Biden-Zelenskyy delayed to August 31
Talks between U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have been moved back to August 31 from August 30. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters on August 19 that the decision was made due to an expansion of Mr. Zelenskyy’s program during his visit to Washington in late August. “Since the program of the visit has been expanded, the meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States, President Biden and President Zelensky, will take place on August 31. We have agreed with the United States to postpone this date for one day,” Mr. Kuleba said. Last month, Mr. Biden’s administration said Mr. Zelenskyy would make his official visit to Washington on August 30 while Congress is on summer recess. At the time, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers responded by calling on the Biden administration to reschedule the visit to allow Congress an opportunity to meet with Mr. Zelenskyy. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by UNIAN and Ukrainska Pravda)
Zelenskyy to award Merkel
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will award German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the Order of Freedom when she arrives in Ukraine on August 22, the website of the German Bundestag reported on August 19. “President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy will award Chancellor Merkel with the Order of Freedom, the highest honor in Ukraine,” the German Bundestag reported. Ms. Merkel will also lay a wreath at the Memorial of Eternal Glory at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The parties plan to discuss issues of bilateral and economic policy, the reform process in Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreements, after which they will give a joint press conference. Ms. Merkel will then meet with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the government palace in Kyiv. (Interfax Ukraine)
Mayor of Ukrainian city found dead
Police have launched an investigation after the mayor of the central Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih was found dead at his home over the weekend. Ukrainian police say the body of 48-year-old Kostyantyn Pavlov, a leading member of the Russian-friendly Opposition Platform – For Life party, was found on August 15 after he apparently died from a gunshot wound at his house in the village of Vilne. Police said a gun was found at the scene and that they were investigating the incident as both a possible murder or a suicide. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is a native of Kryviy Rih, issued a statement on Telegram saying that he had taken the investigation into Mr. Pavlov’s death under his personal control. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Ukrainska Pravda and UNIAN)
Rada to consider bill on state emblem
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov is convening an extraordinary session on August 24 to consider a bill on the large state emblem of Ukraine, Mr. Razumkov’s press secretary Olha Tuniy said on August 18. “Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov, in connection with the demand of the president of Ukraine, signed an order to convene an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on August 24 at 14:20. During the session, a bill on the large state emblem of Ukraine [No. 5712] will be considered,” Mr. Tuniy said on Facebook on August 18. Ms. Tuniy also published a scan of Mr. Razumkov’s order to convene an extraordinary session on August 24. Additionally, on August 24, the Verkhovna Rada will gather at 1 p.m. local time for a solemn session on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Act of Independence of Ukraine. Another extraordinary session of the Ukrainian parliament will be held on August 23. During that session, members of parliament will consider an appeal of the Verkhovna Rada to the U.N., PACE, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), European Parliament, governments and parliaments of foreign states on strengthening international cooperation within the Crimea Platform in order to counter Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. (Interfax Ukraine)
Ukraine to build new Navy by 2035
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine plans to implement a large program for the development of the Navy by 2035, the presidential press service reported on its website on August 19. “As for our naval fleet, we now have three stages. By 2035, construction of a large fleet. We will see the first stage in reality. It will definitely take place by 2024. The second stage will be completed by 2030, the third by 2035,” Mr. Zelensky said during an interview with Ukrainian journalists from Crimea. The president noted that Ukraine is creating an infrastructure for the construction of a naval fleet that includes small submarines, corvettes and military boats. In addition, there are plans to begin construction of naval bases. “The first naval base will be built in Berdiansk. The idea is to get support for this project from the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. We have definitely received the full support of this project from the United Kingdom. I will have a meeting with the president of the United States, and this [the development of the Ukrainian Navy] is part of our meeting and part of the Crimea Platform,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on August 19. He also noted that the issue of unblocking the Black Sea and Azov coasts is part of the de-occupation of Crimea. Ukraine is increasing the presence of the Allied fleet from NATO countries in the area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, Mr. Zelenskyy said. “It’s not just the Sea Breeze issue. It’s the attitude and the constant work, the cooperation of our Ministry of Defense with the United States and the European Union. We also have real agreements in this direction with Turkey and Great Britain,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. (Interfax Ukraine)
Majority of Ukrainians support independence
Some 80 percent of Ukrainians today would support the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, according to the results of a survey by the sociological group Rating. “Some 80 percent of all respondents today would support the proclamation of the independence of Ukraine, only 15 percent would be against it, and another 5 percent found it difficult to answer,” said Liubomyr Mysiv, deputy director of the sociological group Rating, at the presentation of the survey. The survey, “Generation of independence: values and incentives” was made public at the Interfax Ukraine news agency on August 19. Mr. Mysiv noted that during the survey respondents also assessed their identity (on a 10-point scale). According to the study, 75 percent of respondents identify as citizens of Ukraine, while 11 percent said that they do not feel that way. The survey was conducted from July 20 to August 9. During the study, 20,000 respondents aged 16 and older in all regions, except for the temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Donbas, were interviewed using the CATI method (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers. The sampling error is not more than one percent. (Interfax Ukraine)
Right-wing protesters clash with police
Protesters led by members of a prominent right-wing Ukrainian political group clashed with riot police near the offices of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, injuring at least eight police officers. The August 14 violence came during a rally organized by the National Corps, which was protesting a plan known as the Steinmeier Formula aimed at resolving the seven-year war that has pitted Kremlin-backed separatists against Ukrainian troops and killed more than 13,000 people. Police said the violence erupted when demonstrators tried to break through a police cordon, and police responded with tear gas. Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said eight officers were injured. Mr. Zelenskyy was not in the offices at the time of the clash. “The Constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protests. Everyone who had undergone basic checks would have been allowed to enter the square in front of the president’s office,” he said in a post on Facebook. The National Corps is a political organization that grew out of a notorious militia known as the Azov Batalion, which played a key role in defending the port city of Mariupol in the early days of the war in eastern Ukraine. Azov, which has been formally incorporated into the official National Guard, was kicked off of Facebook in 2019 for its neo-Nazi rhetoric, and the National Corps was labeled a “nationalist hate group” by the U.S. State Department in 2018. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters)
Five Crimean Tatars detained
Russian authorities have detained five Crimean Tatars after their homes were searched in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Crimea region. The Crimean Solidarity public group told RFE/RL on August 17 that the searches were conducted at the homes of Raif Fevziyev, Dzhebbar Bekirov, Zaur Abdullayev, Rustem Murasov and Rustem Tairov. All five men were detained later. Mr. Fevziyev is an imam, a Muslim preacher, in the village of Strohonivka near Crimea’s capital, Simferopol. The other four men are practicing Muslims residing in different villages near the city of Sevastopol. No reason for the searches was given. Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova condemned the Russia-imposed authorities’ actions and called on the international community to “react to illegal actions of occupying authorities and increase pressure on the Russian Federation to stop its violation of human rights on the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea.” The search and detentions came a day after a court in Russia sentenced four Crimean Tatars to prison terms between 12 and 18 years on extremism charges, namely for being members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group that is banned in Russia but is legal in Ukraine. Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula was vocally opposed by many Crimean Tatars, who are a sizable minority in the region. Exiled from their homeland to Central Asia by the Soviet authorities under dictator Joseph Stalin during World War II, many Crimean Tatars are very wary of Russia and Moscow’s rule. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula. Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. Moscow also backs separatists in a war against government forces that has killed more than 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Crimea.Realities)
Four Crimean Tatars jailed in Russia
A Russian court has handed lengthy prison terms to four Crimean Tatars for being members of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group. According to the Crimean Solidarity human rights group, the Southern District Military Court in the city of Rostov-on-Don on August 16 sentenced Ruslan Mesutov and Lenur Khalilov to 18 years in prison each, Ruslan Nagayev to 13 years, and Eldar Kantimirov to 12 years in prison. The four men were arrested in June 2019 after their homes were searched. Ukraine’s ombudswoman, Lyudmyla Denisova, protested against the court’s “illegal” ruling and urged the international community to “force the Russian Federation to stop groundless detentions and rigged trials of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.” “By illegally trying Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainian citizens, the occupier-country Russian Federation violates the norms of international law, the European Convention on Human Rights, basic freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Ms. Denisova wrote on Telegram. Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and since then Moscow-imposed authorities have prosecuted dozens of Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the authorities installed in Crimea, who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula. Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in Russia as a terrorist organization but operates legally in Ukraine. However, Moscow imposed its own laws on the Crimean Peninsula after the annexation. Russia took control of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 after sending in troops, seizing key facilities, and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by at least 100 countries. Moscow also backs separatists in a war against government forces that has killed more than 13,200 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Crimea.Realities)