Council of Europe: release Sentsov
The chief of Europe’s top human rights body is urging Russia to release imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, who is currently on hunger strike while serving a 20-year sentence. Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, on June 20 told Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova that Mr. Sentsov “should be released on humanitarian grounds,” the Interfax news agency reported after their meeting in Moscow. “If there is a need for a request for pardoning him, I would gladly do it on the basis of the European Convention of Human Rights,” Mr. Jagland added. On June 18, a dozen leading names in the Russian arts, including Andrei Zvyagintsev and fellow filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov, called for President Vladimir Putin to pardon Mr. Sentsov. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Mr. Sentsov would have to ask for the pardon himself before it could be considered. A vocal opponent of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, where he was born, Mr. Sentsov was sentenced in 2015 to 20 years for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. He and human rights groups say the charges were politically motivated. On May 14, he began a hunger strike, demanding the release of 64 Ukrainian citizens he considers political prisoners. Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ms. Moskalkova as saying that Mr. Sentsov was “receiving nutrition from a drip filled with all the vitamins twice a day” and that he had not lost weight. Separately, Mr. Sentsov’s lawyers said the European Court of Human Rights had called on Mr. Sentsov to end his hunger strike and for Russia to provide details by June 27 about his condition and how his rights are being ensured. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AP, AFP, and Interfax)
HRW calls for safe schools in Ukraine
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Ukraine to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental political document aimed at better protecting children’s right to education in wartime. The New York-based watchdog made the call in a June 20 statement, saying that fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has a “devastating toll” on children. Since the conflict began in April 2014, at least 740 education facilities in the region have been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations. In May of this year alone, the United Nations said at least four education facilities sustained damage as a result of continuous hostilities. Both sides in the conflict have used schools and universities as bases and barracks, HRW said. Seventy-five countries have signed the Safe Schools Declaration, which contains concrete commitments to better protect students, teachers, schools, and universities from the effects of war. “The U.N. Security Council’s Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict is on July 9. What better platform for Ukraine to endorse the declaration than on one of the world’s most influential stages?” HRW said. Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Serhiy Kyslytsya said in October 2017 that his country attaches “great importance” to the Safe Schools Declaration and expressed Kyiv’s willingness to endorse the document. “These words were encouraging, but more than seven months later, it’s time to put words into action, HRW said. “Ukrainian children cannot wait any longer.” (RFE/RL)
Tymoshenko announces presidential run
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko says she plans to run for president in 2019, setting up a possible showdown with incumbent Petro Poroshenko. In a video conference on her Facebook page on June 20, Ms. Tymoshenko said she will run for the presidency “not just to play an authoritarian game… but to lift Ukraine back on its feet.” She added: “The presidential office for me is not a PlayStation, but a place to introduce real changes our country has been longing for.” The leader of Ukraine’s opposition Batkivshchyna party added that she would initiate a referendum on a new Constitution if she was elected president. “I will propose a new constitution for Ukraine to make it a real public agreement between the government and the people in order to de-monopolize the powers of the authorities,” she said. “On one hand, the authorities will be more able to implement strategic changes. On the other, they will become properly organized, balanced, and controlled by society.” She said that parliamentary elections, scheduled for the autumn of 2019, must be conducted under the rules of the new Constitution. Meanwhile, Ms. Tymoshenko said she will never give up the fight to have Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern regions brought back under Kyiv’s control. Ms. Tymoshenko, 57, lost to pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2010 and to Mr. Poroshenko in 2014 after Mr. Yanukovych was driven from power and fled to Russia. Ms. Tymoshenko was Ukraine’s prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and was jailed on embezzlement charges following her government’s defeat by Mr. Yanukovych in 2010. Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community as political in nature. She was released in February 2014 and later re-elected to Parliament. According to recent polls, Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Poroshenko each have support of 14 to 16 percent of Ukrainian voters. (RFE/RL)
UWC hails EuroParliament resolution
The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) welcomed the European Parliament’s resolution 2018/2754 (RSP) on Russia, notably the case of Ukrainian political prisoner Oleh Sentsov, which was overwhelmingly supported on June 14. In the context of an ongoing hunger strike by Oleh Sentsov and several other Ukrainian political prisoners, the resolution is a response to the blatant human rights violations by the Russian Federation, including illegal detentions, trials, imprisonments, and torture of Ukrainian citizens for political reasons, the UWC noted in its press release. The resolution urges the Russian Federation authorities to release “immediately and unconditionally” Mr. Sentsov and all other Ukrainian political prisoners in the Russian Federation and occupied Crimea, whose number currently surpasses 70. EuroParliament lawmakers reminded the Russian Federation of its obligation, as a member of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The resolution condemns the multiple violations of international law by the Russian Federation in occupied Crimea, including the application of Russian laws, the intensive military build-up in Crimea, and pervasive human rights violations against ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars living on the peninsula. The resolution calls on the European Union to issue a statement condemning these violations as well as attempts by the Russian Federation to conceal them under the pretext of the FIFA World Cup. “The Ukrainian World Congress joins the call by the European Parliament for an immediate and unconditional release of Oleh Sentsov and all other Ukrainian political prisoners who are persecuted by the Russian Federation,” stated UWC President Eugene Czolij. (UWC)
U.S. to Russia: Release political prisoners
The United States has called on Russia to release dozens of people it says have been identified by rights groups as political prisoners. The June 18 statement by the State Department said more than 150 people were being held in all, including Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and human rights activist Oyub Titiyev. Mr. Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region. A Russian court in 2015 convicted him of planning to commit terrorist acts and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. He has been on hunger strike since May 14. Mr. Titiyev, who heads the Chechen office of the rights group Memorial, has been in pretrial detention in Chechnya since his January arrest on drug charges that he and his associates say are fabricated. “We call on Russia to release all those identified as political or religious prisoners immediately and cease its use of the legal system to suppress dissent and peaceful religious practice,” the statement said. There was no immediate reaction to the statement by Moscow. The State Department also mentioned the case of a Jehovah’s Witness who it said had been in pretrial detention for more than a year now. Other religious followers facing pressure include Church of Scientology followers and those of a Muslim Turkish theologian, the department said. (RFE/RL)
Tatar activists get suspended sentences
A Russian court in Crimea has convicted five Crimean Tatar activists of taking part in “mass disturbances” in February 2014 and handed them suspended prison sentences ranging from three and a half to four and a half years. The court in Symferopol, the capital of the Russian-controlled Ukrainian region, pronounced the verdicts and sentences on June 19. The five men – Ali Asanov, Mustafa Degermendzhy, Eskendir Kantemirov, Eskendir Emirvaliev and Arsen Yunusov – were among a group who staged a protest outside the regional legislature in February 2014. The demonstration occurred as Russia moved to seize control of the Black Sea peninsula following street protests in Kyiv that pushed Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. The five were arrested and charged by Russian authorities in 2015. Akhtem Chiygoz, a prominent leader of the Crimean Tatars’ local assembly, was also charged for his participation in the protest. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in September 2017, but weeks later he was taken to Turkey and freed. He later moved to Kyiv. (Crimea Desk, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Protesters clash with police
Crowds of protesters including coal miners, Chornobyl clean-up workers and Soviet Afghan war veterans have clashed on June 19 with police outside the Ukrainian Parliament. Some of the more than 2,000 protesters broke though a police cordon and were trying to enter the Verkhovna Rada building during the demonstration. Police used what appeared to be tear gas, but the protest continued. The protesters included veterans of the Soviet Union’s 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan, “liquidators” who were sent to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 disaster there, coal miners, and Ukrainians who have fought in the ongoing war with Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east. Their demands included improved benefits for public transportation use, increases in state support for disabled veterans, and the allocation of billions of hryvni for the development of the country’s struggling coal industry. Kyiv police said earlier that the protests caused complications for transport on two major streets in the city center. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)
Thousands march for LGBT rights
Thousands of activists have marched in Ukraine’s capital, marking an annual celebration of gay and lesbian rights that has been marred by violence in the past. The June 17 March of Equality in Kyiv, which took place amid an increased police presence, was one of the largest such events staged in Ukraine in years. Clashes broke out early in the morning when riot police dispersed more than 150 far-right protesters seeking to block off the route of the march, police said in a statement. But no serious incidents occurred during the march, and Kyiv police chief Andriy Krischenko said 57 members of radical groups were detained. Police said about 3,500 people attended the march, which started near Taras Shevchenko Park and lasted less than one hour. Organizers said there were at least 5,000 participants. Roads were closed for cars in the city center, and 5,000 police and soldiers from the National Guard were deployed to protect the marchers. During the early morning clash, the ultranationalist group C14 said police officers surrounded its protesters attacking them with batons and tear gas. Police said they detained more protesters in an altercation near the Opera House. The organizers of the march, who received threats from far-right groups, had advised the participants not to hold posters, banners or symbols of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community until they arrived at the event area. “We want to feel free in our country,” said Tymur Levchuk of Kyiv Pride, a nine-day series of events in Kyiv, including conferences, movie screenings, and artistic performances that ended with the march. “Kyiv is a city where there should be no discrimination, violence, or alienation,” he said. “This is a city where everyone can be themselves.” Kyiv held its first major pride march in 2016 after a pro-Western government that came to power in 2014 sanctioned such events. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Reuters, Interfax and the Kyiv Post)
Canada to continue support for Ukraine
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense reported: “At NATO HQ, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, General of the Army of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak held bilateral talks with Minister of National Defense of Canada Harjit Singh Sajjan. The parties focused on discussion of a decision related to joint development of a list of weapons, military equipment and armament required for the defense sector of Ukraine and development of capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” The Canadian minister pledged that “Canada will continue to support Ukraine and increase assistance.” He observed: “I see progress in reforms of Defense Ministry of Ukraine, I am pleased with the result of trainings of Ukrainian service members conducted by Canadian instructors. I am sure we have to continue and develop cooperation, move forward and improve capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” General Poltorak thanked Canada for its assistance and underscored that he “values all joint projects of the two countries.” (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Ombudswoman not allowed to see prisoners
Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova was not allowed to meet with Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko in a Moscow detention center, the Ukrainian parliament’s deputy speaker says. Iryna Herashchenko wrote on Facebook on June 18 that despite a court’s ruling allowing Ms. Denisova to see the journalist, she was not allowed to see him and her written request to see Mr. Sushchenko had been sent for approval to the Federal Penitentiary Service. On June 4, the Moscow City Court found Mr. Sushchenko guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 12 years in a strict-regime prison. Mr. Sushchenko maintains his innocence, saying the case against him is politically motivated. Last week, Ms. Denisova was not allowed to see two other Ukrainian citizens: Oleh Sentsov in a penitentiary in the far-northern Yamalo-Nenets region, and Mykola Karpyuk in a penal colony in the Vladimir region. Mr. Sentsov is a Crimea native who is serving a 20-year prison term in Russia after being convicted on terrorism charges that he and human rights groups say were politically motivated. Mr. Karpyuk, who also denies any wrongdoing, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2016 after a court in Russia’s Chechnya region found him guilty of fighting alongside Chechen separatists in the 1990s. On May 15, Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said that Ms. Denisova’s attempt to meet with Sentsov violated “agreements reached previously.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 18 that he is not aware of why Ms. Denisova was unable to meet with Mr. Sentsov. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS)
U.N. chief asked to raise Sentsov case
The United States, France, Britain and 35 other countries have asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to raise the case of jailed film director Oleh Sentsov and dozens of other Ukrainian prisoners during his upcoming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week. A letter making the request was delivered to Mr. Guterres on June 15 by Ukraine’s Mission to the United Nations. The U.N. chief was scheduled to hold talks with Mr. Putin on June 20 and attend a Portugal-Morocco match during the World Cup that Russia is hosting. In their letter, the 38 countries wrote that the case of Mr. Sentsov, who has been on a hunger strike since May 14, poses a “matter of urgency” and said Mr. Guterres should try to mediate a solution. “The U.N.’s engagement on these concerns is welcome and we would encourage further steps to address the plight of all those unlawfully detained,” the letter said. Among the signatories were Australia, Canada, and many EU countries, along with Turkey, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. Ukrainian Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko presented Mr. Guterres with the letter and a list of dozens of Ukrainian detainees in Russia, including labor unionist Oleksander Kolchenko, historian Stanislav Klykh and politician Mykola Karpyuk. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and Interfax)
Gaidar resigns as Odesa lawmaker
Maria Gaidar, a prominent Russian-born politician and activist, has resigned her seat in the legislature of Ukraine’s Odesa region. The Odesa Oblast assembly said on June 12 that it has relieved Ms. Gaidar of her duties as a lawmaker at her request, which she filed on June 10. The reasons for her decision have not been made public. Ms. Gaidar, 35, is the daughter of the late Yegor Gaidar, an economic reformer who was acting prime minister under Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1992. A vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, she is a former deputy governor of Russia’s Kirov region. Ms. Gaidar served as acting deputy governor of Odesa Oblast from July 2015 to May 2016. After she obtained Ukrainian citizenship in 2015, she renounced her Russian citizenship. Ms. Gaidar resigned as deputy governor in May 2016 after a new law barring regional lawmakers from simultaneously holding state posts took effect, but she remained in the regional administration as an adviser to then-Gov. Mikheil Saakashvili. Mr. Saakashvili resigned in November 2016, accusing the Ukrainian government of undermining his efforts to fight corruption and carry out reforms, and has become an ardent opponent of President Petro Poroshenko. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by UNIAN and pravda.ua)
Norway asks for more U.S. troops
Norway will ask the United States to more than double the number of U.S. Marines stationed in the country in a move that could raise tensions with neighboring Russia, top ministers have said. The move announced by Oslo’s foreign and defense ministers on June 12 comes amid increasing wariness among nations bordering Russia after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014. Nine nations along NATO’s eastern flank last week called for an increased presence by the military alliance in their region amid concerns about Russian aggression. Some 330 U.S. Marines currently are scheduled to leave Norway at the end of this year after an initial contingent arrived in January 2017 to train for fighting in winter conditions. They were the first foreign troops to be stationed in Norway, a member of NATO, since World War II. The initial decision to welcome the Marines last year irked Russia, with Moscow warning that it would worsen bilateral relations with Oslo and escalate tensions on NATO’s northern flank. Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide told reporters on June 12 that the decision to increase the U.S. presence has broad support in Parliament and does not constitute the establishment of a permanent U.S. base in Norway. Oslo will ask Washington to send 700 Marines starting next year, she said, with the additional troops to be based closer to the border with Russia in the Inner Troms region in the Norwegian Arctic, about 420 kilometers from Russia, rather than in central Norway. Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen told reporters in Oslo that the expanded military force in the country is intended to improve the training and winter fighting capability of NATO troops. “The defense of Norway depends on the support of our NATO allies, as is the case in most other NATO countries,” he said. “For this support to work in times of crises and war, we are totally dependent on joint training and exercises in times of peace.” In addition to posting more troops in Norway, the ministers said the United States has expressed interest in building infrastructure to accommodate up to four U.S. fighter jets at a base 65 kilometers south of Oslo, as part of a European deterrence initiative launched after Crimea’s annexation. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP and Reuters)
Second suspect detained in Babchenko case
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) says a second person has been detained in an alleged plot to assassinate Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, an outspoken Kremlin critic, in Kyiv. The deputy head of the SBU’s main investigative department, Bohdan Tyvodar, told a June 15 news conference that the suspect, a Ukrainian man, was detained two days earlier. Mr. Tyvodar played what he said were recorded phone conversations between the suspect – identified only as “Citizen T” – and the alleged organizer of the plot on Mr. Babchenko’s life, Ukrainian businessman Borys Herman. In the recording, the authenticity of which could not be immediately confirmed, two male voices are heard discussing how to travel from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Kyiv via Istanbul to avoid detection, as well as how to procure weapons. “At present, there are sufficient grounds for suspecting Citizen T of involvement in the preparation of terrorist acts,” Mr. Tyvodar said. He added that the suspect was also being held on suspicion of illegal handling of weapons and explosives. The SBU staged Mr. Babchenko’s murder on May 29, claiming the extraordinary measure was the only way to save the journalist’s life and catch the organizer it claims was tasked by Russian security services. After Mr. Babchenko turned up alive at a SBU press conference the following day, the SBU said it had detained Mr. Herman, who the agency said oversaw the alleged plot. Mr. Herman is alleged to have promised $40,000 to a would-be assassin for the killing of Mr. Babchenko. The alleged would-be killer, a former Ukrainian monk turned army veteran named Oleksiy Tsymbalyuk, said he went to the SBU after Mr. Herman approached him. Mr. Tsymbalyuk says he worked with the agency to foil the plot. Mr. Herman was remanded in custody for 60 days by a Kyiv court on May 31. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by Christopher Miller in Kyiv, Zn.ua and 112.ua)