Ukraine reports 5,590 new coronavirus cases
Ukraine has registered 5,590 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 276,177, it was reported on October 14. According to the interactive map of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, 107 deaths and 2,137 recoveries have been recorded in the country over the past 24 hours. In total, 5,229 patients have died and 118,699 have recovered in Ukraine since the pandemic began. The highest number of new coronavirus cases has been reported in the Kharkiv region (637), Kyiv city (422), Lviv region (345), Dnipropetrovsk region (342) and Odesa region (302). (Ukrinform)
Cabinet extends adaptive quarantine
With new coronavirus infections averaging 5,000 a day, the Cabinet met in extraordinary session on October 13 and decided to extend the adaptive quarantine through December 31, reported Ukraine Business News. “University students are to vacate dormitories, go home and switch to remote learning for one month. Elementary and high schools start their traditional fall break early, returning October 30. In Kyiv, gyms are to close and restaurants to stop serving after 10 p.m. With the exception of last night’s Spain-Ukraine football match at Kyiv’s Olimpiyskiy Stadium, sporting events are to take place without spectators,” Ukraine Business News wrote. In Kyiv, there are now 2,730 beds in 22 hospitals dedicated to treating COVID patients, Mayor Vitali Klitschko told reporters. Despite this increase, the occupancy rate of COVID beds is around 70 percent. Nationwide, 66 percent of 52,000 corona unit beds are occupied. On October 12, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Mr. Klitschko to prepare the Sports Palace for overflow patients. In response, the mayor said state medical facilities should open their 11,000 beds in Kyiv to city residents. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
EU warns of sanctions for Belarus, Russia
The European Union has agreed to prepare fresh sanctions against Belarus and Russia as the bloc ramps up pressure on its eastern neighbors over human rights abuses and lack of democracy. Meeting in Luxembourg on October 12, foreign affairs ministers from the EU’s 27 members reiterated that Belarus’s August election was “neither free nor fair” and threatened to slap restrictive measures on Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the country’s autocratic leader, saying he “lacks any democratic legitimacy.” “The [EU] Council strongly condemns the violence employed by the Belarusian authorities against peaceful protesters and calls for the release of all arbitrarily detained persons, including political prisoners,” the bloc said in a statement noting the country’s “fraudulent” presidential election and subsequent “violent” crackdown on demonstrators protesting against it and media covering the events. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ministers had given a “political green light” to prepare a new sanctions package that will include Mr. Lukashenka himself. Earlier this month, the bloc agreed to impose visa bans and asset freezes on 40 Belarusian officials for their alleged role in the repression of protesters and the opposition, as well as fraud during the vote. France and Germany last week put forward proposals to slap sanctions on Russian individuals believed to be responsible for the Navalny poisoning and an entity involved in the program producing a nerve agent from the Novichok group. The sanctions proposal came after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on October 6 confirmed the findings of specialized laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden that Mr. Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent from the Novichok group. Mr. Borrell told reporters that ministers reached a “political agreement” to implement restrictive measures advocated by France and Germany against those linked to the “assassination attempt” against Mr. Navalny. A technical body will now work on drawing up a list of restrictive measures. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA and Reuters)
MI6 chief warned Zelenskyy about leaks
The Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported that during his official visit to the United Kingdom, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the head of the U.K.’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Richard Moore. Citing “a source that deserves trust,” Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reported that from the Ukrainian side, only Mr. Zelenskyy and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Chief Ivan Bakanov were present. The newspaper reported that among the topics discussed was “Zelenskyy’s circle, both official and unofficial, which has significant influence on the head of state.” Dzerkalo Tyzhnia said that, according to its source, “the secrecy of the meeting was dictated by the discussion of persons from Zelenskyy’s entourage; the British see that information is leaking from Ukraine. It should be noted that the topic of Zelenskyy’s closest circle was previously raised by the Americans. But their case was pressure on the authorities. In the British case it was a warning. In the event that Zelenskyy is not fully aware of the actions of people who associate themselves with Zelenskyy.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Lukashenka meets with jailed activists
Belarusian authorities have released two opposition activists after embattled Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who claims to have won the August presidential election, met with them and 10 other jailed opposition figures. Belarusian state television channel Belarus-1 said late on October 11 that Yury Vaskrasenski, a member of the election campaign of former potential presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka, and Dzmitry Rabtsevich, director of the company PandaDoc IT, had been transferred to house arrest. Mr. Babaryka, a banker once seen as Mr. Lukashenka’s toughest rival in the August 9 election, was prevented from running and jailed before the vote. The televised program showed Mr. Vaskrasenski, who said that after Mr. Lukashenka met with the jailed opposition figures on October 10, he was personally asked “to prepare his inputs regarding constitutional changes and define conditions for the release of some individuals,” who, as the television program’s anchors said, “turned out not to be as dangerous as they previously appeared.” Belarusian opposition figures described the visit as a sign of weakness from Mr. Lukashenka. Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on October 10 that Mr. Lukashenka had “acknowledged the existence of political prisoners whom he used to call criminals.” However, she said, “You can’t have dialogue in a prison cell.” Ms. Tsikhanouskaya ran as a presidential candidate against Mr. Lukashenka after the jailing of her husband by Belarusian authorities eliminated the possibility of his running in the election. She said she was allowed on October 10 to have her first phone call in four months with her jailed husband, video blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Belarus-1 and Tut.by)
Ex-diplomat quits Naftogaz board
A former U.S. State Department official said he is stepping down from the supervisory board of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company amid concerns about a slowdown in reform and creeping corruption. Amos Hochstein, who served as the U.S. special envoy for international energy affairs during former President Barack Obama’s administration, made the announcement in an October 12 opinion piece in the Kyiv Post. He singled out a Ukrainian government deal to import liquefied natural gas from a little-known American company and name one of its executives to the supervisory board. He also said there have been “unfounded allegations” leveled against the company as it seeks to reform the nation’s energy industry. “I can no longer stand by and be used to endorse this negative trend, and it’s why I must voluntarily leave the board. Supervisory boards cannot include members whose values are not in line with the reform and good governance agenda. Supervisory boards must continue to be independent, strengthened and protected from undue influence,” he said. Mr. Hochstein’s resignation is the latest warning sign that reforms in Ukraine are being stymied by powerful politicians and oligarchs. A slow reform process has deflated optimism ushered in by the surprise victory of political novice Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who campaigned on a platform of fighting corruption, carrying out reform and attracting foreign investment. Naftogaz, the country’s largest producer of natural gas, has been at the center of Ukraine’s biggest corruption scandals over the past two decades. After Ukrainians overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, the United States and Europe tied financial aid to the country’s progress on reforms, with a major focus on Naftogaz. The United States and the EU – along with Western financial institutions – pushed Ukraine to set up independent supervisory boards at state-owned companies to combat corruption. Mr. Hochstein joined the board in December 2017 and oversaw the divestiture of the pipeline business into a separate company as required by European legislation. Since the start of reforms in 2014 and aided by domestic price increases, Naftogaz has turned into one of the nation’s most profitable companies and accounts for a significant portion of the nation’s budget revenues. However, the reforms have hurt in some cases the fortunes of oligarchs, who account for nearly all the private-sector gas production and related services. “Unfortunately, Naftogaz management’s successful efforts to create a new corporate culture, transparent mechanisms and an adherence to international standards, was resisted at every step of the way. The company has been forced to spend endless amounts of time combating political pressure and efforts by oligarchs to enrich themselves through questionable transactions,” Mr. Hochstein said. (RFE/RL)
Pro-Kremlin writers irked by Crimea book
When Bulgarian writer Svetoslav Nahum’s book “Escape From Crimea” was published in Sofia last year, he expected support from the Union of Bulgarian Writers (SBP). Mr. Nahum’s book depicts the tribulations faced by Ukrainians who fled their homes in Crimea after the territory was occupied by Russian military forces in 2014 and illegally annexed by the Kremlin. Instead of support, the 49-year-old Mr. Nahum says, the pro-Kremlin leadership of the SBP tried to undermine the promotion of the book and launched a media campaign in Bulgaria to discredit his work. He resigned from the SBP in protest. Mr. Nahum then sought support from the Bulgarian PEN Center – the Sofia-based chapter of PEN International, a global nongovernmental organization that champions human rights and freedom of expression. As a member of the Bulgarian PEN Center’s managing board, Mr. Nahum in February had proposed a declaration condemning Russia’s seizure and annexation of Crimea. The declaration denounced “the information war that Moscow is waging against Bulgaria’s national sovereignty” as part of a “hybrid war” that promotes the Kremlin’s geopolitical agenda. It also called for the immediate release of Ukrainian writers, journalists and filmmakers who’d been imprisoned in Russia and in Russia-occupied Crimea after they’d opposed the annexation of Crimea. But the Bulgarian PEN Center’s management board rejected Mr. Nahum’s declaration by a 25-4 vote. Some members accused Mr. Nahum of accepting payments from the Ukrainian Embassy in Sofia to write what they called “anti-Russian propaganda” – a charge he dismisses as “ridiculous.” This month, Mr. Nahum’s book was published in Ukrainian by the Tverdynia Publishing House. It is being praised in Kyiv as a bold attempt to counter Kremlin propaganda by telling the truth about events in Russia-occupied Crimea. The first edition of 1,500 copies is nearly sold out, and a second edition of 2,000 has already been printed. “I hope this book will also draw attention in the West to the suffering that so many Ukrainians have been through because of the Russian occupation and because of Russia’s military aggression in eastern Ukraine,” the author says. In a letter to the Bulgarian PEN Center, PEN Ukraine’s executive board accuses the Union of Bulgarian Writers of “demonstrat[ing] a downright negative attitude to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and European choice of Ukraine.” PEN Ukraine’s letter also states: “We are very concerned that the leaders of major writers’ organizations of Bulgaria have openly taken the side of the aggressor state by condemning Bulgarian colleagues who express their humanitarian position, and who advocate against violence and propaganda from the Russian Federation.” Meanwhile, Mr. Nahum says he’s been “targeted by a campaign aimed at discrediting me” and “also been threatened – indirectly – with so-called ‘friendly advice.’” An SBP member warned him: “You might eat Novichok just like Sergei Skripal.” (Ron Synovitz of RFE/RL)