January 26, 2018

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Poroshenko, Volker discuss Donbas war 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in Kyiv to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine. According to a statement posted on the Ukrainian president’s website, the two men expressed “serious concern” about Russia’s lack of progress in implementing the Minsk agreements during the January 23 meeting. In a post on Twitter, Ambassador Volker said he “had a good conversation” with President Poroshenko, adding that he will travel to Dubai later this week to meet with Russian diplomats. Mr. Poroshenko’s statement said that the solidification of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and the “withdrawal of Russian occupation forces from Ukraine” were now “absolute priorities.” Kyiv has been fighting against Russia-backed militants in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine since early 2014. Although Moscow denies interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs, the International Criminal Court in November 2016 determined the conflict to be “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.” The conflict has left more than 10,300 people dead and some 1.6 million people displaced. (RFE/RL)

Tillerson speaks with Lavrov 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Affairs Miniser Sergei Lavrov discussed the ongoing crises in Syria, North Korea and Ukraine by phone on January 24, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “On Ukraine, the secretary noted the upcoming meeting between U.S. special representative Volker and Russian representative [Vladislav] Surkov and emphasized the need for Russia to accelerate implementation of its commitments under the Minsk agreements and reverse the recent escalation in the fighting in eastern Ukraine,” Ms. Nauert said in a statement. “On Syria, the two discussed Russia’s role in ensuring the Assad regime plays a constructive role in the U.N.-led Geneva process,” Ms. Nauert said. Secretary Tillerson also pressed “all parties” to implement U.N.-led action on North Korea,” she added. (RFE/RL)

Biden on new administration and Kyiv

Former U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden has praised a White House decision to supply Ukraine with more lethal weaponry, but also suggested that weaker U.S. policy toward Kyiv was leading to backsliding on crucial anti-corruption reforms. Mr. Biden, who was the Obama administration’s point person on Ukraine, called Kurt Volker – the current U.S. special envoy for Ukraine – a “solid, solid guy.” But Mr. Biden suggested that Ambassador Volker did not have enough authority to be tougher on Ukraine’s leadership on corruption and that backsliding on the reforms could hurt the chances of implementing the Minsk accords, the framework deal reached with Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Volker is “a solid, solid guy. But Kurt, to the best of my knowledge, does not have the authority, or the ability, to go in and say, ‘If you don’t straighten this up, you’re out of here,’ ” Mr. Biden said. The ex-vice-president made the comments on January 23 in an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The administration of President Barack Obama had imposed economic sanctions for Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and for its support of separatists in the war with Ukrainian forces. But Washington has also struggled to push President Petro Poroshenko to institute major governmental reforms and clean up the country’s endemic corruption. The Obama administration was also reluctant to authorize more advanced weapons for Ukraine’s military, fearing it would antagonize the Kremlin. Mr. Biden said he and other administration officials had to work hard to persuade European leaders to go along with U.S. sanctions on Russia.  “There is no pressure that I’m aware of… on the present leadership in Ukraine to hold them together to be able to continue what looked like was a real possibility of turning Minsk into something that was doable by being much tougher than Germany wanted us to be,” he commented. “We were moving in that direction, but it now looks like the pressure is off and it requires day-to-day-to-day” reinforcement. Reached by RFE/RL by e-mail, Mr. Volker declined comment. The Trump administration policy toward Ukraine had been in doubt early on in his presidency, amid Donald Trump’s repeated calls for a more conciliatory approach toward Russia. Last year, the White House signaled it was moving forward on a long-delayed plan to supply Ukraine with more advanced weaponry, to bolster its forces fighting Russian-backed separatists. (Mike Eckel of RFE/RL)

Kazakhstan offers to host peace talks 

Kazakhstan has responded to Belarusian criticism of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s offer to move the venue of peace talks on Ukraine from Minsk to Astana. Kazakh Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Erzhan Ashyqbaev told reporters in Astana on January 22 that his country does not doubt the importance of the Minsk negotiating platform and “respects” the peace accords inked in the Belarusian capital. Ceasefire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords – September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict – have failed to hold. “We are not interfering in this [Minsk] process,” Mr. Ashyqbaev said. “However, Kazakhstan is always ready to give full support to find solutions.” The Kazakh minister added that Astana would do its best to offer a new platform for the talks if such a request comes from the warring sides. On January 19, Belarusian Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makey said that moving the Minsk talks to a new venue wouldn’t change anything. “The negotiations’ venue is hardly relevant,” Mr. Makey said. “The negotiations on Ukraine could even be moved to Antarctica if there is a certainty about their success.” He added that Belarus was not “seeking peacemaker’s laurels unlike some others.” Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that commitment to the Minsk accords is “more important than the venue for negotiations” on resolving Ukraine’s conflict. The statements from Minsk and Moscow came a day after Mr. Nazarbaev said peace talks on Ukraine are deadlocked and suggested his country could serve as a new venue for negotiations. Mr. Nazarbaev said while on a visit to the United States that he discussed the conflict during a meeting with Donald Trump, and that the U.S. president suggested moving the talks to another location. (RFE/RL, with reporting by vlast.kz, RIA and Interfax)

Crimean Tatars urge more sanctions 

Exiled Crimean Tatar leaders Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov have urged the European Union to keep and expand sanctions imposed on Russia after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region. The EU imposed economic sanctions that hit Russia’s oil and military industries in response to the annexation of Crimea as well as Moscow’s backing of militants in fighting against Ukrainian government troops in eastern Ukraine. Speaking to the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights on January 24, Mr. Umerov told EU lawmakers that no economic sanctions on Moscow should be lifted and that “there should be new reports and resolutions, cultural events should be banned and boycotted, and we should expand economic sanctions so that Russia is so affected that they leave Crimea and the Donbas.” The bloc has also introduced asset freezes and visa bans on more than 200 people in Crimea and Russia and enacted an EU investment ban for the peninsula. Although sanctions have been renewed on a regular basis, some EU member states have questioned the bloc’s sanctions policy, arguing that their removal would improve EU-Russia relations. Mr. Chiygoz said the EU sanctions regime had been “mild” and asked the EU to “be united just like when you helped us… help other prisoners, save our people and our motherland.” Messrs. Chyigoz and Umerov were released from Russian custody in Crimea in October 2017 after being sentenced by Russian-controlled courts a month earlier. Mr. Chiygoz had been convicted of organizing an illegal demonstration and was sentenced to eight years in prison, whereas Mr. Umerov received two years for “separatism” for his opposition to the Russian annexation of Crimea. (RFE/RL)

EU seeks release of ‘illegally detained’ 

The European Union has called for the release of Ukrainian citizens being held “illegally” in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula whose 2014 seizure by Moscow triggered international condemnation and Western sanctions targeting Russia. In a January 19 statement, Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, cited the case of pro-Kyiv activist Volodymyr Balukh, who was sentenced by a court in Russia-controlled Crimea on January 16 to three years and seven months in prison in a high-profile retrial on charges of weapons and explosives possession. Ms. Kocijancic noted that Mr. Balukh was “known to have opposed the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation” and that the EU does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.“International human rights observers must be granted full, free and unhindered access to the peninsula, and the European Union expects all illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula and in Russia to be released as swiftly as possible,” Ms. Kocijancic said. The European Parliament in March 2017 called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or otherwise detained in Russia, Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists. In her January 19 statement, Ms. Kocijancic also cited the case of Crimean Tatar activist Bekir Degermendzhi, who was detained in November 2017 in the Crimean city of Symferopol on what the spokeswoman called “dubious charges” related to alleged extortion. Mr. Degermendzhi, who remains in custody, suffers from asthma, a condition his lawyers say has worsened since his detention. “In view of the critical medical condition he suffers, it is essential that he is immediately granted access to appropriate medical care,” Ms. Kocijancic said. She added that the EU “remains committed to fully implementing its policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)

Measles outbreak kills eight in Ukraine 

Ukraine’s top health official says eight people have died of complications from measles amid a recent outbreak in the country, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked last in terms of measles-vaccination coverage in Europe. Acting Minister of Health Ulana Suprun told lawmakers on January 19 that a child who had not been vaccinated against measles died the previous day. “This is the eighth fatal case since the onset of the outbreak, and this is a tragedy for our society, in which people die from diseases that are preventable by vaccinations,” Dr. Suprun said. The Ukrainian Health Ministry on January 16 said it had registered 1,285 cases of measles in the country in the first two weeks of this year – including 856 children. There were a total of 4,782 measles cases registered in Ukraine in all of 2017. A total of five people, including three children, died of measles in Ukraine last year. Marthe Everard, the WHO’s representative in Ukraine, said in a statement this week that at least twice as many children were vaccinated against measles in 2017 compared to the previous year. But she said “the continuing spread of measles in Ukraine demonstrates that more must be done to vaccinate all those who have fallen behind.” (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AFP and Interfax)

Witness: Russia helped Yanukovych flee

A serviceman of the State Guard Department of Ukraine, Viktor Riznychenko, who was guarding former President Viktor Yanukovych, said he does not have information about any threats to the life of the former president in the winter of 2014. During his interrogation as a witness in the Yanukovych treason case in the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv on January 18, he said that on February 21, 2014, the ex-president was first in his administration and in the afternoon, at about 5 p.m., he left for his residence in Mezhyhiria. At about 10 p.m. Mr. Riznychenko heard over the radio that Mr. Yanukovych had left his residence and a few hours later he had been ordered to leave for Kharkiv. For this reason, employees of the State Guard Department met on the Kyiv-Kharkiv highway. The witness said that early on February 22, he was already in Kharkiv, where the former president gave an interview to the media and was to participate in a Party of Regions congress, which later was canceled. “In the afternoon of February 22, in the presidential motorcade, I left for Kharkiv airport, where there were two helicopters with several security guards, in one of which was Yanukovych, and in the other were his family and several other security officers,” Mr. Riznychenko said. According to him, about an hour after departure, State Guard Department employees were informed that an Ukraerorukh dispatcher had contacted them and proposed returning to Kharkiv. Mr. Riznychenko said “it was Turchynov’s order.” However, since there was not enough fuel to return to Kharkiv, helicopters landed at Donetsk airport. The witness noted that immediately after arrival in Donetsk, the head of the security service of the Ukrainian president, Kostiantyn Kobzar, gave an order to board two Falcon-type aircraft. However, the staff of the State Border Service of Ukraine approached them and said they were forbidden to fly due to the fact that some documents had not been filed. Then Mr. Yanukovych and his entourage moved to cars and proceeded to a big house in Donetsk. Later, answering the questions of lawyers, Mr. Riznychenko said that staying in this house, together with Mr. Yanukovych, were his son, Oleksandr, and businessman Rinat Akhmetov. He said that on February 22, the motorcade of the ex-president and his companions left for Crimea. According to him, they stopped in a field near Berdiansk, where three Mi-8 helicopters landed. Mr. Riznychenko said there were red stars on the fuselages of the helicopters and that pilots were in special equipment. “I think that these were helicopters of the Russian Federation,” he said. Mr. Yanukovych and those who accompanied him flew on these helicopters in an unknown direction and flew “over the sea.” The witness said, “After a certain period of time, we landed on the airfield, where we were met by Russian servicemen. We stayed until the morning in trailers on the airfield.” On February 23, the ex-president, his security guards and a “group of unknown armed men” flew farther on an An-26 military transport plane and then landed on another unknown airfield, because “it was impossible to continue flying for technical reasons.” They stayed there for about an hour and a half and, according to the witness, a technical vehicle with the inscription “Anapa” was seen on the airfield. “I assume that it was the city of Anapa in the Russian Federation,” said Mr. Riznychenko. Then there was a flight on another plane to another airport, where they were again met by Russian military and their vehicles. Later, the witness realized he was in Crimea. “We came to Yalta, to a sanatorium or a recreation center, which most likely belonged to the Russian Federation,” he said. He noted that on the evening of February 23, they left for Sevastopol and arrived at a Russian military unit. They were addressed by Mr. Yanukovych, who proposed that security guards make a choice “to move with him further” or stay if anyone does not want to move. He said that at about 11 p.m, the ex-president continued on with his companions. Mr. Riznychenko and other security guards who did not follow Mr. Yanukovych passed their weapons to the State Guard Department branch in Miskhor and left for Kyiv by train the next morning. (Interfax-Ukraine)

Kyiv to resume membership in tourism group

Kyiv intends to resume membership in the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations (known as UNWTO), which currently comprises 158 countries. The director of the Tourism Development Center, Volodymyr Tsaruk, told Interfax-Ukraine this topic was discussed at a meeting of UNWTO Secretary General Zurab Pololikashvili with the head of the tourism and promotions department of Kyiv City State Administration, Anton Taranenko, during the 38th International Tourism Exhibition FITUR in Spain. “The capital of Ukraine, when it obtains membership, will be able to organize one of the international events with the support of UNWTO on its territory and participate in international conferences and congresses under the auspices of this tourist organization,” Mr. Taranenko said. During the 38th International Tourism Exhibition FITUR, held in Madrid on January 17-21, Kyiv presented its tourist opportunities, as well as the most important sport event in the world of European football – the Champions League final, which will be held at the Olympiysky Stadium in Kyiv on May 28. The World Tourism Organization is the leading international organization in the field of tourism, engaged in the development of sustainable and generally accessible tourism. (Interfax-Ukraine)

OSCE monitor killed in car accident 

A member of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was killed in a road accident in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region on January 18, the OSCE said. Vitalie Zara was a citizen of Moldova who had been working for the Luhansk Monitoring Team since July 2015, serving in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk and Kadiivka, the organization said in a posting on Facebook on January 19. Mr. Zara was traveling in a taxi in Kramatorsk when the car accident took place. He died at the scene, Russian news agency Interfax reported. “He is remembered as a trusted, hard-working friend and colleague, always with a smile, and will be missed and mourned,” the OSCE said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.” Kurt Volker, the special U.S. envoy for Ukraine, also offered “condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Vitalie Zara” on Twitter. It was the second death of an OSCE monitor in eastern Ukraine in the last year. An American observer was killed last April when the car he was traveling in drove over a land mine. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Interfax)

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