facility:independence square

Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html

On a leafy side street off Independence Square in Kiev is an office used for years by Donald J. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, when he consulted for Ukraine’s ruling political party. His furniture and personal items were still there as recently as May.

And Mr. Manafort’s presence remains elsewhere here in the capital, where government investigators examining secret records have found his name, as well as companies he sought business with, as they try to untangle a corrupt network they say was used to loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections during the administration of Mr. Manafort’s main client, former President Viktor F. Yanukovych.

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

In addition, criminal prosecutors are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

ICC Probe : No Crimes Against Humanity At Ukraine’s EuroMaidan
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/icc-probe-finds-no-crimes-against-humanity-at-ukraine-euromaidan/27362584.html

A preliminary probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) suggests that Ukraine’s security forces used “excessive and indiscriminate” force in the 2014 EuroMaidan protests but are not guilty of crimes against humanity.

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a report released on November 12 that The Hague-based organization had opened a tentative investigation into the conflict.

The months-long pro-Western uprising began in November 2013 on Kyiv’s Maidan Square and led to the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian government and the deaths of some 100 people, mostly protesters.

Bensouda said that “While these considerations tend to indicate that alleged crimes do not amount to crimes against humanity,” she added that the ICC did find that “serious human rights abuses did occur” at Independence Square.

Bensouda said that although the attacks on the protesters constituted an “attack directed against a civilian population,” there was “limited information...to support a conclusion that...it was either widespread or systematic.”

Rapport sur les activités menées en 2015 en matière d’examen préliminaire, Cour Pénale Internationale, le Bureau du Procureur, 12/11/15
▻https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/OTP-PE-rep-2015-Fra.pdf

Right Sector plans to call all-Ukrainian referendum to express no confidence in authorities
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/right-sector-plans-to-call-all-ukrainian-referendum-to-express-no-confiden

The Right Sector party will initiate an all-Ukrainian referendum to ask the nation whether it trusts the authorities, whether it sees fit to blockade the territories in the eastern part of the country not controlled by Kyiv, and whether volunteer battalions should be legalized, Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh said.

Scène de rue à Kiev

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/02/09/p19dno54jrfpo1c0hnlh137bbrl4/big.jpg

A patrol made up of members of a Ukrainian volunteers battalion and policemen arrest two men on Independence Square in Kyiv on Feb. 9 who allegedly arrived from Donetsk and are suspected of participating in separatist activities and organizing terrorist attacks in the Ukrainian capital.

L’enquête sur les tirs à Maïdan le 20 février avance :

• 1 - en 4 mois, une arme (et une seule) a été identifiée

Bahanets : Investigators identify one weapon used in killing Maidan activists
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/bahanets-investigators-identify-one-weapon-used-in-killing-maidan-activist

By Friday, June 13, investigators have managed to identify only one weapon which was used in killing protestors in the Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Bahanets said.

• 2 - le FBI va (peut-être) améliorer la qualité des vidéos tournées le jour même

Prosecutors : Ukraine gives FBI video recordings of Maidan activists being shot in Kyiv
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/prosecutors-ukraine-gives-fbi-video-recordings-of-maidan-activists-being-s

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to contemplate the possibility of improving the quality of the video recordings made at the scenes of mass killings in Kyiv on Feb. 20, 2014.

Odessa : 46 morts, incendie de l’immeuble des syndicats

Dozens of people killed in Odessa as Trade Union goes up in flames (UPDATES, VIDEO)
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/dozens-dead-in-odessa-as-trade-union-goes-up-in-flames-346055.html

Dozens of people were killed in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on May 2 after the city’s Trade Union building went up in flames following clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groups.

The blaze marked Ukraine’s deadliest day since more than 70 people were killed on Independence Square during the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv on Feb. 20, most of the 105 killed in those demonstrations.

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Death toll in Odessa rises to 46 people, 144 detained; OSCE observers free (LIVE UPDATES)
►http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/sbu-russia-behind-kidnapping-of-osce-military-observers-updates-videos-346

According to Interfax Ukraine news services, the death toll in Odessa has reached 46 people killed during clashes and a fire on May 2, Odessa Oblast prosecutor Ihor Borshuliak told reporters at a press conference on Saturday. He said that law enforcement officers have launched several inquiries, including into police professional negligence. A total of 144 persons have been detained as a part of criminal proceedings. According to the Odessa City Council, as of 9 a.m. on May 3, 214 people came to hospitals of Odessa. Of this number, 88 have been hospitalized, including a 17-year-old boy. — Brian Bonner

Ukraine’s Increasing Polarization and the Western Challenge | Stratfor
▻http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/ukraines-increasing-polarization-and-western-challenge
▻http://www.stratfor.com/sites/default/files/styles/640_scale_width/public/main/images/geopolitical-weekly.png?itok=e3Jio6iv

Just days before the Ukrainian crisis broke out, I took an overnight train to Kiev from Sevastopol in Crimea. Three mechanics in their 30s on their way to jobs in Estonia shared my compartment. All ethnic Russians born and raised in Sevastopol, they have made the trip to the Baltic states for the past eight years for seasonal work at Baltic Sea shipyards. Our ride together, accompanied by obligatory rounds of vodka, presented the opportunity for an in-depth discussion of Ukraine’s political crisis. The ensuing conversation was perhaps more enlightening than talks of similar length with Ukrainian political, economic or security officials.

My fellow passengers viewed the events at Independence Square in an overwhelmingly negative light. They considered the protesters camped out in Kiev’s central square terrorists, completely organized and financed by the United States and the European Union. They did not see the protesters as their fellow countrymen, and they supported then-President Viktor Yanukovich’s use of the Berkut security forces to crack down on them. In fact, they were shocked by the Berkut’s restraint, saying if it had been up to them, the protests would have been “cleaned up” from the outset. They added that while they usually looked forward to stopping over in Kiev during the long journey to the Baltics, this time they were ashamed of what was happening there and didn’t even want to set foot in the city. They also predicted that the situation in Ukraine would worsen before it improved.

A few days later, the protests in Independence Square in fact reached a crescendo of violence. The Berkut closed in on the demonstrators, and subsequent clashes between protesters and security forces throughout the week left dozens dead and hundreds injured. This spawned a sequence of events that led to the overthrow of Yanukovich, the formation of a new Ukrainian government not recognized by Moscow and the subsequent Russian military intervention in Crimea. While the speed of these events astonished many foreign (especially Western) observers, to the men I met on the train, it was all but expected.

After all, the crisis didn’t emerge from a vacuum. Ukraine was a polarized country well before the EuroMaidan movement took shape. I have always been struck by how traveling to different parts of Ukraine feels like visiting different countries. Every country has its regional differences, to be sure. But Ukraine stands apart in this regard.
Ukraine’s East-West Divide

Traveling in Lviv in the west, for example, is a starkly different experience than traveling in Donetsk in the east. The language spoken is different, with Ukrainian used in Lviv and Russian in Donetsk. The architecture is different, too, with classical European architecture lining narrow cobblestoned streets in Lviv and Soviet apartment blocs alongside sprawling boulevards predominating in Donetsk. Each region has different heroes: A large bust of Lenin surveys the main square in Donetsk, while Stepan Bandera, a World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist revolutionary, is honored in Lviv. Citizens of Lviv commonly view people from Donetsk as pro-Russian rubes while people in Donetsk constantly speak of nationalists/fascists in Lviv.......

#Ukraine
#Russie
#UE
#États-Unis

Amid Unrest, Ukrainian President Defends Choice on Accords - NYTimes.com

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/world/europe/ukraine-unrest.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131203

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/12/02/world/20131203_Ukraine_hp-slide-SOYE/20131203_Ukraine_hp-slide-SOYE-articleLarge.jpg

KIEV, Ukraine — Even as thousands of protesters occupied Independence Square, blockaded the Cabinet Ministry and continued to demand his resignation, President Viktor F. Yanukovich of Ukraine on Monday defended his refusal to sign accords with the European Union, said he was on the verge of securing lower gas prices from Russia, and urged opposition politicians to wait for presidential elections in 2015 to challenge him.

#ukraine