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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

AFP on May 4, 2017, 3:15 am

Five killed in Ukraine's deadliest 24 hours since Easter truce

Kiev (AFP) - Four Ukrainian soldiers and a civilian were killed in the deadliest 24-hour period in Ukraine's eastern separatist war zone since the start of an Easter truce, officials said Wednesday.

The military campaign's headquarters in Kiev said three soldiers had been near the town of Debaltseve, a transport hub connecting the Russian-backed separatist fiefdoms of Lugansk and Donetsk where intense clashes raged in early 2015.

It said one of them died after being wounded by a grenade he had thrown at advancing Lugansk fighters as he tried to avoid being taken captive.

Kiev said two other soldiers were killed in a nearby firefight.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the fourth combat death occurred in Avdiivka, a flashpoint suburb of the rebels' de facto capital of Donetsk controlled by Kiev.

The insurgents said separately that a civilian had died from wounds she sustained Tuesday in an alleged attack by Ukrainian forces 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Donetsk.

Ukraine has now reported losing 19 soldiers in fighting since the latest temporary truce agreement went into effect on April 1.

The separatists reported 10 combat losses last month, which was one of the most peaceful in over three years of fighting that has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

But April was also punctuated by the death in an apparent mine blast of an American paramedic who worked with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) while on a mission in Lugansk.

The loss was the security watchdog's first in the former Soviet republic, prompting it to limit its patrols to safer paved roads and avoid dirt lanes leading to various Ukrainian and separatist positions.

The OSCE mission has been monitoring the implementation of a largely-ignored broad peace and political reconciliation agreement the warring sides signed in February 2015.

It is the only organisation that provides daily reports from the front about ceasefire violations and progress in the sides' promise to withdraw their arms.

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Five killed in Ukraine s deadliest 24 hours since Easter truce - Yahoo7 - Yahoo7 News

The fields around Grabova and Debaltsave came to international attention as the crash site of Flight MH17, the MalaysiaAirlines aircraft Ukraines separatists were accused of shooting down. But along the roads, on the scarred landscape, is another reminder of the civil war, one which continues to pose a great problem for the government in Kiev.

These are coal mines which are now in the Russian sponsored Donetsk Peoples Republic, lost to Ukraine. To the south Crimea, annexed by Moscow, is another piece of territory lost, and with it has gone a maritime zone with underwater energy resources, which analysts say may rival the North Sea.

To the west the town of Slovyansk, scene of bitter fighting not long ago, sits part of the countrys shale gas reserves of 1.2 trillion, the third largest in Europe, yet reserves which have remained largely unexplored due to the strife.

All this has contributed to Ukraine facing an energy crisis which makes it dependant on gas from Russia with a source of friction over the terms of trade to add to the bitter political enmity between the two states.

It is not just Ukraine which is dependent on Moscow for energy, but a lot of Western Europe. One reason Boris Johnsons recent attempt to toughen sanctions against Vladimir Putins government so abjectly failed was because of the thirst of German industry for supplies from the east.

An international conference in Houston, Texas, starting on Wednesday will examine how Ukraine can become energy self-sufficient and, in the future, can even start exporting to the West.

Ukrainian companies and the government of Petro Poroshenko insist this is something highly achievable. Vadym Pozharskyi, advisor to the board of directors of The Burisma Group, the countrys largest private gas concern, said:A major part of our objective, our strategic goal in the coming years is energy independence.

The fact is that the energy sector is a key source of revenues for the Ukrainian budget, we are not only providing the country with domestic gas, but also investing billions in production and state of the art exploration and drilling technologies.

Of course Ukraine lost sources of energy in the east, but there are other sources with significant potential.

Mr Pozharskyi continued: Wehave always encouraged the government and market players to reform the gas market based on European best practices. It is absolutely crucial that market players, infrastructure investors and also Ukraines international partners see our country as a reliable partner if we are to reach that potential.

Allegations of corruption and inefficiency continues to bedevil Ukraine four years after the Maidan protests overthrew the government of Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych. Burismaand other companies in Ukraines private energy sector complain that the gas regulator had imposed bureaucratic restrictions which is hindering the aim of self-sufficiency.

But Burisma has also been involved in court proceedings with its president, Nikolay Ziochevski, a former government minister, facing criminal charges over alleged misappropriation of assets. However, after two lengthy trials,in Britain, where the assets were held, and Ukraine, the charges were dismissed.

The company hired a former US District Attorney General, John Buretta, as counsel. He is among a number of Western figures with ties to the company including Hunter Biden, the son Joe Biden, the former US vice-president and Joseph Cofer Black, an ex- director of counterintelligence at the CIA.

Mr Buretta wanted to point out that the High Court in London and the court in Kiev had totally exonerated Mr Ziochevski of charges.He said: I have extensive experience with assessing allegations of corruption, both from the government side while serving in the Department of Justice, and from the private side.I have served as an expert witness in proceedings outside the USin such matters and have handled a broad range of matters for companies and individuals involving various countries.

Regardless of the country, it is important that prosecutors follow the law and the evidence the law and evidence dictates; then the rule of law flourishes.

Final report on downing of MH17 in Ukraine due

While Burisma and Ukrainian gas companies try to drive the country towards self-sufficiency and a future exporter, there is acrimony within the EU over Russian gas. Berlin has publicly acknowledged the need to be less reliant on Moscow, but, at the same time, it is engaged with the Nord Stream 2 project which will pipe Russian gas from the Baltic to Germany.

This has led to protests from member states in eastern Europe. Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo maintained this project is not an economic one, its a geopolitical one.But Nord Stream 2 is going ahead.

Moscow remains convinced that its strategic advantage, asymmetric interdependency, will continue. As a member of the silovki, the officialdom of the security sector,declared recently:Russia can live at least one year without any European investment and technology. But Europe cannot survive for even 30 days without Russian gas.

Read more:
Russia's grip on Europe's oil supply threatens Ukraine's energy independence - The Independent

A prominent militant who fought with Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and participated in far-right European politics recently completed U.S.Army training and is serving in an American infantry division in Hawaii, according to Army and other records.

Guillaume Cuvelier, 29, shipped for basic training in January and graduated as an infantryman at Fort Benning, Ga., the records show. In a short exchange with The Washington Post, Cuvelier confirmed that he was actively serving in the U.S. Army.

With his well-documented history of espousing extreme right-wing views andhisrole in an armed group backed by a U.S. adversary, Cuveliers ability to join the Army raises questions about the recruitment process and whether applicants are thoroughly screened before they are able to enlist.

Born and raised in France as a dual French and American citizen, Cuvelier spent his formative years alongside French ultranationalists before picking up a Kalashnikov in eastern Ukraine in 2014, according to social media posts, a documentary in which he was featured, and accounts from people who knew him.A year later he fought with the Kurdish peshmerga in northern Iraq before coming back to the United States.

Following inquiries by The Post, the military has begun an inquiry to ensure the process used to enlist this individual followed all of the required standards and procedures, said Kelli Bland, a spokesman for the U.S. Armys recruiting command, in an email.

In Ukraine, Cuvelier, also known asLenormand, fought for the Russian-backed Donetsk Peoples Republic, the breakaway state subject to U.S. governmentsanctions and labeled terrorist by the U.S.-allied government in Kiev. Cuveliers service with the group appears to be in direct violation of a March 2014 executive order that was applied to the republic that June. The order prohibits U.S. citizens from assisting by way of funds, goods or services, any of the sanctioned entities covered by the order, opening up Cuvelier to possible federal prosecution.

The U.S. Army often forbids those who display extremist views or actions from entry, said Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, a spokesman for the Armys Department of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, in an email. Taylor added that if an Army official determines an applicant has the potential for meeting Army standards, the official may in exceptional cases allow those who have overcome mistakes and past conduct, made earlier in their lives, to serve their country. However, in many cases a history of gang or extremist activity is disqualifying.

Cuvelier said he has changed.

The [U.S.] army is my only chance of moving on and cutting with my past, Cuvelier said in a text message. I realized I like this country, its way of life and its Constitution enough to defend it.

By publishing a story on me, you are jeopardizing my career and rendering a great service to anyone trying to embarrass the Army. My former Russian comrades would love it. so, I please ask you to reconsider using my name and/or photo.

As a dualcitizen, Cuvelier would be subject to more extensive background checksif he hadsought an Army position requiring a security clearance, but he did not need one as an infantryman, Bland said. If Cuvelier had no outstanding criminal activity in the United States and didnt discuss his past, there would have been no reason to bar him from enlisting, she added.

Cuvelier grew up in Rouen, France, and graduated from university there in 2009, according to his Facebook profile, which has since been deleted. His younger brother, Gabriel Cuvelier, said in a series of texts that his family isfairly complicated, without providing details, but that Cuvelier had always been kind and peaceful and never sought attention.

Online documentsshow Cuvelier was an active member in the Party of France, a political body that splintered from Marine Le Pens National Front, in 2010. Jean-Yves Camus, a French analyst who studies the far-right and has tracked Cuvelier, compared the Party of France to an American white-nationalist groupcalled National Vanguard.

Cuvelierwas also part of the neo-fascist group Troisime voie and an identity movement called the Young Identitarians, according toAnton Shekhovtsov, a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, who focuses on right-wing movements across Europe and has written extensively about the Ukraine conflict.

Cuveliers younger brother couldnt explain how his older sibling first got involved with Frances far right, but said his views led him to meet people.

I believe that when he was in France, he sort of saw that no honest way of going about politics was possible, so he decided to take action differently, the younger Cuvelier said in a text. Thats all I can say.

Upon arriving in Ukraine in the middle of 2014, Cuvelierhelped start a French-Serbian foreign fighter unit called the Unit Continentale. The groups manifesto on itsFacebook pagestates that NATO is a terrorist military alliance and that France is a slave of the American Empire. The groups views are based on an ideology called continentalism espoused by the anti-Western Russian political scientist, Alexander Dugin. The groups page also has multipleposts from July and August 2014 that solicited donations directly to Cuveliers bank account in France.

Russia embodies a power. A power of resistance, what we want to bring back to the West. A society structured around tradition, family, patriotism, Cuvelier says, explaining his motives for joining the separatists during the 2015 documentary titledPolite People.

Cuvelier eventually split from Unit Continentale, according to the documentary on Western militants who joined the fight in eastern Ukraine. In the film, Cuveliers band of fighters adopts the nameTeam Vikernes after the Norwegian black metal artist, self-proclaimed Nazi and convicted murderer,Varg Vikernes.

Videos posted on the Team Vikernes page show its members firing around the Donetsk airport, the site of a bloody close-quarters fight between Ukrainian troops and separatists in the winter of 2014. Cuvelier declined to answer any questions about his service in eastern Ukraine and when pressed overa series oftext messages said, I was never really in DPR. It was a hologram. He declined any further comment.

In the documentary, there is a still picture of Cuvelier with a medal pinned to his chest standing shoulder to shoulder with Igor Girkin (who was the commander of the separatists during the summer of 2014). It appears in the documentary that Cuvelier may have been honored with the medal in Moscow in 2015.

Girkin has beensanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for his role with the separatists and on a Russian radio talk showadmittedto having looters executed. He is also accused in a U.S. lawsuit of orchestrating the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 over Ukraine in July 2014, killing nearly 300 people.

Following his time in Ukraine, Cuvelier traveled to northern Iraq in 2015 and set up another unit of foreign fighters, this time allied with the Kurdish Peshmerga.

The group, called Qalubna Makum, was located near Daquq in northern Iraq from the end of 2015 to mid-2016.

Rick Findler, a U.K.-based photographer who followed Qalubna Makum for 10 days said, They thought they could just show up with guns and start fighting. Instead they just sat in a room for months.

The Peshmerga eventually forced Cuvelier to leave Iraq after anincident in which he wasaccused of beating an American volunteer with a rifle, according to Heloisa Jaira, a Peshmerga medic, who treated the victim.

Weeks later, he arrived in the United States.

Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report.

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He fought with Russian-backed militants in Ukraine. Now he's a U.S. ... - Washington Post