Homepage Featured

Aid not making dents in Ukraine’s anti-corruption effort, says EU auditor
Findings come ahead of annual high-level summit in Kyiv

By |

KYIV – An independent report by the European Union’s (EU) independent outside auditor of finances said the 27-member state body’s reform assistance to Ukraine has proven ineffective “in fighting grand corruption” and establishing the rule of law.

The damning report, published on September 23 by the European Court of Auditors (ECA), stated that the 12.2 billion euros in various forms of assistance and loan guarantees provided to Ukraine since 2014 have “not delivered the expected results.”

Homepage Featured

Controversy accompanies Ukraine’s 80th anniversary of Babyn Yar genocidal murders
Rival museum project by Russian oligarchs called Kremlin ‘Trojan Horse’

By |

KYIV – In what at first appears to be a recreational park in the northwestern part of Ukraine’s capital, lined with tree-canopied serpentine trails, as well as a nestled playground for children, is the site of one of the biggest atrocities of the Holocaust in the country. Nearly 34,000 Jews were executed in the sprawling area of about 200 hectares (494 acres) in the span of just two days on Sep­tember 28-29, 1941, by invading German military personnel during World War II. The Nazi administration of Kyiv had issued a directive that infamously ordered Jews in the city and the surrounding area to gather their valuable belongings and identity credentials to assemble near the site, called Babyn Yar, or in English Old-Woman’s ravine. They were to arrive by 8 a.m. on Septem­ber 28 of that year near the Lukianivka freight station “according to rumors for deportation,” historians Vladyslav Hry­ne­vych and Paul Robert Magocsi wrote in “Babyn Yar History and Memory” that was published in 2016. By the time Soviet forces retook Kyiv in fierce battles two years later, approximately 100,000 people had been murdered at the sites, the majority of whom were Jews, who were targeted solely because of their ethnicity.

Ukraine

Car with Zelenskyy’s top aide riddled with bullets in assassination attempt
President’s longtime friend survives amid string of assassinations and attempts on other high-level figures since start of east Ukraine war

By |

KYIV – At about 10 a.m. on September 22, one or more shooter fired a volley of at least 18 bullets from the woods at a black, four-door Audi sedan along the road between the villages of Lisnyky and Khodosivka in Kyiv Oblast. Inside the vehicle was the president’s top aide, Serhiy Shefir, and a driver. The unidentified driver was shot three times and hospitalized in critical condition while Mr. Shefir survived unscathed. “The purpose of this crime was not to scare, but to kill,” Interior Affairs Minister Denys Monastyrsky said at a joint briefing the same day with Mr. Shefir. “Greeting me with shots from the forest at my friend’s car is a weakness.

Ukraine

Threat to judicial reform defused after meeting of G-7 ambassadors, judicial officials, members of parliament

By |

KYIV – Ukraine’s attempt to reform its unruly judicial system reached a pivotal point on September 13 when the body that disciplines judges failed to appoint three of its own members to a corresponding ethics committee that is supposed to vet members of the High Council of Justice (HCJ).

The body, which mainly hires and fires judges, didn’t appoint three judges to the committee who were to be joined by three international experts that were chosen on September 10 jointly by a delegation of officials from the U.S., the European Union, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Council of Europe, the U.N. Development Program and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Homepage Featured

U.S. Congressmen voice support for Ukraine during surprise visit to Kyiv
Visit comes as Russia’s foreboding NS2 pipeline completed

By |

KYIV – A group of five U.S. lawmakers led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) paid an unexpected visit to Ukraine on the same day that the Russian operator of a controversial natural-gas pipeline announced that it had completed the final stages of welding it together.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other high-level officials to reinforce their bicameral legislature’s bipartisan support for the country’s national security.

Ukraine

In White House meeting, Biden assures Zelenskyy of U.S. support against ‘Russian aggression’

By |

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden assured his Ukrainian counterpart Volody­myr Zelenskyy that the United States stands behind Kyiv against “Russian aggression” in a widely anticipated meeting at the White House. “The United States remains firmly committed to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression and our support for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations,” Mr. Biden told the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office on September 1. “The partnership between our nations grows stronger, and it’s going to even become stronger than it has been,” he added. Mr. Zelenskyy arrived at the White House saying he had a “very big agenda” to discuss, with a focus on security and Ukraine’s ambitions to join the NATO alliance. “I would like to discuss with President Biden his vision, his government’s vision of Ukraine’s chances to join NATO and the timeframe,” he said.