Steinmeier: cease-fire largely holding:
By RFE/RL
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says a new cease-fire declared in eastern Ukraine appears to be holding.
"It is still early, but I was encouraged to learn from the [OSCE] monitors that the cease-fire has been widely holding since midnight," Steinmeier said on September 15 during a visit to Kramatorsk, an eastern Ukrainian city controlled by the government.
"This shows that the sides can control the situation if there is political willingness."
Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said separatists had violated the truce six times since midnight, while separatist officials were quoted as saying their forces came under mortar fire.
On September 14, the leaders of the Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared a unilateral cease-fire, and Steinmeier said the following day in Kyiv that Ukrainian officials agreed to observe the truce.
The sides earlier agreed to abide by a truce to coincide with the start of the school year on September 1, but it failed to stop the fighting that has killed more than 9,600 people since April 2014. (w/AP, TASS, Interfax)
Ukraine takes Russia to WTO over transit restrictions:
Ukraine has filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge Russia over restrictions on freight transit.
"This is a yet another step taken to defend Ukraine's rights within the WTO against opaque and discriminatory restrictions by the Russian Federation," Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv said in a September 15 statement.
In its complaint, seen by Reuters, Kyiv accuses Moscow of breaking WTO rules by singling out Ukraine with trade-restrictive measures -- such as requiring Ukrainian trucks to use identification seals and to move in convoy -- and by putting restrictions on Ukrainian drivers entering Russia from Belarus.
Ukraine says its trade to countries in Central and Eastern Asia and the Caucasus region had fallen by 35.1 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to the same months of 2015.
By the end of this year Ukraine will have lost about $400 million worth of exports to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it says.
Kyiv's request for consultations marks the first step in the WTO dispute system.
The party have 60 days to resolve the dispute. After that, the WTO can create a panel of experts to review the case. (AFP, Reuters)
EU court partially upholds sanctions on Yanukovych:
By RFE/RL
A European court has partially upheld sanctions imposed on Ukraine's ousted former president, Viktor Yanukovych, his son Oleksandr, and the former head of the presidential administration, Andriy Klyuyev.
The three challenged the European Union's sanctions on charges of embezzlement and financial wrongdoing that meant losing access to their funds held in European banks.
The EU's General Court "confirms the freezing of funds imposed for the period from March 6, 2015 until March 6, 2016," the court said in a September 15 statement.
The three Ukrainians can appeal against the ruling to the EU's top court.
However, the three Ukrainians won their challenge to the sanctions for the March 2014 to March 2015 period because EU governments did not provide enough proof, the court also said.
The statement said the European Council provided more proof for the extension of sanctions for the following period, allowing them to stand.
The EU has extended the sanctions until March 2017, which the two Yanukovyches and Klyuyev have also challenged and the case is ongoing.
Yanukovych fled to Russia in February 2014 after a popular uprising. He has denied involvement in corruption. (w/Reuters)
NATO, Russia hold talks on risk reduction:
By RFE/RL
NATO and Russia officials have held talks on "ways to increase transparency and risk reduction," the military alliance says.
A statement says NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow discussed these issues on September 15 with Russia's NATO ambassador, Aleksandr Grushko.
The statement said Vershbow told Grushko that NATO was ready to continue the dialogue, but that there was "no change" in policy toward Russia.
"Our practical cooperation remains suspended following Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine," it said. "At the same time, we decided to keep channels of political dialogue open."
The statement added that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg "looks forward to discussing these issues and next steps" with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "in the near future."
The meeting could come next week, when Stoltenberg and Lavrov are scheduled to be in New York for the annual session of the UN General Assembly.
Relations between NATO and Russia have reached their lowest point since the Cold War over Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its role in the military conflict in eastern Ukraine. (w/AFP, AP)
