What was happening around Kyiv's neighbours by 25 March 2018?

What was the picture in Ukraine and its western neighbour on 25 March 2018? The reports from the preceding days point to two separate stories: a high-profile detention in Kyiv and a widening dispute between Poland and the European Union.

Savchenko detained in parliament

On 22 March 2018, the Verkhovna Rada gave its consent to lifting the parliamentary immunity of Nadiya Savchenko and to her detention and arrest. After the vote, investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained her inside the Rada building.

Warsaw and Brussels at odds

In Poland, tension with the EU was running high. On 21 March 2018, Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz accused the European Union of "double standards" and of suffering "a deficit of democracy". Poland and the European Commission were then engaged in disputes over migrant quotas and over proposed reform of the Polish judiciary.

The next day, 22 March 2018, the ruling Law and Justice party proposed changes to its planned judicial reforms. This came in response to EU criticism that the plans threatened judicial independence. The European Commission was threatening Poland with sanctions over the reforms.

Missile defence delayed

Also on 22 March 2018, Polish and U.S. authorities said that completion of the United States missile defence complex in Poland, part of a NATO project, would be delayed until 2020.

Taken together, the reports from those days show Kyiv dealing with a politically charged detention, while Warsaw was under pressure from Brussels over the judiciary and weighing a delay to a NATO-linked defence project.