Some economic news:
Another news item from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukraine Arrests Alleged Crime Boss After Six-Year Manhunt
Ukraine’s National Police have arrested alleged mafia boss Yevhen Anisimov, who has been wanted for six years on numerous charges mainly related to extorting money from businesses in the Zaporizhzhya region located in the southeastern part of the country.
Anisimov, 44, was apprehended in the capital Kyiv on February 16 by an elite police unit and taken to Zaporizhzhya where he was allegedly engaged in shaking down businesses during the truncated presidential term of Viktor Yanukovych between 2010 and early 2014.
He is facing charges of creating an organized crime group, extortion, property theft, money laundering, and the illegal use of firearms.
One of his alleged victims, Yevhen Chernyak, owner of a leading Ukrainian vodka producer based in Zaporizhzhya, rejoiced at the news of the alleged criminal's arrest on Facebook.
The owner of Global Spirits has accused Anisimov of trying to take over his business 10 years ago and called him the "mafia enforcer" for Yanukovych in the Zaporizhzhya region.
Chernyak said a close associate of the alleged criminal gave him up to authorities.
Anisimov was on an international wanted list and his last hideout was in Koncha-Zaspa, a wooded district in northwestern Kyiv that is home to many summer cottages, health resorts, and children's camps, said Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko.
Another alleged victim of extortion in Zaporizhzhya, money-transfer company owner Yuriy Komisarov, told RFE/RL in 2013 that the suspected underworld boss offered to split cash proceeds with the entrepreneur as well shares in his company.
During much of Yanukovych’s presidency, local city and regional officials in Zaporizhzhya denied Anisimov was a “criminal kingpin” and instead was “an example of a socially responsible businessman and a prominent philanthropist.”
A short Twitter thread:
Good morning. We'll get the live blog rolling today with this item, which was filed overnight by the Crimea Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukrainian Fishermen Detained by Russia In Sea Of Azov Get 10 Days In Crimean Jail
A Russian-administered court in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula ruled on February 16 to detain four Ukrainian fisherman for 10 days as civil punishment for "illegally fishing" in the Sea of Azov where they were detained and had their boat impounded the previous day.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) border guard force said it apprehended the four Ukrainians off the coast of Crimea and accused them of "violating the rules for catching aquatic biological resources."
The fishermen didn't have documents on their person and the catch on board the vessel was illegal, said Larisa Opanasyuk, the human rights ombudswoman on the Russian-occupied peninsula.
A 2003 Russia-Ukraine treaty stipulates unimpeded access to the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov.
Ukraine's presidential representative in annexed Crimea based in the southern Kherson region said it was the monitoring the situation with the four fishermen.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards attacked, intercepted, and seized three Ukrainian Navy boats off Crimea, taking 24 crew members prisoner.
The following November, Russia returned the severely damaged Ukrainian vessels and a UN tribunal had ordered Russia to immediately release the crew members and ships in May.
The sailors were freed after 10 months in a landmark prisoner exchange in September.
Russia invaded Crimea in early 2014 and has controlled the peninsula ever since, triggering Western sanctions that are still in place.