Ex-Kremlin prisoner Savchenko detained on accusation of coup and terror plot: the evidence. Former national hero and Kremlin prisoner Nadiya Savchenko has been detained inside the Verkhovna Rada on accusations that she was planning to blow it up, assassinate the state leaders, and commit a coup. How plausible is that? We examined the evidence so you could tell us.

Venice Commission, G7 slam Ukraine’s financial disclosure bills for NGOs & activists. The Venice Commission has intervened in the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian government and anti-corruption activists. On 16 March, the Commission issued its recommendations, which read more like demands: that Ukraine cancels the requirement for anti-corruption activists to disclose their assets, and the president’s draft bills on additional reporting for NGOs be removed or narrowed down significantly. Moreover, it stated outright that Ukrainian officials are guided by “revenge” against the activists who made them disclose their assets. Only ten days are left before the deadline. Will Ukrainian politicians go through with their “revenge,” causing another standoff with Ukraine’s foreign partners?

How to keep Ukraine on the reform track: non-public paper of EU countries. An EU Council meeting at the level of foreign ministers took place on Monday. The meeting was centered around a document prepared by 13 EU members for their colleagues. This discussional “non-paper” contained their view on the last tendencies, achievements, and challenges Ukraine is facing. It was also presented to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Combatting corruption is number one on the list. Also, it concerns the need to support the acting authorities, the dangers of populism and a defeatist attitude, and the EU’s further support.Non-paper reports are non-public, and this increases their value. In them, the Ministers provide their frank view of the situation.The Ukrainian outlet European Pravda recevied a copy of the document from its own sources and published a Ukrainian translation. Euromaidan Press brings you the English-language original document, retaining its origial italic and bold formatting.

Crimea

Crimean jailed for Ukrainian flag announces termless hunger strike. Volodymyr Balukh, the Crimean activist who flew the Ukrainian flag over his house in Russian-occupied Crimea, has gone on a termless hunger strike. The Crimean farmer whom the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea accused of storing ammunition, but human rights defenders believe was jailed for his pro-Ukrainian position, announced this on 19 March 2018, the Crimean Human Rights Group reported.

The attack on media freedom in Crimea threatens to stop coverage of rights abuses. In February, British journalist Madeline Roache, who focuses on human rights abuses in the post-Soviet countries, was fined expelled from Crimea, having been detained in the hostel where she was staying. The Russian occupation authorities accused her of doing journalism without accreditation by the Russian MFA, and of not having medical insurance. Ms. Roache, who covered Russia’s repression of the Crimean Tatars extensively, shared her story with Euromaidan Press. 


The Crimean Tatar Palace and other historic sites Russia is destroying in occupied Crimea. Four years into the second occupation of Crimea (the first one started in 1783 and lasted until 1991), Russia is destroying the historical heritage on the occupied peninsula. At the beginning of 2018, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea stated that it opened multiple criminal cases regarding illegal archaeological works and intended damage to historic and cultural monuments in occupied Crimea.

Disinformation, Russia

Also in Russia a Russian hand is seen behind the nerve-gas attack in Salisbury. For the British government and any normally-thinking person, it is clear that in one way or the other Russia is behind the horrible attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English town of Salisbury.

Behind the smokescreen: who are the actors spreading disinformation on ex-Russian spy Skripal? React as fast as possible to regain the initiative. Put the most professional players into the field. Use all the channels available to get your disinformation through. The pro-Kremlin disinformation machine has been steaming at full speed in the past two weeks, as it has continued to deliver contradictory theories over the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal. 

Trump may negotiate with Putin for the same reasons he’s talking with Kim Jong-Un, Novoye Voennoye Obozreniye suggests.The editors of Novoye voyennoye obozreniye, the military affairs supplement to Nezavisimaya gazeta, suggest that the trajectory of relations between North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump may be a model for possible talks between Washington and Moscow at the highest level.

Little green men: the annexation of Crimea as an emblem of pro-Kremlin disinformation. Among the many different examples of factually wrong claims that have come out of the Kremlin and media outlets loyal to its line since 2014, the case of Crimea’s annexation stands out as perhaps the most blatant and geopolitically most critical. The so-called “little green men” – Russian soldiers who, without identifying insignia, took control of Ukrainian territory in March 2014 – showed the extent to which the disinformation machine can be used in support of hostile operations abroad.
 

A bit of history morphing into modern politics

A survey of so-called “History Laws” in Ukraine and Poland. What are they, and what do they do? The so-called “historic memory laws” Ukraine passed in 2015 and Poland in 2017 keep generating international scandals. Both concern the complex period of WWII. Both concern Ukrainian nationalists. And there is very little information about what they do and what they don’t do in Western media. James Oliver continues his illumiating excursions into the little-known history of Eastern Europe, which continues to shape the histories of modern-day Ukraine and Poland.
 

Rescue mission

How Ukrainians save storks from winter in March. The prolonged winter in Ukraine became a keynote for jokes, memes, and complaints. The snowy weather in March also became a surprise for storks who already returned to Ukraine from warm countries. However, Ukrainians used social media not only for jokes about the unusual spring, but also to help the unlucky migratory birds.