A tweet from the Canadian ambassador to Kyiv:
Here's another Ukraine-related item from our news desk:
NATO-Russia Council To Convene Talks About Ukraine On December 19
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says envoys from the alliance will meet with Russian diplomats on December 19 to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists.
The meeting of the NATO-Russia Council brings together Russia's top diplomat to the alliance and ambassadors from NATO-member countries.
NATO has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia since Moscow's seizure and illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula.
But Stoltenberg says that talking with the Kremlin is necessary in order to avoid misunderstandings that could lead to broader conflict.
Stoltenberg said on December 15 that "when tensions run high, as today, it is even more important to have direct dialogue with Russia."
The December 19 meeting would be only the third time the NATO-Russia Council has met during 2016.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
Here's another item from RFE/RL's news desk:
Amnesty International Decries 'Systematic Persecution" Of Crimean Tatars Under Russian Rule
Amnesty International has decried what it called Russia's "systematic persecution" of the Crimean Tatars since "the occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" in 2014.
In a December 15 report, the London-based rights group said Russian authorities use "repressive tactics... against the Crimean Tatar community and other dissenting voices."
The report also said that "Russia imposed its legislation wholesale on the Crimean territory - in breach of international law -- which has enabled the authorities to pursue key figures in the Tatar community on trumped-up antiextremism and other charges."
It criticized steps Moscow has taken against the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, the Mejlis. Russian authorities have barred the Mejlis from operating in Crimea, labeling it as an "extremist organization" and criminalizing any association with it.
"All restrictions on the Mejlis must be lifted, and criminal proceedings designed to harass and intimidate its members, and others that peacefully oppose the Russian occupation and annexation should cease," said John Dalhuisen, Director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Program.
The majority of Crimea's indigenous people, Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars, opposed the peninsula's annexation by Moscow in March 2014.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine after flooding the peninsula with troops to secure key facilities, taking control of the regional legislature, and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and a total of 100 UN member states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised in 2014 to respect the interests of the Crimean Tatars. But Moscow has barred several leading members of the Tatar community from entering Crimea, and arrests, disappearances, and killings of Crimean Tatars have been reported since the annexation.
European Parliament Vote Brings Georgia, Ukraine Closer To Visa-Free EU Travel
By Rikard Jozwiak
BRUSSELS -- A December 15 vote in the European Parliament has brought the goal of visa-free travel to EU Schengen Zone countries one big step closer to reality for citizens of Ukraine and Georgia.
The parliament approved a mechanism that would allow for the suspension of visa-free regimes with Ukraine and Georgia under certain circumstances once they are in place. The vote was 485 to 132, with 21 abstentions.
The EU lawmakers are now set to vote on the visa liberalization itself for Georgia in January, and it is possible that they will vote on Ukraine in February.
The actual visa-free regimes for both countries will kick in when the suspension mechanism is legally adopted and published in the EU’s official journal, which requires translation and other work that is expected to take up to eight weeks.
Both the EU member states and the European Parliament gave the green light for free movement for Ukrainian and Georgian citizens earlier this autumn, but struggled to agree on the suspension-mechanism text that had to be in place before granting visa liberalization.
A compromise was struck last week that will give both individual EU member states and the European Parliament a say in suspending the visa-free regime if the rules are violated.