#8 (114) August 2017 First conclusions in the Supreme Old and new promising sectors Student activism in Ukraine Court selection process of Ukraine’s agriculture and post-Soviet states RESUSCITATE HEALTHCARE WWW.UKRAINIANWEEK.COM Featuring selected content from The Economist FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION CONTENTS | 3 BRIEFING 32 Merchants of peace: How the “civil 4 Crime and (illusory) punishment: war” rhetoric is used to gain political What counterarguments Berkut capital lawyers use in Maidan trials 34 Student force: The strengths and POLITICS weaknesses of Ukrainian youth movements 7 Delay in court: First results in the selection of candidates for the 38 Between Komsomol and protests: Supreme Court The trajectory of student movements in former USSR countries over the past ECONOMICS 25 years 10 Cultivating change: Production and NEIGHBOURS export transformations in Ukraine's 40 Michael Binyon on divides agricultural industry in the UK’s political establishment 14 Payback time! Is Ukraine ready to pay as Brexit talks start back the bulk of its external debts? 42 Karl Schlögel: 18 An uneven recovery: How the “We have to fight for Ukraine to once economy of regions has changed over again get in the center of attention in the past three years European affairs” German historian on Ukraine FOCUS on the European mental map 22 Seeing the obvious: Why Ukraine’s and the challenges of the new current healthcare system must be historical situation changed HISTORY 24 A major deficit: Staff and funding as the key driver of transformation 46 A view from 2017: Historian Stanislav Kulchytskyi looks 25 Oleksandr Linchevskiy: “The best-off at Vladimir Lenin as the crucial cult Ukrainians are demonstrating against of the Soviet Union the Health Ministry” Deputy Minister of Health on the CULTRE & ARTS reform of the medical system 50 Poetry & music, Independence Day SOCIETY and contemporary art: 30 DNA and how to adjust it: Researchers The Ukrainian Week offers get better at tweaking the genomes a selection of events to attend of human embryos in August E-mail [email protected] www.ukrainianweek.com Tel. (044) 351-13-00 The Ukrainian Week #8 (114) August 2017 Office address Kyiv, Ukraine, 36A, vul. Bohdana Khmelnytskoho, apt. 3 Founder ECEM Media GmbH. Publisher ECEM Media GmbH Print run 15 000. Free distribution Address Austria, Am Gestade,1, 1010 Vienna Our partner State registration certificate КВ № 19823-9623ПР 19.03.2013 Chief Editor Dmytro Krapyvenko Editors Anna Korbut, Lidia Wolanskyj #8 (114) August 2017| THE UKRAINIAN WEEK THE UKRAINIAN WEEK | #8 (114) August 2017 BRIEFING Crime and (illusory) punishment Stanislav Kozliuk n the three years since it began investigating this case, the Prosecutor’s Office has managed to track down a significant number of suspects in cases related to events on the Maidan in 2013 and 2014. These include the beating of students on November 30, 2013, attempts to break up protests on the IMaidan, the beating of activists on vul. Hrushevskoho, the organization of titushky, and the so- called ATO in the center of Kyiv in late February 2014 with its tragic outcome: massive shootings on vul. Instytutska. Moreover, from time to time news tickers include notices that new suspects have been arrested. For instance, on July 17, the Pechersk District Court detained Bohdan Melnyk for nearly a month, until August 13, the latest ex-Berkut officer suspected of crimes during the Euromaidan revolution. Melnyk is accused, among others, of participating in the beatings of Automaidan on the night of January 23, 2014. That night, the police effectively organized an ambush on the protestors KOZLIUK STANISLAV PHOTO: and attacked them on vul. Schorsa and in Kriposniy alley, an attack that was video-recorded and UNIAN PHOTO: #8 (114) August 2017| THE UKRAINIAN WEEK 6 | BRIEFING | broadcast at the time. Not only were Automaidan activ- preventive measures by appealing to every possible op- ists beaten, detained and eventually remanded to court tion and risk provided for in the Criminal Code. based on false accusations, but the Berkut also trashed This problem brings up another one: punishing the their cars. individuals who gave the orders. It has been brought up A number of court cases are currently being heard in courts, and not only there, for more than a year now. regarding this particular episode, including against Se- If we take the latest example of Melnyk, his superior, nior Officer of the 1st Special Team of Berkut Mykhailo Dobrovolskiy, should receive the harsher punishment. Dobrovolskiy. The man detained this week, Bohdan After all, he’s the one responsible for determining the ac- Melnyk, was his subordinate. Investigators were search- tions of his subordinates. Realistically, the rank-and-file ing for their man for 18 months and finally found him in Berkut did not decide on their own to set up an ambush Chernivtsi Oblast. The Prosecutor’s Office says that the for the Automaidan activists. This was a planned opera- suspect was detained just as he was about to make his es- tion, which means someone had to put it together. This cape to Odesa. To support this claim, the PO argues that means that the Prosecutor’s Office and Ukrainian society the young man had a ticket for the train. Melnyk himself as a whole should be interested in bringing these indi- says that he had no idea he was wanted, that he had re- viduals to justice. But here, again, there are complica- signed from the law enforcement agency in the spring of tions. If we look at the preventive measures taken by the 2014 and moved back closer to his family. There, how- courts, they leave an impression that there is not enough ever, he had a hard time getting a job, money got tight, evidence of the guilt of one or another of the Berkut. De- and he decided to join his father as a migrant laborer. He fense lawyers insist that the evidence in these cases lacks says he had no intention of hiding from the investigation. concreteness: who was beaten, when they were beaten, On the contrary, Melnyk says he is prepared to cooper- whose property was damaged, who was shot. More than ate with the investigation and to testify—but only about that, who specifically suffered as a result of the actions his own actions. Whatever the case may be, the man is of a specific defendant. Without this information, even spending nearly a month behind bars. Which could turn the matter of arresting people, let alone suing them, be- into more, given that the investigation is continuing. But comes questionable. detaining a former Berkut officer is not enough. The What might help in this situation is testimony from courts need to prove his guilt. other participants in the event, i.e., other suspects. Tes- timony about the actions of their superiors by rank- and-file Berkut would also help strengthen the body LAWYERS FOR BERKUT OFFICERS INSIST THAT THE of evidence. Unfortunately, most of them are choosing EVIDENCE IN THEIR CASES LACKS CONCRETENESS AS TO to remain silent, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it doesn’t really matter that senior officers of the Berkut WHO SUFFERED AS A RESULT OF THE ACTIONS OF A like Dmytro Sadovnyk and Serhiy Kusiuk fled to Rus- SPECIFIC DEFENDANT. TESTIMONY FROM OTHER SUSPECTS sia, because other top officers managed to successfully MIGHT HELP BUT MOST OF THEM REMAIN SILENT re-certify and remain in law enforcement ranks. This al- lows them to influence the process of investigating and hunting down suspects. And this is where possibly the biggest problem aris- Secondly, as the PO explains, the accused Berkut of- es, one that defense lawyers constantly use on behalf of ficers continue to be in contact with one another and to their former special forces clients: the failure to prove share information. And, as the latest case shows, the sus- the guilt of their clients. Put simply, there is not enough pect is prepared to testify against himself, but not against information that say a hypothetical Berkut officer Petro his own superiors. What the reasons behind this are is Petrenko shot at activists, beat them or damaged their something only the detained Berkut himself can answer. property. From time to time, the defense claims in court If instead of police officers, the question is raised that individuals who have been separately detained can- about the titushky or hired thugs, who were particular- not be responsible for the actions of their colleagues. ly visible in the last days of the Euromaidan, the story Even lawyers at the Legal Aid Center insist that Ukraine is almost the same: the bosses of these “sportsmen” not only recognizes individual responsibility, not collective only don’t have an electronic bracelet around their an- responsibility. In other words, it has to be proved that kles in some cases—they have no personal liability. The Petro Petrenko himself beat, injured or killed an activist best example of this is the story of Yuriy Krisin, who is or damaged someone’s property. suspected in the murder of journalist Viacheslav Ver- At any case, so the lawyers say. The story seems pret- miy. Both investigators and activists have identified ty logical. However, the other point is that during the Krisin as one of the leaders of the group of titushky Euromaidan events, most of the police were without any who were beating activists and shooting them at the markings, wearing masks and helmets without identify- end of February 2014. Yet in three years, no one’s even ing numbers. In practice, this could result in difficulties been able to detain him in a CIZO, even though he’s recognizing individuals and proving their guilt.