What happened on 27 March 2018 across the region?

What was happening in Ukraine and its neighbourhood on 27 March 2018? The day brought a wave of diplomatic action over the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, while political disputes in Kyiv and Warsaw ran on from the preceding days.

Expulsions over the Skripal poisoning

On 27 March 2018, NATO and the government of Australia expelled Russian diplomats. The moves were among the reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

Kyiv: the Savchenko case

A few days earlier, on 22 March 2018, the Verkhovna Rada gave its consent to lifting the parliamentary immunity of MP Nadiya Savchenko and to her detention and arrest. Investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) then detained her inside the Rada building. As reported at the time, the arrest concerned an alleged plot to attack parliament and overthrow the government.

Warsaw: pressure from Brussels

Poland was also in the news in the days before 27 March 2018. On 21 March, Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz accused the European Union of double standards and of a deficit of democracy. Poland and the European Commission were then in dispute over migrant quotas and over Poland's proposed judicial reform.

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

On the same day, Polish and U.S. authorities said the completion of the United States missile defence complex in Poland, part of a NATO project, would be delayed until 2020.

The picture on 27 March 2018

Taken together, the reports show a region dealing with several separate matters at once: a coordinated diplomatic response to the Skripal poisoning, a high-profile arrest in the Ukrainian parliament, and a standoff between Warsaw and Brussels over judicial independence.