EU, Ukraine postpone summit
BRUSSELS – The European Union says it has postponed an EU-Ukraine Summit that was scheduled for next month until September. A European Commission spokeswoman said on April 27 that the delay was agreed to in order to give the new government in Kyiv the necessary time to carry out political and financial reforms in the country. The summit was to have been held in Brussels on May 19 and attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “In the meantime, the new Ukrainian government will pursue work on delivering its reform commitments” under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, the spokeswoman said. “The rescheduling of the summit should also allow for the review of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] program to be concluded,” she added. The EU’s Association Agreement with Ukraine was the main issue behind a crisis in the country that led to the 2014 ousting of pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych, who rejected the deal. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and DPA)
OSCE: Ceasefire violations a concern
VIENNA – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine says that the number of violations of the ceasefire deal between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists is at the highest level in months. Ertugrul Apakan, the chief monitor for the OSCE mission, said in Vienna that during the past few weeks, “armed violence in eastern Ukraine has once again reached worrying levels.” Meanwhile, at a security conference in Moscow on April 28, OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier spoke out against the idea of giving weapons to the unarmed monitors. Mr. Zannier said arming the OSCE monitors should only be done if there is consensus and clear agreements are in place, and if their tasks are clearly understood. He said that first and foremost, the warring sides should respect the ceasefire brokered as part of the February 2015 Minsk accords. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP, Interfax and TASS)
U.N. puts death toll at 9,333
UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations on April 28 raised its estimate of the total killed during the conflict in eastern Ukraine to 9,333 from 9,160 in March. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the U.N. Security Council that the total number of casualties now stands at 30,729, including 9,333 people killed and 21,396 injured. He said the latest incident occurred on April 27, when shelling killed at least four civilians and injured at least eight people in Olenivka near the city of Donetsk. Mr. Zerihoun said that fighting has escalated in recent weeks to levels not seen since August 2014, when it was at its most intense. He called on all parties to cease hostilities. He criticized both sides for hindering access to an international monitoring mission put in place under the February 2015 ceasefire agreement between Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany. But he said that restrictions on monitors were more common in areas held by Russia-backed separatists. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, AFP and DPA)
Kyiv cites Easter ceasefire violations
KYIV – One Ukrainian soldier has been killed and several troops wounded in Ukraine’s east, the Ukrainian government said on May 1. Both Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine agreed to observe a ceasefire with the start of the Julian calendar Easter and May Day holidays. The ceasefire was supposed to go into effect at midnight on April 30. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for Ukraine’s operation in the east, said that separatists shelled the army’s positions overnight at several locations, including the suburbs of Donetsk. The separatist mouthpiece Donetsk News Agency reported shelling by government forces prior to the midnight deadline. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP)
Canada supports Chornobyl containment
OTTAWA – On April 25, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion announced that Canada will “continue to support international efforts dealing with the containment and safe storage of radioactive materials resulting from the 1986 accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, in Ukraine, with a contribution of $3.6 million.” Canada’s contribution to international efforts to address nuclear safety at the Chornobyl site is intended to help the Ukrainian people deal with the devastating consequences of the accident. The minister made the announcement ahead of the 30th anniversary of the April 26, 1986, accident and as international donors meet in Kyiv to discuss the work to safely and securely store spent nuclear fuel. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which manages this project on behalf of international donors, has advised that additional funding of 105 million euros is required for the safe and secure storage of spent nuclear fuel, which is currently stored in an inadequate and deteriorating facility. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress)
Mine blast in Luhansk region
LUHANSK – A blast at a mine in a separatist-controlled part of eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region has killed at least one miner. Larisa Airapetian, the top health official of the Russia-backed separatist’s self-declared government in the Luhansk region, said on May 4 that the gas explosion at the Maloivanivska mine also had trapped nine miners underground. Ms. Airapetian said four other miners were hospitalized with burn injuries from the May 3 gas explosion. Ms. Airapetian said efforts to rescue the nine trapped miners were underway on May 4. Three districts of Ukraine’s Luhansk region have been under separatists’ control since April 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Grenades found in Odesa
ODESA – Police in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa say they found three hand grenades on May 2 ahead of a commemoration ceremony for the 48 people who were killed in a 2014 clash between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian demonstrators. Odesa city police said the grenades were found in an underpass near Kulikovo field and the Trade Unions building, where 48 people were killed in the May 2, 2014, clashes. Police say they received an anonymous phone call earlier on May 2 in which the caller warned that the area had been mined. The Odesa regional police chief, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, said about 3,000 police officers were at the site checking the area after the grenades were discovered. Later, more than 500 people bearing flowers and banners with pictures of the victims massed outside metal detectors set up around the Odesa square where the clashes took place in 2014. They eventually released black balloons and white doves after it became clear the police would not let them approach the Trade Unions building. Twenty residents of Odesa are currently on trial for their alleged involvement in the 2014 clash, which led to the deaths of six people on the streets and an inferno at the Trade Union where 42 Kremlin supporters died. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service with reporting by UNIAN)
U.S. defense secretary backs German plan
STUTTGART, Germany – U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has given his backing to German plans to send troops to Lithuania to reassure NATO’s Eastern European allies wary of a resurgent Russia. “I do think it is important. But that is a decision Germany will make in the context of NATO,” Mr. Carter said on May 3 in the southern German city of Stuttgart, shortly after overseeing the changeover of United States European Command’s (EUCOM) top general. The German Defense Ministry has signaled its willingness to deploy a rotating contingent of between 150 and 200 soldiers to Lithuania. They would lead a broader alliance of soldiers with the intention of strengthening combat capability along NATO’s eastern flank. “Russia continues to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and actually seeks to intimidate its Baltic neighbors,” Mr. Carter said. “We don’t seek a cold – let alone a hot – war with Russia. We don’t seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake: We will defend our allies,” he added. A decision regarding the German deployment will be made at a NATO summit in Warsaw on June 8-9. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by DPA)
Vira Savchenko back in Ukraine
KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the sister of jailed Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, Vira Savchenko, has returned to Ukraine after she was prevented from leaving Russia at the end of a visit related to her sister’s case. Vira Savchenko was reportedly stopped and detained by Russian border guards who seized her passport as she was returning to Ukraine in a Ukrainian diplomatic car on April 27. Mr. Poroshenko wrote on Twitter on April 28: “[Ukraine’s] consul-general just informed me that Vira Savchenko has crossed the Ukrainian border and is now in [her] homeland.” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s representative to the Council of Europe, said earlier on April 28 that the younger Savchenko was taken to the Ukrainian Consulate in Rostov-on-Don after Ukraine’s consul-general secured her release. Mr. Kuleba said Vitaly Moskalenko, Ukraine’s consul-general in Rostov-on-Don, negotiated Vira Savchenko’s release after “a heated debate with the Russians.” Mr. Moskalenko was sent to the border by Kyiv to aid Vira Savchenko. Vira Savchenko’s passport has been returned to her, Mr. Kuleba added. Vira Savchenko’s detention came hours after a defense lawyer for her sister, whose case has outraged Ukrainians since she claims to have been abducted in eastern Ukraine and smuggled to Russia in mid-2014, said Nadiya Savchenko had received official forms needed for her extradition to Ukraine. The office of President Poroshenko said that border guards told Vira Savchenko she was on the wanted list. Mr. Kuleba confirmed that “Vira has indeed been put on a [Russian] federal wanted list for insulting a judge in Chechnya.” Russia launched a criminal case against Vira Savchenko in November, accusing her of showing “disrespect” toward a Russian judge, whom she called a “schmuck.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Interfax, Reuters and AP)
Ukraine energy firms turn to arbitrator
THE HAGUE – Two Ukrainian energy companies that lost control of assets in Crimea when Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula have asked a United Nations arbitrator to award compensation. The case was brought in June 2015 by the two companies, Ukrnafta and Stabil, which alleged that Russia had violated its obligations under the Ukraine-Russia Bilateral Investment Treaty when it expropriated the firms’ investments in petrol stations in the Black Sea peninsula. The Permanent Court of Arbitration made the case public on May 2. Russia says the court has no jurisdiction over the matter and has so far refused the Hague-based court’s invitations to participate in proceedings. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters)
No wreath for ‘Hero City’ Kyiv
MOSCOW – Every year as Russia gears up to commemorate Victory Day on May 9, flowers are laid outside the Kremlin walls at a memorial to the 12 “Hero Cities” whose inhabitants’ outstanding heroism fighting Nazi Germany during World War II earned them honorary Soviet titles. But bloggers have latched onto an apparent omission this year at the site, part of Moscow’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier memorial: No basket of flowers has been laid at the monument to Kyiv. The flower ensembles placed in front of the other Hero Cities looked official, although it was unclear if they had been placed there by Kremlin groundskeepers, city workers or activists. Some speculated the omission was a deliberate nod to hostile relations between Moscow and Kyiv, with Russia-backed separatists continuing to fight Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine. By contrast, the memorial to the Ukrainian city of Odesa, also a Soviet Hero City, was festooned with flowers. In addition to the official-looking flower basket, the Odesa monument displayed flowers laid by Russian nationalists on May 2, marking two years since clashes in that city resulted in the deaths of 48 people, most of them pro-Russian activists who got trapped in a burning building. A black ribbon on a funeral wreath carried the message “to the Russian martyrs.” The Moscow monument honors 12 Hero Cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), Sevastopol, Odesa, Kyiv, Kerch, Novorossiisk, Minsk, Tula, Murmansk, and Smolensk – along with one “Hero Fortress,” Brest. The name of each is displayed in gold on separate blocks of dark-red porphyry containing soil from that city. (Tom Balmforth of RFE/RL)
Bill backs more defense spending
WASHINGTON – A key U.S. congressional committee has backed a substantial increase in defense spending to reassure European allies jittery about Russian military maneuvers. Lawmakers on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee also voted April 28 to allocate $150 million to help train and equip Ukrainian government forces in their fight against Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country. But the bill appears to stop short of heeding Kyiv’s repeated requests for weaponry other than the defense equipment Washington has been providing to date. At $610 billion, the legislation is one of the largest single annual budget measures considered by Congress, covering a sweeping range of U.S. defense policy. This year’s package authorizes more money for more advanced fighter jets, new navy ships and cyberwarfare, as well as more mundane matters like service members’ salaries and health-care expenses. But the bill also reflects foreign policy priorities, and the alarm that many lawmakers and policy officials have voiced regarding Russia’s stepped-up military actions in Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere figures notably in the legislation. Lawmakers backed an administration proposal called the European Reassurance Initiative, а $3.4 billion effort to increase the U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe. The Pentagon is planning to increase the number of combat brigades rotating into Europe, as well as station heavy weaponry and equipment in some places. “I think the lack of debate about the European Reassurance Initiative is a reflection that there is a pretty broad consensus on what the administration has proposed,” said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “If anything, there may be people who want to add more money, not less.” Committee members also took aim at a key treaty that authorizes countries to conduct surveillance flights over one another’s territory to monitor military forces. The Treaty on Open Skies has been used by both the United States and Russia to gather information, but U.S. officials in February publicly complained about a Russian request for a flight using advanced digital cameras. “I cannot see why the United States would allow Russia to fly a surveillance plane with an advanced sensor over the United States to collect intelligence,” Mac Thornberry (Republican-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in February. The bill passed by the committee on April 28 aims to cut off funding for cooperation with Russia on U.S. overflights until intelligence officials say there is no threat from the flights. (Mike Eckel of RFE/RL)
New Ukraine airline agreement
NEW YORK – Ukraine International Airlines announced a new international air agreement with JetBlue that makes it easier than ever for travelers from across the U.S., the Caribbean, Mexico and South America to fly into Ukraine, with easy onward connections throughout Ukraine, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Venice, Rome and other exciting destinations in Europe and the Middle East. The new relationship will allow travelers to purchase one ticket from any JetBlue gateway for through travel on both airlines to any UIA gateway. Passengers can check their bag at their initial departure airport and collect it upon arrival in Kyiv. “JetBlue is one of the leading airlines in the North America, providing quality affordable air service for passengers across the region,” said Gregg Truman, general manager and head of country for UIA. He added, “To be able to work with a quality airline and to provide easy connections through JFK to Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa and cities throughout our country is a valuable asset for our travelers.” Tracy Bink, director, Alliances & Airline Partnerships for JetBlue, said: “UIA has been flying for almost 25 years and offers non-stop service from JFK to Ukraine. Their route network, particularly, in Eastern Europe will add to the robust flight options JetBlue offers its passengers traveling throughout the world. We look forward to working together and flying travelers through our hub at JFK to the exciting destinations served by UIA throughout the world.” Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is a long-standing member of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), www.USUBC.org. (U.S.-Ukraine Business Council)