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Two stories that framed 1 July 2020
Summary
A look back at two reports from late June 2020: a new education minister in Kyiv and a sanctions appeal from Libya.
What was in the news on 1 July 2020 for readers following Ukraine and its wider neighbourhood? Two reports from the final days of June stand out.
On 25 June 2020, Serhiy Shkarlet was chosen as Ukraine's education minister. Coverage at the time described him as a man previously caught plagiarising and known for a fondness for expensive cars, which framed the appointment as a matter of public debate about the standards expected of those running the education system.
On 27 June 2020, Libya's internationally recognised Government of National Accord called on the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on individuals and what it called mercenaries. The appeal followed a statement by the National Oil Corporation that Russian mercenaries and other foreign actors had forced their way into the Sharara oilfield. The Wagner Group was named in connection with the report.
The two items are unrelated in subject. Together, they show a week in which questions of accountability, whether of a Ukrainian official or of foreign fighters in Libya, were put to the public and to Western governments.
