[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: IHT; FT, EDM; U.S.-EU; State Dept.; OSCE

[Deychak, Orest]

  <http://www.iht.com/> 

 

Official: Ukrainian miners violated mining safety work ban before fatal
blast 


The Associated Press 

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 

KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine's safety agency says dozens of miners caught in
an explosion that killed at least one this week had violated a work ban
that was imposed due to dangerous methane levels.

Officials originally said the miners were underground to improve safety
conditions. But safety agency spokesman Andrian Halach says audio tapes
"prove that coal-mining took place on that day."

The Karl Marx mine, where seven died in a 1999 blast, was one of 23
where work was suspended last week for safety violations. Miners were
permitted to enter the mines for safety work but not for extraction.

Safety agency spokeswoman Maryna Nikitina said 12 miners remained
missing Tuesday, two days after the blast; 24 others were brought to the
surface, five of whom remained hospitalized.

Financial Times

Two quit to put Ukraine coalition in doubt

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev 

Published: June 7 2008 

Ukraine's pro-western government, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, prime
minister, was severely weakened yesterday after two legislators
unexpectedly quit the pro-government coalition majority in parliament.

The development raised the prospect that Ms Tymoshenko's government,
formed last December with the backing of two-seat majority in
parliament, was on the verge of collapse. It also threatened to plunge
Ukraine, long plagued by domestic political paralysis, back into
disarray.

Ms Tymoshenko's allies called for calm, insisting the defectors would be
ejected from parliament, allowing the coalition to remain intact. If
not, analysts said the president could call for snap elections if a new
coalition was not formed within 30 days.

The lawmakers' departure comes amid increasing pressure from Moscow,
whose parliament this week called for the annulment of a "friendship"
agreement with Kiev.

The threat is viewed as retaliation for Kiev's efforts to integrate
closer with Brussels and seek membership in the Nato military alliance.

One of the hottest points of contention between Kiev and Moscow in
recent months has been the fate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on
Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. Kiev has called for Moscow to remove the
fleet by 2017 when a leasing agreement expires.

Officials in Moscow have countered by questioning Kiev's legal rights to
the city of Sevastopol, where the fleet is based.

While meeting his Russian counterpart at an economic summit in St
Petersburg, Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president, called for
constructive talks insisting that disagreements with Russia could be
settled.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, warned that Kiev would next year
face a fourth sharp price rise on natural gas supplies in as many years.

 

Eurasia Daily Monitor

June 11, 2008

WILL NATO BECOME POPULAR AMONG UKRAINIANS?

The Ukrainian government has launched a campaign to make NATO popular in
the country in order to secure a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for
Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a plan to increase public
awareness of the benefits of NATO membership, and pro-government party
activists are touring Ukraine organizing pro-NATO rallies. The leftist
and pro-Russian opposition, afraid that a pro-NATO course would
complicate relations with Moscow, have been trying to disrupt the
campaign.

Probably all Ukrainian governments have been pro-NATO, but NATO has
always been unpopular in Ukraine, especially in the Russian-speaking
east and south. This is not just due to the decades of Soviet anti-NATO
propaganda. NATO is unpopular also because of the wars in Yugoslavia and
Iraq and the fact that most Ukrainians cannot travel West because of
tough visa regulations imposed by the EU and the USA. Consequently, they
do not know much about NATO countries. They are also swayed by Moscow's
opposition to NATO enlargement, as family and cultural ties to Russia
are strong in Ukraine.

Russia's opposition to NATO membership and the low domestic support for
it were the two main reasons behind Kyiv's failure to receive a MAP at
the NATO summit this past April. President Viktor Yushchenko aims to
secure a MAP in December 2008, but he understands that something needs
to be done to persuade the most skeptical NATO members such as Germany
and France that Ukraine deserves it. Kyiv arguably cannot do much to
change Moscow's position on NATO enlargement, but it can try to change
domestic perception of NATO.

A recent public opinion poll on the issue, conducted by the Kyiv-based
Sofia think-tank from May 7 to 14, showed that only 21.4 percent of
Ukrainians are inclined to support NATO membership, and 53 percent of
those polled approved of the April failure to secure a MAP. The poll
identified the main reasons for the negative attitude to NATO
membership. Most Ukrainians fear that this would spoil relations with
Russia (74 percent of those polled), force them to take part in US-led
wars (67 percent), exacerbate tension in society (60 percent), prompt
more spending on defense (58 percent), and make Ukraine a target for
terrorists (58 percent).

On May 28 the Ukrainian government approved a four-year, $6 million
public awareness plan aimed at winning majority support among the
population for NATO accession. According to the plan, public support for
NATO entry should grow to 36 percent by the end of 2008 and further to
43 percent in 2009, 50 percent in 2010, and 55 percent by 2011. The plan
provides for a set of measures ranging from establishing a network of
NATO information offices across the country to printing posters,
calendars and brochures; launching mandatory NATO awareness courses at
schools; organizing soccer matches between teams from Ukraine and NATO
member states; and inviting DJs from NATO countries to Ukrainian
nightclubs.

The nationwide pro-NATO campaign started with an event featuring pop
stars in Ukraina Palace in downtown Kyiv, organized by Yushchenko's Our
Ukraine (NU) party on May 30. The NU said that its campaign would last
until December, when Ukraine should receive a MAP. Together with other
pro-government parties, such as the People's Party, and the radical
nationalists from Prosvita (Education), the NU organized pro-NATO
rallies in the southern cities of Odessa, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol, and
Simferopol in late May and early June.

The pro-NATO campaign has met with opposition from the pro-Russian and
leftist parties such as the Progressive Socialists, the Communists, the
Social Democrats, the Russian Community of Crimea, and the major
opposition Party of Regions (PRU), which is chaired by former Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The PRU is not firmly anti-NATO, but it
tends to support anti-NATO campaigns as part of its efforts to undermine
the current government. Ironically, the NATO campaign plan that the
government passed at the end of May was originally drafted by the
Yanukovych government in 2007.

The anti-NATO events have attracted no less media attention than the
pro-NATO rallies. Anti-NATO activists attacked a pro-NATO rally in
Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, on May 29, demolishing the opponents'
tents, throwing eggs, and pouring milk and juice over them. The
anti-NATO mob also burned a NATO flag before TV cameras. The Communists
called the pro-NATO activists "fascists" and "Yankees" and chanted
slogans like "NATO wages wars on Slavs!"

On May 30 Crimean Communist leader Leonid Hrach announced that his party
had collected some 600,000 signatures against the withdrawal of the
Russian Black Sea Fleet from Ukraine, which is scheduled for 2017. The
Communists view the Russian navy presence as a circumstance that should
prevent NATO from admitting Ukraine. The councils in Donetsk and
Energodar declared their cities "NATO-free territories" at the end of
May. Both councils are dominated by the PRU. A resolution by the Donetsk
council bans the use of the city's infrastructure for "housing or
providing for military units of NATO and other military blocs."

(Channel 5, May 20; Interfax-Ukraine, May 20, 26, 30; UNIAN, May 27, 29;
ICTV, May 30; Ukrainska Pravda, June 2; www.for-ua.com, June 6)

--Pavel Korduban


2008 U.S.-EU Summit Declaration

June 10, 2008

 

Excerpt on Ukraine:

We commend the continued efforts of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to meet
European standards, we welcome their aspirations, and we commit to help
these countries achieve their reform goals as soon as possible. We note
that NATO leaders sent a clear message in Bucharest that Georgia and
Ukraine will become members of NATO. We are ready to work with all
appropriate parties to promote resolution of the conflicts in the
region. We reiterate our commitment to the principles of sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized
borders, and call on all parties, in particular on Russia, to support
these principles. We welcome the Georgian President's recent peace
initiatives on Abkhazia, as well as the recent direct talks between the
parties, hoping that they will contribute to a peaceful resolution to
the conflict. 

Full text of Declaration:  
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080610-8.html
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080610-8.html> 

 

U.S. Embassy Kyiv

June 5, 2008 

2008 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT RELEASED, UKRAINE RATED TIER TWO 

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released the 2008 Trafficking
in Persons Report at the State Department in Washington DC on Wednesday,
June 4. As directed by the U.S. Congress, the State Department prepares
reports for all countries in the world. The goal of these reports is to
stimulate action and create partnerships around the world in the fight
against modern-day slavery. 

The current report lists Ukraine as a Tier 2 country. This is because
although the Government of Ukraine is making significant efforts to
eliminate trafficking, it still does not fully comply with the minimum
standards. 

The report determines that Ukraine is making modest but tangible
progress in improving the punishment of convicted traffickers,
prosecuting labor trafficking, training the judiciary and carrying out
prevention activities. For example, the Interior Ministry reported that
the number of prosecutions for labor trafficking increased from three in
2006 to 23 in 2007. 

The report also mentions that although local governments have made some
progress on victim assistance, there was little evidence of efforts to
curb trafficking complicity of government officials and of concrete
steps to protect and assist trafficking victims at the national level. 

The Embassy currently works with the government of Ukraine to combat
trafficking in persons. We are committed to helping Ukraine increase its
efforts to meet anti-trafficking standards. 

U.S. Government programs to help Ukraine improve its anti-trafficking
efforts include: USAID support to anti-trafficking NGOs that provide
counseling, job-skills training, employment referral, and awareness
campaigns to inform the public about trafficking. USAID assistance has
helped over 2,000 victims of trafficking reintegrate into Ukraine. The
Embassy is also helping the Ministry of Interior strengthen
investigation and information technology capabilities of their
anti-trafficking department. The U.S. Embassy also actively participates
in the working group on visa and document fraud in human trafficking
that has been recently established by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. 

The complete text of the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report can be found
in English at www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008. The chapter on
Ukraine can be found in Ukrainian at 
kyiv.usembassy.gov/files/080604_TIP_Report_2008_Ukraine_Ukr.html 
 

Link to latest press releases on OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine
activities:

http://www.osce.org/ukraine/

 

 

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