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Its now three years since the uprising in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Since then, the Ukrainian army (supported by several nationalist militias) has been fighting Russia-backed rebels from the so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic and Luhansk Peoples Republic.

The conflict, supposedly under a cease-fire since an agreement in February 2015, has been escalating during the first months of 2017, according to the latest reports. Yet the war remains mostly static, transforming the landscape into something resembling World War I, with trenches and machine-gun positions all along the contact line.

After three years, the only war in Europe doesnt seem to be approaching an end. A powerful and bellicose Russia and the events going on in Syria and Iraq have relegated this conflict to oblivion, even for Ukraines European neighbors. In the meantime, according to the Ukrainian government, the war has left around 10,000 dead and 30,000 wounded, as well as 1.4 million internally displaced.

Text and photography by Manu Brabo/MeMo

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Ukraine: A forgotten war in Europe - Yahoo News

What is Yanukovych accused of?

Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych stands accused of treason. Specifically, he is accused of supporting actions with the goal of changing the national borders and territory of Ukraine. He is also accused of aiding Russia incarryingout an attack on his country.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014 and was impeached shortly thereafter

The Ukrainian state prosecutor's website states that Yanukovych "committed treason by helping the Russian Federation and its representatives to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." In doing so, the former presidenthoped to receive support and protection from Russian officials.

Yanukovych now lives in exile in Russia, which has declined to extradite him. He will be tried in absentia.

Read more: EU risks losing legal battle against Yanukovych

What punishment is Yanukovych facing?

In Ukraine, treason usually receives a prison sentence of between 10 to 15 years. A similar sentence is also typically awarded for supporting an act of war or military aggression against the country.

What evidence does the prosecution have?

The most important pieces of evidence are letters written by Yanukovych to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation Council, asking for Russian troops to be sent to Ukraine.

Read more: Ukraine cuts electricity to pro-Russian separatist area as Russia steps in

According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, the Ukrainian military state prosecutor has copies of such letters, authenticated by the United Nations (UN) and presented at a meeting of the UN Security Council on March 3, 2014, by Russian representative Vitaly Churkin. The military state prosecutor's office also says it has witness testimony, as well as other objects, documents, expert evaluations, and video and photo material.

Trial witness and Kremlin critic Denis Voronenkov was killed at the end of March

Who are the witnesses?

More than 100 witnesses have been interviewed. One of them was the former statedeputy in the Russian parliament, Denis Voronenkov, who was murdered by a suspected contract killer in downtown Kyiv at the end of March 2017. But the military prosecutor says Voronenkov was no more important than the other witnesses, and that his death will not have a decisive impact on the case.

What position is Yanukovych's defense taking?

Yanukovych's defense maintains that it is illegal for treason proceedings to be handed to a court. His lawyer, Vitaliy Serdyuk, says there is no legal basis for the case because Yanukovych has not had notification of official charges presented to him.

In November 2016, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko questioned Yanukovych via video link in connection with an investigation into members of the now defunct special police unit, Berkut, that had been deployed against demonstrators in the February 2014 Maidan protests. During the questioning, Lutsenko told Yanukovych that he was being accused of treason, but the former presidenthas yet to have the charges presented against him in writing.

Attorney Serdyuk also says that the defense has documented numerous procedural errors, in order to present them to the European Court for Human Rights.

Read more: EU lifts some sanctions on Yanukovych

The Maidan protests helped bring Yanukovych's presidency to an end

What other criminal cases is Yanukovych involved in?

Yanukovych is involved in other cases, including the Maidan investigation, in whichprosecutors are trying to find out who ordered the use of disproportionate force against demonstrators in the mass protests between November 2013 and February 2014.

Read more: Yanukovych ally faces US extradition over bribery charges

In a separate case, Yanukovych is accused of having formed criminal groups; he's also a suspect in the Mezhyhirya case, which centers on the former president's controversial private residence.

In addition, Yanukovych is a suspect in a graft case surrounding the privatization of Ukrtelecom. That case has to do with the embezzlement of more than 7 million euros ($7.6 million) ofstate funds earmarked for a government telecommunications system.

Another case involving Yanukovych centers on the former president's residence

Excerpt from:
Treason trial against Yanukovych begins in Ukraine - Deutsche Welle

KYIV -- RFE/RL has obtained a video via an official Ukrainian source that shows the moment a vehicle carrying OSCE monitors was struck by an explosion during a patrol in eastern Ukraine's conflict zone, killing an American and injuring a German and a Czech.

The clip captures a fireball and huge plume of black smoke as the second of two marked white cars traveling in separatist-controlled territory on April 23 struck what OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier said was "a mine...left on a road which is also used by civilians."

The victims were part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM), an unarmed, civilian operation with more than 650 representatives working to reduce tensions and report on the situation on the ground in Ukraines conflict zone.

The death of Joseph Stone, a 36-year-old paramedic, marked the OSCE mission's first death in a 3-year-old conflict that has killed more than 9,900 people as Ukrainian forces battle Russia-backed separatists.

The OSCE has opened an internal probe and Kyiv authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the incident.*

Ukrainian government officials have blamed separatists, who have in turn said Kyiv was responsible for Stone's death.

The six members of the OSCE team were traveling in two armored Land Cruisers near Pryshyb, in the Luhansk region, a town that sits right up against the front line of the conflict.

Principal Deputy Chief of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Alexander Hug (file photo)

At an April 28 press conference, OSCE Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said the route where the vehicle struck the explosive, likely a mine, was a planned route on a secondary road used two hours earlier and the previous day by the monitoring team.

Hug said the blast was powerful enough to throw the 4 1/2-ton armored Toyota 7 meters away "and fully destroy it."

The video -- filmed from a northerly position and the only one of the incident to be unearthed thus far -- shows the two OSCE SMM vehicles driving east on a secondary road before disappearing behind a row of trees at 11:17 a.m. local time. Seconds later, after the camera is jarred or deliberately moved to follow the cars' route and as the camera focuses, a ball of flames and thick black smoke mushroom above the tree line.

WATCH: The Moment An OSCE Vehicle Exploded In Ukraine

In an extended version of the clip, a third, unidentified vehicle appears nine minutes later heading in the direction of the blast.

The source that provided the video to RFE/RL said the road has been used infrequently by civilians for some time due to its proximity to the front line and military activity around it.

The OSCE mission will release the findings of its own investigation into the incident once they are confirmed, Hug said.

The OSCE SMM has repeatedly demanded the removal of land mines and unexploded ordnance or, where that proves impossible, mapping, marking, and fencing off such areas.

In 2016, the OSCE mission verified 141 land mines and other explosives that caused civilian casualties in the region, including 96 injuries and 45 deaths of both adults and children.

* This story has been amended to clarify that Kyiv authorities, not the OSCE, have launched a criminal investigation into the incident.

View original post here:
Exclusive: Video Shows Moment Blast Hits OSCE Vehicle In Ukraine War Zone - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Boris Steckler at a Victory Day celebration was in Rivne, Ukraine, in 2013. The Soviet army veteran is being investigated for the killing, in 1952, of the Ukrainian nationalist Nil Khasevych. Photograph: YouTube

Ukraines prosecutor general has opened a murder investigation against a 94-year-old Jewish Red Army veteran over the 1952 killing of a nationalist insurgent who has been accused of collaborating with Nazis.

The case comes amid a decommunisation campaign by the Ukrainian government, which has celebrated nationalist groups who fought the Soviets. If charged, the veteran could face a prison sentence.

The prosecutor general opened the investigation into the intentional killing of two or more people on the territory of Rivne region in March 1952 by members of the administration of the state security ministry, according to a copy of a letter posted on the website of the National Human Rights Centre, an organisation which has assisted nationalists facing prosecution.

The website said the case was that of Nil Khasevych, a member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) who, along with two other fighters, was killed by Soviet security forces in a standoff at that place and time.

Khasevych has been accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the second world war. The National Human Rights Centre website called him an independence fighter and said the prosecution of his killer would give appropriate legal appraisal to the crimes of the communist epoch.

The operation that killed Khasevych was headed by Boris Steckler, now a 94-year-old Jewish veteran who was decorated numerous times for bravery in the war and later served in the KGB.

Steckler confirmed in a 2013 interview that he had directed the mission against Khasevych, but claimed the insurgent had shot himself before Soviet soldiers threw grenades into the bunker where he was hiding. They had given him a chance to surrender, Steckler said.

Last year, the head of the Ukrainian governments National Memory Institute, Volodymyr Vyatrovych, asked the state security service to open its files on Steckler under a new package of decommunisation laws introduced to parliament.

In addition to opening the archives, the laws made it a criminal offence to question the actions of the UIA and another nationalist group, a move condemned by international scholars as an attack on free speech. Steckler appealed to a Rivne court to block access to the files.

A trained artist, Khasevych was known for creating patriotic images and printing anti-Soviet literature for the UIA, a group of nationalist fighters who on some occasions collaborated with the Nazis and took part in genocide of Jews and Poles.

According to a passage attributed to Steckler in the 1985 book Chekists Talk, Khasevych was appointed as a local judge by the invading German forces and sentenced Ukrainians who resisted the occupation to punishment or execution.

But Khasevych and other wartime insurgents have been increasingly celebrated as early freedom fighters after nationalists played a key role in the street demonstrations that brought a pro-western government to power in Kiev in 2014.

Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, called the murder investigation an injustice and said Khasevychs actions, not Stecklers, should be condemned. He was an active fighter when they destroyed Jews and Poles, Dolinsky said. Its the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that committed a war crime.

Although cases more than 15 years old are not typically prosecuted, a court can make an exception if the crime is serious enough to bring a lifetime sentence, according to lawyer Markiyan Halabala. That means Steckler could be sent to prison, but Halabala said that outcome was unlikely in this case, which would be the first of its kind in Ukraine.

The prosecutors letter announcing the murder investigation was addressed to Denis Polischuk, a controversial far-right activist at the National Human Rights Centre.

After fighting with a nationalist battalion against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Polischuk and another man were detained in 2015 on suspicion of killing pro-Russian journalist Oles Buzina in Kiev. They were later put under partial house arrest, and a lawyer representing Buzinas family said this month the investigation has stalled.

Originally posted here:
Ukraine investigates 94-year-old Jewish veteran over nationalist's death in 1952 - The Guardian

Corruption-battling cops in Ukraine are hitting obstacles in their quest to snare misbehaving officials.

While a belated crackdown on graft is finally producing high-level arrests, many probes arent reaching court and suspects are often freed on bail againstinvestigators wishes. The latest case -- the alleged embezzlement of $17.3 million at a state-owned uranium-ore plant -- saw a former lawmaker from ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuks party released pending possible trial.

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That decision was the result of pressure from sympathetic fellow legislators, according to Artem Sytnyk, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, known as NABU. He says politicians are shunning the demands of the nations second revolution in a decade, which ousted Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 in pursuit of greater state transparency and rule of law. It took more than two years to return $1.5 billion seized from his accounts to the state budget.

Its not a test for the bureau -- its a test for our political elite,Sytnyk told reporters last week. When lawmakers start to abuse the prosecutor, the judge, when they openly press, it seems to me that our elite has failed the test.

As well as the lawmaker in the current case, Mykola Martynenko, judges have bailed the head of the Central Electoral Commission, the deputy chairman of state energy company NAK Naftogaz and Roman Nasirov, head of the Fiscal Service, who was freed after hiswife and father-in-law stumped up 100 million hryvnia ($3.7 million). They all deny corruption charges.

Suspects will continueto befreed on bail, in line with Ukrainian legislation thats based on European standards, according to Vitaly Kasko, a former deputy prosecutor who quit last year complaining there was no appetite for reform. Nevertheless, some law-enforcement officials fled the country upon release by the courts.

Ukraine created NABU at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, with disbursements from a $17.5 billion bailout linked to progress on tackling graft. But the system isnt complete, with an Anti-Corruption Court due to start work in 2018. Without that, NABUs cases will be handled by an unreformed judiciary thats frequently criticized by international lenders and anti-graft bodies for lacking impartiality.

The European Union and the U.S. have welcomed the recent corruption cases. But they stress importance of the anti-graft court in seeing prosecutions through.

Timely creation of the court will ensure the full chain of criminal-justice system dedicated to fighting corruption in Ukraine is in place,an EU spokesperson told Bloomberg by email. This will be pivotal for the successful continuation of anti-corruption reforms.

In the meantime, a ping-pong match between Ukrainian courts and NABU is likely persist, according to Joerg Forbrig, senior program director of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. in Berlin.

Efforts to fight high-level graft are ever-more openly thwarted by an unreformed judiciary that is itself mired in corruption,Forbrig said by email. Unless the courts themselves are fundamentally reformed, ideally with a special branch of courts to handle cases graft, Ukraines fight against corruption cant be successful.

Original post:
Get-Out-of-Jail Cards Frustrate Ukraine's Anti-Corruption Cops - Bloomberg