Rada says NATO integration a priority
KYIV – The Ukrainian Parliament has defined cooperation with NATO, with the ultimate goal of joining the Western military alliance, as a top priority for the country in the face of Russian aggression. A total of 276 lawmakers in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada supported amendments to several laws governing foreign policy on June 8. The amendments, which must be signed by President Petro Poroshenko to become law, say that Ukraine’s foreign policy will be focused on steps to promote cooperation with NATO in order to “achieve the criteria needed to gain membership in this organization.” The document explaining the amendments says the move is a response to “the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine and annexation of a part of Ukraine’s territory” – references to Russia’s armed takeover of Crimea in 2014 and its involvement in a conflict between Kyiv’s forces and separatists that has killed more than 9,900 people in eastern Ukraine. “The experience of a number of countries neighboring Ukraine shows that they consider structures of collective security that function on the basis of progressive democratic values… to be the most effective way to ensure security and to secure territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the document says. After Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled by pro-European protests in 2014, Russia seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine and fomented mutiny in eastern Ukraine, where the Russia-backed separatists hold parts of two provinces. In 2010, Mr. Yanukovych signed legislation imposing neutral “non-bloc” status on Ukraine, meaning it could not join any military alliance. Mr. Poroshenko signed a law abolishing the neutral status in December 2014. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Ukraine bans Russian St. George ribbon
KYIV – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on June 12 signed a law banning the St. George ribbon, which is seen by many Ukrainians as a symbol of Russian aggression. The bill signed into law was adopted by the Parliament on May 16. The ribbon dates back to 1769, when Russian Empress Catherine the Great established the Order of St. George. The medal was attached to a ribbon of black and yellow – later orange. In 1945, the Soviet Union resurrected the orange-and-black scheme for a medal to celebrate victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The colors then became part of annual May 9 Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union and then in Russia, and they were handed out en masse in Russia starting in 2005. Nearly a decade later, activists supporting Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and involvement in a war in eastern Ukraine began using the ribbon as a symbol, and it is now widely associated with Russian interference in Ukraine. Since 2015, Ukrainians have used a red poppy to remember the victory over Nazi Germany. The new ban is part of a series of efforts to outlaw symbols of Soviet and Russian influence on Ukraine, including a 2015 law banning Soviet symbols and Communist-era propaganda. (RFE/RL)
White House: Russia sanctions to remain
WASHINGTON – A spokeswoman for U.S. President Donald Trump says sanctions against Russia for its interference in Ukraine would remain in place until the crisis is resolved. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on June 8 said the United States “is committed to existing sanctions against Russia.” She added the administration will keep them in place “until Moscow fully honors its commitments to resolve the crisis in Ukraine.” She noted in an off-camera briefing with reporters, “We believe that the existing executive-branch sanctions regime is the best tool for compelling Russia to fulfill its commitments.” The United States and other Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2014 for its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. President Donald Trump has caused some concern among allies about his commitment to sanctions, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and saying he wants to improve relations with Moscow. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP and Reuters)
Blogger missing since June 2
KYIV – The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine has requested that the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that is active in eastern Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross help locate Stanislav Aseyev, a blogger missing since June 2. Colleagues, family and friends of Mr. Aseyev, who writes under the name Stanislav Vasin and contributes to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, said that they’d had no contact with him for more than a week. Former member of Parliament Yehor Firsov, a longtime acquaintance of Mr. Aseyev’s, alleged in a June 6 Facebook post that the blogger had been seized in Donetsk and forcibly held by Russia-backed separatist forces controlling the region, information he repeated in a June 7 Facebook post and a June 10 Ukrayinska Pravda blog post, citing “unofficial sources.” RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic said that Mr. Aseyev’s detention, if true, was “deeply alarming and lawless,” and that he feared the blogger’s life could be at risk. “We demand that he be released immediately, and that his safety be guaranteed,” Mr. Pejic said. Mr. Aseyev, who has referred to his efforts to chronicle daily life under the war conditions in the Donetsk region as “my education,” publishes texts and photos about current news and military developments, and posts about shopping, entertainment and culture both in separatist- and non-separatist-controlled cities. He has also covered sensitive issues relating to the conflict, including reactions among Donetsk residents to the apparent assassination in October 2016 of the notorious Russia-backed separatist commander known as “Motorola.” He also reports for other Ukrainian publications, including Dzerkalo Tyzhnia and The Ukrainian Week. (RFE/RL)
Astana expo maps show Crimea as Russia
ASTANA – Ukraine’s Embassy in Kazakhstan has lodged a protest over maps near an international energy exposition in Astana that show Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula as part of Russia. The maps are part of decorative statues on Nurzhol Boulevard outside of Expo 2017, a three-month exposition that began on June 10 with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attendance. One statue is holding a map of Ukraine that does not include the territory of Crimea. Another holds a map of Russia that includes Crimea. The Ukrainian Embassy wrote on Facebook on June 12 that the map of Ukraine was shown “with elements in violation of the country’s territorial integrity,” and the map of Russia was shown “with elements that violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity.” The Ukrainian Embassy said it expected explanations from Kazakhstan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. Russia seized control of Crimea in 2014 after sending in troops and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Ukraine and more than 100 other countries in the United Nations. (RFE/RL)
Explosion hits U.S. Embassy in Kyiv
KYIV – Ukrainian authorities say a device exploded in the U.S. Embassy compound in central Kyiv, causing no casualties. The blast hit the Embassy, located in the Shevchenkivsky district, at around midnight, police said on June 8. “Investigators found that an unknown person threw an explosive device onto the grounds of the diplomatic mission,” a statement said, adding that a criminal case had been opened to look into the incident. The Embassy said that “a security incident involving a small incendiary device” occurred just after midnight, adding that it does not consider it a terrorist act. “All Embassy operations are continuing as normal” after no damage was caused, the embassy wrote on Twitter. (RFE/RL)
Hackers can cause major power outages
WASHINGTON – Hackers believed to be allied with the Russian government have devised a cyberweapon that has the potential to be highly disruptive against the world’s electrical systems, researchers have reported. The malware, which researchers have dubbed CrashOverride or Industroyer, is known to have disrupted the electrical system in Ukraine in December, briefly shutting down one-fifth of Kyiv’s electric power. Dragos, one of the cybersecurity firms that identified the malware in a report on June 12, said Russian government hackers had shown an interest in targeting power grids in other countries as well, including the United States. The malware is capable of attacking power systems across Europe and Asia, and “with small modifications” could be used in the United States to cause outages of up to a few days in portions of the grid, Dragos said. With modifications, the malware could also attack other types of critical infrastructure, including local transportation providers, water systems and natural gas suppliers, Dragos said. News of the discovery prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to advise all critical infrastructure operators to make sure they were following recommended security practices on June 12. Dragos named the group that created the new malware Electrum, and said it had high confidence that Electrum used the same computer systems as the hackers who attacked Ukraine’s electrical grid in the earliest known incident in December 2015. The 2015 attack, which left 225,000 customers without power, was carried out by Russian government hackers, U.S. researchers have concluded, and was linked to a group called Sandworm, which is believed to be associated with the Russian government. Dragos said Sandworm and Electrum might be the same group, or two separate groups working within the same organization, but the forensic evidence shows they are related. The malware samples from the 2016 attack in Ukraine were first obtained by ESET, a Slovakian research firm, which shared some of them with Dragos. ESET has dubbed the malware Industroyer, while Dragos calls it CrashOverride. Industroyer or CrashOverride was specifically tailored to disrupt or destroy industrial-control systems, and represents the most powerful threat since Stuxnet, a worm created by the United States and Israel to disrupt Iran’s nuclear capability. (RFE/RL, with reporting by The Washington Post, Reuters, AP and AFP)
Sources: Poroshenko to meet Trump in D.C.
WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington sometime before next month’s Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, three Ukrainian officials in Kyiv and Washington told RFE/RL on June 14. The officials, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the visit until it was announced officially, said the exact date of the first tête-à-tête between the two leaders had not yet been nailed down, but that it would probably occur next week. The Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing an unnamed source, said the meeting would take place on June 19-20. Two of RFE/RL’s sources said President Poroshenko’s administration had accepted an invitation that was extended by the White House, though they were not sure whether the visit would be an official state visit. A spokesperson for Mr. Poroshenko declined to comment, saying a statement would appear on the Ukrainian presidential website soon. Asked whether Presidents Trump and Poroshenko would meet next week, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin told RFE/RL via text message that he could “not officially” confirm it, adding a smiley face emoji. Mr. Klimkin’s office has been working since Trump’s election victory to arrange a meeting between the U.S. head of state and his Ukrainian counterpart. One Ukrainian diplomat who requested anonymity told RFE/RL that a lot is riding on the meeting. The diplomat explained that while Ukrainian officials have said publicly that they received messages of support from Trump administration officials since he took office in January, privately they have been concerned by flattering comments Mr. Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin and have wondered whether the White House might cut a deal with Moscow to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine at Kyiv’s expense. A meeting this month would potentially be particularly reassuring for Kyiv because Mr. Trump is expected to meet Mr. Putin for the first time at the July 7-8 G20 summit in Hamburg. (RFE/RL)