Ukrainian President Meets Pope At Vatican, Discusses Crisis In Country's East
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on February 8.
The Ukrainian leader and the head of the Catholic Church discussed the plight of Ukrainian detainees in annexed Crimea, areas of eastern Ukraine under de facto control of Russia-backed separatists, as well as in Russia, the Ukrainian presidential press service said in a posting on Twitter.
Russia seized control of Crimea in March 2014 in a controversial referendum after sending in soldiers without identifying insignia to secure key military and government sites on the Black Sea peninsula.
A month later, Moscow began backing separatists in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people.
The 83-year-old pontiff has on several occasions voiced hope for an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Francis offered a prayer ahead of the key summit involving Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris on December 9, expressing hope the sides will “seek solutions to the painful conflict.”
Francis also called for peace in eastern Ukraine in his Christmas message on December 25.
Zelenskiy arrived in Italy on February 7, when he met with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Talks in Rome were reported to focus on Vitaliy Markiv, a Ukrainian National Guardsman sentenced in 2019 by an Italian court to 24 years in prison for his role in the deaths of an Italian photojournalist and his translator during fighting near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk in 2014.
Two top officials who gave damaging testimony in the House of Representatives impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump have been ousted from their positions following Trump’s acquittal in the Senate trial.
Ukraine-born U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who testified about a controversial phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president, was fired from his job on February 7 as the National Security Council’s (NSC) expert for the former Soviet republic in what his lawyer said was an act of “revenge.”
Meanwhile, Gordon Sondland, a major donor to the Trump inaugural committee, said in a statement that he has been advised that Trump plans to recall him as the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Visits Kyiv In Effort To Mend Relations
By RFE/RL
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says his country would like improve relations with Ukraine amid a dispute over a controversial language law.
The remarks came on February 7 during a visit to Kyiv by Szijjarto, his first trip to Hungary’s eastern neighbor since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected last year.
"The Hungarian government is interested in renewing good neighborly relations with Ukraine," Szijjarto said during a news conference with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Kyiv in 2017 passed a law that emphasizes the instruction of Ukrainian in publicly funded schools and curtails the teaching of Russian and other minority languages, such as Romanian and Hungarian.
The Council of Europe’s constitutional experts have criticized the language legislation and previous regulations regarding educational institutions signed into law by the country's previous president, Petro Poroshenko.
Hungary, in particular, opposes the law, saying it restricts the right of Ukraine's ethnic Hungarian minority of approximately 125,000 people to be educated in their native language.
Kyiv maintains the legislation is designed to ensure that all Ukrainian citizens can speak the state's official language, and it denies the law is discriminatory.
Hungarians are the largest minority group in Transcarpathia, a western Ukrainian region that was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
"We want the Hungarians who live in Transcarpathia to have the opportunity to preserve their native language," Szijjarto said.
Szijjarto said he "made a couple of suggestions" in a meeting with Ukraine’s education minister to resolve the situation and urged Kyiv to consider them.
Kuleba said Ukraine wants Transcarpathia to become "a success story, thanks to the joint efforts of Ukraine and Hungary."
Hungary, a member of NATO and the European Union, has threatened to stymie Ukraine’s aspirations of joining the organizations until matters dividing the countries are resolved.
With reporting by AFP and Interfax
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