"The system will get started on September 1 at 12 a.m.", the NAZK Chief Natalia Korchak stressed. This decision was supported by all the NAZK members unanimously.

The State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSCIP) Chief Leonid Yevdochenko has arrived in person to hand to the NAZK the certificate on information protection necessary to launch the e-declaration system.

As European Pravda informed earlier, the start of the e-declaration system was a prerequisite for the IMF tranche and visa-free regime with the EU.

Earlier this day, the SSCIP confirmed that all the drawbacks of e-declaration were fixed.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

"All the drawbacks are fixed. We delivered our commitments on getting e-declaration started," he highlighted.

The SSCIP certificate will be handed to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAZK) enabling it to officially launch the full-fledged e-declaration system.

As European Pravda informed earlier, the start of the e-declaration system is a prerequisite for the IMF tranche and visa-free regime with the EU.

Source: European Pravda

"I am severe upon the Minsk agreement, because it is a dead-end road," Liga.net cites his interview on ‘5 Kanal.’

"The Minsk agreement served its purpose as it stopped the possible broad scale aggression and brought Putin to negotiations. Although he is maneuvering, he is still bind by this agreement, and it is definitely a positive outcome. However, the agreement can’t secure territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, return Donbas and Crimea," Kravchuk said.

He offered Poroshenko to conduct direct talks with Russia President Putin without any intermediaries.

"If it is hard, let’s first create working groups to consider disputes. When diplomats talk, the mortars are silent," Kravchuk highlighted.

"We have to come to an agreement. It doesn’t mean that the sanctions are lifted as soon as we start negotiations, only after we reach agreement," he added.

It was reported earlier that the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk agreed to ‘indefinite ceasefire’ in Donbas starting September 1.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

The main topic of conversation were the results of the investigation of the events and causes of the Ilovaisk tragedy. Storozhuk said that the investigation, which lasted almost a year and has now been completed, involved 31 experts from the Ministry of Defense, Security Service of Ukraine Anti-Terrorist Center, Ukrainian National Guard, and State Border Guard Service.

"We have the expert evaluation, and this allows us to get the case ready to be sent to court," the statement says.

The Ilovaisk tragedy happened in 2014, when Ukrainian forces were encircled on the eve of Independence Day. According to the preliminary investigation results, the losses on the Ukrainian side totaled 366 killed, 429 wounded, 128 captured, and 158 missing in action.

Military prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said that the main reason for the Ilovaisk tragedy was the invasion by over 3,500 Russian soldiers of Ukrainian territory without declaration of war.

According to the preliminary report of the temporary investigative commission, the tragedy was aggravated by mistakes in the appointment of senior defense officials, inadequate prior actions of the Minister of Defense Valeriy Heletey and Head of Staff Viktor Muzhenko, and the fact that the president did not introduce martial law.

The Ministry of Defense blames bad coordination between the Army and volunteer fighter units.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

"Today I will sign the decree on this," Poroshenko said. He stressed that it was high time to renew the activities of the National Investment Council, and Lozhkin would take charge of this important job. He also thanked Lozhkin for chairing the AP for two years and informed that he would remain the Presidential adviser.

On Monday, the Government has to decide on the next Kharkivska Oblast Governor to replace Ihor Rainin.

Ukrayinska Pravda reported on August 26 that Lozhkin was about to leave the AP.

The critical moment for him was October 31, 2015, when Kolomoyskyi’s associate Hennadiy Korban was detained. During the past several months, the sources in the AP were confirming that Lozhkin wanted to return to business, but Poroshenko kept persuading him to stay because of the ‘short subs’ bench.’

Lozhkin is an essential team member for Poroshenko. He was responsible for communicating with the oligarchs and MPs when it was necessary to secure voting for the important laws like amending the Constitution or appointing Yuriy Lutsenko Prosecutor General.

He also contributed significantly to the formation of the second government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. In particular, he recommended the candidacies of the Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, Infrastructure Minister Andriy Pyvovarskyi, Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius and Health Ministry Aleksandr Kvitashvili.

For more details about Lozhkin’s resignation, read ‘I’m Tired, I’m Leaving. Who To Replace Lozhkin in the AP?"

Source: Tetiana Kusok, Roman Kravets, Ukrayinska Pravda

They were released after the human rights defenders had published a report "‘You Don’t Exist.’ Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture in Eastern Ukraine" on July 21 claiming the use of torture and secret detention by both Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists during the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Before the launch of the report, the two organisations met the Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatolii Matios and handed him a list of 16 people who were allegedly still being held in ‘secret prisons’ in Kharkiv.

The report explains that six men have been released on July 25, while the other six men and one woman – on August 2. 12 of the released were on the list of 16 persons handed to Matios.

The human rights defenders were able to interview five of the released prisoners. These interviews show a pattern of apparent attempts by the Ukrainian authorities to conceal the use of the secret detention facility in the Kharkiv SBU compound.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

On August 29, the participants are planning to gather under the walls of the Prosecutor General’s Office and are hoping to meet Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to ask him about the progress of the investigation.

Hromadske.UA reports that the exhibition called ‘Memory Checkpoint’ was opened on Sofiyska Square. It features personal belonging of the killed fighters, spent cartridges — one for every locality that Ukrainian fighters had to pass on the way out of the encirclement.

Photo by hromadske.ua

The Ilovaisk tragedy happened in 2014, when Ukrainian forces were encircled on the eve of Independence Day. According to the preliminary investigation results, the losses on the Ukrainian side totaled 366 killed, 429 wounded, 128 captured, and 158 missing in action.

Military prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said that the main reason for the Ilovaisk tragedy was the invasion by over 3,500 Russian soldiers of Ukrainian territory without declaration of war.

According to the preliminary report of the temporary investigative commission, the tragedy was aggravated by mistakes in the appointment of senior defense officials, inadequate prior actions of the Minister of Defense Valeriy Heletey and Head of Staff Viktor Muzhenko, and the fact that the president did not introduce martial law.

The Ministry of Defense blames bad coordination between the Army and volunteer fighter units.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

According to the source, Rainin was seen in the President’s office along with Poroshenko and Lozhkin on the night of August 26.

Interlocutors said earlier that the top candidate to chair the AP was Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly, but he refused the post.

Lozhkin is rumored to resign next week and become the head of the National Investment Council and an external adviser to the President.

Sources in the AP stress that the situation is open to change.

Several sources confirmed on Saturday that Rainin could become the new AP Chief. He served as AP Deputy Chief for four months before being appointed Kharkiv Governor.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

"The expert evaluation results have shown that a police officer shot at the handcuffed man with rubber bullets," Lutsenko said. He also informed that the court hearing to determine the pretrial restrictive measures for the arrested officers is scheduled for today.

The killed man, Oleksandr Tsukerman (31), is said to have had no previous history of violence. Locals tried to attack the police officers who allegedly murdered the man.

The oblast police service has released a different version of the events. According to them, the officers tried to calm the man who allegedly committed unlawful actions but he continued to resist so they had to apply physical restraint.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

"The Minsk agreements are not functional at all," he said on air on ‘5 Kanal.’

According to Kravchuk, they can’t provide strategic solutions and help to liberate the occupied territories and regaining control over the border. "The Normandy format… They [the leaders of four states] talked and instructed the Minsk group to sign a certain document… It’s a weird type of political negotiations when the leaders talk but never sign a document, and then the agreements are signed by people not authorized to do it," Kravchuk explained.

According to him, the Minsk agreements were helpful at the early stages, but now they are unable to restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

"They were efficient at the very onset when it was necessary to engage everyone in the negotiations. But now the Minsk process is of little help," he said.

Kravchuk already criticized the Minsk agreements earlier, stressing that Ukraine has to develop the new approach to its Donbas policy and can’t be afraid to grant special status to certain territories of Donetska and Luhanska Oblasts.

Source: Ukrayinski Novyny

EU diplomats still expect a final decision in EP/Council on visa lib for #Georgia & #Ukraine in Oct with visa free travel on 1 Jan 2017

— Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) August 23, 2016

President Petro Poroshenko said earlier that he was sure the EU would grant visa-free travel to Ukrainian citizens in the nearest weeks.

In late July, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said that the EU was getting ready to adopt a resolution on visa-free travel for Ukrainians in early autumn.

Source: European Pravda

The militants fired for about an hour starting from 10pm, from the direction of Zolote–5, which is located on non-government control territory.

Grenades exploded near the checkpoint. No military personnel were hurt. Border guards did not  return fire.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

At the same time, Korchak highlighted that the system was not hacked. "To upload Riaboshapka’s declaration, a real digital signature was used. The signature file has reference to the certified key generation center of Ukrainian Special Systems," Korchak explained.

According to Korchak, the commission was composed of the representatives of NAZK, software developer Miranda and civic activists.

European Pravda informed earlier that the fake e-declaration of the NAZK member Ruslan Riaboshapka was uploaded to the system showing that he had received ₴20 million from a fictional private company.

MPs Ivan Vinnyk and Anton Gerashchenko claimed that it showed how easy it was to hack the system. They also demonstrated screenshots which could be accessed only by those who entered fake data into the system.

Later on, the system developers stressed that the system had not been hacked, as a test key had been used.

According to the NAZK technical staff, the digital signature used to sign fake declaration of Riaboshapka was a ‘test one’ certified by the state-run company Ukrainian Special Systems.

Source: European Pravda

The list of officials includes an advisor to the Russian president, former authorized representative of the Russian president in the so-called ‘Crimean Federal District’, Russian Defense Minister, two Deputy Ministers of Defense and ten other high military officials.

According to Lutsenko, the pretrial investigation has established that every one of these officials has implemented a criminal plan to change the territorial borders of Ukraine, by giving orders to the Russian Armed Forces and controlled representatives in the occupied Crimea and self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’.

The summonses to participate in investigative actions were delivered to the Russian officials via international courier service and email, along with the official notice of suspicion and information about their rights.

Source: Roman Kravets, Ukrayinska Pravda

On August 11, an order of the Pechersk District Court for the city of Kyiv lifted the special bail obligations from Korban as the term of the previous court order establishing these obligations had lapsed. The document was published by Persha Instantsiya website.

Korban was detained during a special operation in Dnipro on October 31, 2015 and was placed under house arrest. In December 2015 Dniprovskyi District Court for the City of Kyiv jailed him. After several controversial court proceedings in March 2016 Korban was again placed under house arrest in Dnipro.

Korban is accused of conspiring to create a criminal gang, stealing property and abduction. He faces imprisonment for 12 years.

The court already delivered its verdict on the episode of abduction of the ex-head of the State Mapping and Land Resources Service Serhiy Rudyk, in which Korban got an 18-month suspended sentence. On March 21, 2016 Korban entered into a voluntary settlement with Rudyk.

Several sources reported that Korban was released from house arrest and allowed to leave for Israel. On June 7, 2016 the judge of the Dniprovskyi District Court for the City of Kyiv allowed Korban to leave Ukraine for medical treatment at the Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

The term of investigation in the criminal proceedings against Korban was extended until October 31, 2016. As Ukrayinska Pravda already reported, the release of Korban was allegedly agreed with President Poroshenko.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

It is reported that Ukrainian service personnel of the JCCC were collecting photo evidence of ceasefire violations by the militants of the so-called ‘DNR’, who shelled this area from 82mm and 120mm mortar systems near the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces close to Svitlodarsk town.

Between 4.20pm and 4.45pm, the militants shelled the area again, launching 15 82mm mines, and shot from ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns.

"Despite the fact that the car of the monitoring group of the JCCC UAZ 31519-030М was clearly marked, the militants shot at it anyway. Fire damaged the front and back windows of the car, electrical wiring, front panel, air pipe, radiator mount, right front and rear doors, the passenger compartment, and front grille.

During the incident, the members of the monitoring group managed to hide in a shelter. After the JCCC took measures to stop the fire, the group managed to evacuate the damaged car.

"This blatant violation of the ceasefire and the Minsk agreements by illegal military formations from the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk oblast speaks about their goals and may be qualified as a crime against the observers of the JCCC, and has to be discussed during a meeting of the Trilateral contact group in Minsk," the statement says.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was immediately informed about the incident.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

Photos: Facebook page of the ATO Staff

The court made a corresponding decision on August 15, 2016. It allows NABU to study calls between June 2014 and August 2014.

Former Deputy Minister Serhiy Chebotar and the Minister"s son Oleksandr are mentioned in a criminal case regarding purchasing 6,000 backpacks for the needs of the Ministry for an overstated price.

NABU was already granted access to the bank accounts of Dniprovend, a company that supplied tactical backpacks to the Ministry, which is said to be connected with Avakov"s son.

In February, a video from a hidden camera was released, which shows the son of the Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksandr Avakov allegedly discussing the supply of the tactical backpacks to the Ministry with the former Deputy Minister Serhiy Chebotar.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

Turkey doesn’t recognize the consequences of the Russian occupation of Crimea and keeps providing all kinds of support to the Crimean Tatars, Erdogan added.

"Considering the military coup attempt on July 15, Poroshenko expressed Ukraine’s support for the legitimate President and Government of Turkey," the press-office highlights.

The parties committed to joint actions to develop strategic partnership, including cooperation in the energy sector.

Poroshenko also expressed condolences with regard to recent terrorist acts that killed dozens of people in eastern Turkey.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

The scanned copies of the entries are available on the NABU website. "According to the lists, the funds paid to this individual starting from November 20, 2007 totaled over $12.7 million," the NABU press service said. The last entry featuring Manafort is dated October 5, 2012.

"We would like to stress that Manafort’s name on the list does not mean that he received these funds, as they have been signed for by other individuals," NABU said. In the documents released by NABU the signatures of those who received the funds ‘for Manafort’ are blurred.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda

https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/articles/2007/03/19/4414941/

Volodymyr Fomichev (23), who works for Centre.UA, an organization that investigates political crimes and develops reform programs was captured by militants of the so-called DNR in Makiyivka on January 4, 2016.

Fomichev spent seven months in DNR jails before the local ‘court’ made the decision to jail him for two years. He is accused of bringing two grenades from Kyiv to Makiyivka.

Fomichev’s Facebook

Fomichev’s situation was not publicly discussed in the media on the request of his family. This often happens to people who encounter such a situation for the first time, as they hope they will be able to ‘quitely’ solve it. This didn’t work out for Fomichev, who was also accused of cooperation with the Svoboda political party, but this accusation was later dropped due to a lack of evidence.

In May, Fomichev’s parents received his personal effects that the ‘Ministry of State Security’ of the so-called DNR seized during arrest. They included a sweater that was soaked in blood — leading his parents to think that he was put under physical pressure to make him falsely admit he transported a grenade.

Fomichev’s loved ones describe him as a "kind, calm, shy boy," unable to do anything radical. He majored in philosophy and investigated political and social processes in the the eastern part of Ukraine when working in the ‘Strong Communities of Donetsk Region’ in Centre.UA.

The parents are planning to file a cassation appeal to the ‘DNR court’, but the chances to cancel the decision are slim. As a rule, Ukrainian military personnel arrested on the occupied territories are included in POW exchange lists. But Fomichev is not a military serviceman, and it is unclear if he is listed for exchange.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda