11/29/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Second anniversary of the dispersal of student protesters on Maidan

Second anniversary of the dispersal of student protesters on Maidan

11.29.2015 Daily Highlights by the Digests & Analytics Ukraine Agency

Topics from Media and Social Networks

• Second anniversary of the dispersal of student protesters on Maidan.
• Local elections took place in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiysk.
• In Kryvyi Rih protesters seized the building of the local council and demand the resignation of Mayor Vilkul.
• Nationalists held a rally in Kyiv near the office of Akhmetov.

Key Events in Ukraine

• Slightly over a third of voters took part in local elections in Krasnoarmiysk and Mariupol. Opora civil network reported about the absence of systematic violations during the voting. According to preliminary estimates, a protege of oligarch Akhmetov was elected Mayor of Mariupol. Representatives of only two parties were elected to the local council.
• Two years ago, Berkut special forces squad brutally dispersed a peaceful student rally on Independence Square in Kyiv. Until now, not one perpetrator has been convicted.
• Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Deputy Head of the National Police Paskal had resigned. According to MPs who drafted the law on lustration, he should be dismissed from the Ministry of Internal Affiair due to his participation in the persecution of Maidan activists by the regime of former President Yanukovych.
• Activists of the Revolutionary Right Forces after the Viche (public gathering) on Maidan stormed the office of SCM owned by oligarch Akhmetov.
• Interior Minister Avakov promises that oligarch Firtash will be arrested should he return to Ukraine.
• In Kryvyi Rih, activists led by Samopomich party MPs captured the City Council building and opened a community liaison office to ensure the operation of public organizations: Community Representatives Council  and Public Watch. A public Viche attended by thousands demanded the resignation of Mayor Vilkul, whose victory in the elections was announced by the Central Election Commission.

Ukraine at War

• Firefight continued in the conflict area in Donbas. According to official reports, one soldier was wounded.
• Energy Minister Demchyshyn said an agreement had been reached with the participants of the energy blockade of Crimea on the restoration of one of the transmission lines supplying power to Crimea. Crimean Tatar activists said that the electricity will not be supplied to the peninsula until all the conditions they set are met. Activists  leader Islyamov said that the occupation authorities force Crimea Crimean Tatars to come to the rally against the "civic blockade." Head of the puppet administration Aksyonov advised the residents of Crimea to take a holiday until December 6, when, according to him, the energy bridge from Kuban across the Kerch Strait will be commissioned. Due to the lack of heating, the winter season at the Crimean sanatoriums has not started.

Ukraine and the World

• The situation with illegal migrants in Europe is deteriorating. Head of the European Council Tusk said that in 2015, 1.5 million people illegally infiltrated to the EU. At an emergency summit in Brussels, the EU and Turkey adopted an action plan to reduce the flow of refugees to Europe. EU is to allocate €3 billion to support the refugees from Syria and Iraq in Turkey’s territory. European Commission President Juncker said the introduction of a visa-free regime with Turkey in the autumn of 2016 was possible, subject to a number of conditions, including a readmission agreement on the expulsion of illegal immigrants from the EU who are not entitled to asylum. Besides, he confirmed the possibility of Turkey's accession to the EU.
• Massive rallies were held in the capital and the largest cities of Moldova with the demand to hold a referendum to impeach the president, abolish the parliamentary immunity, downsize the parliament, investigate the oligarchs and bring them to justice for corruption and capital flight from the country.
• 40 people were killed a result of Russian air strikes on the city of Ariha controlled by the opposition. Observers believe that in this way Putin is helping President Assad and the Islamic State to recover positions lost after the bombing by the antiterrorist coalition. Some US senators condemn President Obama's indecision and call for sending a strong military contingent  to Syria.

The Trends

• The events in Kryvyi Rih show that the Kyiv authorities are unable to control the situation in the regions and that security agencies are capable of disobeying the orders from the capital. If the protests lead to the resignation of Mayor Vilkul, this will create a precedent for settling electoral disputes outside the legal environment, which could sparkle a chain reaction in other regions. Political analysts believe that putting a stake on the loyalty of the "regional lords" could prove to be a mistake of Poroshenko’s team resulting in the weakening of the central government and the loss of control over the country.