January 15, 2021

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Court will hear case on rights violations in Crimea

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear part of a case brought by Ukraine alleging Russian human rights violations in the Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, the court said on January 14.  Abuses alleged by Ukraine – including enforced disappearances, unlawful detention and suppression of non-Russian media – had been deemed admissible and would be followed by a judgment at a later date, an ECHR statement said. The court said there was not enough evidence for Ukrainian allegations of a pattern of killings and shootings and detentions of foreign journalists or the alleged confiscation of Ukrainian soldiers’ property. Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in the Donbass conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed 14,000 people since 2014. A statement from the Russian justice ministry focused on the allegations thrown out by the court, including the most serious, that civilians had been murdered. The Kremlin-backed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, wrote on social media that Ukraine’s allegations were false and that the court should instead investigate real human rights violations perpetrated against Crimeans by Ukraine not Russia. He said the European court’s rulings on Russian matters were often biased and politicized. Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the ruling a victory for his country. “This is an important step towards bringing Russia to legal responsibility for aggression against Ukraine,” he said. “And with each step the price of this responsibility will grow.” The Strasbourg-based ECHR said the case was not concerned with whether the annexation was lawful under international law, but had taken into account Russia’s increased military presence in Crimea in January-March 2014 without Ukraine’s consent. The annexation has not been internationally recognized and it prompted the West to impose sanctions on Russia, sending relations to their lowest level since the Cold War. Members of the Council of Europe are supposed to abide by the judgement of the court, which can include demands for reform or compensation, but sometimes states ignore them. (Reuters, with reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Andrew Osborn)

 

Darknet marketplace servers seized in Ukraine

German authorities have shut down “the world’s largest” illegal online marketplace as part of an international operation against the darknet. The so-called DarkMarket was taken offline and more than 20 servers, located in Ukraine and Moldova, were seized as part of an ongoing investigation of users of the illegal platform, Europol said on January 12. “The stored data will give investigators new leads to further investigate moderators, sellers, and buyers,” the European police agency said. An Australian citizen alleged to have been the operator of DarkMarket was arrested near the German-Danish border over the weekend. Around a half million users and more than 2,000 sellers used the website to sell illegal drugs, counterfeit money, stolen or falsified credit cards, anonymous SIM cards, and malware. More than 320,000 transactions were conducted via the website using cryptocurrency amounting to around $170 million. German investigators led the international operation involving authorities from Australia, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europol. (RFE/RL)

 

Kyiv vows to punish U.S. election meddlers

The head of the Ukrainian president’s office says that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration will do “everything in its power to hold…responsible” Ukrainians who meddled in the November U.S. election after Washington imposed sanctions on nearly a dozen Ukrainian nationals and entities. “For the sake of clarity, regardless of party affiliation, this administration will do everything in its power to hold [to account] those responsible for meddling in U.S. elections,” Andriy Yermak tweeted. The U.S. Treasury on January 11 accused seven individuals and four entities of involvement in a Russian-linked foreign-influence network associated with Ukrainian parliament member Andriy Derkach. Mr. Derkach was put under U.S. sanctions in September over alleged efforts to influence the presidential vote, which was won by Democratic challenger Joe Biden. He has reportedly promoted unproven allegations – circulated within Republican supporters – that Biden’s son Hunter improperly used his influence with his father to block a Ukrainian investigation into energy company Burisma, on whose board the younger Biden sat. Mr. Derkach has said the sanctions are punishment for exposing corruption. One of the individuals added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list at the Office of Foreign Assets Control on January 11 is Oleksandr Dubinskiy, from Mr. Zelenskyy’s ruling Servant of the People party. People and entities on the SDN list have their U.S. assets blocked and U.S. nationals are generally prohibited from dealing with them. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters)

 

No need to extend COVID-19 lockdown

Ukraine’s health ministry expects the country’s strict lockdown will end as scheduled on January 25, Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted the deputy minister as saying on January 14. While Ukraine closed schools, restaurants and gyms recently, Viktor Lyashko said the ministry expected to exit the lockdown on January 25 and not have to introduce any further strict measures in the future. The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped in early January to less than 10,000 a day from record levels in mid-December. The country has registered more than 1.1 million coronavirus cases with 20,376 deaths as of January 14. (Reuters, with reporting by Pavel Polityuk)

 

Ukraine to get 5 million vaccine doses

Ukrainian pharmaceutical company Lekhim hopes to register China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in early February and to deliver 5 million doses in Ukraine in the first half of 2021, the head of its supervisory board said on January 13. Lekhim has signed an agreement with China’s leading vaccine manufacturer, Sinovac Biotech, but it must obtain state registration in Ukraine before starting to make deliveries. “I think we will register the vaccine by February 1-5,” Valeriy Pechaiev told journalists. He said that the first shipment, beginning in March, would be 1.9 million doses, procured by the health ministry. Ukraine’s presidential office said in late December that the health minister had signed a contract to buy Sinovac doses. The Sinovac vaccine will be supplied independently of the COVAX initiative, which is co-led by the GAVI vaccine alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Ukraine hopes to receive 8 million doses under the COVAX scheme. Coronavirus infections in Ukraine began rising in September and have been consistently high ever since, triggering several national lockdowns. A total of 1,130,839 coronavirus cases have been registered in Ukraine with 20,214 deaths as of January 13. (Reuters, with reporting by Natalia Zinets and Ilya Zhegulev)

 

IMF concerned by plan to regulate gas prices

Ukraine’s finance minister said on January 14 that the International Monetary Fund was concerned about the government’s plan to regulate household gas prices, although the Fund has not officially commented on the plan. Such a plan would not help Ukraine start its currently stalled $5 billion loan program with the IMF, Serhiy Marchenko said in a live interview on Ukrainian Radio NV. “Our partners know about it. They are concerned that we are revising some of our earlier commitments,” Mr. Marchenko said. IMF officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on January 13 that the government would introduce state regulation and set a uniform gas price of 6.99 hryvnia ($0.25) per cubic meter during the country’s coronavirus lockdown or throughout winter, to avoid a jump in energy bills that have already led to protests across the country. The price of gas in Ukraine has long been a political issue, and opposition parties regularly use energy price hikes as a reason to protest against the government. The government says gas prices took off last month and in January, with gas companies supplying the public at prices often exceeding 10 hryvnias ($0.36) per cubic meter. “We have an obligation in the memorandum on the launching of market mechanisms in the natural gas market… These are clear commitments and they must be adhered to,” Mr. Marchenko said. “Now the issue is to convince our partners that this step can be part of a mechanism or a temporary solution.”  Last June the IMF approved the $5 billion loan program and disbursed the first tranche of $2.1 billion to help the Ukrainian economy, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.  Further loans have been frozen due to the slow pace of reforms in Ukraine. (Reuters, with reporting by Natalia Zinets)

 

Serbian president opens Russia-led pipeline

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has presided over the ceremonial opening of the Serbian section of the Russia-led Balkan Stream natural-gas pipeline. In a televised event from the settlement of Gospodjinci near Novy Sad on January 1, Mr. Vucic proclaimed the 403-kilometer pipeline segment open. The ceremony had been postponed from December 30 without any explanation. “A big day for Serbia!” Mr. Vucic posted on Instagram. During the event, he praised the project as “key for Serbia’s future development.” Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, Srbijagas Director-General Dusan Bajatovic, and representatives of Russian gas and construction firms attended the event. Mr. Botsan-Kharchenko said the pipeline will “provide energy security also for the wider region, Central Europe.” The pipeline segment is part of the larger TurkStream pipeline, which supplies Russian natural gas to Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary. Speaking to journalists on December 25, Mr. Vucic said the government plans to extend the pipeline within Serbia to supply gas to the cities of Vranje and Valjevo. “We will lay gas lines to bring new factories and investors there and to supply gas to the population,” he said. Like the Nord Stream pipeline project across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, TurkStream is intended to divert Russian gas supplies from transiting through Ukraine. In July 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described both projects as “Kremlin tools” to expand European dependence on Russian energy supplies and to undermine Ukraine. In 2019, the United States imposed sanctions against companies involved in both projects. The administration of President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Germany and other European nations for their reliance on Russian energy supplies. Although it aspires to European Union membership, Serbia is a traditional ally of Russia and has long been dependent on Russian natural gas. (RFE/RL’s Serbian Service, based on reporting by TASS and AP)

 

Meeting of Lublin Triangle to take place in 2021

A meeting of the heads of the foreign affairs ministries of the Lublin Triangle (Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine) will be held in Kyiv in early 2021, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “Although the ministers did not meet, and there were no bright media reasons to cover the Lublin Triangle, I assure you that the coordinators whom we have appointed worked out during this time the agenda and strategy of the Lublin Triangle, carried out this planned work and from the beginning of the year we will return to creating for you, journalists, a beautiful media channel on the Lublin Triangle. … This will be a meeting of ministers in Kyiv. We agreed on it this fall,” Mr. Kuleba said in an interview with TSN, published on December 30, 2020. The foreign affairs minister pointed out that the ministers would already come up with a list of key areas in which the countries of the Lublin Triangle will agree to interact and implement joint projects. Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine established the Lublin Triangle format in July 2020. (Interfax Ukraine)

 

Orban’s visit to Ukraine remains on agenda

The visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Kyiv and his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains on the agenda, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “This visit has not been removed from the agenda. Moreover, I assure you that the president of Ukraine is ready to hold such a meeting. But it must be meaningful and reset relations. And the task of the diplomats is now to come to this moment. We are open for this meeting. I will say more, we want them to meet, we want to eliminate all misunderstandings with Hungary,” Mr. Kuleba said in an interview with TSN, published on December 30, 2020. According to him, in order to reboot, it is necessary to clearly state that from now on the rules of the game are like this, and both sides agree to these rules. “Mutual respect is based on these rules. I’ll tell you, probably exclusive, I haven’t told anyone about this yet. We received a signal from Hungary that after a significant sharp decline in relations over the past month, they are ready to resume a constructive dialogue. And we will respond positively to this signal. Therefore, with the beginning of a new year, Hungary will be in focus, and we will try to get out of the negativity in which we found ourselves,” Mr. Kuleba said. (Interfax Ukraine)

 

Language policy violates human rights

Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin said that the cancellation of the state Ukrainian language status in the occupied territories is a violation of human rights. “The language legislation was canceled in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which deprived the Ukrainian language of the status of state language. This is not only a primitive imitation of the procedures of the so-called legislative activity of the occupation regime. This is a violation of human rights, of which the PACE deputies, the OSCE High Commissioner have been notified,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. The ombudsman expressed hope that the information that his secretariat collects together with the Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova will become the subject of his annual report in 2021, and will be replicated around the world. “Crimea and Donbas are Ukraine, and the people who live there are Ukrainians. They cannot be separated, including in the language issue,” Mr. Kremin said, answering the question of what the language policy should be in the territories of Donbas and Crimea after de-occupation. When asked whether it would be necessary to adopt certain transitional provisions of the law on the language after the de-occupation of the territories, Mr. Kremin said that this issue is up to the Verkhovna Rada. (Interfax Ukraine)

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