Home › Opinion › What did Ukraine's news cycle hold on 15 October 2019?
What did Ukraine's news cycle hold on 15 October 2019?
Summary
A look back at a period when sport, church politics, an economic ranking and a US scandal all drew attention to Ukraine.
What was Ukraine dealing with on 15 October 2019? The days immediately before that date offer an answer: a run of developments that touched sport, religion, the economy and foreign politics at once.
A church recognised
On 12 October 2019, at an extraordinary session, the Council of the Orthodox Church of Greece recognised the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The decision was among the most consequential for the new church in the days before 15 October.
A boxer's debut at a new weight
The same day, Oleksandr Usyk won by early stoppage in his debut at super-heavyweight, defeating the American Chazz Witherspoon.
A very long press event
On 10 October 2019, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a press conference that lasted more than 14 hours. According to the report, he answered over 500 questions from almost 300 journalists, and the event was billed as the longest ever held anywhere.
An economic ranking
On 9 October 2019, the World Economic Forum published its 2019 competitiveness ranking. Ukraine placed 85th among 141 countries, two places lower than in 2018.
Washington's scandal reaches the headlines
Also on 10 October 2019, a spokesman for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said two associates of Rudy Giuliani had been arrested for campaign finance violations. The charges were linked to efforts to discredit presidential candidate Joe Biden, and they formed part of what became known as the 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal.
That scandal grew out of attempts by US president Donald Trump to press Ukraine to investigate his political rival Biden, as described in later accounts. Those accounts say contacts between the White House and the Ukrainian government had culminated in a phone call between Trump and Zelensky on 25 July 2019. They also say a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package had been blocked.
A mixed picture
Taken together, the reports from these days show a country registering a sporting success, a long-sought church recognition and a lengthy public exchange between its president and the press. They also show a slip in a global economic ranking and a growing foreign-policy story in which Kyiv was a central subject.
