April 22, 2016

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Savchenko calls off hunger strike 

KYIV – Nadiya Savchenko, whom Russia has imprisoned on charges of complicity in the killings of two Russian journalists, has stopped her hunger strike. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote on Twitter on April 19 that Savchenko “had agreed” to stop the hunger strike after talking to her by phone. Ms. Savchenko, 34, has refused to consume water and food since April 6, demanding her immediate release. Earlier on April 19, Mr. Poroshenko said Kyiv and Moscow had agreed on a possible framework to free the former military pilot. Mr. Poroshenko said that “it seemed” he and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had agreed in a telephone call the day before on a formula that will allow Ms. Savchenko to be returned. The comments came a day after a Ukrainian court sentenced two Russian citizens to 14 years in prison each on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Shortly after the sentencing of Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, the Kremlin said Presidents Poroshenko and Putin discussed by phone the “fate” of the two Russians and Savchenko. Mr. Poroshenko said on April 19 that the sentencings open up “certain opportunities for using the exchange mechanism.” (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AP, TASS and Interfax)

Repatriation papers requested for Savchenko

MOSCOW – The Russian Justice Ministry says Ukraine has requested documents required to repatriate Nadiya  Savchenko, whose imprisonment in Russia has drawn international condemnation. Russian news agencies on April 20 quoted the ministry’s press office as saying that the Ukrainian Justice Ministry asked for paperwork related to Ms. Savchenko’s possible transfer to serve out her 22-year sentence in Ukraine. The ministry said a court would consider the issue of repatriating Ms. Savchenko, who was sentenced on March 22 on charges that included complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS, Interfax, RIA Novosti, Reuters and AP)

Canadian MP speaks out for Savchenko

OTTAWA – Member of Parliament Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Center, Ontario) on April 19 delivered a statement on the floor of Canada’s House of Commons calling on the Russian government to release Nadiya Savchenko to Ukraine. Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said: “Nadiya Savchenko, Ukraine’s first female fighter pilot, was captured and kidnapped out of Ukraine during Russia’s military invasion. … She is a duly elected Ukrainian member of Parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The attempt to break Ukraine’s spirit through the farce of a trial of Ukraine’s Joan of Arc has in fact strengthened her resolve. As she stated at the conclusion of her show trial which sentenced her to 22 years: ‘Russia will return me to Ukraine…dead or alive,’ and declared a hunger strike. She is close to death, another in the long list of victims of Putin’s regime. I call on our Parliament to show our support for Nadiya and demand of Putin that she be returned to her beloved Ukraine. …” (Office of MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj)

Dutch Parliament upholds EU-Ukraine deal

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch Parliament has defeated a motion calling for the country to pull out of a treaty establishing closer European Union ties with Ukraine. The EU-Ukraine deal was rejected by a majority of voters in a nonbinding referendum earlier this month. Seventy-five Dutch lawmakers voted against the motion – brought by the Euroskeptic Socialist Party – with 71 in favor in the 150-seat lower house. On April 6, more than 4 million people, accounting for about 32 percent of some 12.8 million eligible voters, cast their ballots in a nonbinding referendum with 61 percent rejecting the pact with Kyiv. The deal has already been ratified by 27 other EU states, and was being provisionally implemented even in the Netherlands after being approved last year by both houses of Parliament. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)

EU proposes visa-free travel

BRUSSELS – The European Union has proposed offering visa-free travel in Europe to Ukrainians. “Today, we follow up on our commitment to propose short-stay, visa-free travel to the EU for Ukrainian citizens with biometric passports,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said on April 20. “We need to be united and stand by our neighbor,” he also said, expressing hope that visa-free travel for Ukrainians will become a reality “very soon.” The decision will come as a relief to the pro-Western government in Kyiv as many feared that the visa-liberalization process could grind to a halt after the Netherlands earlier this month voted against the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU in a consultative referendum. However, it is still unclear how fast the liberalization process will be dealt with in the European Parliament and European Council, where some EU member states might want to slow down the process. (RFE/RL)

Crackdown on RFE/RL’s Crimea site 

PRAGUE – The latest clampdown on a Crimea news site run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has drawn international condemnation, with the United States denouncing it as “the Russian government’s growing crackdown on independent voices” on the annexed peninsula. Crimea’s Moscow-backed authorities have repeatedly targeted the Krym.Realii website for its criticism of the peninsula’s annexation by Russia in March 2014. On April 19, Natalya Poklonskaya, Crimea’s de-facto prosecutor-general, said her office planned to ask Russian prosecutors to permanently block access to the website. Ms. Poklonskaya accused Krym.Realii of publishing materials that contain “justification of sabotage, extremism and endless slander of government bodies in Crimea.” After Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the Russian Parliament passed a law making it a criminal offense to question Russia’s territorial integrity, which also means opposing the occupation. “The United States remains deeply concerned about increasing restrictions on independent media and civil society in Crimea,” said Jonathan Lalley, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, in remarks published on April 20. He said individuals and organizations with dissenting views “are being silenced or driven out,” and condemned Crimean authorities for denying international observers access to the peninsula. RFE/RL Editor-in-Chief Nenad Pejic said attacks on RFE/RL staff have become “a regular practice” in Russia and Crimea. “They have faced every possible pressure – public attacks, threats against their families. Many have been forced to leave the peninsula,” he said in a statement. Mr. Pejic said Krym.Realii would continue providing independent news to Crimea, adding that the website had over 30 million visits last year. “This only confirms the importance of RFE/RL’s continued presence in Crimea, and the need for our journalists to work safely without fear of arrest or prosecution,” he said. The Krym.Realii website is published in Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Krym.Realii, AP, AFP, TASS)
Crimean authorities investigate journalist

KYIV – The office for Crimea’s de facto procurator-general has said that journalist Mykola Semena has been ordered not to leave the peninsula while he is being investigated by the Russia-backed authorities. In a statement on April 19, the Moscow-backed prosecutor’s office said Mr. Semena, who is an outside contributor to the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, is being investigated for alleged “calls for undermining the Russian territorial integrity via mass media.” RFE/RL Editor-in-Chief Nenad Pejic said on April 19: “Police conducted forced searches at the homes of seven people across Crimea, including some RFE/RL correspondents. One of those journalists is now facing up to five years in prison on criminal charges related to his work.” The prosecutor’s office said earlier on April 19 that police searched the homes of several local journalists and confiscated computers and data “proving that materials of an extremist character had been under preparation.” The Committee to Protect Journalists decried Russia’s targeting of journalists covering Crimea. “We call on Russian security forces to stop harassing journalists in Crimea for their reporting and expressed opinions,” said Nina Ognianova, the committee’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russia has a record of equating criticism with extremism, and of using its broad laws to intimidate and silence the press,” she noted. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also voiced concerns over the probe into Mr. Semena. “This recent detention only shows the urgent need to stop the arbitrary practice of silencing journalists in Crimea,” said Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative on media freedom. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Interfax, TASS and AP)

Three soldiers killed in Ukraine’s east 

KYIV – Ukraine says three of its soldiers have been killed in the country’s east – the heaviest toll reported in the region in nearly two months. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on April 20 that the soldiers died in a mortar attack on the government-held village of Mayorsk, located some 35 kilometers north of Donetsk. He said five soldiers were also wounded over the previous 24 hours in separate incidents along the 500-kilometer front splitting the separatist-held regions of Luhansk and Donetsk from the rest of the country. The news comes amid rising concerns about ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)

Training limited to avoid provoking Russia 

WASHINGTON – ”The White House has boosted aid for Ukrainian forces battling Russian-backed separatists but limits training to mainly defensive tactics, triggering criticism the policy is too cautious to blunt President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive moves in the region,” reported Jim Michaels of USA Today. He noted in the April 11 story: “The United States recently turned down Ukraine’s request for sniper training for its armed forces because that is considered an offensive skill. The U.S. policy is aimed at teaching defensive skills in order to avoid escalating the conflict. U.S. officials said the distinction between defensive and offensive tactics makes little difference, since the training is focused on building basic soldier skills, which are similar for offensive and defensive operations.” Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe, explained that, “At the company and maybe even at the battalion level, there’s not really a big distinction between offensive and defensive things. What we’re trying to do is make sure the Ukrainians at the tactical level are as capable as they can be.” The story went on to cite Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and other Republican lawmakers, who have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for limiting aid to Ukraine’s military to “non-lethal” supplies. “If you’re there, why not train them in the way Ukrainians need to be trained to counteract the Russian offensive,” said Rep. Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee who recently visited Ukraine, told USA Today. “How nice can you be while Putin takes over the world?” Col. Nick Ducich, commander of the multinational training group in Ukraine, said there are some offensive tasks that U.S. trainers are not teaching Ukrainian troops, including how to establish an ambush, which is considered an exclusively offensive skill, in addition to avoiding sniper training. Canada and Lithuania, which also train Ukrainian forces, do not have similar restrictions, USA Today reported. Michael Carpenter, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense, said the U.S. has to walk a line, helping Ukraine without provoking a Russian response. “The goal has been to help the Ukrainians be more effective in defending their territory without escalating the conflict.” He noted that the U.S. is providing Ukraine’s military with about $600 million in training and equipment. “There is no other country that is doing even close to what we’re doing,” he noted. (USA Today)

OSCE helps improve safety in east

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine – The project coordinator in Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), at a ceremony in Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, on April 7, presented representatives of the Infrastructure Ministry’s State Special Transport Service with 15 sets of protective equipment, including vests and helmets, which are to be delivered to local deminers working along transport routes in the east of the country. The State Special Transport Service is responsible for ensuring the safety of the transport network and for restoring railways and bridges destroyed by hostilities. This often involves clearing mines and unexploded ordnance that threaten civilian transportation routes. ”Safety of communications is extremely important in the context of sustainable post-conflict recovery, future peace and security in the region,” said Vaidotas Verba, the OSCE project coordinator in Ukraine. “I hope that with our help the service will be in better position to swiftly and efficiently ensure safer conditions for the movement of people and goods in the conflict-affected areas.” Since July 2014 the State Special Transport Service has cleared over 300 kilometers of railways in government-controlled areas of the Donbas and disposed of more than 4,500 unexploded ordnance, mines and booby traps. This is among the more than 100,000 such dangerous items discovered and destroyed by all organizations working in the region, which are involved in dealing with these remnants of conflict. To help Ukraine address this new challenge, the Office of the OSCE Project Coordinator is also training the country’s humanitarian deminers on international mine action standards, helping to introduce a modern information management system to improve operations and the inter-agency coordination of efforts, and assisting in developing relevant legislation and standards. (OSCE)

Germany, France urge Kyiv to act

KYIV – Germany and France have urged new Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to quickly implement economic reforms and the Minsk agreements on regulating the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel passed on the message to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone call on April 15. “The new dynamic created by the change in government must translate into rapid and concrete results,” according to a statement from the French presidential office issued after the telephone call. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)
Biden urges speedy reforms in Ukraine

WASHINGTON – The White House says U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden urged new Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to quickly implement reforms in a telephone call after Ukraine’s Parliament approved the new prime minister on April 14. Mr. Biden congratulated Mr. Groysman on his new post and the new Cabinet approved by lawmakers earlier in the day, and stressed that “the new team should move forward quickly” on its reform program in order to maintain international support for Kyiv, a White House statement said. This includes fulfilling Ukraine’s International Monetary Fund commitments, implementing the Minsk agreements aimed at regulating the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and confirming a new “reformist” procurator general, the White House said. The vice-president “reiterated unwavering U.S. commitment to the prosperity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the statement added. (RFE/RL)

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