More reaction to the HRW and Amnesty report on human rights abuses in Ukraine (on both sides of the conflict)
Interesting piece on the "information war"
Our Multimedia Department has issued two more videos to complement our coverage of a new report by two human rights watchdogs that claims both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have subjected civilians to extended arbitrary detention, disappearances, and even torture.
Town Councilor Tells Of Detention Without Trial By Ukrainian Security Forces
Kostyantyn Beskorovayni, an elected councilor for the Communist Party in the town of Kostyantynivka, says he was held in unlawful detention in various locations by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), from November 2014 until February 2016. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which documented his testimony, said Ukrainian authorities told them it had no knowledge of his case.
Ukrainian Priest Tells Of Beatings In Separatist Captivity
Ukrainian Priest Father Valentin told RFE/RL's Current Time TV of daily beatings from Russia-backed separatists who detained him in November 2014, and held him for 15 months.
A tweet from the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv:
A commentary for the Atlantic Council by Jeffrey Gedmin, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and a former president of RFE/RL:
When asked recently why he turned up in Moscow last December to help celebrate the tenth anniversary of RT, Michael Flynn rambled about wanting to deliver stern lectures to the Russians. The retired US Lt. Gen. -- who now serves as foreign policy adviser to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump -- was seated at a gala dinner next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an interview with the Kremlin's propaganda arm, Flynn was anything but downbeat about bilateral ties: "interests...are converging," he assured RT journalist Sophie Shevardnadze; it's time "to move forward" together.
One of those convergent interests between team Trump and Putin may be Ukraine. As Josh Rogin reported in the Washington Post earlier this week, Trump staffers in Cleveland succeeded in browbeating delegates to water down GOP platform language, replacing a pledge to provide "lethal defensive weapons" to the Ukrainian military for the country's self-defense with the gentler, more ambiguous suggestion of "appropriate assistance."
Ukrainians have mounting questions and concerns.
“We can only hope that this [language] could include defensive lethal weapons. The Ukrainian-American community is rightfully concerned about Donald Trump's relationship with President Putin,” said Michael Sawkiw, director of the Ukrainian National Information Service, in a July 19 interview.
But we don't really know how a President Trump would actually govern. After all, our would-be commander-in-chief has never held elected office. And on those rare occasions where he has gone beyond sloganeering to address public policy, Trump's statements often appear—to borrow from Churchill about Russia—as riddles, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But if the early bromance between Trump and Putin is permitted to flourish, we have every reason to believe that Ukraine will be an early casualty.