NATO OKs assistance for Ukraine
BRUSSELS – NATO says defense ministers of the alliance have agreed to “boost” support for Ukraine with a “comprehensive package of assistance.” In a statement issued on June 15 following a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Brussels, the alliance said the package aimed to “help Ukraine strengthen its defenses by building stronger security structures.” NATO is already implementing projects under the “trust funds” established for Ukraine to help it reform its military – including on command and control, cyberdefense, and rehabilitating wounded soldiers. “We are also developing new projects, including in the areas of countering hybrid warfare and explosive devices,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. During the meeting, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak presented Ukraine’s defense-reform road map. “Modernizing Ukraine’s forces while they are engaged in conflict is no easy task, but the government is making good progress,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. (RFE/RL)
NATO chief demands Russia withdraw
BRUSSELS – NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on June 15 called on Russia to withdraw its forces and military equipment from Ukraine and to stop supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine. He made his comments after a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels that was also attended by Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak. Russian officials have repeatedly denied sending troops or military hardware to Ukraine, despite evidence to the contrary. Mr. Stoltenberg said the alliance will continue to stand by the Ukrainian government and will never recognize Russia’s 2014 “illegal and illegitimate annexation of [the Ukrainian peninsula of] Crimea.” He added that in response to Russian military actions in Ukraine, NATO has “stepped up its support for Ukraine.” Mr. Stoltenberg said that Russia continues to support separatists in southeastern Ukraine by supplying them with equipment and advisers. He said that adherence to the Minsk accords is the only way to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 9,300 people since 2014. Leaders from NATO’s 28 member countries will meet on July 8-9 for a summit in Warsaw, where they are expected to approve plans to station military battalions in the three Baltic states and Poland. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)
NATO defense ministers confer
BRUSSELS – Meeting in Brussels, NATO defense ministers have agreed on measures to strengthen the alliance’s presence in Eastern Europe, amid tensions with Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on June 14 that NATO would “deploy by rotation four robust multinational battalions” to the three Baltic states and Poland. Mr. Stoltenberg said the ministers also agreed on measures to enhance defense and deterrence in the Black Sea region, saying, “There will also be more prepositioned equipment and supplies.” Earlier he told reporters: “NATO will continue to protect and defend all allies against any threats coming from any direction. That is the reason why we implemented the biggest reinforcement to our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.” He added: “We don’t seek a confrontation with Russia, we don’t want a new Cold War. We will continue to strive for more constructive and cooperative relationship with Russia.” Russia says any presence of NATO troops close to its borders is a threat to its security and warns it will take measures to respond. Relations between the alliance and Moscow have reached their lowest point since the Cold War over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014 and its support for separatists in the country’s east. (RFE/RL)
Gay rights rally held in Kyiv
KYIV – An LGBTI rights march was held in the Ukrainian capital on June 12 without any major incidents amid a large police presence. According to reports, 6,000 police officers escorted around 1,000 participants in the March of Equality. Among those attending the march were Andreas von Beckerath, Sweden’s ambassador to Ukraine; Rebecca Harms, president of the Greens at the European Parliament; and Sergii Leshchenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. More than 30 people were arrested by police prior to and during the march. Ten marchers and five policemen were injured at the gay pride rally in 2015 when counterdemonstrators attacked the march, despite the presence of U.S. and European diplomats at the event. At this year’s march, participants passed through a metal detector and were checked for dangerous objects. (RFE/RL based on reporting by AFP, RFE/RL’s Current Time TV and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Lviv mayor: deadly fire was arson
LVIV – The mayor of Lviv says arson was the cause of a deadly fire at the city’s waste dump. Four people were killed on May 30 at the dump after being trapped under a huge wave of falling garbage triggered by the blaze. In televised comments late on June 9, Andriy Sadovyi also blamed authorities in Kyiv for failing to promptly send aircraft to extinguish the fire. Firefighters said on June 9 that the blaze had been brought under control. Mayor Sadovyi’s comments came hours after the Lviv City Council canceled a debate on the incident. The move followed clashes at the council building between riot police and protesters demanding Mr. Sadovyi’s resignation. Hundreds of protesters, who called themselves representatives of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNA-UNSO) organization and the Svoboda party, tried to enter the council’s session, but hundreds of riot police blocked their way. Witnesses say some activists did make it inside after pelting police with eggs and using tear gas to break through the police cordon. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by zn.ua and UNIAN)
Anti-OSCE protest in eastern Ukraine
DONETSK – A protest took place on June 10 in the separatist-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk against the deployment of monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The rally was organized by the Russia-backed leaders in the region of Donetsk. The OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has 580 unarmed staff based in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Separatist leaders have accused the SMM of unfairly blaming much of the violence in the conflict zone on separatist fighters. More than 9,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since hostilities erupted in April 2014. Amid an uptick in violence, Kyiv is hoping to get an armed police mission under the auspices of the OSCE deployed in separatist-held areas in Donetsk and Luhansk. “We have gathered here to say a firm ‘no’ to an armed OSCE mission,” Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin told the pro-Russia crowd. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP)
Savchenko for early Rada elections
KYIV – Ukrainian military aviator Nadiya Savchenko, who was sworn in as a lawmaker in May, says Ukraine needs early parliamentary elections to bring “fresh blood” into the country’s politics. In an interview with the Associated Press on June 10, Ms. Savchenko said the “Ukrainian people deserve a better government than they now have.” She said the government in Kyiv has failed to live up to public expectations raised by the ouster of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government in February 2014. Ms. Savchenko spent nearly two years in Russian captivity before she was released in May and returned to a hero’s welcome in Ukraine. She was elected to Parliament in 2014 while in custody. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, Interfax and TASS)
Moldovan president: maintain sanctions
CHISINAU – Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti has called on the European Union to maintain sanctions on Russia, saying Moldova’s breakaway Transdniester region was the Kremlin’s “first experiment” with fueling separatist conflict. Meeting with visiting Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka on June 10, President Timofti said that long before the Ukraine crisis, which provoked the sanctions on Russia, Moscow backed independence efforts in Transdniester, and it continues to hinder Moldova’s efforts to integrate with the European Union. “Russia’s interest in preserving its influence in this zone is a serious obstacle on the way to Moldova’s rapprochement with the European Union,” and that is why U.S. and EU sanctions are needed and should stay in place, he said, according to a statement from his office. Mr. Timofti said Russia has continued to support Transdniester’s separatist efforts. The breakaway region declared independence from Moldova in 1990 but has not been widely recognized as a state. Moreover, Russia appears to be behind attempts to spread a separatist policy elsewhere in the country even today, Mr. Timofti’s press service quoted him as saying. Mr. Timofti stressed the need to withdraw Russian soldiers and weapons from Transdniester in compliance with commitments made in a summit declaration by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1999. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Publika TV)
Lawyer says Kyiv leaders libeled her
KYIV – The Ukrainian lawyer for former Russian prisoner Yevgeny Yerofeyev has filed a libel lawsuit against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, Anatoliy Matios. The suit filed by attorney Oksana Sokolovska on June 10 demands that Mr. Poroshenko retract an allegedly false claim that she dragged out the procedure of setting her client Mr. Yerofeyev free to delay a prisoner swap of Mr. Yerofeyev and another Russian prisoner, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, for Ukrainian military pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who was imprisoned in Russia. The suit says the president made that statement at a news conference on June 3. The prisoner exchange occurred on May 25. Ms. Sokolovska said the claim has been detrimental to her business reputation and dignity. She is demanding that Mr. Poroshenko call a news conference to withdraw the claim. The lawsuit also demands retraction of a televised statement by Mr. Matios charging that the lawyer had coordinated her actions with Russia’s State Security Service, the FSB. It demands information about any unauthorized investigations of her by Ukrainian authorities, as well as $4,000 in compensation for “moral damage.” Mr. Matios told Ukraine’s Channel 5 that he is prepared to prove the lawsuit is groundless. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Jailed over Euro-Maidan ‘murder’
SYMFEROPOL – A 23-year-old Ukrainian who says he was tortured has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder by a court in Russia-annexed Crimea. The court in Symferopol on June 10 said Andriy Kolomiyets had thrown a Molotov cocktail at two former Ukrainian Berkut riot police during the pro-Western Euro-Maidan protests in Kyiv in January 2014. Mr. Kolomiyets was arrested in Russia’s North Caucasus region in May 2015 and transported to Crimea, where he has been held in custody ever since. Mr. Kolomiyets has said he was tortured into confessing to taking part in extremist Ukrainian organizations during protests in Kyiv in 2014 that led to the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. Human rights activists in Ukraine have described the charges against Mr. Kolomiyets as absurd. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by TASS and Interfax)
Canadian military trains Ukrainians
OTTAWA – In late May, 15 Ukrainian operators passed the first advanced Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) course offered by Canadian Armed Forces personnel as part of Operation UNIFIER, Canada’s Department of National Defense stated in an article published on June 9. “The Canadian explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operators deployed to the Kamianets-Podilsky Demining Center in Ukraine as part of Operation UNIFIER are charged with training the instructional cell and the combat engineers from the center’s operational detachments. Their goal is to teach the Ukrainians methods and procedures for neutralizing ordnance similar to those used by NATO countries so they can share and put into practice their new knowledge,” Canada’s Department of National Defense stated. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress)
Doctor banned over doping in tennis
LONDON – The International Tennis Federation (ITF) says it has banned a Ukrainian doctor from sports for four years for administering a banned substance to a tennis player. The ITF said on June 13 that Elena Dorofeyeva gave a supplement containing the stimulant dimethylbutylamine to WTA Tour player Kateryna Kozlova in 2014. Ms. Kozlova, 22, tested positive and served a six-month ban last year. She is currently 98th in WTA rankings. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and AP)