March 8, 2019

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EU envoys approve more sanctions

European Union ambassadors have agreed to impose asset freezes and visa bans on eight Russians involved in the capture and jailing of 24 Ukrainian seamen in an incident near the Kerch Strait in November 2018, according to several sources familiar with the discussions. The sanctions backed by the ambassadors on March 6 are measures that are expected to be formally approved next week, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. After that, the eight Russians will be added to the EU list of people and entities who have been hit with sanctions for undermining the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The list, which was created after Russia seized control of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2014 and backed separatists fighting Kyiv’s forces in a war that has killed some 13,000 people since April 2014, now consists of 163 individuals and 44 entities. The sanctions against them will be prolonged by six months next week. The additional eight Russians are either officers who were involved in the Kerch Strait incident or Russian judges who oversaw the subsequent jailing of the Ukrainians, who remain in pretrial detention in the Lefortovo jail in Moscow. The incident occurred on November 25, 2018, when Russian Coast Guard vessels fired on and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels and their crews while they were on their way from the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov. Moscow accuses them of illegally entering Russian territorial waters, which they deny. The incident increased tension over the Kerch Strait, which is the sole passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov and runs between Russia and Russian-held Crimea. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels)

West will not forget Crimea

“We will neither forget nor abandon Crimea,” reads the statement of the foreign affairs ministers of 11 countries that was published on February 27 in the Opinion column of The Guardian. In particular, the signatories to the statement are Edgars Rinkēvičs, minister of foreign affairs of Latvia; Pavlo Klimkin, minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine; Sven Mikser, minister of foreign affairs of Estonia; Linas Linkevičius, minister of foreign affairs of Lithuania; Jacek Czaputowicz, minister of foreign affairs of Poland; Margot Wallström, minister of foreign affairs of Sweden; Anders Samuelsen, minister of foreign affairs of Denmark; Chrystia Freeland, minister of foreign affairs of Canada; Teodor Meleşcanu, minister of foreign affairs of Romania; Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs; Tomáš Petříček, minister of foreign affairs of the Czech Republic. According to them, the events that unfolded in Crimea five years ago have once again taught that security and freedom cannot be taken for granted and that the international law and individual and collective security must be upheld. As noted, providing help and assistance to Ukraine is crucial as Ukraine’s security is linked to the security of the whole of Europe. “We will continue our non-recognition policy with respect to the illegal annexation of Crimea, and continue to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in the strongest terms,” the ministers emphasized. It is also underscored that the policy of coordinated international sanctions sends a clear message to Russia that disregard for international law has consequences. (Ukrinform)

EU extends freeze on assets

The European Union has extended asset freezes on former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and 11 other Ukrainians suspected of embezzling state funds. The EU imposed asset freezes against Mr. Yanukovych and his inner circle shortly after the collapse of his government in late February 2014. The bloc accused Mr. Yanukovych and his collaborators of misappropriation of state funds. Apart from the former president, the restrictive measures still include his son Oleksandr, and former Prime Ministers Mykola Azarov and Serhiy Arbuzov. The asset freezes will be extended until March 6, 2020. The ruling came into force on March 5 when the notice was published in the EU’s Official Journal. (RFE/RL, with reporting by DPA)

Klyuyev to be removed from sanctions list

The European Union removed Andriy Klyuyev, the head of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s presidential administration, from its sanctions list. The move comes after a July 2018 ruling by the EU’s general court, which said that the bloc’s restrictive measures against Mr. Klyuyev for 2017-2018 should be annulled. He did, however, remain on the sanctions list as the asset freeze was prolonged by one year in March 2018, with a separate ruling for the new sanctions period necessary to be delisted. In the July 2018 ruling, the court concluded that, since Mr. Klyuyev informed the European Council that Ukrainian criminal proceedings against him had been suspended before the renewal of the bloc’s restrictive measures, the council should have sought clarification on the issue from Ukrainian authorities. Several diplomats from EU member states who are familiar with the talks but not authorized to speak on the record told RFE/RL that the lack of compelling evidence from Ukraine had forced EU to consider removing Mr. Klyuyev from the list. His brother, Serhiy Klyuyev, was removed from the same sanctions list last year. Serhiy Klyuyev, who was a businessman and lawmaker from Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, was the nominal owner of Mezhyhiria, the lavish Yanukovych residence outside Kyiv that is now a museum. The EU imposed asset freezes against Mr. Yanukovych and his inner circle shortly after the collapse of his government in February 2014. The bloc accused Yanukovych and his collaborators of misappropriation of Ukraine’s state funds. (Rikard Jozwiak of RFE/RL)

Poroshenko fires ally amid scandal 

Ukraine’s president has fired his close ally Oleh Hladkovsky from the post of the first deputy chairman of the National Security and Defense Council amid allegations that Mr. Hladkovsky’s son was involved in smuggling spare parts of military equipment from Russia. In a post on Twitter on March 4, Petro Poroshenko wrote that Mr. Hladkovsky was also sacked from the post of the chief of the inter-ministerial commission for policies on military and technical cooperation and export control. Mr. Poroshenko’s move comes a week after media outlet Bihus.Info’s program “Nashi Hroshi” (Our Money) alleged that Mr. Hladkovsky’s son, Ihor, organized a ring to smuggle spare military-equipment parts from Russia in 2015, a year after Moscow seized Ukraine’s Crimea region and threw its support behind militant pro-Russia separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. The report alleged that state defense facilities purchased the smuggled spare parts from private companies linked to Ihor Hladkovsky and his friends at highly inflated prices. It claimed that Ukroboronprom, the state concern that supervises defense industry production facilities, knew the origin of the smuggled parts but agreed to buy them. The report also alleged that Ihor Hladkovsky and his two associates illegally earned at least 250 million hrv ($9.2 million U.S.) by smuggling the items from Russia through three major private firms, one of which belonged to Mr. Poroshenko at the time. A day after the investigative report was broadcast on YouTube on February 25, President Poroshenko suspended Oleh Hladkovsky from his post and two days later announced that a probe has been launched into the allegations. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters)

Suspicious donations to Yulia’s campaign

The presidential campaign of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has registered numerous suspicious donations, repeating a pattern that journalists uncovered in her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party’s accounts in 2016. According to a new investigation by Skhemy (Schemes), a joint project by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service and Ukraine’s UA:Pershy television channel, many of the individual donations listed in Ms. Tymoshenko’s financial disclosures reveal suspicious patterns that could indicate fraudulent manipulations. In addition, several individuals who are listed as Tymoshenko donors told Skhemy that they did not make any such contributions. Asked to comment on the investigation’s findings, Ms. Tymoshenko denied wrongdoing. “[The National Agency on Corruption Prevention] can investigate these matters,” she said. “We are transparent. Everything is done absolutely publicly. All our income and expenses are absolutely public.” According to Ms. Tymoshenko’s filings, her campaign received no donations at all between January and May 2018. Since that time, she has pulled in 160 million hrv ($6 million U.S.), 145 million hrv ($5.4 million) from private individuals. According to Skhemy’s analysis, numerous individuals contributed identical amounts, often either just less than 15 hrv ($0.56) or just less than 150,000 hrv ($5,600). One individual contributed identical amounts several times from banks in different cities. Sometimes, entire families made donations on the same day and sometimes a single individual made numerous identical contributions within a short time span. In Chernivtsi, Skhemy spoke with Olena Savva. According to Batkivshchyna’s reports, Savva contributed three payments of 14,999 hrv ($560). Ms. Savva, however, denied making any donation or having any connection with Ms. Tymoshenko’s party. “Where would I get so much money from?” she said. Retiree Vasyl Lendel from Kostopil was listed in the party’s accounts as making several donations totaling nearly 40,000 hryvnas ($1,490). He denied making any contributions. Skhemy uncovered similar discrepancies in the Kyiv area as well. The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAZK) refused to comment on the Skhemy findings, saying only it was examining the financial statements of all political parties and that more than 200 suspected administrative violations have been referred to law enforcement. The Internal Affairs Ministry told Skhemy they could not investigate Batkivshchyna’s accounts without a complaint from NAZK. (Oleksandr Chornovalov of RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)

Poroshenko’s new anti-graft bill

President Petro Poroshenko has proposed fresh legislation to fight corruption, a day after Ukraine’s Constitutional Court threw out a previous anti-graft law – a move that raised concerns the country is backtracking in the battle against corruption. Mr. Poroshenko’s proposal comes as he trails in opinion polls on Ukraine’s March 31 presidential election. Mr. Poroshenko is running for a second term, but his record on fighting corruption is a topic of debate – with opposition lawmakers calling for his impeachment over graft allegations involving a close ally. Ukraine in 2015 passed a law criminalizing illicit enrichment in 2015 as a condition of receiving bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and for the European Union to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainian citizens. But the Constitutional Court on February 27 overturned the law on grounds that it contravened the presumption of innocence. “This morning I have signed, and now I am commissioning to register, a presidential bill which takes into account the remarks but preserves the key position – the inevitability of criminal punishment for illicit enrichment,” Mr. Poroshenko said on February 28. The Constitutional Court’s decision was denounced by a Ukrainian law enforcement agency as a “step back” in the fight against corruption. The National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said in a statement that the Constitutional Court’s ruling was “politically motivated and contradicts Ukraine’s obligations on the ratified U.N. Convention against Corruption [and] its agreements with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.” The agency said that about 65 corruption cases it is currently investigating and involving some $20 million will now be closed. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, with reporting by AP and Reuters)

Tymoshenko: Rada blocks impeachment

Ukrainian lawmaker and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has accused the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada of intentionally impeding an impeachment process against President Petro Poroshenko just a month before Ukraine’s presidential election. Ms. Tymoshenko, a presidential candidate whose Batkivshchyna party has joined with other parties to start the impeachment process, told Parliament on February 28 that the Rada’s leadership had annulled forms to support the impeachment drive. She also said the parliamentary leadership has refused to register a draft resolution on creating a temporary commission to investigate the alleged involvement of Mr. Poroshenko’s close associates in the smuggling of spare parts from Russia for military equipment. “That means that [parliament’s leadership] is covering up the crime, is trying to silence it,” Ms. Tymoshenko said. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy rejected Ms. Tymoshenko’s statement and called on her “to stop imposing pressure on parliament’s activities.” Ms. Tymoshenko announced her party’s move to impeach the president on February 26, accusing Mr. Poroshenko of treason. The move came a day after a media outlet aired a program alleging that people close to Mr. Poroshenko enriched themselves by smuggling spare parts for military equipment from Russia. Mr. Poroshenko on February 28 issued his first public reaction to the investigative journalists’ report, saying on his presidential website that a probe has been launched into the allegations. The Ukrainian Constitution says the president “can be impeached if he or she commits high treason or other crimes.” Among other things, the process requires an investigation by a special prosecutor and multiple votes in Parliament, including a three-fourths vote following approval by the Constitutional Court. (RFE/RL, with reporting by UNIAN)

Big rise in measles cases in Ukraine

Ukraine suffered the world’s largest increase in the number of measles cases in 2018, some of them the result of the so-called “anti-vax” movement, the United Nations children’s agency says. A UNICEF report on March 1 said Ukraine led an “alarmingly high” worldwide surge in measles cases, blaming much of it on growing “vaccine hesitancy” that threatens to undo decades of work to get the “highly preventable, but potentially deadly disease” under control. Health officials worldwide have expressed concerns about the “anti-vax” movement spreading on social media and elsewhere that has raised fears in some adults that vaccinations can be harmful. “Almost all of these [measles] cases are preventable, and yet children are getting infected even in places where there is simply no excuse,” said Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF’s executive director. “Measles may be the disease but, all too often, the real infection is misinformation, mistrust, and complacency. We must do more to accurately inform every parent, to help us safely vaccinate every child.” UNICEF said statistics by the World Health Organization showed there were 35,120 cases of measles in Ukraine last year – a massive rise from about 5,000 in 2017. It added that, according to the Ukrainian government, 24,042 people have been infected in the first two months of 2019 alone. The worst-hit area of the country has been the western Lviv region, “where negative attitudes toward immunization, and previous shortages in vaccine supply, have resulted in low vaccination rates.” UNICEF said it has provided ongoing support to accelerate routine immunization across Ukraine to address vaccine hesitancy in the crisis that has claimed 30 lives since 2017. (RFE/RL)

Ukraine pulls out of Eurovision 

Ukraine has announced it will not participate in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest amid a scandal in its national selection process. The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine said on February 27 that Ukraine would not participate after singer Anna Korsun, who performs under the name Maruv and who won the domestic selection process, refused to sign a contract stipulating that she would not perform in Russia for at least three months after the competition and pledging not to make any “statements that may call into question the issue of the territorial integrity and security of Ukraine.” Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been strained over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and Russia’s military, political, and economic support of separatist entities in parts of eastern Ukraine. Maruv withdrew from Eurovision consideration on February 25, accusing the authorities of “censorship.” The performers who came in second, third, and fourth place all refused to take Maruv’s spot in the competition, which will be held in Israel in May. Eurovision has been a field of conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the past. In 2016, Ukraine infuriated Russia by submitting a ballad by singer Jamala that described the brutal 1944 Soviet deportation of the Crimean Tatars. Russian officials argued that the song should have been disqualified under rules forbidding political content in performances. When that entry won the competition, Kyiv hosted the 2017 rendition and refused to allow the Russian contestant to enter the country because she had performed in Crimea after the annexation. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP and AP)

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