16,425 COVID-19 cases in Ukraine
Ukraine has recorded 16,425 cases of COVID-19) as of May 13, including 402 new cases in the past 24 hours, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said. “In total, 16,425 people, including 1,130 children and 3,208 health workers, have fallen ill during the entire period of the pandemic,” Mr. Stepanov said at a briefing on May 13. Twenty-five children and 94 health workers have contracted coronavirus over the past 24 hours. Fourteen people have died and 343 patients have recovered over the past 24 hours. Ukraine has recorded a total of 3,716 recoveries and 439 deaths. The highest numbers of coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours were recorded in the Kharkiv region – 49, Chernivtsi region – 48, Vinnytsia region – 48, as well as in Kyiv – 30. (Ukrinform)
Saakashvili to head reform council
Ukraine’s president has named former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to head the executive committee of Ukraine’s National Reform Council. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an order with the appointment on May 7. The council was created in 2014 to carry out strategic planning and coordinate reforms. Mr. Saakashvili, 52, served as Georgia’s president from 2004 until 2013. In January 2018, a Georgian court convicted him in absentia of covering up evidence in the case of the killing of a Georgian banker and sentenced him to three years in prison. In June 2018, another court convicted him of abuse of power and sentenced him to six years in prison. Mr. Saakashvili has denied all the accusations and says the charges are politically motivated. In 2015-2016, he served as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast. When he resigned, he accused Mr. Zelenskyy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, of corruption. President Poroshenko, in turn, stripped Mr. Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship. As one of his first acts as president last year, Mr. Zelenskyy restored Mr. Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship, facilitating his return to Ukraine. Last month, Mr. Saakashvili said he had been offered the post of deputy prime minister in charge of reform. But it was unclear if the Verkhovna Rada would confirm him. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters)
Rada approves crucial bank legislation
The Verkhovna Rada on May 13 passed a banking bill that will help open up billions of dollars’ worth of aid to Kyiv from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The bill, approved by 270 lawmakers, prevents the former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated in recent years during a widespread financial sector clean-up from regaining ownership rights or receiving monetary compensation. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was at the parliamentary session, called the bill a “historic” document that “will help us to defend our economy.” Though the legislation also has other implications for Ukraine’s banks, analysts say its main purpose is to prevent one of Ukraine’s most powerful tycoons, Ihor Kolomoisky, the former co-owner of PrivatBank, from regaining ownership rights to the bank. The IMF is said to have insisted upon approval of the banking law amid signs the government was considering returning PrivatBank, which is in the midst of a major legal and political fight. The bank was nationalized in 2016 when international auditors found a $5.5 billion hole in its balance sheet. Mr. Kolomoisky, who has close ties to Mr. Zelenskyy, has insisted that the bank was improperly nationalized by Ukrainian regulators. Mr. Kolomoisky has denied any wrongdoing and maintains he is the rightful owner of PrivatBank. Matti Maasikas, the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, hailed the bill as “a vital measure to protect public finances and Ukrainian taxpayers.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Pompeo speaks with Ukraine’s foreign minister
U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on May 7 reported that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo had spoken with Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba on May 6. She said: “Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Kuleba discussed Ukraine’s efforts to achieve a diplomatic resolution to the Russia-instigated conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region and the results of the April 30 Normandy Format virtual Foreign Ministerial. The secretary commended Ukraine’s conflict diplomacy in the face of Russia’s intransigence and continued aggressive behavior.” The spokesperson also noted: “The secretary reiterated resolute U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and emphasized that the United States will continue to impose costs on Russia, including through sanctions, until Russia implements the Minsk agreements and ends its occupation of Crimea. The secretary and foreign minister stressed the continued importance of COVID mitigation, and the secretary urged further progress on rule of law and economic reforms.” Also reported was that Secretary Pompeo “condemned Russia’s and its proxies’ efforts to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic” by spreading disinformation and further restricting the movement of monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and humanitarian organizations in eastern Ukraine. (U.S. Department of State)
IMF and Kyiv discuss new aid program
Negotiations between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Kyiv are now aimed not at securing a three-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine, but at achieving the conditions for launching a Stand-By Arrangement (SBA), which provides for smaller volumes and will last for 18 months, IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice said in response to an information request from Ukrinform. “Given an unprecedented uncertainty surrounding the economic and financial outlook and the need to focus policy priorities on new-term containment and stabilization, negotiations have shifted to this 18-month Stand-By Arrangement,” he said. Mr. Rice added that “there’s an ongoing virtual mission that is discussing policies that could be supported by what would be a Stand-By Arrangement, rather than the Extended Fund Facility.” According to him, the SBA “could provide balance of payment support to reinforce the authorities’ response” to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and health care. Last December, the IMF reached an agreement with the Ukrainian leadership on a new $5.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). It was stressed that Ukraine had to fulfill preliminary requirements. These included strengthening the rule of law, fighting corruption, strengthening the competitive environment, opening markets, reducing the role of oligarchs, pursuing prudent fiscal policies to ensure sustainable development in the medium term, and ensuring the independence and financial stability of the central bank. The amount of funding under the new Stand-By Arrangement has not yet been announced. The EFF was established to provide assistance to countries experiencing serious payment imbalances because of structural impediments or slow growth and an inherently weak balance-of-payments position. The SBA framework allows the IMF to respond quickly to countries’ external financing needs and to support their adjustment policies with short-term financing. (Ukrinform)
Agreement on Eastern Partnership aspirations
After two weeks of negotiations among European Union diplomats, the bloc’s 27 member states have reached agreement on the membership “aspirations” and economic “integration” of their eastern neighbors into the bloc. The text, agreed on by the ambassadors of the 27 EU countries on May 5 and seen by RFE/RL, represents the response to the European Commission’s communique on the Eastern Partnership that was presented in March. The document is expected to be published in the coming days. The Eastern Partnership program was launched in 2009 and is meant to bring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine closer to the bloc without a clear offer of future membership. Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have since inked Association Agreements with the EU, including free-trade deals, but some member states have been reluctant to openly discuss the issue of the eventual accession of these countries. The European Council “recalls the 2017 Eastern Partnership Summit declaration which acknowledges the European aspirations and European choice of the Eastern partners concerned,” the final document agreed upon by the ambassadors reads. It also says that “continued alignment with the EU internal market and gradual economic integration” of eastern partner countries are “of key importance.” The wording in the two sentences is very similar to the language used in previous EU documents. Several officials had previously told RFE/RL that France, backed by some southern EU members, was insisting on putting in brackets the two phrases, meaning that unanimity has not yet been reached on the language. Other parts of the document were slightly watered down. For instance, in a phrase saying that the council “reaffirms the joint commitment to building a common area of shared democracy, prosperity and stability,” the word “security” was omitted. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)
U.S. law firm paid millions to Tymoshenko
An international law firm based in New York paid at least $11 million to avoid being sued by Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, according to The New York Times in a story published on May 10. The law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom paid the money after Ms. Tymoshenko accused the company of writing a report that was used to help justify her imprisonment by a political rival, The Times reported. Ms. Tymoshenko was imprisoned in 2011-2014 on abuse of office charges that the international community widely condemned as politically motivated. In 2012, the New York law firm started representing Viktor Yanukovych’s Moscow-aligned government and produced a report that Mr. Yanukovych’s supporters used to condone Ms. Tymoshenko’s imprisonment. She was released after the Yanukovych government fell in 2014 amid protests against corruption and the government’s shift toward Moscow. Ms. Tymoshenko told The Times in a 2018 interview that “it was very painful” to hear about Skadden’s work while she was in prison. She accused the law firm of “whitewashing Yanukovych and his government” for money. “It’s a pity that such a well-known company like Skadden even considered to take this case to deliver,” she said in 2018. “This is a dirty, dirty, dirty contract.” Ms. Tymoshenko reportedly hired the law firm Reid Collins & Tsai after The Times interview to determine if it was possible to sue Skadden over the report, two people familiar with the arrangement told The Times. Skadden paid $11 million or more to settle before a suit was filed, people familiar with the settlement said, according to The Times. Ms. Tymoshenko and her lawyer, Sergei Vlasenko, who has also claimed he was treated unfairly by the Yanukovych government, each received about $5.5 million from the firm between July and last month, the report said. In a Facebook post on May 4, Ms. Tymoshenko referred to a settlement: “Yes, the other day I received monetary compensation for damage caused by political repression of 2011-2014… from a U.S. resident in the stage of pre-trial settlement. This suggests that the United States is a truly legal state, and human rights are not empty sound to them, but true value.” She said she had managed to achieve justice and said it was more proof that her imprisonment was political. Neither Mr. Vlasenko nor Skadden responded to RFE/RL’s request for comment. Last year, Skadden paid the Department of Justice $4.6 million to settle an investigation into whether the law firm’s work with Ukraine violated foreign lobbying laws. (RFE/RL, with reporting by The New York Times and The Hill)
Media watchdog condemns ‘wave of violence’
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières, or RSF) is urging Ukrainian authorities to enforce legislation penalizing violence against journalists after a reporter was assaulted by officers in Kyiv while he was filming an anti-lockdown protest. In a statement on May 7, the media-freedom watchdog says the incident came amid “many other cases of threats and acts of aggression and intimidation” against journalists since a public-health emergency was declared in parts of Ukraine on March 20. “It is unacceptable for the police to join in the wave of violence that Ukrainian journalists have suffered since the start of the public-health crisis,” said Jeanne Cavelier, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk. “This trend threatens the foundations of Ukrainian democracy and must be urgently reversed,” she added. During reporter Bohdan Kutiepov’s live coverage of an April 29 protest outside government headquarters in Kyiv for the online TV Hromadske, a policeman was heard telling him: “Either you take your camera or I break it.” Mr. Kutiepov was filming the demonstrators from a nearby park, but the police ordered him to leave and then pushed him to the ground, damaging some of his equipment, RSF said, adding that the National Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident as an “abuse of authority.” The investigation “must be conducted with complete transparency, and the law providing for specific sanctions in cases of obstruction of journalists and threats and violence against them must be applied in an exemplary fashion,” Ms. Cavelier said. According to RSF, another assault on the media took place on the evening of May 1, when freelancer Mykyta Knysh was physically attacked by a group of youths while covering respect for lockdown measures in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. Ukraine is ranked 96th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. (RFE/RL)