Obstruction of justice case against top judges stalled
The high-profile case against Pavlo Vovk and other top judges in the Kyiv Administrative District Court accused of obstructing justice and issuing unlawful rulings appears to be stalled indefinitely after the five-day deadline for sending the case to trial or closing it expired on Nov. 12.
Law enforcement has been accused of sabotaging the case due to Vovk’s political connections.
Bankers suspected of embezzling $49 million detained
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is on a roll. On Nov. 11, the agency announced it had arrested seven employees at the National Bank of Ukraine and VAB Bank and also detained Alexander Pisaruk, the former deputy head of the National Bank and current head of Raiffeisen Bank Aval, who testified in court on Nov. 12.
Pisaruk’s arrest is linked to a $49-million stabilization loan that the National Bank gave to VAB Bank, which is owned by businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk, in 2014. While VAB went bankrupt, the money was allegedly transferred to a Cyprus-registered firm owned by Bakhmatyuk.
Former UkrOboronProm director under investigation for undeclared wealth
Pavlo Bukin, who ran Ukraine’s state-run weapons manufacturing monopoly from February 2018 until he was fired in August 2019, was reportedly served a formal notice of suspicion by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on Nov. 12 for failing to declare income and assets worth millions of hryvnias in 2016.
While Bukin entered UkrOboronProm with vows to fight corruption, he was implicated along with Oleh Hladkovsky, then the deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, in a kickback scheme that involved selling altimeters at inflated prices. Hladkovsky was arrested while trying to leave the country in October on separate charges of abuse of office.
Impeachment inquiry: American experts believed withholding aid to Ukraine was illegal
In a newly released transcript of testimony from the U.S.’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper, responsible for Ukraine and Russia, Cooper said she and others at the Pentagon and State Department questioned the legality of withholding security aid to Ukraine, which had already been voted through by Congress and which she and her colleagues considered essential.
Transcripts of testimony by Cooper and other officials have been released ahead of the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry – Former acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and senior State Department official George Kent are scheduled to testify on Wednesday, and Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, will provide public testimony on Friday.
Ukrainian peacekeepers launch airstrike in the Congo
In a rare use of force, Ukrainian peacekeepers with the United Nations launched an airstrike against irregular armed formations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Nov. 12 to protect a base attacked by Congolese militants earlier in the day.
IMF mission to return to Ukraine on Nov. 14
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ukraine will begin a new round of negotiations regarding aid to the Ukrainian government.
The last IMF mission in September 2019 failed to reach an agreement amid reported concerns that the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky would reverse the 2016 nationalization of PrivatBank, previously owned by the president’s former business partner, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
Other news you need to know
Reuters: Kazakh former president in talks to arrange Putin-Zelensky summit
Hromadske: Racism scandal erupts in Ukraine during a football game
The Guardian: Ukraine’s ex-central banker blames oligarch for attacks
Interfax-Ukraine: Protest against creation of Ukrainian land market under way near Rada
Interfax-Ukraine: Zerkal: Decisions of UN top court in Ukraine vs Russia case expected no earlier than 2022
EuroMaidan Press: Donbas lost generation
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