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Ukrainian Security Service officers detain Major General Valeriy Shaytanov on suspicion of high treason and terrorism in Kyiv on April 14.
Ukrainian Security Service officers detain Major General Valeriy Shaytanov on suspicion of high treason and terrorism in Kyiv on April 14.

Ukraine Live Blog: Zelenskiy's Challenges (Archive)

An archive of our recent live blogging of the crisis in Ukraine's east.

22:27 3.10.2019

We are now closing the live blog for today, but we'll be back again tomorrow morning to follow all the latest developments. Until then, you can keep up with all our other Ukraine coverage here.

10:52 4.10.2019

U.S. State Department approves sale of second batch of Javelin missiles:

By RFE/RL

The U.S. State Department has approved $39.2 million worth of military equipment to Ukraine, including a second batch of the world's deadliest anti-tank missiles to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia-backed separatists.

The deal approved on October 3 includes 150 Javelin missiles and 10 launch units and adds to the 210 missiles and 37 launchers that Ukraine bought from the United States in April 2018.

The Javelin missile systems are meant to be used in the event of a large-scale escalation in the war and not for offensive purposes, U.S. and Ukrainian officials have said.

"The Javelin system will help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity in order to meet its national defense requirements," the State Department said in a notice to Congress.

The latest sale must still be approved by Congress, where support for Ukraine remains strong and where initial approval was earlier given for the sale.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the Javelin deal will not help Ukraine's defense capabilities but will dent the country's budget.

"What Ukraine really needs today is a settlement of the internal Ukrainian conflict, an end to the crisis in many fields, a better situation in the economy and struggle against corruption, the harmonization of internal political processes and the search for identity," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on October 3.

The Javelin missiles were mentioned in a controversial July 25 phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that has become the focus of an impeachment inquiry against Trump by Democratic lawmakers.

After Zelenskiy said he wanted "to buy more Javelins," Trump responded by asking him for a "favor, though." The sale of the Javelins had been finalized before the call.

Democrats accuse Trump of pressuring Zelenskiy to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine, by threatening to hold up military aid to Kyiv.

The Ukrainian government has been fighting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people. Russia also seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea region the same year.

The United States and European Union have been providing aid to Ukraine since then.

U.S. Air Force General Tod Wolters, the supreme allied commander, told reporters on October 3 that he supported sending additional Javelins to Ukraine beyond those already agreed upon.

The Javelins, manufactured in a joint venture by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, are medium-range, anti-tank guided missiles that are currently being used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. (w/AP, AFP, and dpa)

10:54 4.10.2019

Former national-security chief says resigned over Privatbank:

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service

Ukraine's former national-security chief, Oleksandr Danylyuk, has said a "cluster of events" led to his resignation after just four months on the job, but the last straw was the situation around the country's biggest lender, Privatbank.

In an interview with the BBC's Ukrainian service published on October 3, Danylyuk said he began to see "negative signals" after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected earlier this year.

They all revolved around Privatbank, which was once co-owned by influential oligarchs Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov.

Danylyuk took part in nationalizing the bank when he was finance minister under the previous administration of Petro Poroshenko, after international auditors found a $5.5 billion hole in the lender's balance sheet.

Kolomoyskiy was against the central bank's move to put Privatbank in receivership and has been suing in Ukrainian courts to regain control over the financial institution.

A lawsuit the bank filed in Delaware against Kolomoyskiy and Boholyubov in May alleged the two former co-owners used Privatbank to engage in rampant third-party lending practices, even money laundering, and fraud.

The two men "used PrivatBank as their own personal piggy bank -- ultimately stealing billions of dollars from PrivatBank and using United States entities to launder hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of PrivatBank's misappropriated loan proceeds into the United States to enrich themselves and their co-conspirators," the lawsuit says.

Kolomoyskiy denies wrongdoing.

In the interview, Danylyuk said that in the weeks leading up to his resignation on September 27, he noticed Kolomoyskiy had started winning court cases in Ukraine to reverse the bank's nationalization. Searches by authorities of Privatbank's headquarters drew red flags. Also alarming was the former central bank chairwoman's house being burned down and her daughter-in-law's car being razed.

Danylyuk's resignation, therefore, was "not only an issue of reputation, it was an issue of values," he said.

Presidential office head Andriy Bohdan, who is Kolomoyskiy's former longtime personal lawyer, should follow suit and resign as well, Danylyuk said, because he had a conflict of interest.

"In the professional world, where everything is based on professional standards, if a person is a lawyer, then they have to avoid conflicts. And if you can't do this, then you should resign," Danylyuk said.

Danylyuk, a former employee of leading management consultancy McKinsey, said he had "strained relations" with Bohdan that originated during Zelenskiy's election campaign over having "different approaches, different backgrounds."

The current situation, as it is now, "discredits everyone" in Zelenskiy’s administration, Danylyuk said.

On September 30, Zelenskiy dismissed Danylyuk upon returning from a trip to the UN in New York.

On October 3, he appointed Oleksiy Danilov as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.

Danilov is a former lawmaker and governor of the Luhansk region. (w/BBC Ukraine)

10:56 4.10.2019

U.S. appeared to offer D.C. visit to Zelenskiy in return for Biden probe:

By RFE/RL

Top U.S. diplomats appear to have offered Ukraine's just-elected president a high-profile visit to Washington in return for Volodymyr Zelenskiy's promise to conduct an investigation linked to former Vice President Joe Biden's family, newly released e-mails and texts show.

A cache of correspondence was made public late on October 3 by U.S. House of Representative officials following a 10-hour interview with Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine who resigned last week after his name surfaced in a whistle-blower complaint.

In the morning ahead of a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Zelenskiy, the envoy wrote a text message that said: "Heard from White House -- Assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / 'get to the bottom of what happened' in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington."

An adviser to Zelenskiy appeared to accept the proposal, which included a probe into Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Biden's son Hunter was on the board of the firm at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration's dealings with Kyiv. No evidence has been presented indicating any wrongdoing by the Bidens in the case.

"Phone call went well," Andriy Yermak wrote in a text to Volker the day after Trump and Zelenskiy spoke.

Yermak then suggested several dates in September when Trump and Zerenskiy could hold a meeting. But the deal fell through when Yermak failed to put out a statement about the investigations.

The two eventually met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York but not at the White House in Washington.

In his meetings with House lawmakers, Volker said that "multiple people" in the State Department were worried about apparent efforts to link military aid to Kyiv to the administration's desire for an investigation related to Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate to challenge Trump in 2020.

Volker became the first State Department official who is directly connected to the Eastern European country to testify before three House panels conducting an impeachment probe into Trump's actions.

The House has also scheduled a meeting on October 11 with Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv who was suddenly recalled earlier this year after an apparent dispute with the administration over Ukraine policy.

Democrats accuse Trump of abusing his office by asking Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son.

After the meeting, Representative Eric Swalwell (Democrat-California), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said text messages showed that officials were particularly concerned about the role of Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer who has admitted taking a leading role in relations with Kyiv.

Republicans leaving the meeting said Volker's testimony helped show there was no quid pro quo when the officials asked for a probe.

Swalwell disputed that, describing a text from one senior State Department official that read, "It's crazy if we are trying to leverage U.S. dollars in security assistance for help in a political campaign."

Trump has accused Biden and his son of corruption in their political and business dealings in Ukraine, but he has offered no evidence to support his claims.

The impeachment inquiry, which the U.S. president has called a witch-hunt, stems from a government whistle-blower's complaint that in part details how Trump, in the July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, pressured him to investigate Burisma and Hunter Biden.

Leading up to the call, Trump had abruptly withheld some $400 million in military funding for Ukraine, which has been battling Russia-backed separatists since 2014.

A day after the Trump-Zelenskiy call, Volker, who was mentioned in the whistle-blower complaint, and U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland gave the Ukrainian president advice on how to "navigate" Trump's demands.

Volker resigned after his name surfaced in the complaint last week. (w/The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Reuters, and AP)

10:59 4.10.2019

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11:24 4.10.2019

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