Politics

A senior National Security Council aide on Thursday confirmed a key episode at the center of the impeachment inquiry, testifying that a top diplomat working with President Trump told him that a package of military assistance for Ukraine would not be released until the country committed to investigations the president sought. In a closed-door deposition, the aide, Timothy Morrison, also said he had been told of a September call between Mr. Trump and the diplomat, Gordon D. Sondland. In that conversation, the president said he was not looking for a quid pro quo with Ukraine, but then went on to “insist” that the country’s president publicly announce investigations into Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son and other Democrats...

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has demanded that Russia end its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine and called on it to withdraw all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory. Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on October 31 after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Stoltenberg also said Moscow must return three Ukrainian Navy vessels that its forces seized in the Kerch Strait off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula last November. "NATO supports Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and does not recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia," Stoltenberg said. "Russia must end supporting separatists in east Ukraine." "Russia should remove its troops and equipment from Ukrainian territory," Stoltenberg told the press conference...

As hundreds of thousands of people across the country marked Ukraine's Defenders Day holiday, dozens of protesters assembled at the Foreign Ministry, calling on the country's diplomatic corps to take measures for the release of a former National Guardsman who has been convicted in Italy for his role in the deaths of an Italian photojournalist and his Russian interpreter. Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, a former political prisoner who was released from Russian captivity last month, joined the rally to call for Vitaliy Markiv's freedom. After leaving an appeal at the ministry, the group of demonstrators marched to the Italian Embassy and deposited a similar note...

Over a thousand prominent civic activists gathered at the Office of the President of Ukraine, demanding President Volodymyr Zelensky not make any concessions that would lead to defeat in Russia’s war against Ukraine. They called for the President to embrace the Ukrainian Victory Formula. Initially, the activists were prevented from entering the grounds, on the absurd pretext that land mines were placed in the area. However, after a brief tense standoff the protesters were able to enter the grounds. The rally was organized by an informal coalition of united civic organizations (in particular, socio-democratic patriotic movements "Mezha", "Veidsych", MNK, Vilni Liudy, "Zakhysty Ukrainu!", etc.), as well as many academics, policy analysts, former diplomats, military veterans and their support volunteers, and other concerned citizens from various walks of life. The broad spectrum of participants at the rally is also reflected in the...

All Ukrainians want freedom, peace and security. The guarantor is a sovereign and indivisible Ukrainian state. Millions of Ukrainians have given their lives, in the struggle for its establishment and recognition. It is a sacred duty of each of us to remember and honor the sacrifice of the best sons and daughters of the Ukrainian people. At a time when our warriors are now defending Ukraine from Russia's armed aggression, the greatest responsibility for the fate of Ukraine rests with the highest leadership of the state, in particular, President Volodymyr Zelensky. As Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, he should be aware that his stance on ending Russian aggression should not be determined by politics or narrow political considerations and cannot ignore the colossal price paid by the Ukrainian nation for its independence. The President should understand that in Ukrainian-Russian relations this is not an...

Since February 2014, Russia has been waging an undeclared and unprovoked war on its peaceful neighbour Ukraine. After establishing control of Crimea through its subversive operation and covert military invasion, on 16 March that year, Russia staged a show of "local support" for its land grab by conducting a fake secessionist "referendum" on Ukraine's territory. The illegal "referendum" was just one of Russia's many tricks to mask its aggression against Ukraine. Moscow's camouflage also included "little green men," "local self-defence groups", and "people's mayors". Kremlin-manufactured propaganda narratives of "persecution of Russian speakers", "a Nazi coup d'etat in Kiev", the "right of Crimean people to self-determination", "declaration of independence", "holy place for Russian Orthodox Christians", "reunification", and many others were promulgated worldwide to mask...

On August 7, 2019, a day after the Russian occupation forces in the Donbas violated the ceasefire by attacking the Ukrainian positions and killed four Ukrainian servicemen in the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky called his Russian counterpart and asked him to “influence the other side” to stop the attacks. It is time for the Ukrainian President to wake up and abandon his dangerous illusions. There is no “other side”; this is an invention of Kremlin propaganda...

On June 27 following the vote to restore Russia’s voting rights at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) the chamber had started to look decidedly different. The Russian delegation was back, and Ukraine was out, their delegates returning to Kyiv in protest at Kremlin representatives being unconditionally reinstated to the Assembly. In solidarity with Ukraine, six more nations walked out in protest: Georgia, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Ukrainian lawmakers, delegates and allies of Kyiv called the vote’s outcome a “moral capitulation” and an “unconditional surrender” to Russia...

An investigative journalist in Ukraine's central city of Cherkasy has died six weeks after being attacked by an unknown assailant. Serhiy Tomilenko, the head of Ukraine's National Union of Journalists, wrote in a posting on Facebook on June 20 that Vadym Komarov had succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the May 4 attack, which remains under investigation. "The only reason for the attack, now the killing, according to journalists in Cherkasy, is Vadym Komarov's professional activities. He was inconvenient for many local politicians. He pushed forward with inconvenient questions regarding corruption in Cherkasy and touched on topics that resonated," Tomilenko wrote...

Reformers, anti-corruption activists, academics, a respected journalist and a successful IT executive topped the list of parliament candidates revealed by the Voice party (Holos in Ukrainian) on the evening of June 8. Voice, a new party led by rock star Svyatoslav Vakarchuk which positions itself as social-democratic and pro-European, unveiled candidates at their first ever convention, six weeks before the July 21 parliamentary elections. The list is yet to be approved by party delegates and most of the listed candidates have never been mem­­bers of parliament. But the party’s mission is not just bringing new faces to the Rada, Vakarchuk says. “The members of our team are patriots, professionals and just decent people for whom state interests are at the highest. And this is the main value of the Voice party – we go to parliament to make real changes,” Vakarchuk, number one on the party list, said at the convention...