Ukraine fails again to ban discrimination against gays
Kiev, Nov 10, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine's parliament failed for the second time Tuesday to adopt a ban on anti-gay discrimination in the workplace, though it did vote in five other laws needed to secure visa-free travel to most EU nations.
The European Union in 2010 demanded that Ukraine clearly define the rights of gay people -- who were viewed by the country's former Soviet rulers as criminals who should either be sent to prisons or mental wards -- at work.
Though Ukraine is now run by a pro-EU administration, it remains a deeply religious and conservative country.
Kiev decriminalised gay relationships a year after the Soviet Union's 1991 breakup but it still takes a grim view of same-sex couples.
A gay pride parade held near Kiev in June lasted just minutes before a far-right group attacked it without any apparent intervention from the police.
Brussels wants Ukraine -- which overthrew its former Moscow-backed leadership last year -- to adopt a raft of legislation that takes a tougher approach on corruption and ensures broader basic rights.
Time is running out because an EU commission will review in mid-December whether Kiev has done enough to merit visa-free travel by the middle of next year.
Western-backed President Petro Poroshenko has made joining the Schengen zone -- a club of EU countries that allows visa and passport-free travel to more than 400 million people -- one of his priorities since his election last year.
But time is quickly running out on Poroshenko's dream.
In a vote held last week, the anti-discrimination law collected just 117 votes in the 450-seat parliament.
That number rose to 207 on Tuesday -- still short of the 226 majority needed for the measure to pass.
Squabbling lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill yet again later this week.
Poroshenko met parliamentary faction leaders on the eve of both last week's and Tuesday's readings to convince them of the potential significance of free travel to Europe.
Some of those who refused to back the law want concessions on completely unrelated legislation that deals with such matters as lowering taxes on oil and natural gas.
About 200 protesters defied windy, rainy weather and gathered in front of parliament to urge legislators to finally open the door to Europe.
But Poroshenko put a positive spin on Tuesday's developments because some of his measures had passed.
"Today's vote has brought Ukrainians considerably closer to visa-free travel," he tweeted.
"I hope that lawmakers show responsibility and adopt all the laws necessary for visa-free travel, including the anti-discrimination amendment."
Ukraine's Azov Regiment Opens Boot Camp For Kids
Children in Ukraine's Sumy region can attend a boot camp where they learn basic military skills like running an obstacle course and handling weapons. The camp was set up by members of the Azov Regiment, a former volunteer unit, who teach young Ukrainians to defend their country -- while also exposing them to the regiment's far right-wing ideology. (Olga Kalenichenko, RFE/RL's Current Time TV)
In Eastern Ukraine, A Young Life Shattered
By Christian Borys
KYIV/MARIUPOL -- On the grass outside an old Soviet-era military hospital, tucked on a side street in the capital, Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers in camo-patterned jackets and fur hats puff on cigarettes and share laughs.
Their banter reflects the current lull in the fight against Russian-backed separatists hundreds of kilometers to the east, where a shaky cease-fire is holding despite occasional flare-ups and no sign of a lasting solution.
But just a few steps away, in a medical building surrounded by the nearly leafless trees of autumn, lies a tragic example of one of the legacies of war that could haunt Ukraine well into its future.
Eleven-year-old Mykola Nyzhnyakovskyy -- Kolya to his mom and friends -- is straining to scratch the itching wounds from shrapnel embedded in what's left of his legs. He is using his left hand, the one that remains.
His mother, 38-year-old Alla Nyzhnyakovska, caresses his head and tries to put a brave face on his situation since the day two months ago when an unexploded munition shattered three of Kolya's limbs and killed his 4-year-old brother, Danylo, instantly.
"I'm showing him pictures of soldiers who've lost their limbs but manage to live normal lives now," she says as she flashes a photo of a man with two prosthetic legs holding a baby. "I want him to know that he still has a life ahead of him, that there is hope to start a family and live a normal life."
It is just one facet of the 20-month-old conflict paralyzing the country since a separatism-fueled war erupted in eastern Ukraine. But unlike the shooting, it threatens to keep killing well beyond the end of the fighting.
Read the full story here.
Ukrainian Warplane Crashes During Training Flight
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says a Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-25 military plane crashed during a training flight near Zaporizhzhya on November 11, killing the 23-year-old pilot.
A Defense Ministry spokesman did not specify the cause of the crash.
The Soviet-era SU-25 aircraft was designed during the 1970s to provide close air support for ground forces.
It has been used repeatedly by the Ukrainian Air Force against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began there in 2014.
Several SU-215s used by Ukrainian government forces have been shot down by pro-Russian separatists in the conflict.
Pro-Russian separatists also have indirectly acknowledged their use of the warplane against Ukrainian forces during fighting near Debaltsevo in February 2015.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
