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Westmeath southpaw Joe Ward is on course for his third European title in Kharkiv, Ukraine, but Antrims Brendan Irvine and Kurt Walker had to settle for bronze after losing their semi-finals yesterday.

Ward, the defending champion and No 1 seed in the light-heavy class, beat Italys Valentino Manfredonia in yesterdays 81kg semi-final on a comprehensive unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-25, 30-27).

The Rio Olympian said before the fight that if he performed, the Brazil-born Azzurri orthodox didnt have a chance. He delivered yesterday, though Manfredonia was limping after the first round from a leg injury.

Ward will now meet Russias Muslim Gadzhimagomedov who beat Croatias Damir Plantic yesterday in todays final looking to become the first Irish male boxer (Katie Taylor has won six) to claim three European titles. Facing a Russian in a major final is unlikely to phase the Irish champion, as he beat Russias Nikita Ivanov in the 2011 decider to become one of the youngest international boxers to win European gold, aged just 17.

The plan all along is to win the gold medal in the Ukraine. Thats what Im out here for. Gold is always my target, said Ward.

Meanwhile, Irvine, the No 4 seed in the flyweight class, dropped a unanimous (30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28) decision to Dean Farrell, the English orthodox impressing with his high work rate.

Irvine detonated the heavier punches in the opening two rounds, but Farrell, while missing with the first two shots of his three-punch combinations consistently found the target with the third. Irvine upped the pace in the last frame. A massive left could have changed the course of the fight, but Farrell slipped the shot en route to upgrading to silver.

Walker lost to Mykola Butsenko. The Ukrainian was awarded a 30-27 decision across the board.

The defeat means that Ireland has relinquished the European title it has held for the last four years, courtesy of Nevin in 2013 and Michael Conlan in 2015.

Ward, Irvine, Walker, and Sean McComb qualified for the World Championships in Hamburg. Germany, in August/September in Kharkiv after finishing in the top eight, but Dublin middleweight Emmet Brennan could qualify if Azerbaijans Kamran Shakhsuvarly claims gold today. Todays finals begin at 2pm Irish time.

See: Digest

Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

Continued here:
Ward on course for third European boxing title in Ukraine - Irish Examiner

The United Nations reports that deaths and injuries from the conflict in Ukraine have been rising in recent months.

The conflict has now entered its fourth year. Russian-supported separatists in eastern Ukraine are fighting forces loyal to Ukraines central government.

This week, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report on the situation.

U.N. investigators noted evidence of 193 conflict-related casualties among civilians from the middle of February to the middle of May 2017. The report says the number includes 36 deaths.

This is a 48 percent increase over the last reporting period, said High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein. He spoke to the U.N. Human Rights Council Wednesday.

Zeid noted that, The majority of these casualties resulted from shelling, explosive devices and remnants of war.

U.N. officials estimate that about 10,000 people have been killed and more than 23,500 injured since the fighting started.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, deputy minister for foreign affairs for Ukraine, confirmed the findings of the report. It noted "continuous inflow of foreign fighters and supply of ammunition and heavy weaponry from the Russian Federation into parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.

The minister added that while these activities continue, there is no end to the conflict in sight.

Peace efforts have failed

Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe signed an agreement to end the fighting in September 2014. But this deal and other peace efforts have failed to end the violence.

The U.N. reports hospitals and schools in eastern Ukraine have been damaged by repeated shelling. It said shells hit the Donetsk Filtration Station and the South Donbas pumping station first, endangering safe water supply to more than one million people on both sides of the contact line.

Zeid said that both sides of the conflict were to blame for human rights violations. He added that his team has documented cases of unlawful and arbitrary detention on both sides of the contact line.

He noted reports of almost systemic use of torture and ill-treatment by the Security Service of Ukraine. Investigators were told the security service used such methods to force conflict-related detainees into making statements against their will.

Zeid said that efforts to investigate claims by victims often failed.

Sanctions to continue

The United States and European Union took steps to answer Russias takeover of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine three years ago. The U.S. government and EU ordered sanctions to punish Russian businesses and individuals.

In a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he has no plans to end the sanctions.

After the reports release, Russia expressed concerns about new cases of arbitrary and illegal detention. It also criticized the use of torture by Ukrainian security forces to obtain confessions in the Donbass region.

Ukraines Deputy Foreign Minister said the only way to improve human rights in the area is through full consolidation of the international community and pressure on Russia.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Lisa Schlein reported on this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted her report for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

casualty n. someone who is killed or hurt in an accident or conflict

remnant n. usually a small part of piece of something

sanction n. an action taken by one country to make another country follow a rule or law

arbitrary adj. existing or coming about by chance

confession n. the act of admitting something

consolidation n. the process of uniting

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UN: Deaths, Injuries Rising as Ukraine Enters Fourth Year of Conflict - Voice of America

Poroshenko -- who is viewed as an enemy to Russian leaders in Moscow -- was scheduled to "drop by" a meeting with President Donald Trump and national security adviser H.R. McMaster during his previously scheduled visit with Vice President Mike Pence, according to the White House schedule.

Trump told reporters, briefly allowed into the room, that "a lot of progress has been made" in relations between the United States and Ukraine. The White House also put out a short, direct official read out of the meeting, noting that the two spoke about a "peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and President Poroshenko's reform agenda and anti-corruption efforts."

Arriving at the West Wing on Tuesday morning, Poroshenko wasn't greeted by Trump -- as the President has been known to do with other leaders -- and walked into the West Wing quietly and without fanfare. Poroshenko will primarily meet with Pence, who advisers say has a close relationship with the Ukrainian leader.

In a nod to Poroshenko, the Trump administration announced more sanctions against separatists, including some Russians, involved in the conflict in Ukraine as the president arrived at the White House.

Poroshenko's treatment is noteworthy given Trump's tendency to roll out the red carpet for almost all foreign leaders who visit the White House -- even those from small countries with few pressing issues in the United States.

Other foreign leaders have been given muted welcomes when meeting with Pence, not Trump. King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Pence at his residence earlier this year and did not officially meet with Trump, while Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez met with the vice president in March without much fanfare.

But the subdued meetings are more rare.

Despite the less-than-warm welcome, Trump and Poroshenko -- on paper -- would seem to have a lot in common. The duo are both new to politics and built sizable empires in business. Poroshenko, a billionaire, owns Roshen, a large candy company, and 5 kanal, a Ukrainian broadcast company and Trump regularly touts his business acumen, his wealth and the fact he is new to politics.

Multiple senior Trump administration officials pushed back against the idea that Poroshenko was snubbed by the White House, saying he got more face-time with top Trump officials than other world leaders.

"Not all visits are the same," the official said, arguing that Poroshenko saw "all the senior most people in the building," including one-on-one time with Trump, Pence and McMaster.

The official said visits are "different every time" and this sort of visit is not a "uniquely Trump thing."

Most notably, the muted welcome is striking given the Ukrainian leader's reputation a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose meddling in the 2016 election and subsequent investigations into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia have largely overshadowed the first few months of the Trump presidency.

Close ties between Trump and a Ukrainian leader like Poroshenko would likely anger leaders in Russia, who have blamed the United States for conflict in Eastern Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian backed groups continues.

Biden even made Poroshenko part of his swansong foreign trip, visiting Ukraine days before Trump was inaugurated.

In addition to meeting with Trump, Poroshenko will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Tuesday.

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Ukraine leader gets low-key welcome at White House ...

It was all quite quick and comfortable, Timofey Matskevich, a small-business owner, said of transiting with his wife, Daria, through an airport serving Barcelona.

They asked no questions, they stamped our passports and said, Welcome to Spain, Mr. Matskevich said in an online chat from the apartment where he was staying, which he said had a marvelous view of the beach and the Mediterranean beyond.

Its a change in mentality, he said. You have more freedom to go somewhere, to see things. For the mentality of the country to change, to get rid of the Soviet legacy, you need to see other parts of the world.

While the visa waiver for Ukrainians is the largest shift of the kind for former Soviet countries, most of Ukraines 45 million people cannot afford to go on vacation abroad. Citizens of Georgia and Moldova already qualified for short-term visa-free travel to most of Western Europe, and those of the Baltic countries, which are members of the European Union, can come and go as they please.

Mr. Poroshenko celebrated the change by opening a symbolic door to Europe that had been set up on a stage at a border crossing with Slovakia. To help illustrate what lay to the west, the door was surrounded by walls depicting the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum in Rome, Dutch windmills and other European tourist sights.

Mr. Poroshenko called the visa waiver a final exit of our country from the Russian Empire, and he joked that the words Back in the U.S.S.R. would be heard only listening to The Beatles.

Three years ago, tens of thousands of Ukrainians, including Mr. Matskevich, took to the streets of Kiev to reject the pro-Russian government of the time, and to show support for a trade pact between Ukraine and the European Union called the Association Agreement.

Russia responded with a military intervention, annexing Crimea and deploying forces in two provinces of eastern Ukraine, in a war that has since killed more than 10,000 people. Amid this grinding crisis, the Ukrainian story line shifted to keeping Russia out, not to getting into Western Europe.

The European Union has kept pressing the government in Kiev to adhere to European norms, not only on technical matters such as agricultural standards but also by curbing corruption, to little effect.

In newspapers, disheartened Ukrainians read daily about members of Parliament or finance officials lining their pockets with public money.

The visa-rule change allowed Mr. Poroshenko to claim credit for one popular achievement of Ukraines shift toward the West, in the hopes more substantive measures will follow, said Kadri Liik, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

It greatly empowers the forces in society that push reforms, she said.

Visa-free travel is the first thing people received from the Association Agreement, Mr. Matskevich said. Its a step by our country into the normal world, into normal society.

The opening went smoothly, with a few exceptions. A woman who had no passport for her 8-year-old son tried to smuggle him over a land border with Poland in a suitcase. They were discovered, fined and deported.

Mostly, though, the change led to excited Ukrainians posting about their European vacations on Facebook.

Hurray! It works! one Ukrainian traveler, Ivetta Delikatnaya, wrote after sliding through passport control in Toulouse, France.

With the easing of travel restrictions, low-cost airlines are increasingly looking to Ukraine. Wizz Air recently began operating flights between Lviv and Berlin for as little as $22 each way. Ryanair is introducing flights to Kiev and Lviv.

Andriy Homanchuk, a veteran of the war in eastern Ukraine, posted on Facebook that he was, somehow, able to eke out a weekend in Brussels for less than $100, his first trip to Western Europe.

The visa-free regime works, he wrote excitedly from Belgium. You dont need documents, or even knowledge of any language. You can go for a weekend.

Iuliia Mendel contributed reporting from Kiev, Ukraine.

Originally posted here:
Europe Dismantles Ukraine's 'Paper Curtain' - New York Times

Two weeks ago, Stas called his mother to say he was on a bus entering Donetsk city, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. He was planning to visit her and his grandmother the next morning. She was excited. Stas had been traveling for work for days in other parts of Ukraine, and she missed him. However, Stas did not show up at her home that morning. He has been missing since that phone call on 2 June, feared forcibly disappeared by the separatist Donetsk authorities.

I met Stas, 27, in Donetsk last year. A pro-Ukrainian blogger and a regular contributor to RFE/RL, he wrote under the name of Stanyslav Vasin. An underground reporter in an area controlled by Russia-backed separatists, Stas published compelling chronicles of life in the DPR, from shooting and shelling to local infrastructure and cultural events. With the war in eastern Ukraine dragging on for three years and no end in sight, his blog became a unique window into life on the other side of the line of contact for many Ukrainians who have no access to separatist-controlled areas.

Stas made no secret of his pro-Ukrainian views and hopes for ultimate defeat of the Russia-backed separatists. I read his blog once in a while and on a work-trip to Donetsk I sent him a message introducing myself and suggesting we meet for a coffee. He asked me to call him Stas, short for Stanyslav, but it never crossed my mind this was his real name. Only after his disappearance did I find out from RFE/RL and other media that he had changed his surname for security purposes, but kept his first name as part of his Internet identity.

Stanislav Vasinhas been missing since June 2, 2017, feared forcibly disappeared by the separatist Donetsk authorities ineasternUkraine.

Late in the evening, we sat in an almost deserted caf for over an hour speaking mainly about the climate of raw fear in the DPR. He described himself as possibly the only person in Donetsk who dares speak his mind freely [online].

He said that he also knew a few others in the broader separatist-controlled territory who spoke critically of the de-facto authorities on social media but he had never met them in person. When I say I know these people, its not quite accurate, he explained.

Its rather that I know of them and they know of me. We dont know the real names. We dont know where the others live, except that were all on this side of the line of contact. The prerequisite of survival is total anonymity. I keep a super-low profile, stay away from people. Even my mother has no idea what I really do and how I live.

On 3 June, when Stas didnt show up, his mother, overcome with worry, went to the apartment Stas rented in Donetsk. The door to the apartment was locked. She waited until late at night, to no avail. The next day, the landlord opened the apartment for her. The place looked like it had been ransacked. She rushed to the police and filed a missing person report. She went to the DPRs Ministry of State Security to enquire if they had detained her son, but they refused to let her in. The Ministry is the most feared agency in the DPR, due to its reputation of operating without oversight, arbitrarily detaining people and holding them incommunicado.

Two weeks later, the police still have no information about Stas or at least none theyre willing to share. Neither Stas mother or editors know where to turn. Stas role as a pro-Ukrainian blogger and journalist, coupled with the DPRs disturbing record of detaining dissenters incommunicado for prolonged periods, give strong grounds to be concerned that local security officials have forcibly disappeared him. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases when DPR State Security ministry officials have forcibly disappeared people who were, or were thought to be, pro-Ukraine, holding them without acknowledging it for several weeks.

If Stas is indeed in DPR custody, the de-facto authorities should immediately end his forcible disappearance by acknowledging his detention, and release him.

Read more:
Pro-Ukrainian blogger disappears in separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine - Human Rights Watch