The Ukrainian Weekly, 2017

INSIDE: l Sci-tech: Ukraine’s technological ‘fingerprints’ – page 7 l Pavlo Klimkin’s testimony before U.S. Senate – page 9 l Edmonton remembers Heavenly Brigade – page 14 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXXV No. 11 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017 $2.00 Klimkin says Tillerson pledges Kyiv faces dilemma over U.S. support against Russian aggression occupied Donbas business ties by Mark Raczkiewycz tarian aid, including vital links between industrial plants on both sides of the front- KYIV – Ukraine’s precarious dilemma on line, is to force the Ukrainian government conducting trade with businesses in occu- to recognize the area it doesn’t control as pied Donbas made it to the International occupied, name Russia as the aggressor Court of Justice at The Hague where Kyiv is and call the armed conflict a war. accusing Russia of financing terrorism and “Otherwise, the trade props up the bud- discrimination in the Crimea. get of the occupiers and enables trade in The Russian side, while addressing counterfeit goods like medicine, vodka, cig- Ukraine’s accusations on March 7, asserted arettes, and the smuggling of weapons and that Kyiv authorities negotiate with the drugs,” Mr. Semenchenko said of the block- Kremlin-backed proxies via the “Minsk ade that started on January 25. peace process” and even do business with Ukraine’s leaders, including President enterprises located in the occupied Donbas, Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister “thus providing a large share of the budget Volodymyr Groysman and National Bank of to the unrecognized entities,” BBC’s Ukraine Governor Valeria Gontareva have Russian service reported. condemned the blockade that has stopped It’s the same point that a group of three of four rail links to the occupied terri- Ukrainian lawmakers, mostly from the tory and closed off main highways. Ukrainian Embassy in the U.S. Samopomich Party (Self-Reliance), and Citing figures that Ukraine’s coffers Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin meets with U.S. Secretary of dozens of war veterans whom they’re help- could lose up to $3.5 billion yearly and State Rex Tillerson. ing, have made. 75,000 jobs in the occupied east, Mr. “Trade with the occupiers is amoral, it Groysman called the blockade “sabotage RFE/RL would consistently continue to support Ukraine in its struggle against Russian finances terrorism and promotes corrup- against our nation.” WASHINGTON – Ukrainian Foreign aggression, that Ukraine is a key partner of tion,” Samopomich lawmaker Semen Seven of the nation’s 15 thermoelectric Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin says U.S. the U.S. in the region, that the U.S. would Semenchenko told The Ukrainian Weekly power stations can burn only anthracite Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has assured also consistently support Ukraine on its over the phone at a rail blockade in coal, which is mined exclusively in the east, him that Washington will continue to sup- path of reforms,” Mr. Klimkin told reporters. Donetsk Oblast. the Financial Times reported. Exporting port Kyiv in its standoff with Russia. Mr. Trump suggested during the election The founder and former commander of this coal is problematic because of its high Mr. Klimkin made the comments outside campaign that he would consider lifting the Donbas Battalion said that among the the State Department on March 7 following sanctions imposed on Russia by his prede- goals of cutting off all trade except humani- (Continued on page 8) a meeting with Mr. Tillerson, the former cessor, Barack Obama, in response to its ExxonMobil CEO who now serves as seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and the President Donald Trump’s top diplomat. “He assured me that the United States (Continued on page 9) Ukraine’s chief tax collector Nasirov arrested in alleged $74 M gas scheme Canada extends military training mission by Mark Raczkiewycz government official to face the real pros- pect of jail time over corruption charges in to Ukraine for two more years KYIV – Ukraine’s chief tax and customs a country that is notorious for pervasive yet official, Roman Nasirov, was placed under unpunished graft,” Mr. Eristavi wrote in The by Christopher Guly The Canadian Armed Forces operation arrest for two months on March 7, follow- Washington Post. “For millions of Special to The Ukrainian Weekly will transition “over time to support strate- ing a Kyiv district court ruling on embezzle- Ukrainians, seeing such a powerful official gic institutional reform of Ukraine’s ment charges. as a defendant in court is something of a OTTAWA – Canada is extending its mili- defense establishment,” the Canadian gov- Authorities accuse him of defrauding the catharsis: It has never happened before. tary training mission to Ukraine for anoth- ernment said in a release. state of $74 million for the benefit of fugi- Third, this is a do-or-die moment for the er two years, Canada’s national defense and “This assistance is crucial to ensure a tive ex-lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko newly created National Anti-Corruption foreign affairs ministers announced here sovereign, secure and stable Ukraine, and in a scheme involving state-owned natural Bureau, which put the case together.” on March 6. the Ukrainian government is extremely gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya. The former investment banker who Operation UNIFIER – through which 200 happy to have us,” Minister Sajjan told Both have denied the accusations. once worked for Kyiv-based Concorde Canadian soldiers have provided training to reporters at a news conference outside the Through his lawyers, Mr. Nasirov, 38, Capital, was suspended from his post as their Ukrainian counterparts in such areas House of Commons as he announced the said he will appeal the ruling and not post head of the State Fiscal Service on March 3, as bomb disposal, military policing and med- extension of the military mission. the bail of $3.7 million, which would pending the embezzlement investigation. ical training at two military sites in western “During my visit to Ukraine last year, I require him to wear an electronic monitor- An MBA degree holder from the Ukraine – was set to end this month, but will witnessed firsthand the determination our ing bracelet. University of East London, Mr. Nasirov now run until March 31, 2019, with the soldiers brought to this mission. And equal- His arrest is “turning out to be the most declared an income of over $135,000 for same number of Canadian troops. ly, I witnessed the heart and passion the important development in Ukraine since the 2015. He also has U.K. and Hungarian citi- More than 3,200 members of the Ukrainian soldiers demonstrated in their 2014 [Maidan] revolution,” wrote Maxim zenship, according to prosecutors, in contriv- Ukrainian armed forces have received this training,” he said. Eristavi, a non-resident research fellow with ance of Ukrainian law. He also didn’t initially training since the mission began in Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia the Washington-based Atlantic Council and declare owning a £120,000 London resi- September 2015, according to National Freeland, who joined Mr. Sajjan in making co-founder of Hromadske International, an dence in his 2014 income declaration, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, who said that independent news outlet based in Kyiv. “Canada’s support for Ukraine is unwavering.” (Continued on page 16) “First, Nasirov is the highest-ranking (Continued on page 8) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017 No. 11 ANALYSIS Russia’s quest to resurrect its carrier fleet: Envoys seek U.S. support against Russia the court’s rulings are final and binding, it has no means of enforcement. Kyiv accuses The NITKA military complex in Crimea WASHINGTON – Envoys from six Russia of violating U.N. conventions against European countries that border Russia have terrorism and discrimination by supporting tion of arresting gear for practicing carrier- pushed for more U.S. military and economic groups in eastern Ukraine and Crimea. by Ridvan Bari Urcosta support, as they repeated warnings to U.S. deck landings. Moreover, the complex will Moscow seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean Eurasia Daily Monitor senators about an increasingly aggressive eventually be equipped with a unique Peninsula in March 2014 and has supported Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister The Crimean peninsula is a valuable asset, flight-training platform, floating directly on separatists in eastern Ukraine in fighting Pavlo Klimkin, speaking after meeting with especially for its military attributes. When the Azov Sea, for marine helicopter pilots to that has killed more than 9,750 people since U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, told the Russia illegally annexed Crimea in February- practice take-offs and landings in choppy April 2014. The Kremlin has denied sending March 2014, it notably gained full de facto waters before having to put those skills into U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations troops or military equipment to eastern control over Sevastopol (where the Russian practice aboard the Admiral Kuznetsov Ukraine despite what Kyiv and Western Black Sea Fleet is based and had until then and Related Programs on March 7 that he (Oborona.ru, November 2016). countries say is incontrovertible evidence. been leasing its facilities) and Donuzlav Bay The more Russia-friendly government had been assured of U.S. support for Ukraine The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said it (before 2014, the site of the Ukrainian that came to power in Kyiv in 2010 was in its fight against Russia-backed separatists. “intends to employ all possible means of Southern Naval Base). But in addition, ultimately amenable to restoring Russia’s Lithuanian Ambassador Rolandas legal defense” in the case. A senior Russian Moscow obtained an important complemen- access to NITKA, but President Yanukovych Krisciunas pointed to new U.S.

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