Pro-Kyiv Activist Sentenced To Prison In Crimea
By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukraine Service
A court in Ukraine’s Russia-controlled Crimea region has sentenced pro-Kyiv activist Volodymyr Balukh to prison on charges of weapons and explosives possession he says was politically motivated.
The Rozdolne District Court convicted Balukh on August 4 and sentenced him to three years and seven months in prison.
Balukh pleaded not guilty and says the case was groundless.
He is one of dozens of Crimeans whom Russia has prosecuted in what rights groups say has been a persistent campaign to silence dissent since Moscow seized control over the Ukrainian region in March 2014.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that officers searched Balukh's home in December and found 90 bullets and some explosives in the attic.
The search was conducted shortly after Balukh planted a Ukrainian flag in his yard and affixed a sign to his house that read Heavenly Hundred Street, 18.
The Heavenly Hundred is a term Ukrainians use for the dozens of people killed when security forces sought to disperse protesters in Kyiv whose demonstrations drove Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014.
After Yanukovych's ouster, Russia seized Crimea by sending in troops and staging a referendum dismissed as illegal by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of 100 countries.
The Russian takeover badly damaged Moscow's relations with Kyiv and the West and resulted in the imposition of sanctions by the European Union, the United States, and several other countries.
Rights groups say Crimea residents who opposed Russia's takeover have faced discrimination and abuse at the hands of the Moscow-imposed authorities.
In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Moscow to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, August 3, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our ongoing coverage.
U.S. General Says Russia Not 'Transparent' About Upcoming Exercises
A senior U.S. general in Europe says the U.S. military is keeping a close eye on Moscow's planned military exercises in Russia and Belarus --- exercises that some experts say could involve 100,000 troops.
U.S. Air Force Brigadier General John Healy, who directs U.S. forces' military exercises in Europe, told Reuters on August 3 that Moscow was not being "transparent" in regard to its Zapad 2017 exercises because it is not allowing Western observers.
He said Russian observers attended the recent U.S. and NATO exercises in the Black Sea region, but a similar invitation has not been extended for the Zapad maneuvers set for September.
Russia has said the war games do not require invitations to outside observers, claiming they will involve fewer than 13,000 troops.
Healy said the U.S. military is stepping up its own global exercises in response to a more aggressive Russia and other worldwide threats.
He said the goal was to carry out more challenging exercises that involve forces from all nine U.S. combatant commands -- instead of focusing on specific regions or one military service.
Healy said it was important to conduct war games and training events that reflect the global nature of military threats in the current environment, including cyberwarfare.
He said the U.S. military plans 11 major exercises in the next year that will include air, ground, and naval forces with a range of NATO allies.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Mother Hunts For Sons Missing In Action In Ukraine
The mother of two Ukrainian government soldiers is on desperate hunt to learn the fate of her sons who went missing in action in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Kateryna Khomyak's sons were among more than 400 soldiers the Ukrainian government says are missing after battling Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. (YouTube, RFE/RL's Current Time TV)
