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July 13, 2020

Dmytro Kuleba

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

1, Mykhailivska Sq.

Kyiv, 01018

Telephone: +38 (044) 238-16-57, +38 (044) 238-18-88E-mail: zsmfa@mfa.gov.ua

Maryna LazebnaMinister of Social Policy

Ministry of Social Policy of UkraineStr. Esplanadna, 8/10,

Kyiv, 01601

Telephone: (044) 289-86-22, (044) 289-70-60E-mail: infozapit@mlsp.gov.ua

Dear Ministers Kuleba and Lazebna,

Please accept our greetings on behalf of Human Rights Watch. We are writing to urge your ministries to recommend that Ukraine ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). which seeks to prevent and combat domestic and sexual violence against women and has been signed by all European Union (EU) member states.

Human Rights Watch is an independent international organization that works in over 90 countries to defend peoples rights. Human Rights Watch does not receive funding from any government. Our organization has conducted research on womens rights, in particular violence against women and domestic violence, in dozens of countries around the world, including Turkey, Armenia, and other countries in the Council of Europe region.

We recently became aware of President Volodymyr Zelenskys statement regarding his intent to submit the Istanbul Convention for ratification to the Verkhovna Rada, once the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Social Policy take proper action. We understand that he made this statement in response to letters and petitions he received, signed by tens of thousands of people, urging him to submit the convention for ratification.

Ukraine took an important step towards enhancing protection for women from violence when it signed the Istanbul Convention nine years ago. It is now time for Ukraine to join the 34 Council of Europe member states that have ratified it.

Violence against women remains a serious problem of public concern in Ukraine. A 2019 survey led by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) found that in Ukraine, Most women are concerned about the issue of violence against women, with 64 percent saying it is a common occurrence. Two-thirds (67 percent) of women state that they have experienced psychological, physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner or non-partner since the age of 15.

In 2017, in its concluding observations on Ukraines eighth periodic report, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) observed that since 2014, ongoing violence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and pervasive corruption have contributed to an increase in the level of violence against women by State and non-State actors and to the reinforcement of traditional and patriarchal attitudes that limit womens and girls enjoyment of their rights. The report expressed concern over the underreporting of domestic and sexual violence, and noted a lack of disaggregated data on the problem and insufficient shelter spaces for women escaping violence. It also notes the need for greater capacity to investigate, document and prosecute cases of sexual violence and strengthening of services and support for survivors. The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated domestic violence in countries around the world, and Ukraine is no exception.

In recent years, Ukraines authorities have taken several important steps towards addressing violence against women. These include the governments commitment in 2015 to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, on gender equality, and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres. In 2018, it approved a National Action Plan for the implementation of recommendations made by the UN CEDAW. In reporting on the implementation of CEDAWs recommendations in December 2019, the rapporteur on follow-up called on Ukraines government to accelerate the ratification of the [Istanbul Convention].

These steps also include the adoption of the 2017 Law on Preventing and Countering Domestic Violence, and amendments to the criminal code criminalizing systematic acts of domestic violence. While this legislation is welcome, it requires ongoing commitment to ensure implementation and additional action is needed to address remaining gaps. Expediting ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a crucial step for Ukraine in its fight against domestic violence. It would require the government to uphold minimum standards for preventing violence against women and girls, holding abusers to account, and supporting survivors.

We hope your ministries will take this opportunity to ensure the protection of women against violence by recommending to President Zelensky that he submit the Istanbul Convention to the Rada for ratification. This will help ensure protection from violence for women in Ukraine and will demonstrate to Ukraines international partners the countrys commitment to advancing womens rights.

We thank you for your attention to this matter and we look forward to receiving your response.

Kind regards,

Hugh Williamson Director, Europe and Central Asia Division Human Rights Watch

Amanda KlasingDirector, Women's Rights DivisionHuman Rights Watch

More here:
Letter to the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine re Istanbul Convention - Human Rights Watch

An armed man who took more than a dozen hostages on a long-distance bus in Ukraines western city of Lutsk on Tuesday fulfilled the agreement he had reached with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and released them shortly after Zelenskiy urged Ukrainians to watch an animal rights documentary, the president said Wednesday.

Zelenskiy spoke to the hostage-taker for several minutes on Tuesday evening, the president's office said.

We had information about an injured (hostage), and I asked him to release the injured (hostage), a pregnant woman and a child. He said the injured hostage doesn't exist, it was a bluff. So we agreed that he will let three people go and after that I will record a video (message)," Zelenskiy said in a statement on the 12-hour-long hostage drama.

The assailant, identified by police as Maksim Krivosh, a 44-year-old Ukrainian born in Russia, seized the bus with 13 people on Tuesday morning, prompting a standoff with police in Lutsk, 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of the capital Kyiv.

At one point, the assailant threw explosives out of a window but no one was hurt. He also fired several shots at a police drone.

One of his demands was that Zelenskiy post a video message on the president's Facebook page urging Ukrainians to watch Earthlings, a 2005 American documentary exposing humanitys cruel exploitation of animals.

A video of Zelenskiy saying: Movie 'Earthlings', 2005. Everybody should watch" appeared on his Facebook page shortly after the first three hostages were reported to be released.

Zelenskiy said Krivosh promised to release the others half an hour after the video was posted. So it happened: In 30-40 minutes he released the hostages, the president said.

The video was later deleted from his Facebook account.

According to authorities, Krivosh reportedly had been convicted twice on a range of charges robbery, fraud, illegal arms handling and spent a total of 10 years behind bars.

Ukrainian media said he was an animal rights activists who helped protect stray dogs.

Some of the released hostages told reporters that he treated them well and only asked them to remain calm.

The man is in custody and is reportedly cooperating with law enforcement. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said police detained several of his accomplices on Tuesday night.

Avakov didn't give details on what prompted the incident, saying only that the assailant was an unstable man who painted his vision of the world and invented a revenge for it.

Read the original here:
Ukraine's Leader Reveals Details of Talks With Hostage-taker - Voice of America

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Continued here:
Ukrainian Azure Expert MSP Partner strengthens its Azure skills with achieved two Microsoft Advanced Specializations - Microsoft

July 23, 2020

Government portal informed this yesterday

'In order to implement internal procedure necessary for coming into operation of the Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Cooperation in Defence Sphere, signed by parts on February 5, 2020, in Kyiv, the Ukrainian Government made a corresponding decision.

The entry into force of the Agreement will provide to create a necessary legal base in defence sphere between Ukraine and the Saudi Arabia, and will give an opportunity to achieve bilateral defence cooperation, including in such spheres as: defence industry; military education and manpower training; exchange intelligence information; medical treatment and health care; transferring military technologies, equipments, electronic warfare systems and radar intelligence; telecommunication and information technologies,' as it goes in government news.

Disclaimer

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine published this content on 23 July 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 24 July 2020 13:20:18 UTC

More:
Defence Intelligence of Ukraine : Agreement Between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Cooperation...

With no end in sight to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's desire to forge a new path to peace risks setting it back to square one. In late February, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it was actively working on a proposal to replace the 2014 Minsk Protocol. But while the chances of permanently ending the conflict under the current Minsk agreements remain slim at best, the chances that Ukraine can successfully negotiate an entirely new framework with Russia-backed separatists in Donbas are even slimmer. Instead, Kyiv's strategy is most likely to collapse existing diplomatic efforts and could potentially even lead to an escalation in fighting along the region's still-active front lines by highlighting the very constraints that have prevented progress over the past six years.

Out of Options

Kyiv's push for an alternative to the Minsk agreement indicates its intent to abandon the existing framework due to its failure to achieve permanent peace in eastern Ukraine. Convinced that certain aspects of the Minsk Protocol are impossible to implement as-is, the Ukrainian government has concluded its potential to secure peace in eastern Ukraine has now been exhausted. Kyiv's primary hangups with the current agreement include the organization of elections in Donbas, the special political status of the breakaway territories, and returning Ukraine's border with Russia back to Minsk's control. Ukraine has also argued that the timeline of these events, which currently requires the implementation of the special political status within Ukrainian law and the organization of elections before Ukraine can reassume control over its border, is particularly troubling. Ukraine's current government under President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has even said that it would have never agreed to an agreement under these terms in the first place.

This push, however, risks jeopardizing the Ukrainian government's apparent progress in normalizing ties with Russia over the past year. After Zelenskiy's electionin May 2019, he appeared on track toward reaching a permanent resolution with Moscow to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. By initially tackling the easier aspects of implementing the agreement, through prisoner exchanges and tactical withdrawals from the front line in eastern Ukraine, this perception was drawn out even though greater challenges still continued to cast a shadow over the potential for full implementation.

These efforts culminated ina Normandy Format summit in Parisin December, where the heads of state of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France the guarantors of the Minsk agreement met to negotiate the further implementation of the deal. But despite the optimism around the summit,it failed to provide any breakthroughs beyond the continuation of prisoner exchanges and tactical withdrawals. And since then, there's been little progress on even these elements, and Ukrainian voices calling for the abandonment of the Minsk agreement altogether have grown louder.

The Specterof War

Ukrainian officials have floated the idea of an entirely new Minsk agreement since the second iteration was signed in 2015, and its implementation was questioned. This, however, is the first time the government has officially committed to the "Plan B" concept, which brings with it a great degree of uncertainty. Despite the failure to fully implement the Minsk agreement, both the initial 2014 agreement and the 2015 final version (as well as the 2016 Steinmeier Formula) have so far effectively kept Kyiv and Moscow working within the diplomatic framework. An attempt at renegotiation risks unraveling the achievements to this point, primarily consisting of the delineation of the contact line in eastern Ukraine and efforts to impose a cease-fire. Without a valid diplomatic framework, the parties to the conflict could once again be seen reaching for military means to strengthen their position in negotiations.

If this were to be the case, neither side of the conflict would be in a position to overpower the other. Ukraine has not yet managed to rebuild its military strength following the loss of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, though it has worked steadily toward a potential NATO membership. Russia, on the other hand, continues to provide support to the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, which would allow these separatist forces to extend the conflict indefinitely. Kyiv likely wants to avoid such a return to military operations, as it would complicate its own efforts at economic stabilization, and could potentially even jeopardize its bid for NATO membership (which rules out enrolling new member states with active armed conflicts within their borders). But Ukraine's push to reshape the diplomatic process may very well lead there.

Russia Refuses a Redo

Russia has downright refused to entertain the idea of straying from the current Minsk agreement. In response to the Ukrainian request for a new Normandy summit, Russia's Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov clearly stated that Russia saw no need for a future summit before decisions made during the previous meeting (implementing elements of the Minsk agreement) had taken place. Even if this were the case, Russia has argued a draft agreement preceding such a summit would have to rule out any attempts at undermining the Minsk agreement. The next steps in this implementation mostly relate to providing the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine with a permanent political status under Ukrainian law. Kyiv is hesitant to move forward with this step, as it would effectively lock it into the existing diplomatic roadmap that grants Moscow leverage over Ukrainian politics and presents a roadblock to Kyiv's NATO membership. But for that very reason, Russia prefers sticking with the current Minsk framework over exploring a new one.

Currently, this leaves Russia and Ukraine going head-to-head over the future direction of the peace process with no clear outcome. But the one thing that appears certain is the inability for the implementation of the Minsk agreement to progress. Overall, Ukraine's ability to force Russia (and, by proxy, the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine) to comply with its demands is weak, which was recently made clear intherenegotiation of a key gas transit agreementbetween the two countries.And unlike Kyiv, Moscow would be perfectly capable of accepting a long-term extension of the current reality in eastern Ukraine, or even an escalation of the conflict.

Kyiv will likely also draw on France, Germany and the United States to exert pressure on Russia to comply with its plans for renegotiation, though the appetite for this will be low. Kyiv's allies (and particularly those in Europe) are not looking to take on additional economic risks by re-escalating tensions with Russia. In the longer term, Ukraine with help of those Western allies could hope to rebuild its military strength to force Russia and the region's separatists into accepting Kyiv's conditions. But without any shifts to Kyiv's political or physical leverage, the fighting in eastern Ukraine will likely continue at the hands of separatist forces seeking to force a return to the principles outlined within the Minsk agreement.

Kyiv's Push to End Eastern Ukraine's Conflict Risks Prolonging It is republished with the permission of Stratfor Worldview, a geopolitical intelligence and advisory firm.

Image: Reuters.

More:
What If Ukraine's Attempt at Peace Ended up Making Things Worse? - The National Interest