Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Thursday 23 February. [Ukrainian sources]

THURSDAY

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NEWS:
"Manafort's Man" in Kyiv Kylymnyk says he briefed Manafort on Ukraine during presidential race in US. Canada to possibly extend its military training in Ukraine.  Ukrainian Lawmaker From Poroshenko Block Reported Kidnapped In Odesa.  Two groups of Russian "Cossacks" with standard weapons escaped from units in Donbas.  

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A lawmaker from the political bloc supporting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has gone missing and is presumed kidnapped, officials say.

Larysa Sarhan, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, said that Verhovna Rada Deputy Oleksiy Honcharenko of the Poroshenko Bloc was abducted by unknown individuals on February 23 in the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

"All resources have been mobilized to locate Honcharenko," Sarhan said, confirming earlier media reports that Honcharenko had been abducted.

Poroshenko Bloc faction leader Ihor Hryniv told parliament that Honcharenko had been "kidnapped by unknown people in Odesa in broad daylight."

rferl.org

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty interviewed Ukrainian Kostiantyk Kylymnyk and called him "Manafort's Man" in Kyiv. Kylymnyk says he briefed the former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump on Ukraine during last year's presidential race.

Kylymnyk told Christopher Miller in an exclusive interview to RFE/RL, Censor.NET reports.

In the February 22 interview, Kylymnyk denied any ties to Russian intelligence. But he said that he and Manafort spoke during the 2016 election "every couple months."

"I was briefing him on Ukraine," he said.

Manafort was fired by the Trump campaign in August after news reports documented payments to him from Yanukovych's pro-Russian political party.

Manafort told The Wall Street Journal last month, "I have never had any relationship with the Russian [government] or any Russian officials."

Kylymnyk also said that he had drafted a plan to bring peace to Ukraine in the nearly three-year-old conflict with Russia.

He referred to it as a "Mariupol plan," a reference to the southeastern port city that abuts the current line of conflict between government forces and Russia-backed separatist fighters.

It would bring Yanukovych back to Ukraine as a regional leader in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, where fighting has raged on and off for nearly three years, or possibly involve others such as the current separatist leaders there.

That plan, which Kylymnyk said Manafort was not involved with, would face almost certain opposition in Kyiv since it calls for Yanukovych returning to Ukraine from Russia, where he fled in February 2014.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Among the Russian "Cossack" gangs in eastern Ukraine observed increase in the incidence of desertion.

It informs Tsenzor.NET, as is stated in the press service of the Defence Ministry of Defence.

Thus, according to authorities, emphasize the increasing number of cases of desertion and return with weapons from occupied territory in the Donbass Russian representatives so. Called. Cossack units.

"On 20 February, the search for the two groups of Cossacks with standard weapons that illegally left the location of departments," - said in a statement.

As reported earlier, from the beginning, the "DNR" Then one unit of Russian "Cossacks" and soon expecting the arrival of another.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Canada's military is facing a critical few weeks as the federal government weighs renewed deployments to Iraq and Ukraine, ponders the fate of a long-awaited peace mission, lays out a new vision for the armed forces and decides the budget to pay for it all.

It all sets the stage for what promises to be a busy year for Canadian soldiers - one that could leave supply lines stretched - as they continue ongoing deployments in eastern Europe, the Middle East, embark on a new mission to Latvia and finally move ahead on the peace mission that could take them to Africa.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan used his oft-repeated line Tuesday that the Liberal government is taking the time it needs.

"We want to make sure that we actually spend the time to get the analysis right and that it goes through the appropriate government process before we make any announcements," Sajjan said after a cabinet meeting.

In the meantime though, the defence department hangs in limbo as it waits for announcements.

"There's a lot of uncertainty," said Dave Perry, a senior analyst with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.

Military deployments to Ukraine and Iraq are due to expire in March though observers expect both missions to be extended.

The former Conservative government dispatched 200 Canadian troops to Ukraine in 2015 in a non-combat role to train local soldiers, as part of efforts to bolster eastern European countries in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea. It's expected that a renewed mission in Ukraine will be announced soon.

"Canada is dedicated to the future good fortune of Ukraine. I am preparing options for the government to consider," Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of defence staff, said last week.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

It was an early dinner by Parisian standards, 8.40pm, on a mild spring evening at Prunier, an opulent seafood restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe. Amid the hum of conversation, the cracking of shellfish and the gentle chinking of glasses, Yves Bigot missed the insistent ringing. “Then I saw — multiple missed calls, SMS messages, emails, the whole shebang,” he recalls. “Both my phones were going berserk.”

Frantic staff at TV5Monde’s nearby offices had been trying to get in touch with their boss. Something had gone terribly wrong.

It was April 9 2015, and the channels across TV5Monde’s network, the world’s largest francophone broadcaster, began switching off, one by one. Hundreds of television screens at its headquarters, from the lobby to its broadcast galleries, had fallen silent. In its basement, the TV network’s servers were being systematically erased, digital piece by digital piece.

As he scrolled through panicked emails, Mr Bigot, the broadcaster’s director-general, opened a picture message on his phone. A colleague had taken screengrabs from the channel’s website and social media accounts: in place of the usual turquoise signage was the shahada — the Muslim profession of faith — written in white on black. Above it: “CyberCaliphate. Je suIS IS”.

Surrounded by squads of heavily armed counterterror police, a team of engineers worked through the night to save the network. They did so by a hair’s breadth.

In the days that followed the expected claim from Isis of responsibility for the attack never arrived. Cyber intelligence agents were on site for weeks conducting a forensic search to identify the culprits. Two months later, ANSSI, France’s cyber security agency, briefed Mr Bigot. The attack had not been the work of the Islamist group at all. Instead they believed responsibility lay with a group known as APT 28. They were Russian..................

Access complete text of the editorial:  Financial Time In English

The Netherlands' lower house of parliament has voted for the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, leaving a vote in the upper house -- the Dutch Senate -- as a final hurdle before the deal, which was signed in March 2014, finally can enter into force.

It has been expected that the House of Representatives would vote in favor of the deal, as the governing coalition enjoys a majority there.

The Senate vote is expected to take place only after the next month's parliamentary elections in the Netherlands on March 15, despite the fact that the composition of the Senate isn't affected by the general election.

The Netherlands is the only EU country that still hasn't ratified the Association Agreement with Ukraine after 61 percent voted against it in a citizen-driven referendum in the country in April 2016.

Although the result was consultative, the Dutch government decided to negotiate a legally binding supplement to the Association Agreement with the other 27 EU member states.....

rferl.org

An elusive Ukrainian associate of Paul Manafort says he briefed the former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump on Ukraine during last year's presidential race.

The comments by Konstantin Kilimnik, in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, add to the swirl of intrigue surrounding Manafort, a shadowy political operative who helped bring Viktor Yanukovych to the Ukrainian presidency and who is now under FBI investigation for allegedly communicating with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 U.S. campaign.

Kilimnik, a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen, himself studied at the Russian military's main university for languages, which has led to speculation that he has ties to Russian military intelligence.

In the February 22 interview, Kilimnik denied any ties to Russian intelligence. But he said that he and Manafort spoke during the 2016 election "every couple months."

"I was briefing him on Ukraine," he said.

Manafort was fired by the Trump campaign in August after news reports documented payments to him from Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party.

Last month, The New York Times and other media reported that U.S. authorities were investigating Manafort and other Trump aides for allegedly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign.

Manafort did not respond to e-mails and a voicemail seeking comment from RFE/RL after the interview concluded. But shortly after those inquiries, Kilimnik called RFE/RL back and said he had been contacted directly by Manafort.

Kilimnik said that while he was speaking to Manafort "every couple months" about Ukraine, he wanted to clarify that he had not been formally advising him during the U.S. election campaign.

Since leaving the Trump campaign, Manafort has remained largely out of sight. Kilimnik said the last time he spoke to Manafort was “in recent weeks.”

Meeting Manafort

A short, camera-shy 46-year-old from Kriviy Rih with an affinity for metaphors, Kilimnik studied at Russia’s Military University for Foreign Languages, known today as the Military University of the Ministry of Defense.

In the interview at an Italian restaurant in Kyiv, Kilimnik explained how he came to work for Manafort and gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the political operative’s role in the most pivotal events in history of contemporary Ukraine.

In the early 2000s, Kilimnik worked in Moscow for the International Republican Institute, a Washington-based nongovernmental group that promotes democracy with funding from the U.S. State Department, as well as from European foundations and the United Nations.

In 2005, he began working for Manafort, following the 2004 Orange Revolution -- an earlier series of mass protests that resulted in Yanukovych losing the Ukrainian presidency.

"Manafort is a guy who can merge strategy and messages into something that will work for victory," Kilimnik said. "He is very skillful."

Yanukovych recovered from his loss and went on to win the presidency in 2010, a victory many observers credited to Manafort’s counsel.

After Yanukovych's election, Kilimnik said he spent 90 percent of his time inside the presidential administration, where he assisted Manafort.

In November 2013, the Yanukovych government became the focus of a tug-of-war between the European Union and Russia over a trade deal that would have pulled Ukraine away from Moscow’s orbit.

Kilimnik said Manafort told Yanukovych in his presence: "You have to trust the Europeans. Then down the road you will fix relations with Russia and you’ll be fine."

Yanukovych spurned the EU deal, triggering months of street protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities that turned violent and ultimately prompted him to flee the country.

"Everyone was telling [Yanukovych], 'you should sign the deal. Just sign the f****** deal,'" Kilimnik said. "Yanukovych did not listen to [Manafort], which is why he got f*****."

Russia later carried out a covert military operation to take control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which it subsequently annexed, and backed the armed separatists fighting Kyiv's forces in the east.

In July of last year, while Manafort was still working with Trump, the Trump campaign altered the Republican Party's official endorsement of providing Ukraine with lethal weapons, The Washington Post reported. Ukraine had been asking Washington to provide such weapons to bolster its fight against well-armed separatists.

The following month, amid the uproar that emerged after The New York Times detailed the alleged off-the-books payments from Yanukovych's former party to Manafort, the Trump campaign cut ties with Manafort.

Despite briefing Manafort during the U.S. election campaign, Kilimnik said he has not been on Manafort's payroll since 2014. He now says he advises members of the political party that used to be led by Yanukovych until his ouster.

The last time Manafort visited Ukraine was in autumn 2015, according to Kilimnik.

Manafort's former office near Kyiv's Independence Square is closed. Nobody answered there when RFE/RL knocked on the door of the office on February 22.

'He Will Be Back'..........

Access complete text of the editorial:  rferl.org In English