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What Ukraine's news looked like on 9 April 2018
Summary
A look back at the days before 9 April 2018, when Kyiv moved to end its Donbass operation, rejected a declaration rollback and saw new US sanctions on Russia.
What was the state of play in Ukraine and its neighbourhood on 9 April 2018? The reports from the preceding days point to a week in which security policy, anti-corruption rules and sanctions all moved at once.
A new name for the Donbass operation
On 5 April 2018, President Petro Poroshenko held a press conference in Vinnytsia and announced that the anti-terror operation in Donbass would end in May. It would be replaced, he said, with a military force.
The term "anti-terrorist operation", or ATO, had been used by the Ukrainian government, the media and international bodies for the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions held by Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists. The Ukrainian government declared the operation after the 2014 unrest escalated and armed militias arrived, marking the start of the War in Donbas. The 2015 Minsk II protocols referred instead to certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
E-declarations survive a vote
On 3 April, the Verkhovna Rada rejected two bills, presidential bill No. 6674 and deputies' bill No. 6271. Both proposed to abolish electronic asset declarations for civic activists. Parliament voted both down.
Washington tightens sanctions
On 6 April, the United States imposed sanctions on twelve Russian-owned companies, a Russian arms exporter and a bank under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Washington cited several reasons, among them Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and military engagements in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria.
The law, known as CAATSA, imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia by preventing US companies from doing business with sanctioned entities. The Senate passed it on 27 July 2017 by 98 votes to 2, after the House approved it 419 to 3. President Donald Trump signed it on 2 August 2017, though he believed the legislation was seriously flawed.
Smaller threads in the region
On 4 April, Ukraine and Turkey signed an agreement to improve aviation co-operation.
On 3 April, Russian MPs called for sanctions against Latvia. Their target was plans to make Latvian mandatory for all secondary-school students in a country whose population is a quarter ethnic Russian.
Taken together, these reports show a country redefining how it described its war in the east, a parliament holding to transparency rules for activists, and a wider region where language policy and sanctions were becoming matters of open dispute.
