First ever voting in Edmonton
Ukrainians in 72 countries, including Canada, cast their votes in 101 polling locations on March 31 for the president of Ukraine. Three of those polling stations are in Canada: Ottawa, Toronto and, for the first time ever, Edmonton. The Edmonton Consulate is the first that Ukraine has opened since the beginning of Russia’s military aggression in the Donbas in 2014. It serves the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Previously, citizens had to travel across the country to Ottawa or Toronto to vote – a journey of nearly 3,000 kilometers. “The first voters were waiting when the polling station opened its doors at 8 a.m. Anna Makieienko and Volodymyr Krasnikov had arrived from Vancouver just this morning, more than 800 kilometers away, to cast their vote,” reported Olena Goncharova in the Kyiv Post. “Most of our friends couldn’t come [to Edmonton] to vote,” Ms. Makieienko explained. “But the election is a must for every Ukrainian citizen. It’s important to be Ukrainians not just on paper or on Facebook, but actually, be a responsible citizen. And if we come back, we want to make sure we have somewhere to go, that Ukraine exists.” A majority of Ukrainians voting in Canada supported Petro Poroshenko, who had 152 votes in Ottawa, 432 in Toronto and 110 in Edmonton. The first runner-up was Anatoliy Hrytsenko with 223 votes overall, followed by Volodymyr Zelensky with 213 votes overall. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing, based on the Kyiv Post)
Troops for Poroshenko over Zelensky
A nearly complete vote tally published by the Central Election Commission and analyzed by RFE/RL on April 2 showed Petro Poroshenko receiving 12,925 (38.1 percent) of 33,859 votes from those frontline soldiers, just 591 more than the 12,334 (36.4 percent) for Volodymyr Zelensky. The votes were cast in 79 special polling stations set up for active-duty soldiers on the eastern front. While it beats the more than two-to-one advantage that political newcomer Mr. Zelensky enjoyed in the rest of the country, analysts suggest it was not necessarily a commanding performance for Ukraine’s commander-in-chief. “This means that Poroshenko is not very popular in the army, and that Ukrainians’ desire for a ‘new face’ exists, including in the army,” Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political and security analyst who heads the Kyiv-based Penta Center, told RFE/RL. That could bode ill for the second-round runoff between those two candidates on April 21. Mr. Poroshenko’s office declined to comment on the military vote in the east, instead referring RFE/RL to TV presenter Taras Berezovets, who works for a channel that reports favorably of the president’s work, for comment. Mr. Berezovets said the first-round result was “absolutely not” a referendum on President Poroshenko’s role as commander-in-chief and chalked it up to “a lot of soldiers want[ing] the war to stop and to go home.” The president “says we’ll continue fighting Russia [and] that this will be a war for years,” added Mr. Berezovets. (RFE/RL)
Election monitors issue preliminary reports
On April 1, Mission Canada issued its Preliminary Statement of Findings of the 2019 Presidential Election in Ukraine. Notably, Mission Canada visited 841 polling stations to observe the voting, counting and transmission of results. Lloyd Axworthy, head of the mission, Olya Odynska-Grod and the analyst team held more than 100 meetings with a range of actors, including the National Democratic Institute, International Republican Institute, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations, the Civil Network OPORA, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, other election observation missions, women’s and minority groups, numerous political campaigns, the Central Electoral Commission, and government security and policing institutions. After analyzing all aspects of the electoral process to date, including the pre-election period and the voting and counting procedures on election day, Mission Canada made the first assessment that the elections were fair, met international standards for democratic elections, and should generate confidence in voters. Some of the systemic concerns that need to be addressed according to Mission Canada were the change of legislation regarding participation of internally displaced persons (IDPs), opaque campaign financing, high concentration of media ownership by a few interests, and some candidates not observing campaign media rules. Also on April 1, Eugene Czolij, head of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) International Observation Mission in Ukraine, together with his colleagues Andrew Futey of Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Maryna Iaroshevych, and Tamara Gallo-Olexy gave a press conference at Ukraine Crisis Media Center on the preliminary result of the presidential elections observation. Despite a few violations that were not systemic in nature, the UWC reported that the process of expression of political will during the first round of the presidential election was transparent and democratic. The elections corresponded to international standards and reflected the will of Ukrainian people. In addition, UWC Mission confirmed numerous disinformation attacks employed against Ukraine by the Russian media as an element of its hybrid war against Ukraine. The UWC missions counted 219 short-term observers from 16 countries, while the UCCA group has 78 such observers. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
Human Rights Watch blasts Russia
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the recent arrests of 23 Crimean Tatars by Russian authorities, calling it an “unprecedented move to intensify pressure on a group largely critical” of Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region. “The sweeping arrests in Crimea aim to portray politically active Crimean Tatars as terrorists as a way to silence them,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at the New York-based watchdog, in a statement on April 2. “This has been their approach for several years, and it should stop. These men should be released at once,” Ms. Denber added. A Russia-controlled court in the Crimean capital, Symferopol, said on March 29 that since March 27, 23 Crimean Tatars had been arrested and placed in pretrial detention until May 15, on a charge of belonging to the Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group. HRW said that one man has been charged in absentia and is wanted by Russian law enforcement. Russia banned Hizb ut-Tahrir as a terrorist organization in 2003 but the group operates legally in Ukraine and much of Europe. Russian authorities said that 20 of the men were arrested in Crimea, and the other three in a Russian city as part of the same operation. HRW quoted their lawyers as saying that their clients had been transported to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, some 500 kilometers from Symferopol, where they were being held in isolation. They have been charged with organizing activities of a terrorist organization or with participating in such a terrorist organization, according to HRW. It said that 14 of the men arrested were active participants in the human rights group Crimean Solidarity, while the other 10 had been involved with some of the organization’s activities such as attending trials. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula. (RFE/RL)
OCU faces eviction in Russia-annexed Crimea
The independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) is facing eviction in Symferopol, the capital of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which was seized by Russia in 2014. Crimea’s Russia-installed minister of land and property issues, Anna Anyukhina, told the state-run TASS news agency on March 29 that the peninsula’s Moscow-controlled government had filed a lawsuit with a local court demanding the Church’s eviction. “This religious organization has failed to reorganize its founding documents in compliance with the legislature of the Russian Federation and currently does not pay taxes in Crimea and is not officially registered,” Ms. Anyukhina said. “Due to the reason that this organization has no reason to remain in the building it occupies, the ministry is working on vacating that building and a relevant motion has been filed with a court,” she added. Ms. Anyukhina added that the Church will be allowed to use the building for free on a contractual basis if it re-registers with Russian authorities. In early January the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was granted independence, or autocephaly, ending more than 330 years of Russian religious control in Ukraine. Moscow long opposed such efforts by the Ukrainians for an independent Church, which intensified after Russia annexed Crimea and threw support to separatists in parts of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Earlier in March, Russia-controlled authorities in Crimea briefly detained the head of the OCU in the region, Archbishop Klyment, for unknown reasons. (RFE/RL, with reporting by TASS)
EU to Russia: Stop targeting Crimean Tatars
The European Union has called on Russian authorities to stop targeting Tatars in Russian-annexed Crimea. A court in the Crimean capital, Symferopol, said on March 29 that since March 27, 23 Crimean Tatars had been arrested and placed in pretrial detention until May 15, on charge of belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group. An EU spokesperson said in a March 30 statement that the European Union expected “all illegally detained Ukrainians to be released without delay.” The statement added: “The European Union expects the Russian Federation to end these practices and to take all necessary steps to ensure that human rights and fundamental freedoms can be exercised by all in Crimea, without discrimination on any grounds.” Since Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014, Russian authorities have prosecuted 31 Crimean Tatars for allegedly belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir. In February, the branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Black Sea region launched probes against eight alleged members of the group accused of plotting to seize power in Crimea. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global organization based in London that seeks to unite all Muslim countries into an Islamic caliphate. The group can operate legally in Ukraine. However, Russia’s Supreme Court banned it in 2003, branding its supporters “extremists.” (RFE/RL)
State Department condemns arrests
In a March 28 Twitter statement, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino called on Russia to release the arrested men “and the 70+ other unjustly imprisoned Ukrainians.” A court in the Crimean capital, Symferopol, said on March 29 that since March 27, 23 Crimean Tatars had been arrested and placed in pretrial detention until May 15, on charges of belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group. Crimean Solidarity, a human rights group that has members in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine, said earlier that at least 25 homes of Crimean Tatars were searched on March 27 in Symferopol, and nearby districts. Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they describe as a campaign of repression by the Russian-imposed authorities in Crimea who are targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar community and others who have spoken out against Moscow’s takeover of the peninsula. (RFE/RL with reporting by TASS)
Ukraine bans flights to Russia
The Ukrainian government has banned unscheduled flights to Russia after a recent visit to Moscow by two opposition politicians. The action was initiated by Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov, who said on April 3 that presidential candidate Yuriy Boiko and Opposition Platform – For Life party official Viktor Medvedchuk had “used a loophole in Ukraine’s legislation” to take a direct flight to Moscow last month. Mr. Avakov said the ban would not apply to potential flights arranged for international organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations and the Red Cross. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said “these restrictions will remain in place until Russia… ceases to be an aggressor country and turns into a civilized state.” Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said a probe will be launched into the two opposition politicians’ “illegal border crossing” when they flew to Russia on March 22, where they met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Aleksei Miller, the CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, with whom they discussed ways to restore trade and economic ties. Direct flights between the two countries were stopped in October 2015 amid a standoff over Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Obozrevatel and UNIAN)
Ukraine reports escalation of attacks
One Ukrainian soldier was killed and four wounded in what the Ukrainian military has called an escalation of attacks by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, one day before the country votes in the first round of its presidential election. In a statement on March 30, the Ukrainian military said the situation in the region had “escalated significantly” over the past 24 hours, accusing the rebels of utilizing heavy weapons banned under the Minsk peace agreements. The Ukrainian military said its forces had killed four separatist fighters and wounded six more. On April 2, Ukraine’s military reported the deaths of two more soldiers: Yana Chervona and Oleksandr Miliutin. Ms. Chervona was a well-known volunteer who joined the army. She left behind two children, age 8 and 10. Since April 2014, some 13,000 people have been killed in fighting between Kyiv’s forces and the Russia-backed separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by AFP and UNIAN; Embassy of Ukraine to the U.K.)
Ukraine seizes over 700 kilos of heroin
The authorities in Ukraine say they have seized heroin worth about $60 million in raids in the country’s center and west. National Police chief Serhiy Knyazev on March 31 announced on Facebook two raids in the Kyiv region yielding “600 kilograms of heroin worth $50 million,” adding: “I have never seen so much heroin seized by the Ukrainian police.” Mr. Knyazev wrote that more than 100 kilograms of the powder had been found overnight “in a professionally equipped cubby hole in a premium-class car” outside Kyiv. He added that four people had been detained: a citizen of Moldova, another from Turkey and two from Macedonia. In a separate investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office in the Zakarpattia region said on March 30 that officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had found 130 kilograms of heroin worth $10 million in a village house. Ukraine is “a transit country for trafficking heroin from Afghanistan to Western and Central Europe, mainly via the Northern Black Sea route and from Russia,” according to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. A country overview on the agency’s website says that “some activities relating to stocking and transhipment of heroin have been noted on the territory of Ukraine in recent years.” EMCDDA also says that cocaine originating in Latin America enters Ukraine through Poland, Russia or countries in the Middle East and West Africa. On March 21, the SBU announced that it had seized more than a quarter of a ton of cocaine worth some $51 million on a South American cargo ship that had docked in the Black Sea port of Odesa. (RFE/RL, with reporting by AFP)
NATO members’ ships enter Black Sea
The Dutch Navy destroyer Evertsen, the Canadian frigate Toronto and the Spanish frigate Santa Maria entered the Black Sea on March 28 to participate in the Sea Shield exercise per Ukraine’s invitation. For the next three weeks the Canadian warship will be joining NATO allies in the Black Sea to conduct exercises and patrols as part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2. Russia’s Defense Ministry issued an immediate statement saying that their ships formed a convoy to escort the three NATO frigates that entered the Black Sea region at the invitation of Ukraine. In addition, the Russian military has been conducting training exercises in the Black and Caspian seas, with more than 5,000 troops participating, including the 58th and 49th Military Air Defense Forces. Russia’s military exercises extend through the territory of Dagestan, North Ossetia, the Rostov and Stavropol regions of Russia, occupied Crimea, as well as in the Black and Caspian seas. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)
SBU disrupts operation of fake groups
The press service of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced on March 29 that it halted the activities of Russia-led extremist organizations that aimed to destabilize the situation in Ukraine during the election. Members of these groups received a task from the Russian special services to create the “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” and the “Ukrainian National Army” paramilitary formations. The groups were coordinated by a native of the Russian Federation, Rustam Tashbayev, a Kaliningrad Naval Academy graduate and now a U.S. citizen who was expelled from Ukraine in 2015 for subversive activities. According to the SBU, the “Ukrainian National Army” was headed by a local resident, Yuriy Zabolotny, who was repeatedly detained by National Police officers for illegal storage of weapons and robbery. An agent from Russian special services, Mykola Dulsky, supplied cash for extremist activity. “The Russian track” in the activities of the group was confirmed by searches conducted by the SBU in Odesa, said Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of the SBU. “Two people were citizens of the Russian Federation and the unrecognized Transnistrian People’s Republic, and the third one was a citizen of Ukraine, a native of Transnistria,” confirmed the SBU chief. During the search, the SBU seized ammunition, weapons, military equipment, communication devices and a thousand copies of newspapers with an appeal to join the “Ukrainian National Army’s” activities. (Ukrainian Canadian Congress Daily Briefing)