Archive for the ‘Ukraine’ Category

Belarus to appeal to ICAO over EU and Ukraine airspace bans – AeroTime News Hub

Belarus intends to appeal to the ICAO after Ukraine, the member states of the European Union and other states banned the state-owned Belarusian airline Belavia from using their airspace.

The decision taken by Ukraine unilaterally to restrict the use of the airspace of Ukraine by Belarusian aircraft violates the provisions of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944, the Aviation Department of the Ministry of Transport of Belarus claimed in a statement on June 2, 2021.

The authority questions the ability of Ukraine to ensure flight safety, citing incidents such as MH17 or the shootdown of Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 by Ukrainian air defense forces during an exercise in 2001.

On May 25, 2021, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Council banned Belavia from the EUs airspace and asked their airlines to avoid the overflight of Belarus, following the diversion of Ryanair flight FR4978 and the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner Sofia Sapega on May 23, 2021. Ukraine took a similar decision on May 26, 2021.

As a consequence, Belavia can only fly to 9 of the 30 destinations it used to service before the incident. "21 countries are a big loss for the company, but the Belavia team is working hard to cope, the company said in a statement.

On May 31, 2021, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko reported discussing the creation of flights from Belarus to Crimea during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin three days before. Belarus previously refused to recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

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Belarus to appeal to ICAO over EU and Ukraine airspace bans - AeroTime News Hub

Ukraine seeks to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation with Baltic states – Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleksiy Danilov has held a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Estonia to Ukraine Kaimo Kuusk, according to the NSDCs press service.

During the meeting, the parties discussed current issues of bilateral security cooperation and prospects for its further expansion. The NSDC Secretary praised Estonia's assistance to Ukraine in the difficult times of the Russian hybrid warfare against Ukraine.

Danilov also stressed the need for expanding bilateral cooperation with the Baltic states, in particular, with Estonia in the field of cybersecurity.

"Ukraine is at the forefront of the fight against hybrid aggression. Our task is to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation with NATO structures and member states, as Russia has recently significantly intensified its information warfare, Danilov said.

In this context, the NSDC Secretary expressed interest in enhancing practical cooperation with NATO's cyber center in Estonia. In turn, the ambassador noted that Estonia is also interested in developing bilateral cooperation with Ukraine in the cybersecurity sector.

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Ukraine seeks to strengthen cybersecurity cooperation with Baltic states - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Chiygoz: Ukraine will promote Crimean Platform in Europe and Asia – Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Ukrainian politicians, in particular, members of the Verkhovna Rada, plan to promote the Crimean Platform among the partner countries to involve them in the initiatives activities.

"I hope that we will be able to organize a kind of tour of European partner countries. We also intend to visit the Asian countries to intensify the participation of our allies in the Crimean Platform around the world in the remaining months," Akhtem Chiygoz, a Ukrainian politician, deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, chairman of the Bakhchisaray Regional Mejlis, MP of Ukraine, told Ukrinform.

Currently, Ukrainian lawmakers are trying to engage in dialogue at the level of friendship groups with different countries and announced the creation of a Crimean Platform within the Parliament to intensify the work of these inter-parliamentary friendship groups. There is a need to concentrate our efforts so that our partners take this new platform with due attention, the politician stressed.

According to Chiygoz, it is very important to persuade the countries, against which Russia is currently using "very vile tools of blackmail" to prevent them from joining the Ukrainian initiative. To persuade these countries, the participation of leading countries, such as Germany, France, the United States, Canada, in the inaugural summit on August 23 would be important. According to Chiygoz, this would allow the countries under pressure to be more decisive and discuss Ukraine's proposals. In the politician's opinion, the adoption of the Ukrainian proposals will be a "colossal blow to Russias image in the international arena" and intensify the opposition within Russia itself in the fight against Putin's criminal regime.

Crimean Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to improve the efficiency of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, step up international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupying power and to achieve the de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine.

Crimean Platform is expected to operate at the level of heads of state and government, foreign ministers, in the dimension of inter-parliamentary cooperation and expert network.

Ukraine is actively inviting world countries to take part in the Crimean Platform activities.

The Crimean Platform is to be launched officially at an inaugural summit in Kyiv in August 2021.

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Chiygoz: Ukraine will promote Crimean Platform in Europe and Asia - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

President of Estonia: Ukraine can receive support within Three Seas Initiative funds – Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Poland and Estonia must demonstrate solidarity and support their partners in the east, in particular Ukraine. One of the mechanisms to support Kyiv is the assistance within the funds of the Three Seas Initiative.

President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid made a corresponding statement during a joint press conference with President of Poland Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

According to Kaljulaid, Poland and Estonia need to work more closely with the Eastern Partnership countries. She noted that more efforts should be made to hold "as soon as possible" a real meeting with the leaders of the Eastern Partnership countries, which has not been held since 2017.

In addition, we can use our possibilities to help Ukraine get closer to our economies and to our understanding of Europe's future. The Three Seas Initiative can help in this context, Kaljulaid said.

According to her, Ukraine, though it is not EU member, can receive assistance from various funds within the Three Seas Initiative.

In turn, Duda noted that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had informed the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in Warsaw the day before that Russian troops had been returning to their permanent locations from Ukraines borders.

However, that was a demonstration of the strength of the Russian army. In my opinion, NATO should draw conclusions," Duda said.

He added that the issue would be discussed at the Bucharest Nine summit in Bucharest in a few days and at the NATO summit in Brussels in June.

As reported, on May 3, the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia met in Warsaw to celebrate the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the 3 May Constitution. The presidents of the five countries signed a joint declaration, which emphasizes that the solidarity of nations under current threats to common security is one of the cornerstones of peace, stability, development, prosperity, and resilience.

In addition, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda signed a joint declaration of Warsaw's support for Kyiv's European aspirations.

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President of Estonia: Ukraine can receive support within Three Seas Initiative funds - Ukrinform. Ukraine and world news

Training for NGO representatives on the European Social Charter and its application in Ukraine – Council of Europe

On April 28, 2021, an online training for the representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the European Social Charter (ESC) and its application in Ukraine was held.

This training is the first one for representatives of non-governmental organisations. Today's event aims to provide more information on the European Social Charter as a key document for the protection of social rights, in particular rights of people with disabilities, and to provide a new practical tool for non-governmental organisations to monitor social rights, said in her welcoming speech Ms Siuzanna Mnatsakanian, Senior Project Officer of the Council of Europe Project Promoting social human rights as a key factor of sustainable democracy in Ukraine.

Victoria Nazarenko, Secretary General of the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine, noted that Ukraine needs to improve its legislation. And if NGOs apply standards of the European Social Charter more frequently, there will be more chances to implement the Social Constitution of Europe in Ukraine, and thus improve the situation of people with disabilities".

Ms Alla Fedorova, national consultant of the Council of Europe Project "Promoting social human rights as a key factor of sustainable democracy in Ukraine", Associate Professor of Chair of Comparative and European Law, Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Candidate of Law, was a lecturer of the training.

The European Social Charter is the first document in the history of international law and human rights that enshrined not just a broad catalog of social, economic and labuor rights, but the broadest one. And there is no other better document so far to protect social human rights, said Ms Alla Fedorova.

More than 50 participants got acquainted with the main provisions of the ESC and the characteristics of the rights it enshrines, in particular, the right to health care, medical assistance, and social security. The basic rights of persons with disabilities within the ESC were also discussed as well as the practice of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), the implementation of Ukraine's obligations vis--vis Article 15 of the ESC, as well as the recommendations of the ECSR regarding Ukraine.

Important documents and research already conducted by the Project were also vividly discussed, namely:

This event was organised by the Council of Europe Project Promoting social human rights as a key factor of sustainable democracy in Ukraine (Project) at the request of the National Assembly of Persons with Disabilities of Ukraine.

The recording of the training is available here.

The presentation of the training is available via the link (First part, Second part).

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Training for NGO representatives on the European Social Charter and its application in Ukraine - Council of Europe