Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with an update on the Savchenko trial from our news desk:
Russian authorities on October 13 prevented the sister of Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko from testifying in her defense in her controversial murder trial.
Savchenko's sister Vira was meant to appear this week as the main witness for the defense against charges of murdering two Russian reporters, which could bring a 20-year jail term for the Ukrainian servicewoman.
The case has been condemned as a miscarriage of justice by human rights groups.
Vira Savchenko wrote on Facebook that Russian authorities told her at the border that she had been banned from entering the country until 2020, by orders of the Russian Federal Security Service.
A spokesman for the FSB in Moscow refused to comment.
The 34-year-old helicopter pilot has denied accusations that she helped direct an artillery strike that killed two Russian state television reporters in eastern Ukraine in June 2014.
Her lawyer Mark Feigin tweeted that "Nadia Savchenko has now been deprived of her right to a defense." He vowed to appeal the FSB decision.
(AFP, TASS, Interfax)
Here's an interesting story from Bloomberg on how a Dutch satirical site could disrupt EU relations with Ukraine:
Ah, democracy.
In the Netherlands citizens don’t even directly elect their city mayors and yet a new rule may just have given a satirical website the power to disrupt a treaty between the European Union and Ukraine.
Backed by a blog best known for its confrontational political commentary, a group called GeenPeil collected more than 450,000 signatures calling for a non-binding referendum on a 2014 pact that establishes closer economic ties between the EU and the former Soviet state. Should enough signatures be declared valid by inspectors Wednesday, a plebiscite will have to be called within six months on whether the Netherlands should veto the agreement.
The vote would be another sign of the disconnect that has opened up between EU leaders and their 503 million inhabitants as officials try to forge a coherent body politic to punch its weight on the global stage.
A vote on the Ukraine deal would be the first test of a July regulation in the Netherlands that allows anyone who can gather enough signatures to call a non-binding referendum on almost any new law or treaty that hasn’t yet taken effect. Off limits: the constitution, the budget and the royal family. Fair game: the EU-Ukraine pact approved in 2014 and ratified by the Dutch Senate in July.
Read the entire article here
Here's a couple of tweets on the U.S. presidential debate last night between Democratic Party candidates:
Here's an item on Ukraine's reaction to the Dutch report on MH17:
Ukraine defended its decision not to close airspace in the east of the country where a Malaysian airliner was shot down last year, saying it was unaware that antiaircraft weapons were being used in the area.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in a report October 13 on the July 2014 disaster that killed all 298 people on board.
The Dutch report did not lay blame for the air disaster, but said Ukraine should have closed the airspace over the conflict zone, and that the 61 airlines that had continued flying there should have recognized the potential danger.
"No one at this time...was even aware" of the possibility that Russian-backed rebels had obtained highly sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said, adding Ukraine authorities assumed the rebels were using "purely conventional weapons."
Hennadiy Zubko, head of Ukraine's MH17 investigation, said Ukraine followed established procedures.
"All the recommendations from the [International Civil Aviation Organization] were carried out... Ukraine closed its airspace below 9,750 meters," he said. (AP, Reuters)
The head of the so-called People’s Council of “DPR” Denis Pushilin dodged a question about the MH17 report from Dutch journalist Rudy Bouma. Pushilin did however, find time to take a selfie with an admirer.
Bouma was in Donetsk when Russia and the Netherlands presented their reports on the MH17 tragedy on October 13.
Here's another item from our news desk, this time on the thorny issue of Ukraine's $3 billion debt to Russia:
President Vladimir Putin has called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lend an additional $3 billion to Ukraine so it can pay its debt to Russia.
"It would seem simpler to proceed this way: provide Ukraine with these $3 billion so it can pay and that everyone is happy," Putin said October 13.
Russia has been blocking the IMF's $17.5 billion rescue plan for Ukraine, restricting Kyiv's ability to restructure billions of dollars in debt including the $3 billion owed to Moscow.
Moscow remains adamant that Kyiv should repay the debt by a December deadline. Ukraine issued the debt under Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych before he was ousted in February 2014.
Russia has said it will pursue court remedies and other measures if Ukraine defaults.
The IMF rescue funds are needed to keep Ukraine's pro-Western government afloat and cushion the economic blow from a war with pro-Russian separatists in the east.
Putin warned the IMF against bending the rules "for a country destroying the system" and noted that Moscow, as a member of the IMF, was contributing to the fund's aid for Ukraine. (AFP, Reuters)
Quite a poignant memorial unveiled in Kyiv, commemorating heavy Ukrainian losses at the Battle of Ilovaisk (kind of reminiscent of the U.S. flag at Fort McHenry):