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What did Ukraine's news cycle hold by 25 May 2018?
Summary
A look back at four reports from the days before 25 May 2018, spanning football, tennis, diplomacy and the Donbas front.
What was Ukraine talking about on 25 May 2018? The reports from the preceding days pointed in four directions: a police operation in football, a sporting triumph, a political break with a regional bloc and continuing fighting in the east.
Football under investigation
On 22 May 2018, the National Police of Ukraine announced a large-scale special operation in a match-fixing case in Ukrainian football. Thirty-five clubs were under suspicion. Police documented at least 57 episodes of criminal activity, involving more than 328 people.
A record in Rome
On 20 May 2018, Elina Svitolina won the WTA Premier tournament in Rome, beating world number one Simona Halep. The victory set a national record for the number of tournaments won.
Leaving the CIS bodies
On 19 May 2018, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree ending Ukraine's participation in the statutory bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The decree described the end of that participation as final.
The front line in Donbas
Also on 19 May 2018, Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said Russian-led militants had carried out 43 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas over the previous 24 hours. Artillery systems were used, and 120mm and 82mm mortars were fired 10 times. No Ukrainian servicemen were reported killed or wounded. According to intelligence data, two militants were killed and three wounded.
Taken together, the reports show a country handling an unusually wide range of matters at once: a sports-integrity inquiry on a large scale, a rare moment of national sporting pride, a formal step away from a post-Soviet institution and a war that continued to produce daily reports.
