From RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukraine's President Repeats Call For Full UN Peacekeeping Mission
By RFE/RL
Ukraine's president has repeated his call for a full United Nations peacekeeping mission, telling the world body that such a mission should be authorized to patrol Ukraine's border with Russia.
Poroshenko's call came on September 20 in his speech to the UN General Assembly and followed a proposal floated last week by President Vladimir Putin for such a mission.
Putin said on September 14 that UN peacekeepers might be deployed on the contact line separating the sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. And he said there might be other parts where OSCE monitors could operate parallel to a UN mission.
In his UN speech, Poroshenko said a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation was welcomed.
"The launch of a peacekeeping operation will enable [Ukraine] to restore justice and not simply cement the occupation," Poroshenko said.
The war in eastern Ukraine erupted in early 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. At least 10,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes.
European Union Sets Conditions For More Aid To Ukraine
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS – A top European Union finance official said Kyiv needs to do more in fighting corruption and to pass pension and land reforms as conditions for receiving more financial aid from Brussels.
Speaking alongside Ukraine’s finance minister, Valdis Dombrovskis, who is the European commissioner for financial services, said Ukraine must also set up a credit register, ensure further privatization, and lift trade restrictions with the European Union.
The European bloc has made the final installment of a 600-million-euro financial aid package conditional on passage of those reforms.
The EU has imposed a tight time frame to enact the reforms, with the deadline for payout looming in January.
Dombrovskis said Brussels wants concrete plans on how those changes will be implemented by the end of October.
“We certainly need clarity. I would say maybe not towards mid- but towards the end of next month,” he said. “Indeed, time is relatively short.”
Since 2014, the European Union has given Ukraine 2.8 billion euros of financial assistance.
Poroshenko Calls Russia 'Biggest Threat' To International Security
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned of multiple threats posed by Russia during his September 20 address to the UN General Assembly in New York. Poroshenko said that Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member, is "not a contributor to international security, but its biggest threat." (AP)
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Wednesday, September 20. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.
Watchdog Calls On Ukraine To Establish Independent Anticorruption Court
By RFE/RL
Transparency International on September 20 called on Ukraine to create an independent anticorruption court to strengthen the country’s efforts to fight corruption.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed creating an anticorruption chamber within the current court system.
But the anticorruption watchdog group said that would not win the trust of Ukrainians.
“Ukraine should adopt an independent anticorruption court to ensure that nepotism and cronyism play no part in how justice is delivered in Ukraine. President Poroshenko understands the urgency of the situation, but his proposal of a chamber within the current system will not work," said Jose Ugaz, chairman of Transparency International.
"People do not trust the judiciary to hold the powerful to account because the courts have shied away from this in the past,” he said.
Unlike many European countries, the group said Ukraine does not have a judicial system with a reputation for independent and fair justice based on the rule of law.
“There is no reasonable alternative to the anticorruption court. With proper political will from the president and parliament in place, the court can be established within a reasonable time. Political will is the key ingredient and that is what we are missing now,” said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine.
To ensure the court cannot be undermined by special interests, the group said judges should be elected through open competition. Also, it said the court and its judges should be provided with security details and receive adequate resources and compensation to ensure independence.