Kyiv Locked Down As Hundreds Protest Ukraine's Government
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities locked down the heart of the capital on November 15 as hundreds of demonstrators protested outside government buildings over poor economic conditions and rising prices for vital necessities such as natural gas and bread.
Police vehicles and officers in riot gear blocked streets around Kyiv's government quarter and stood guard with bomb-sniffing dogs in front of the presidential administration, the central bank, and parliament, where crowds braved freezing cold to demand lower utility prices and higher pensions.
Government officials claimed the protests marked the start of a Kremlin-orchestrated plan to "destabilize" Ukraine, which faces economic difficulties and a simmering war against Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in the east.
Organizers of the protest included leaders of Opposition Bloc -- created from the remnants of the defunct party of former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was driven from power by protests known as the Euromaidan and fled to Russia in 2014 -- and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna party.
"Three years after the [Euromaidan protests], we can say that Ukraine's clan system has been revived. Unfortunately, we again have a president who is an oligarch of the highest level," Tymoshenko said of President Petro Poroshenko in a call to protest published on the party's site on November 14.
Her critics claimed she was merely fomenting unrest to further her own political ambitions, though some participants told RFE/RL that they had heeded Tymoshenko's call to protest out of frustration with the government. Others, however, said they were apolitical and had come out to earn some money.
Hague Prosecutor's Finding On Ukraine Conflict Gives Kyiv Legal Heft, But Little Else
By Mike Eckel
The lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has for the first time said the simmering conflict in Ukraine should be considered an international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
As a practical matter, the determination by Fatou Bensouda, issued on November 14, will change nothing on the ground in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces has increased and decreased since April 2014 and continues despite cease-fire deals.
Nor will it change Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which has been rejected by the vast majority of United Nations member states. Moreover, Russia is not a member of The Hague-based court, whose mandate includes prosecution of war crimes and related crimes. Ukraine is also not a member, though it has accepted the court’s jurisdiction on a limited basis.
But the finding, included in a report released November 14 by Bensouda's office, adds legal heft to arguments in Ukraine, and much of the West, that Russia is to blame for instigating the war.
"According to information received, the situation in the Crimea and Sevastopol is equivalent to the international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," the report said. "This international armed conflict started not later than February 26, when the Russian Federation employed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the territory of Ukraine without the consent of the government of Ukraine."
Republican Senator Warns Trump Over Russia Stance
By RFE/RL
WASHINGTON -- A senior Republican senator has warned President-elect Donald Trump against softening U.S. policy toward Russia, saying any "reset" of relations would be dangerous move.
The comments by John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee and a persistent critic of Russia, suggest tensions between Trump and congressional Republicans who want tougher action against Moscow.
McCain on November 15 alluded to a telephone conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin called for improved bilateral ties.
McCain said: "We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America’s allies, and attempted to undermine America’s elections."
McCain also alluded to outgoing President Barack Obama's attempts to mend ties with Russia after Moscow's invasion of Georgia in 2008. Тhe effort was known as a "reset."
"At the very least, the price of another 'reset' would be complicity in Putin and [the] butchery of the Syrian people," he said.
Ukraine's Poroshenko Calls On Trump To Help Counter 'Russian Aggression'
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for Washington’s "resolute support...in countering Russian aggression," as he and President-elect Donald Trump spoke by telephone for the first time since the U.S. election.
In a statement posted on November 15 to his website, Poroshenko said he was ready to work with Trump's new administration to strengthen bilateral ties.
The statement said Poroshenko also "stressed the need for the Washington’s resolute support of Ukraine in countering Russian aggression and implementing crucial reforms."
It made no mention of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized and illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
That annexation has been rejected by the United States and nearly all United Nations member states.
There was no immediate comment from Trump's transition team about the phone call.
The conversation came one day after Trump held a similar talk with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and both issued optimistic statements abuout the prospects of improving U.S.-Russian relations.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Tuesday, November 15, 2016. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Good morning. We'll start the live blog today with this video from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on the travails of a safari park owner in Russian-occupied Crimea:
Crimean Safari Park Fights For Survival
Russian businessman Oleg Zubkov bought an abandoned Soviet military base in Crimea and turned it into a safari park. The park once had 500,000 visitors a year, but since Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, numbers are way down.
And here's an item filed overnight by RFE/RL's news desk:
UN Panel Condemns Rights Abuses In Crimea, Calls For Monitoring
A United Nations panel has condemned human rights abuses in Crimea and pressed Russia to allow UN monitors to visit the Ukrainian territory it annexed in 2014.
The UN General Assembly's human rights committee, in its first action on Crimea, adopted a resolution drafted by Ukraine and backed by the United States, France, and Britain by a vote of 73 to 23 on November 15, with 76 abstentions.
The resolution next month goes for a vote before the full assembly, which is expected to approve it.
Russia lobbied hard against the resolution, dismissing it as "politically-motivated" and "one-sided."
The people of Crimea "chose to vote in a historic referendum to reunite with Russia," said Russian Foreign Ministry official Anatoly Viktorov.
"It completely ignores the negative impact that the actions of Ukrainian authorities have had on the residents of Crimea," who have the same rights and privileges as other Russian citizens, he said.
Among the countries that backed Russia in opposing the resolution were China, Iran, India, Syria, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Serbia, and North Korea. Many Latin American and African countries abstained from the vote.
The resolution condemned abuses and discrimination in Crimea, which Russia seized in February 2014. Moscow's annexation was not recognized by the UN, and the resolution calls it a "temporary occupation."
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya said the human rights situation has worsened in Crimea with "extrajudicial killings, intimidation, arbitrary detentions, torture" and repression of free speech.
Rights groups have raised alarm over the plight of Crimea's Muslim Tatars, who have been repressed for their opposition to Russian rule of the territory.
The resolution urges Russia to reverse its decision to shut down the Crimean Tatars' governing body, the Mejlis, and to allow cultural and religious institutions to reopen.
It calls on Russia to "take all necessary measures to bring an immediate end to all abuses against residents of Crimea" and to cooperate with UN rights staff seeking to monitor the situation on the Black Sea peninsula.
A UN monitoring mission on human rights set up in Ukraine in 2014 has not been allowed into Crimea.
"Russia wants to make sure only one voice is heard in Crimea -- Russia's," said U.S. deputy UN ambassador Sarah Mendelson. "States should not have to fear that a neighbor, however powerful, will seize their territory."
With reporting by AP and AFP
An interesting read: