Ukraine News in brief. Thursday 8 February. [Ukrainian sources]

THURSDAY HEADLINES:
"Minsk" will have to rethink: in the West they advised Ukraine how to get Putin to leave Donbas. In the West there was an alarming observation about the war between Europe and Russia. In Russia, they held a rally in support of Ukrainian political prisoners.  Journalists learned about the detention of a well-known Ukrainian billionaire in Russia.  I would not really want to send Saakashvili to a Georgian prison, - Lutsenko.  Russia has no relation to the referendum on the Crimea: Sobchak put in place with loud statements about Ukraine.  The Ukrainian subdivision of air defense has shot down the fourth Russian drone "Orlan-10" over the past 1.5 months.  In Russia, they told how Sobchak could create Putin's problems.  It became known about Akhmetov's plans to create a new political project in Ukraine.  In Kiev, attacked Communist Kononovich, who handed out leaflets calling "to resist the Nazi occupation. Former US Attorney Borsch withdraws his candidacy for the post of NABU auditor. Ukraine and the USA will cooperate in the spheres of development of educational technologies and quality assurance of higher education. The Americans defeated the Russians in their first match at the Olympics.

WEATHER:
Kyiv, Ukraine
0c / 32f HI | RealFeel -5c / 22f
Precipitation 55%
Some sun, then clouds with a bit of snow this afternoon; bridges will be slippery

In order to bring the peace process in Ukraine out of a deadlock , it is necessary to review the Minsk accords and their conditions.

This was stated in an interview with "Apostrophe" by Senior Researcher and Head of EU Foreign Policy Departments and Policy and Institutions at the Brussels Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) Stephen Blokmans.

"It seems that they (Minsk agreements, ed.) Perceive it as some kind of table-list and the only solution to the puzzle. But frankly,... the parties simply can not fulfill these conditions," he said.

According to the expert, at some point, "Minsk" will have to rethink. It may be supplemented by a number of new commitments that may eventually eclipse, and eventually replace the Minsk process. Or just tell about everything at once, which is very unlikely in the near future.

"It is now very difficult to tell how the new German coalition government will act as it will tackle this issue with the new French President. Let's see if there will be something like a new vision between Paris and Berlin. This, in my opinion, is significantly more important than anything that will come from the EU as an international organization, "said Blokmans.

He specified that the question of how to make Russia agree on the new conditions of the peace process - for many millions of euros.

"If we assume that Russia can go from the Donbas to reduce its costs, she needs a way to elegantly climb out of the stairs she has set up. How can this be done?" This, perhaps, requires a deep breath, "said Blokmans.

The expert specified that such a multi-step process will take a couple of years, but we must already outline the path.

"For example, by imposing a neutral peacekeeping force that would allow Russian troops to leave, and then restore (Ukraine, ed.) Control over the border in the eastern part of the country. It remains to be determined whether this can be an element of such a roadmap. Yes, there is a proposal, but under what conditions it can unlock the situation - this is at least a study, but it will take time, obviously it will not happen immediately, "he concluded.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Problems in the implementation of arms control agreements, the deployment of additional armed forces and the tensions in military exercises increased the risk of unintentional armed clashes between NATO and Russia.

This is stated in the annual report of the Munich Security Conference, which in 2018 is called "On the edge - and back?", The British edition of Daily Express reports .

The report notes that the current situation could lead to further deterioration of the security situation in Europe."

"With such a difficult situation, mistakes, miscalculations and misunderstandings can lead to an accidental military collision," the document said.

Attention is drawn to the fact that the conflict in Ukraine has become a huge stumbling block for the de-escalation of tension between Russia and the West, and the US decision to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine is likely to strengthen the current hopeless situation.

It is also emphasized that the states of Eastern Europe are struggling in the "environment of controversial security", being between the European Union and NATO on the one hand, and Russia on the other, while the EU's Eastern Partnership policy "has lost its spirit" and has very little chance the fact that the Alliance will receive more members in the near future.

As the report says, some EU members are skeptical about the further expansion of the alliance, while Hungary and Poland are in direct confrontation with Brussels. And Germany - the main European integration force - has focused on domestic issues.

However, there are some positive points - economic growth and better mood among the population provide "more than a glimmer of hope" for the EU on the economic front.

The report points to progress in military cooperation on the eastern flank of NATO, and reminds that the Alliance is now rebuilding its military command structure.

From February 16 to February 18, around 500 political and military figures from Europe, Africa, the United States, Russia and the Gulf countries will wait for security challenges at the annual Munich Conference.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Employees of the Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow on February 8 at the office of the agency conducted a flash mob on the occasion of the birth of a Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko , who is in a Russian SIZO on espionage charges.

UNIAN reports.

The diplomats prepared a banner and postcards with the image of a Ukrainian and inscriptions: "Happy birthday, Roman!" and the FreeSushchenko hashtag.



The Ukrainian consul will meet with a journalist at the SIZO and personally convey his congratulations to the 49th anniversary and the words of support.



Recall Sushchenko was arrested in Moscow in October 2016 on allegations of espionage.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

In Moscow, a well-known businessman Oleg Mkrtchyan was detained.

This is reported by mk.ru.

At the moment, the root causes of the arrest are called embezzlement.

Oleg Mkrtchan is known as one of the three founders of the "Industrial Union of Donbass" ("ISD"). He is also directly involved in managing at once three football clubs in three different countries - Russia, Ukraine and Armenia.

It should be noted that the last time information about the "Industrial Union of Donbass" appeared in December 2017. So, on December 18, in "ISD" announced the loss of actual control over the main assets of the corporation - PJSC "Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works", PJSC "Alchevsk Coke Plant" and PJSC "EcoEnergy".

All these enterprises were in March 2017 under the leadership of the "foreign state administration" of the self-proclaimed "LNR", but the "loss of control" became known only nine months later.

Let's add that Oleg Mkrtchyan owned a minority stake in 25% of the shares of ISD and related to the management of metallurgical combines in Alchevsk and Kamyanets.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

If former head of the Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili refuses to be a political asylum in Ukraine, he will have the opportunity to voluntarily or forcibly deport him to his chosen country.

In an interview TSN.ua said Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko, reports Tsenzor.NET.

"If the court finds that it has no right to political asylum in Ukraine, there will be several opportunities for it. The first is a voluntary return to any of the countries of his choice, for example, in the Netherlands, where he lives in his family ... In the Netherlands, confirmed willingness to accept it under the Family Union procedure The second option is the voluntary or forced deportation to one of the countries of his choice or to the country from which he illegally crossed the Ukrainian border - that is, Poland, as well as extradition at the request of the General Prosecutor's Office Georgia", - he said.

Lutsenko recalled a recent meeting with the leadership of the Georgian prosecutor's office, who confirmed their desire to obtain Saakashvili for extradition.

"To do this, we need to go through a few long litigation procedures, but we are on this path because Ukraine has signed an appropriate international obligation, among other things, to Georgia. Okay, I'll say that. For me, it would be the most difficult final decision. Because Saakashvili's extradition to Georgia totally means his imprisonment, he said.

"I told you honestly, I would not really want to send him to the Georgian prison," the Prosecutor General added.

Previously, the Tbilisi court sentenced Saakashvili up to 3 years in prison.

The day before, the Court of Appeal confirmed the decision to refuse to grant Saakashvili the status of a person in need of protection.

Recall that on July 26, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, with his decree, deprived the citizenship of Ukraine of ex-president of Georgia, ex-head of the Odessa regional state administration Mikheil Saakashvili. Later, the People's Deputy and Freelance Advisor to the Minister of the Interior, Anton Gerashchenko, reported that the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia had transferred to Ukraine facts that were not known to her while giving Mikheil Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship.

The politician at that time was in the USA, he later arrived in Poland with a Ukrainian passport, then Saakashvili visited Lithuania, Hungary, Denmark and Belgium.

On August 16, M. Saakashvili announced that he will return to Ukraine on September 10 through the checkpoint "Krakovets" (Lviv region).

On the eve of the main Georgian prosecutor's office officially confirmed the information that the Georgian side again appealed to Ukraine on the question of detention and extradition M. Saakashvili. On September 6, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine stated that they had no orders from law enforcement agencies to ban M.Saakashvili from entering the territory of Ukraine.

As it was reported earlier, on September 10, Mikheil Saakashvili decided to enter Ukraine on the train to avoid unrest at the Krakovets crossing point. The train "Intercity" with the connection Przemysl - Kiev was scheduled to depart at 13:07 in Ukrainian time, but his departure was delayed for several hours. Some reports of detention were detained by law enforcers. But soon the police denied this information. " Ukrzaliznytsya" explained the delay of the train "Przemysl - Kiev" stay in him a person who has no reason to enter Ukraine. Later, Saakashvili arrived at the Shegini checkpoint.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

At the suggestion of a candidate for the presidency of Russia Ksenia Sobchak about the holding of an international referendum on the status of the Crimea, including in the territory of, there is no logic.

This opinion was presented to the "Apostrophe" by Russian financier and blogger Slava Rabinovich.

"If Sobchak says that it is necessary to hold a referendum on the Crimea, including in Russia, I do not see any logic in these words. I see logic in other words about the referendum in Ukraine, since any sort of referendum should have been Being first all-Ukrainian, Russia neither now nor now has anything to do with the Crimea, nor to a referendum in the Crimea, or anywhere else in the territory of any other foreign state, "Rabinovich said.

He also pointed to a thesis on the presence of Russian military in the Donbass, dubbed by Sobchak in the United States. According to the blogger, it is better to talk about it on Russian channels, on which it is allowed to broadcast, unlike other Russian oppositionists.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The past few days there has been recorded the fact that Russian weapons are in the Donbas.

According to Tsensor.NET, this is reported by the ATO Press Center on its Facebook page.

"The unit of air defense was shot down UAV Russian production Orlan-10," - said in a statement.

It is noted that for the past one and a half months - this is the fourth downgraded drone of this type.

Recall that earlier Russian UAV UAVs were shot down in the Donbas on December 28, 2017, on January 11 and 14 , 2018.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Candidate for president of Russia Ksenia Sobchak should exercise their legal rights and submitted to the Supreme Court lawsuit against the Central Election Commission about the illegal registration of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.

This is what Russia's financier and blogger Slava Rabinovich wrote in his column for "Apostrophe".

"I am interested in the essence of the matter, and it is that in the Supreme Court such a lawsuit against the illegal registration of Putin VV as a candidate can be filed only by so-called proper plaintiffs. And if the proper plaintiffs in the person of members of the Federation Council, State Duma deputies or heads regions, by and large, are to a greater or lesser extent members of Putin's RAM and no such claims will be filed, then the only window of opportunity that increases the number of these proper plaintiffs is the period after the official registration of the candidate and before the election day. six p Kiv is a window of opportunity lasting about a month, when a lawsuit can be filed officially registered candidate "- said Rabinovich.

According to the financier, the Supreme Court can take one of two decisions.

"Even more I am interested in the fact that we want to obtain from the Supreme Court an official decision on the basis of a claim, and it can either repeat the decision of the Constitutional Court of 1998 and the Supreme Court since 2001 that in Russia the constitutional limit of presidential powers for one and the same the person is two terms in a row and, accordingly, Putin's presidential powers ended in 2008, or the Supreme Court will decide on another, and thus publicly state that he is no longer the Supreme Court, "Rabinovich said.

If the court goes on a second option, then its decision can be appealed to international courts that will make a decision against Putin.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov is likely to create a political force on the eve of a new election, the main electorate of which should be residents of the eastern part of Ukraine.

Several interlocutors familiar with the situation informed about this "Apostrophe".

According to them, the question is not even about creating a new political force, but about the resuscitation of the party, which will work only on Akhmetov.

However, political technologist Dmitry Rayimov believes that this is just a debate within the "Opposition bloc". According to him, the collapse of the OS will lead to the fact that the political forces created on its remnants will not be able to find sufficient support in the Donbas.

"The opponent has always been the union of big business politicians, and they will continue to remain united, because if they collapse or there will be a new project, then there is no point in talking about a strong representation in the Council. Besides, there is" Our land", but they have a fairly good representation that opts for Voice of Opposition, and if there is another force that will be in that region, neither "Our Territory" nor the arbitrary party of Akhmetov or Opoplok will pass", - considers Raimov.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

In Kiev, representatives of the "National Corps" beat the Communist Alexander Kononovich, who distributed leaflets calling "resist the Nazi occupation."
According to Tsensor.NET , a video of the incident has been published on its page in the social network by one of the leaders of the Kiev branch of the National Corps "Azov" Sergei Filimonov.

"Meet Sasha Kononovich: a Komsomol leader, an anti-shack, a separatist and just a bad person." The Forbidden Communist Party created the "anti-fascist committee of Ukraine" in Kyiv and appointed Sasha the head. Today they decided to print agitation on Russian rubles, which called for the fight against "Nazism" "and depict them Vadim Papuro, a separatist who died in Odessa on May 2. I suggest you read the posts of this figure and see how the youth of the National Corps react to such things," Filimonov writes.  





ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The American prosecutor, who represented the prosecution in the process of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko, Martha Borsch withdrawn her candidacy for the independent auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).

This is on his page in Facebook, wrote the People's Deputy (Self-help) Yegor Sobolev, reports Censor.NET.

" Martha Borsch, who accused Pavel Lazarenko of behalf of the United States, asked not to consider her candidacy anymore for the Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine, she received a letter from her at night, " he said.

" If the appointment took place last year, I would have time and opportunity to do this work, but now my commitment to work does not allow me to assume such responsibility, " the letter reads.

"I will remind you, last year, when I was still chairing a parliamentary committee to combat corruption, we proposed Borsch nominee for appointment as an NABU auditor from the Verkhovna Rada. Another of our proposal by the Parliament is the Spanish prosecutor Carlos Castresan, who led the United Nations Anticorruption Tribunal for Guatemala. sent the corrupt president of this country and half of parliamentarians behind the bars, but the President and most of the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada are keen to appoint a person dependent on them as an NABA auditor, "summed up Sobo lion.

Recall that the Verkhovna Rada since the beginning of 2017 can not appoint an auditor of NABU. The conclusions of the commission, which will include two more auditors, may serve as grounds for the dismissal of the Director of the Bureau.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

What should be school education in the 21st century, the use of modern technologies during schooling, and cooperation in the field of quality assurance in higher education. This was stated during the communication between the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Lilia Grinevich and the Minister of Education of the United States, Betty Davos, during their meeting in Washington on February 7, 2018.

As informs Tsensor.NET , this is reported by the Government portal.

"Over the past few years, Ukraine is working on reforming the school system of education. I firmly believe that we must move from a school where children are only singing to the school of competences that our citizens need in the 21st century, for which we must, in particular, provide schools and teachers have more freedom in shaping and applying their approaches to learning, and we must give more opportunities for parents to choose a school that best suits their children's needs and opportunities, "said Lilia Grinevich.

She also noted that in this context, Ukraine is interested in the development of charter schools in the United States, although they are financed from the state budget, but are more independent both in choosing learning methods and in using and distributing resources. Also, it was about studying the US experience in applying the system of school vouchers.

The US Education Secretary emphasized that America is open to cooperation and exchange of experience. The parties also agreed to consider various possible forms of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science and the US Department of State for the development of quality assurance systems for school and higher education. A separate topic of the discussion was the possible support of Ukraine by the United States in the field of digital education development.

"Mrs. Davos, allow me to sincerely thank the United States for the great help that Ukraine receives through reforming its education system. I ask you not to stop the existing cooperation, in particular, to continue financing the most successful bilateral programs," added Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Valery Chaly

It should be noted that since 2014, cooperation between Ukraine and the US has significantly intensified. Currently, the US Embassy in Ukraine and USAID are among the largest partners in reforming higher education in Ukraine.

At the end of the meeting, Lilia Grinevich invited Betsy Davos to visit Ukraine.

We remind that on February 1, 2018, within the framework of the reform of the New Ukrainian School, a large-scale retraining of primary school teachers began.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

At the 2018 Olympic Games, the first team match was played - in Pyeongchang, a curling tournament was launched among mixed teams.

According to "Soviet Sport", within the framework of the first round of competitions, the American team defeated Olympic athletes from Russia.

Calendar of Olympiad-2018: schedule of competitions on February, 8th

The Americans, including Brother and Sister Matthew Hamilton and Becky Hamilton, beat world champions Alexandr Krushelnytsky and Anastasia Bryzgalov in 2016. The match ended with a score of 9: 3.

"It's hard to compete without a Russian flag, but this is not a new situation for us, we just competed, and before the match we were preparing ourselves for rivals, and not for the absence of a flag or colors of our form," said the coach of Russian curlingists Vasyl Goudin.

Recall that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Pyongchang will be held tomorrow, February 9.

Earlier, the "Apostrophe" reported on where to watch the opening ceremony of the 2018 Olympics.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The House of Representatives of the US Congress approved a bill on supporting cyber security of Ukraine in the conditions of Russian aggression with 404 votes.
As Tsensor.NET reports, the Embassy of Ukraine in the USA informs on the official page on Facebook.

"Congressmen approved a draft" Law on cooperation with Ukraine on cyber security, "aimed at promoting more active cooperation between Ukraine and the United States in the field of cybersecurity in the face of Russian hybrid aggression, " the statement said.

Congressman Democrat Brendan Boyle and Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick are reported to be co-authors of the document.

The bill is now being signed by the US president. After that, it will come into force.

"I congratulate the important decision of the House of Representatives, a concrete example of our successful dialogue," wrote Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the People's Front party, on his Facebook page after congressmen approved the 404th draft of the "Law on Cooperation with Ukraine on Cyber ​​Security", the press service of the police said.

"This is also the answer to the question, what is the level and essence of our partnership," - he wrote.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk expressed gratitude to "congressmen, our diplomats and activists, thanks to which this decision was approved".

The "Law on Co-operation with Ukraine on Cybersecurity" aims to promote more active Ukraine-US interaction in the field of cyber security in the face of Russian hybrid aggression. It envisages assisting Ukraine in improving the strategy of cyber security, in particular, in strengthening the protection of computer networks of state authorities, reducing Ukraine's dependence on Russian information and communication technologies, and promoting Ukraine's participation in information exchange programs.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український