EU Commissioner Urges Ukraine Not To Backpedal On Reforms
By RFE/RL
The EU commissioner in charge of enlargement has urged Ukraine to move forward on reforms, warning against any retreat from such efforts, especially on fighting corruption.
Johannes Hahn made the remarks in Kyiv on November 9. He was in the Ukrainian capital to deliver a fresh EU report on Ukraine to Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman.
Hahn said it's "crucial to maintain the reform momentum and to make these changes irreversible" in the run-up to March's presidential vote and the parliamentary elections in late 2019.
Hahn stressed that "there can't be rollback on issues such as anticorruption efforts."
In the report, the EU noted there have been only a few convictions in high-level corruption cases in the country. However, it said Ukraine has taken steps to reform its judiciary system.
The EU emphasized that the establishment of a dedicated anticorruption court is crucial and that Ukraine's authorities must properly investigate attacks against civil society activists and punish the perpetrators.
The fresh warning comes days after a prominent Ukrainian anticorruption activist died on November 4, three months after she was injured in an acid attack.
The death of Kateryna Handzyuk sparked outrage in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Several dozen local NGOs signed a letter earlier this week criticizing the "apparent failure" of Ukraine's law enforcement system to investigate attacks on civil society activists.
They also called on Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko to resign amid charges they have blocked the investigation.
Lutsenko on November 7 did tender his resignation, but the bloc of President Petro Poroshenko did not support the call in parliament.
Five suspects, including a police officer, have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack, but authorities have not described a specific potential motive for the attack.
In September, Handzyuk posted a video in which she urged Ukrainians to fight rampant corruption.
“Yes, I look bad now, but I’m being cured by good Ukrainian doctors. And I know this: I look a lot better than the state of Ukrainian fairness and justice today.”
On October 3, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and Frontline Defenders said more than 50 attacks on activists and human rights defenders in Ukraine had been recorded by local human rights organizations in the the last nine months.
Donbas Separatists Using Cheap Eggs, Salary Hikes, Corny Videos To Get Out The Vote
By Mykhaylo Shtekel and Pete Baumgartner
Discount chickens and eggs, credits for mobile phones, and salary rises. All just for turning up.
But there's a catch. Takers must cast ballots in unrecognized polls that Russia-backed separatists are holding in regions of eastern Ukraine under their control on November 11, thereby thumbing their noses at much of the world.
Despite many international calls for the voting to be canceled, separatist leaders who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not only ignoring those pleas but pulling out all the stops to get residents caught up in Europe's only active war zone to vote and lend the process some semblance of legitimacy.
Along with the cut-rate prices on foodstuffs available at the polling stations in the region, broadly referred to as the Donbas, the vote's organizers planned to distribute vouchers worth 100 Russian rubles -- the de facto currency in separatist-held areas -- for mobile phones and to hold fairs and lotteries.
Controversy has already broken out on social media about how many vouchers will be given away, with some saying only early voters will get one.
A corny campaign video has also appeared on YouTube showing nattily dressed young people dancing as they march to the polling booths in an effort to inspire would-be voters.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Poroshenko Refuses To Sack Prosecutor-General Over Activist's Death
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has formally refused to accept the resignation of the country’s prosecutor-general, who has been criticized for the handling of a probe into the death of an anticorruption activist in an acid attack.
Calls for Yuriy Lutsenko to step down intensified after Kateryna Handzyuk died on November 4, three months after she was injured in an acid attack.
Lutsenko on November 7 formally submitted his resignation to Poroshenko, a day after parliament -- namely, the president’s bloc -- refused to back the move.
In a statement on November 9, Ukraine’s presidential press service cited the parliament’s “vote of confidence” in Lutsenko as the reason why Poroshenko had refused to accept his resignation, adding “important tasks are ahead” of Lutsenko, a presidential appointee.
The announcement by Poroshenko’s office comes just hours after a top EU official said in Kyiv that the international community was “deeply shocked” by the death of Handzyuk.
“It’s something we cannot accept,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn told a press conference in the Ukrainian capital on November 9.
He urged the Ukrainian government to identify and punish those behind the attack, saying “The international community pays attention.”
Hahn also delivered a fresh EU report on Ukraine to Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman.
In that document, the EU emphasized that Ukraine's authorities must properly investigate attacks against civil society activists and punish the perpetrators.
Five suspects, including a police officer, have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack on Handzyuk, but authorities have not described a specific potential motive for the attack.
Several dozen local NGOs signed a letter earlier this week criticizing the "apparent failure" of Ukraine's law enforcement system to investigate attacks on civil society activists.
They also called on Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, as well as Lutsenko, to resign amid charges they have blocked the investigation.