investigation, Hassan Rezaeifar, was quoted by the Iranian media as saying the country might eventually send the black boxes abroad, adding, “But, as yet, we have made no decision.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, AFP and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine presses Iran over black boxes
Ukraine is urging Iran to return the black-box flight recorders of a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by the Iranian forces earlier this month. Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko made the call on January 20 as the Iranian minister of roads and urban development was visiting Kyiv to discuss the tragedy. Mohammad Eslami’s “main task is to apologize and acknowledge what happened,” Mr. Prystaiko told reporters. “We hope that we can go a little further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems. Among them in particular is the return of the black boxes,” he added. The Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, killing all 176 people on board. Most of the victims were Iranian and Canadian citizens. On January 19, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne reiterated Ottawa’s request that Tehran hand over the black boxes to France or Ukraine “as quickly as possible.” However, the Iranian official leading the investigation into the crash appeared to backtrack on plans to send the flight recorders abroad for analysis. Iranian media quoted Hassan Rezaeifar as saying the country might send the black boxes abroad, adding, “But as of yet, we have made no decision.” During his meeting with Mr. Eslami, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “in the matter of clarifying the circumstances of the tragedy, the Iranian party had complied with most arrangements,” according to Ukraine’s presidency. A statement said Iranian experts were expected to assess Ukraine’s technical ability to decode the black boxes. “I promised the families and relatives of the victims, I promised the people of Ukraine that the truth will be established. We must know what happened,” it quoted Mr. Zelenskyy as telling the Iranian minister. The coffins of the 11 Ukrainian citizens killed in the plane crash, including nine crew members, arrived in Kyiv on January 19. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters and AFP)
Canada to help victims’ families
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government will provide quick funds to the families of 57 citizens and 29 permanent residents of the country who died when a Ukrainian jetliner was shot down in Iran last week. Mr. Trudeau on January 17 said that, although Canada will provide $25,000 ($19,122 U.S.) to the Canadian-tied victims’ families, he still expects Iran to compensate these relatives. He said the immediate funds will help families pay for funerals, travel to Iran, and other costs. Any funds later provided by Tehran will go directly to the victims’ families, he said. “I want to be clear, we expect Iran to compensate these families,” Mr. Trudeau said. “But I have met them. They can’t wait weeks. They need support now.” The prime minister has said the downing of the aircraft was a “Canadian tragedy” because 138 of the passengers were headed for Canada. It had previously been reported that 57 of the victims were Canadian citizens, mainly from the country’s large Canadian Iranian community. Trudeau’s remarks for the first time also confirmed that 29 permanent residents of Canada were also among the fatalities. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, AFP and DPA)
Kyiv asks OSCE to expand mission
Foreign Affairs Minister Vadym Prystaiko says Ukraine has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to expand its monitoring mission in Ukraine. Mr. Prystaiko made the announcement on January 20 after a meeting with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Edi Rama. The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission has been present in Ukraine since 2014, when fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The war has killed nearly 14,000 people and devastated Ukraine’s industrial heartland. The mission’s civilian monitors keep track in particular of the situation in the war-torn regions, with a special task of facilitating dialogue between the sides of the conflict. Its mandate expires on March 31. Mr. Prystaiko said Kyiv asked the OSCE not only to extend the duration of the mission, but to “expand its possibilities and human resources” and support it financially. Mr. Rama called the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine “the most pressing challenge to security and stability in Europe today.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax)
Two soldiers killed, 10 wounded
One Ukrainian soldier was killed and 10 were wounded over a span of 24 hours on January 18 in the country’s eastern Donbas war zone, the Ukrainian military reported. A daily briefing by the military headquarters the following day said Ukrainian forces faced six attacks along the frontline that included the use of drones, armored-fighting vehicles, 120-millimeter mortars, grenade launchers and heavy-caliber machine guns. Another Ukrainian serviceman was killed on January 15 from sniper fire in a conflict with Russia-backed separatists. Some 130 Ukrainian military personnel were killed in 2019 and the beginning of January, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on January 17. In the Donetsk region, 101 service personnel were killed and 31 in the Luhansk region. A total of seven Ukrainian troops have been killed since the beginning of this year and another 28 were wounded, the Defense Ministry reported. Russia has denied direct involvement in the conflict and says any Russians fighting in the Donbas territories are volunteers. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Journalist banned from Crimea until 2054
Russia’s Border Guard Service, a branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB), has banned Ukrainian journalist Taras Ibrahimov from entering Russia and the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea until the middle of 2054. Mr. Ibrahimov, who works with the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, told RFE/RL on January 18 that he had been handed the order in person without explanation. “I definitely believe this is connected with my journalism and my work for publications that actively cover the cases of Crimean Tatars in Crimea and in Russia,” Mr. Ibrahimov said. He said that he was also photographed and fingerprinted at the administrative line between Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and the rest of Ukraine. In February 2019, photographer Alina Smutko, who also worked with the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, was banned from entering Crimea and Russia until 2028. In November 2018, another Ukrainian journalist who also works with the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Alena Savchuk, was also banned from entering Crimea and Russia until 2028. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities against Crimean Tatars and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s military seizure and occupation of the peninsula. In its annual global report on freedom of religion in 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that “Russian authorities continued to kidnap, torture, and imprison Crimean Tatar Muslims at will” in Russia-occupied Crimea. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)