That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for February 7, 2019. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
After Slip In Polls, Tymoshenko Goes Low In Ukraine Campaigning
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- As she slipped from the top spot in preelection polls, Ukrainian presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko has offered explosive and seemingly unsubstantiated claims this week in an apparent effort to climb back atop an expanding field.
The first accusation came on February 4, when the former prime minister accused President Petro Poroshenko's reelection campaign of attempting to buy Ukrainians' votes for 1,000 hryvnyas ($36). Without providing proof, she urged Ukraine's interior minister and prosecutor-general to launch probes into the matter.
Members of Poroshenko's party, in turn, accused Tymoshenko's camp of bribing voters and improperly collecting their personal data.
But it was at the kickoff of Tymoshenko's nationwide campaign tour on February 5 in her hometown of Dnipro that especially resonated with her critics on social media. She told a crowd of supporters waving blue-and-yellow posters adorned with her "I Believe!" slogan that U.S.-born acting Ukrainian Health Minister Ulana Suprun was "sent by foreigners" who want to "experiment on Ukrainians."
The full video of the campaign stop was published on Tymoshenko's Facebook page.
But it was a clip that highlighted the "experiment" comment shared by activist group EuroMaydan that quickly spread across Ukrainian social media.
Tymoshenko's campaign has not commented on the remarks since.
Earlier that same day, a district administrative court in Kyiv had ruled that Suprun could no longer head the Health Ministry. It cited a Ukrainian regulation that says a person may be acting minister for only one month and another that stipulates that government officials may not hold foreign passports.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Ukraine Moves To Bar Election Monitors From 'Aggressor State' Russia
Ukrainian lawmakers have voted to ban Russian citizens from serving as election monitors in the country.
The draft legislation was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on February 7, ahead of next month’s presidential election and parliamentary polls later in the year.
According to the bill, Russia will not be able to send observers to the elections -- even under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), of which both Ukraine and Russia are member states.
The OSCE has submitted a list of candidates for the presidential election observation mission, and it included two Russians.
But the proposed legislation, which must now be signed by President Petro Poroshenko to go into effect, says that election observers cannot be citizens of a country recognized by the Ukrainian parliament as an "aggressor state or occupying state."
Ukraine's parliament declared Russia an "aggressor state" in January 2015, after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in March 2014. Russia is also backing armed separatists in a conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.
Following the passage of the bill, the head of the State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee called into question the “openness and democratic nature of the election process in Ukraine.”
Moscow will raise the issue at the next OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session later this month, Leonid Slutsky said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said that Ukraine "needs" OSCE observers, even if some are Russian citizens, "to prove it adheres to democratic standards."
Ukraine "needs to have confidence in its own democratic institutions," he tweeted.
Based on reporting by dpa, AFP, AP, and Interfax
EU To Call For Ukraine Support Ahead Of Elections, In Document Seen By RFE/RL
By Rikard Jozwiak
BRUSSELS – Eighteen European Union member states have called on the bloc to be “ready to act” in support of Ukraine in case Russian tries to undermine the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, according to a document seen by RFE/RL.
In a discussion paper titled Keeping Ukraine On Its European Path, the 18 countries also say that the bloc should “avoid EU fatigue in Ukraine or Ukraine fatigue in the EU.”
The document, which EU officials were not authorized to release publicly, was endorsed by representatives of Austria, Belgium, Britain, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.
It will be debated when EU foreign ministers gather in Brussels on February 18 to discuss the political situation in Ukraine, ahead of the country’s presidential election set for March 31 and parliamentary elections later this year.
The discussion paper says that the upcoming elections will be “a test case for Ukraine: its democracy, its reforms, its resilience, and its orientation. It remains a key interest of the EU to keep Ukraine on a European path of reforms and to continue its support.”
It states that “the campaign environment is challenging and Ukrainian resilience will be key in case of Russian interference,” noting that Moscow is expected to “seek to influence the elections through support to its preferred candidates, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns.”
The 18 EU countries call for measures to counter the “false Russian narrative of Ukraine as a ‘failed state.’”
According to the document, Brussels should also “provide additional assistance, including humanitarian assistance,” to eastern Ukraine where fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.
The paper praises the Ukrainian leadership, which together with “a vibrant civil society and the international community, has made impressive efforts to promote vital reforms and strengthen Ukraine’s resilience and European orientation.”
“Reforms have been more profound and extensive for the past five years than in the previous 22 years of its post-Soviet life,” it says, citing “progress achieved on decentralization, public administration reform, deregulation, pension system, and transparency.”
However, it emphasizes that the establishment of a “fully independent and effective” anticorruption court was crucial to give “the anticorruption agenda a vital and irreversible push forward, independently of the political leadership that will emerge from elections.”
It urges Kyiv to “protect the striving and vibrant civil society and bring those responsible for intimidating and attacking civil society activists and journalists to justice”
The authorities must also ensure a “pluralist, independent, and accessible media landscape” as well as a “properly financed and operational public broadcaster,” the paper says.
ICYMI