No. 3 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016 5 2015: THE YEAR IN REVIEW As war in east continues, Ukraine moves Westward ocket attacks in the east marked the beginning of 2015 for Ukraine. Twelve civilians were killed and R11 were wounded by a missile fired by Russian- backed militants that hit a bus in the town of Volnovakha, 35 kilometers southwest of Donetsk, on January 13. President Petro Poroshenko stated: “This is a disaster and a tragedy for Ukraine. This is more evidence after the MH17 plane, after the many civilian casualties – it is a crime that terrorists from the so-called DNR and LNR [Donetsk and Luhansk peoples’ republics] have severely violated my peace plan, which was approved and support- ed by the European Council and the European Union.” It was yet more evidence also that the ceasefire agreed to in Minsk in September of 2014 was being violated almost daily. As of the beginning of 2015, it was noted that over 4,700 people had been killed and more than 10,000 injured in the fighting in Ukraine’s east that began in April 2014. At year’s end, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that there were now more than 28,000 casualties in Ukraine since the war began, www.president.gov.ua including more than 9,000 killed. In addition to the dead At the Minsk summit on February 12 (front row, from left) are: French President Francois Hollande, Ukrainian and wounded, more than 1.5 million were internally dis- President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belarusian President Alyaksandr placed as a result of the conflict. Lukashenka, who hosted the meeting. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen in the background. Our Kyiv correspondent, Zenon Zawada reported that 2014 for Mr. Yanukovych for abuse of power and murder Russia continued sending its “humanitarian” convoys pro-Russian rebels in the Donbas, backed by the Russian charges. Yet Interpol revealed that it didn’t respond into Ukraine throughout the year. On January 8, the 11th military, on January 13 launched their biggest military because the request wasn’t compliant with its rules and such convoy was reported. By the end of the year, there’d campaign against Ukrainian forces since the September 5 regulations. Interpol’s decision came criticism was mount- been at least 47 so-called humanitarian convoys from Minsk II ceasefire protocols, staging hundreds of attacks in ing of the current government’s failure to successfully Russia into eastern Ukraine. All but one of the 44 vehicles a fierce attempt to take control of the territory of the criminally prosecute those who ordered and committed crossing the border on December 24 were labeled ruined Donetsk airport. Besides the aforementioned the shootings and killings in the winter of 2014 of Euro- “Humanitarian help from the Russian Federation,’’ the Volnovakha attack, a January 19 explosion near a Kharkiv Maidan activists. More than 100 were killed, and more Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe courthouse injured 14, four of them seriously, and a bridge than 1,000 were injured or missing. All the key (OSCE) reported. was blown up the next day in the Zaporizhia region as a Yanukovych administration officials fled abroad, mostly to cargo train crossed it. The Russian government intended the Russian Federation. As many as 5,000 people fled to Political prisoners in Russia its military-terror campaign to boost its negotiating posi- Russia – that number included officials, their relatives, and Nadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian air force pilot who tion with the Europeans and Ukrainians in talks to resolve support and service staff. was fighting in the east with the volunteer Aidar Battalion the Donbas war, said Volodymyr Fesenko, the director of Meanwhile in Davos, Switzerland, at the World when she was abducted on Ukrainian territory by pro- the Penta Center for Applied Political Research in Kyiv. Economic Forum, President Poroshenko on January 21 Russian forces in June 2014 and taken to Russia, was on a Soon afterwards, news came that the Donetsk airport accused Russia of sending more than 9,000 troops into hunger strike at the beginning of 2015. She had begun this was completely destroyed and was no longer suitable for Ukrainian territory. He demanded that Russia immediate- protest against her illegal imprisonment on December 13, defense. Thus a decision was made to withdraw Ukrainian ly implement all of its obligations under the Minsk peace 2014, and continued it for 83 days. Ms. Savchenko was servicemen from the new terminal, reported Andriy plan, close Russia’s border with Ukraine, “and withdraw charged by Russian authorities with complicity in the Lysenko, spokesman for the Anti-Terrorist Operation all the foreign troops from my territory.” Mr. Poroshenko deaths of two Russian journalists and, remarkably, with (ATO). The Ministry of Defense reported the most difficult said that in addition to the thousands of troops in Ukraine, illegally crossing the border – never mind that she was situation was towards Debaltseve, where Kremlin-backed Russia had about 500 tanks, heavy artillery, and armored kidnapped with a sack over her head. She faces a sentence terrorists continued shelling Ukrainian positions. Towards personnel carriers. The president asked: “If this is not of up to 25 years in prison if found guilty. Mariupol, militants repeatedly shelled Ukrainian posi- aggression, what is aggression?” In April, Ms. Savchenko’s mother launched a global tions. Several media outlets showed video footage of Ukraine’s Parliament on January 27 adopted a state- campaign to free her daughter. Maria Savchenko, 78, told Kremlin-backed forces parading captured Ukrainian sol- ment branding Russia an “aggressor state” – a move that the Associated Press that Nadiya is a political prisoner and diers in Donetsk. deputies hoped would pave the way for punishment that Russian prosecutors have showed “no evidence” that Also at the beginning of the year, on January 12, under international law. The Verkhovna Rada also voted her daughter provided guidance for a mortar attack that Interpol issued wanted person alerts for former Ukrainian that day to define self-styled “people’s republics” in the killed two Russian state TV journalists at a checkpoint in President Viktor Yanukovych, former Prime Minister eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as “terrorist eastern Ukraine, as Moscow claims. Mrs. Savchenko Mykola Azarov, and two of their associates on charges of organizations,” and to appeal to the international commu- launched her global campaign in Germany, where she embezzlement and misappropriation. The Ukrainian gov- nity for additional nonlethal military aid and stronger pleaded for help from lawmakers and wrote to Chancellor ernment had submitted an alert request as early as March sanctions against Russia. Angela Merkel. New York was her second stop. She was traveling with her daughter’s Russian lawyer, Mark Feygin. On December 18, Ms. Savchenko, 34, started a second hunger strike, vowing to continue until the end of what is clearly a politically motivated trial, at which time she would go on a “dry” hunger strike, refusing both food and water. Another political prisoner being held in Russia was Oleh Sentsov, a filmmaker from Crimea who opposed Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. Mr. Sentsov and three other Ukrainian citizens were arrested in May on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in the Crimean cities of Symferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol. At his trial in Rostov-on-Don, which started on July 21, Mr. Sentsov, who denied all the charges, said, “I don’t consider this court a court at all, so you can consider whatever you want.” In his final statement, he said: “A court of occupiers by definition cannot be just.” The court founded him guilty on August 25 and hand- ed down a sentence of 20 years in a maximum-security prison. His co-defendant, Oleksander Kolchenko, received a sentence of 10 years. Earlier, two others arrested with Messrs. Sentsov and Kolchenko on the trumped-up charg- es, Oleksiy Chyrniy and Hennadiy Afanasyev, were each sentenced to seven years in prison. When asked by the judge if the ruling was clear to them, Messrs. Sentsov and Kolchenko sang the Ukrainian national anthem and chant- ed “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” Aleksandr Sinitsa/UNIAN Amnesty International likened the proceedings in the Aidar Battalion members carry the coffin of a fellow warrior on February 2 on Kyiv’s Independence Square. Sentsov-Kolchenko case to the Soviet “trials” of the Stalin- 6 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2016 No. 3 2015: THE YEAR IN REVIEW want to catch Putin in his lies. We want to tell people that the president of Russia – a man who controls nuclear weapons and leads an enormous country – is lying to the Russian people and to the entire world.” The war in Ukraine’s east continued throughout the year, despite the Minsk II ceasefire. Significant escalation was reported in mid-August when Russian-backed terror- ists intensified attacks on towns in the Donetsk region where Ukrainian military forces were based. Intense bat- tles were reported at the same time near the government- held city of Mariupol; they were focused on a strategic highway that connects Mariupol with Donetsk. Speaking on September 27 at the United Nations sum- mit on development, President Poroshenko said the con- flict in Ukraine’s east was costing the country $5 million a day – money that could better be spent on development. He added that the war with Russian-backed militants had made Ukraine lose about one-fifth of its economic poten- Aleksandr Sinitsa/UNIAN tial and that the insurgency in the east had led to “the Among the political prisoners being held in Russia during 2015 were Nadiya Savchenko and Oleh Sentsov.