EU rejects Belarus vote results
Hundreds of Belarusian protesters gathered in Minsk on August 19 in defiance of a new push by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to clear the streets of the capital on the 11th day of rallies against his rule as the European Union refused to recognize the re-election of the longtime authoritarian president and said it will soon impose sanctions on his government. With thousands taking to the streets daily since the August 9 vote and strikes crippling many state enterprises, Mr. Lukashenka ordered the Internal Affairs Ministry on August 19 to put down mass protests that erupted across the country against the results, which gave Mr. Lukashenka just over 80 percent of the vote. The European Union held an emergency summit on the crisis, with EU Council President Charles Michel saying afterwards that the 27-nation bloc’s message “is very clear: Stop the violence.” He stated: “We stand firmly behind the right of Belarusian people to determine their own fate, and the EU will impose shortly sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression and election fraud.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, added at the end of the summit: “The election was neither free nor fair. And that’s why the result of the election cannot be recognized.” Opposition candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who drew tens of thousands of people to her campaign rallies, claims to have actually received between 60 and 70 percent of the vote in the presidential election. (RFE/RL)
Lukashenka orders tightened borders
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on August 19 ordered border controls to be tightened to prevent what he alleged was an influx of “fighters and arms” from abroad. “There should be no more riots in Minsk. People are tired; people demand peace and quiet,” Mr. Lukashenka said during a meeting of his security council, signaling another escalation after a week and a half of mass demonstrations against his rule, in which at least three people were killed and more than 7,000 detained, according to reports. The third fatality was registered on August 19, when a 44-year-old Brest resident who had been wounded by live ammunition during the protests died in a military hospital in Minsk, according to media reports. Hundreds of people released from detention have spoken of brutal beatings they suffered in detention. Mr. Lukashenka said he had instructed border authorities to beef up defenses “along the entire perimeter” of the country to “prevent militants, weapons, ammunition and money from other countries from entering Belarus to finance the riots.” (RFE/RL)
Kyiv angered by Minsk’s decision
Kyiv has expressed anger over a decision by Belarus to release a group of alleged Russian mercenaries that was detained near Minsk in late July. In a post on Facebook on August 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote that Minsk’s decision to send the men back to Russia “does not correspond to the spirit of relations” between Ukraine and Belarus. “The consequences of this decision will be tragic,” he added. Minsk detained 33 Russian citizens on July 29 and accused them of plotting to destabilize the situation in Belarus in the run-up to the August 9 presidential election. Belarusian authorities identified the men as employees of Russia’s Wagner private military company, which is believed to have ties to Russian military intelligence and has sent fighters to Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries. Moscow said the men were in Minsk en route to Istanbul before traveling on to “a third country.” Belarus sent 32 of the men to Russia on August 14. One of the detainees remains in Belarus because he has Belarusian citizenship, in addition to his Russian passport. Ukraine had requested the extradition of 28 of the men, who were suspected of fighting together with Russian-backed separatist formations in parts of eastern Ukraine. Mr. Zelenskyy said he feared the men would reappear in other conflict zones. (RFE/RL)
Ukraine sees record number of COVID cases
Ukraine saw another record number of coronavirus cases as of the morning of August 19: 1,967 cases of COVID-19 were detected in the past 24 hours, while 812 people recovered and 28 people died, according to data published on the website of the National Security and Defense Council’s Coronavirus Epidemic Monitoring System. A day earlier, on August 18, some 1,616 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, there were 1,464 cases on August 17, some 1,637 people were infected on August 16, and 1,847 new cases were reported on August 15. The most cases of COVID-19 over the past day were recorded in the Kharkiv (247), Kyiv (215), Lviv (188), Ivano-Frankivsk (163), Chernivtsi (154), Rivne (125), Odesa (123 ) and Zakarpattia regions (117). (Interfax-Ukraine)
Kolomoisky companies OKd for COVID relief
Five American companies owned by Ukrainian tycoons who are accused of laundering money and using the misappropriated funds to help buy U.S. assets were approved for as much as $13.3 million in loans through a federal program aimed at saving jobs during the pandemic, according to U.S. government records. CC Metals & Alloys, Felman Production, Felman Trading Americas, Optima Management Group and Optima 777 were among the more than 600,000 U.S. businesses approved for loans of $150,000 or more under the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, commonly called the PPP, Treasury Department records show. The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil complaint on August 6 that accuses Ukrainian billionaires Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars from a Kyiv-based bank and using the misappropriated funds to help purchase assets in the United States, including alloy and steel plants as well as real estate. The two men control CC Metals & Alloys, Felman Production, Felman Trading Americas, Optima Management Group and Optima 777 with their U.S. associates, Uriel Laber and Mordechai Korf, according to the Justice Department’s lawsuit. The FBI has not charged anyone with a crime; its investigation is continuing. Mr. Kolomoisky denies the laundering accusation, saying the money he and his partner used to purchase the U.S. assets came from their sale of Ukrainian steel assets to a Russian company for about $2 billion. Messrs. Laber and Korf, through their lawyer, also deny the charges, saying they are part of a politically motivated attack against Messrs. Kolomoisky and Boholiubov. CC Metals & Alloys, a Kentucky-based producer of ferrosilicon alloys used in the manufacturing of iron and steel, was approved for a PPP loan on April 14 of between $2 million and $5 million to help support 145 jobs, according to the data. CC Metals & Alloys shut down temporarily due to the coronavirus pandemic on July 1, according to a company press release. Felman Production, a West Virginia-based producer of silicon manganese, which is also used in steel production, was approved for a loan of between $1 million and $2 million to help support nearly 100 jobs. The Ukrainian tycoons and their U.S. partners have invested tens of millions of dollars into Felman Production since purchasing it out of bankruptcy in 2006. Felman Trading Americas, a ferroalloys trading company that the Justice Department said was set up by Messrs. Korf and Laber to hide the tycoons’ ownership, was approved for a loan of between $350,000 and $1 million. Optima Management Group, which managed the tycoons’ U.S. commercial real estate, was approved for a loan of between $150,000 and $300,000. Finally, Optima 777, which owns the Westin Hotel in Cleveland, was approved for a loan of between $2 million and $5 million to support 240 jobs. Sage Hospitality Group, a Denver-based hotel manager, owns a minority stake in the Westin, its spokeswoman Kelly Bajorek told RFE/RL. Bloomberg News in July reported that Optima 777 was approved for a PPP loan. A spokesman for Messrs. Korf and Laber declined to say how much of the $13.3 million in approved loans their companies received. The low-interest PPP loans are designed to keep employees on the payroll during the pandemic. Messrs. Korf and Laber are also listed as managing members of Transenergy USA, a Texas-based trucking company for the energy industry. Transenergy was approved for a PPP loan in May of between $350,000 and $1 million to help support 200 jobs. (Todd Prince of RFE/RL)
Ukraine urged to investigate attack
Media watchdogs have called on Ukrainian authorities to investigate intimidation and attacks against journalists from Skhemy (Schemes), a joint investigative project by RFE/RL and UA: Pershy television, after one of their cars was torched. The International and European federations of journalists said in a statement on August 18 that a campaign of harassment and intimidation, including surveillance and arson attacks, was aimed at “muzzling” the journalists’ investigations. The day before, the car of one of the team members was set on fire outside Kyiv, which investigators said was caused by “an external ignition source.” No one was hurt in the incident. “It is essential that investigative journalists can freely and critically report on corruption and wrongdoing of state officials,” IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said in the statement. “Surveillance and the attack against this team are worrisome blows against press freedom that can’t go unpunished. We stand in solidarity with the victimized journalists and call on the authorities to protect them from these attacks,” he added. A similar statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists urged Ukrainian authorities to find the perpetrators of the torching and “hold them to account.” Skhemy reporters were recently working on a story revealing how the transport of high-level state officials is breaking traffic rules. During the production of the program, the journalists repeatedly voiced concerns about being under surveillance. Skhemy reporter Mykhaylo Tkach said earlier in August that he believed he had found signs of surveillance in his apartment. “Authorities also must thoroughly investigate the surveillance allegations” made by Mr. Tkach, said Gulnoza Said, the CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “By reporting on corruption, investigative journalists at Schemes are doing an important service for the public, and the authorities should ensure their safety,” she added. RFE/RL acting President Daisy Sindelar has expressed distress over the arson attack, saying that while no one was injured, the broadcaster remains “concerned that this incident appears aimed at intimidating RFE/RL’s reporters and contributing to a threatening environment for journalists across Ukraine.” She added in a statement released on August 17: “Schemes is an award-winning investigative team whose work is vital to the public interest of all Ukrainians. We urge Ukrainian authorities to ensure that our colleagues can work safely and without fear.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine ends trade mission agreement
At a meeting on August 17, the Ukrainian government decided to terminate the agreement with Russia on the mutual establishment of trade missions, said Emine Dzhaparova, the first deputy minister of foreign affairs. “Today, at an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, it was decided to terminate the agreement between the government of Ukraine and the government of the Russian Federation on the mutual establishment of trade missions, which has been in effect since October 1992,” Ms. Dzhaparova wrote on her Facebook page. According to her, given Russia’s aggression and the occupation of Crimea, and the current state of relations between the two countries, this agreement has lost its practical significance and does not meet the national interests of Ukraine. (Interfax-Ukraine)
U.S. Embassy donates PPE worth $250 K
The United States Embassy in Ukraine has presented a batch of personal protective equipment (PPE) for protection against the novel coronavirus to Ukrainian state agencies. “As part of our international technical assistance, the U.S. Embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs office donated approximately $250,000 worth of personal protective equipment against COVID-19 to our Ukrainian partners at the National Police, State Border Guard Service and the State Customs Service,” the Embassy said on Facebook. (Interfax-Ukraine)