Cyberattacks target Defense Ministry
KYIV – Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says its website was temporarily knocked out of service by cyberattacks that appeared to be aimed at preventing the release of news about Kyiv’s conflict in eastern regions with Russia-backed separatists. Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said the website was regularly targeted on December 13 by denial-of-service attacks. Mr. Motuzyanyk said it was not clear who was responsible for the latest attack, but the situation had been brought under control. Ukraine’s Finance Ministry and State Treasury websites were attacked a week earlier. The Finance Ministry blamed hackers who it said were trying to discredit the government’s reform drive. At the end of 2015, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Russia was responsible for a cyberattack on its power grid that temporarily shut off electricity to part of western Ukraine. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Reuters and unian.info)
Crimean Tatar activist’s detention extended
MOSCOW – A court in Russian-controlled Crimea has prolonged pretrial detention for jailed Crimean Tatar activist Ahtem Ciygoz for another three months. Mr. Ciygoz’s lawyer, Nikolai Polozov, wrote on Twitter on December 12 that his client’s pretrial detention was prolonged until April 8, 2017. It had been set to end on January 8. Mr. Ciygoz is charged with organizing public disorder. He was detained in January 2015 in connection with unrest outside the Crimean Parliament on February 26, 2014, when Crimean Tatars and other pro-Ukrainian activists clashed with pro-Russian activists. The next day, armed men in uniforms without insignia seized the Parliament building and the legislature voted to join Russia several days later. After sending in troops, Russia cemented its control over Crimea in March 2014 by staging a referendum condemned as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of 100 U.N. member states. The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has deemed Mr. Ciygoz a political prisoner. Rights groups say Crimean Tatars and others who opposed Russia’s takeover have faced discrimination and abuse at the hands of the Moscow-imposed authorities. (RFE/RL)
Ukraine wins Open Government Award
KYIV – In the evening on December 7, the Ukrainian public e-procurement system ProZorro won the first prize at the third annual Open Government Awards 2016 ceremony in Paris. This was announced by Maksym Nefyodov, first deputy minister of economic development and trade of Ukraine, on his page on Facebook page. “There were 70+ member countries of the global initiative in the field of open government …from the U.S.A. and France to Indonesia and Honduras. Who is the best in the world? Of course, Ukraine!!!” he rejoiced. Mr. Nefyodov thanked all the members of the team that worked on the creation of the system: the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, the state-owned enterprise Prozorro, Transparency International Ukraine, volunteers, platforms, IT developers, donors and Open Contracting. The public e-procurement system ProZorro has been working in Ukraine since February 2015 as a part the reform in the field of public procurement. In April of this year the central authorities transferred their non-subthreshold tenders to the ProZorro system, and starting in August electronic public procurements became obligatory for local governments, housing and utility companies and other organizations funded by taxpayers’ money. ProZorro has already received prestigious international awards this year. In May it was cited as “the best electronic procurement system” at the World Procurement Awards 2016, and in September ProZorro won the Technology of the Future prize at the Communication on Top forum in Davos. (Ukraine Crisis Media Center)
Canada on solution to Ukrainian crisis
BRUSSELS – During the summit of the OSCE Ministerial Council on December 8, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion said that Ottawa does not recognize the illegal occupation of Crimea, which belongs to Ukraine. Minister Dion reaffirmed Canada’s continued support for Ukraine, reiterated Canada’s non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and pressed for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that fully respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The diplomat said that the inviolability of the territorial integrity of states is a fundamental principle for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). “The resolution of the crisis in and around Ukraine and continued support for the Special Monitoring Mission remain top priorities for Canada and continues to be the key focus of the OSCE,” Canadian minister said. Mr. Dion said that recent attempts to forcibly change European borders must be decisively resisted. He said it is contrary to international law and the Helsinki Final Act. (Interfax-Ukraine)
Belarusians suspected of fighting in Ukraine
MINSK – Belarusian authorities have launched investigations of about 10 Belarusian citizens suspected of fighting in eastern Ukraine, the country’s foreign affairs minister says. Ihar Shunevich told reporters in Minsk on December 13 that the men under investigation were suspected of fighting as mercenaries on both sides of the Ukraine conflict. Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk has killed more than 9,700 people since April 2014. The announcement comes a day after a group of alleged neo-Nazis went on trial in Belarus on charges including inciting ethnic hatred. The defendants included Stanislau Hancharou, who fought against separatists in Ukraine’s east. There have been numerous reports that many volunteers and mercenaries from former Soviet republics are fighting on both sides of the conflict. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by BelTA and Interfax)
U.N. cites ‘host of rights violations’
GENEVA – The United Nations says civilians in eastern Ukraine are facing “a host of human rights violations” due to the “failure” by the parties to the conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatists to implement a peace accord signed in February 2015. In a report published on December 8, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said people living close to the “contact line” between government-controlled and separatist-held territory were the hardest hit. These civilians “suffer from a serious lack of security due to military engagement near their homes, the threat of mines and unexploded ordnance, and severe and disproportionate restrictions on their freedom of movement,” it said. The report also said separatist groups controlling parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions “continue to deprive people of their basic rights and of any effective mechanism for redress.” The report covers the period between August 16 and November 15; it includes documented information based on interviews with witnesses and victims. During the period, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded 32 conflict-related civilian deaths and 132 injuries. As of December 1, the U.N.’s “conservative estimate” of the death toll among civilians and combatants since the conflict erupted in April 2014 is 9,758, with another 22,779 people injured. (RFE/RL)
Vote advances visa-free EU travel
BRUSSELS – A December 15 vote in the European Parliament has brought the goal of visa-free travel to EU Schengen Zone countries one big step closer to reality for citizens of Ukraine and Georgia. The Parliament approved a mechanism that would allow for the suspension of visa-free regimes with Ukraine and Georgia under certain circumstances once they are in place. The vote was 485 to 132, with 21 abstentions. The European Union lawmakers are now set to vote on the visa liberalization itself for Georgia in January, and it is possible that they will vote on Ukraine in February. The actual visa-free regimes for both countries will kick in when the suspension mechanism is legally adopted and published in the EU’s official journal, which requires translation and other work that is expected to take up to eight weeks. Both the EU member states and the European Parliament gave the green light for free movement for Ukrainian and Georgian citizens earlier this autumn, but struggled to agree on the suspension-mechanism text that had to be in place before granting visa liberalization. A compromise was struck last week that will give both individual EU member states and the European Parliament a say in suspending the visa-free regime if the rules are violated. Visa requirements can be reintroduced temporarily if there is a surge of citizens from a non-EU country like Ukraine or Georgia staying irregularly in EU territory or if nationals from that country are deemed to pose a security threat. They can also be reintroduced if there is a rise in unfounded asylum applications or a lack of cooperation on returning migrants. The EU Schengen Area countries are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)
Gorbachev blames ‘greedy’ leaders
MOSCOW – Mikhail Gorbachev has blamed the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other politicians for the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, saying that their hunger for power destroyed the country. Mr. Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, spoke to the Interfax news agency a day before the 25th anniversary of a meeting between Yeltsin and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich, respectively. On December 8, 1991, the trio declared that the Soviet Union had “ceased to exist” and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Mr. Gorbachev said that “the Russian leadership led the destruction of the [Soviet] Union, and the Ukrainian leadership was right there as well,” Interfax reported. “They destroyed the Soviet Union in order to be without Gorbachev. These people who destroyed the country cared only about power – they greedily strove for it.” Several Soviet republics were shaken by anti-Kremlin demonstrations or interethnic clashes starting in the late 1980s, and many had declared independence before December 1991. Mr. Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president on December 25, declaring his office extinct. Mr. Gorbachev spoke two days after Moscow-based Levada Center published poll results showing that 56 percent of Russians regret that the Soviet Union collapsed, while 51 percent believe that it could have been preserved. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the Soviet collapse “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax)