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What did 22 February 2018 follow in Ukraine?
Summary
A look back at the reports from 20 and 21 February 2018 that framed the day for Ukraine's courts and its place in a U.S. investigation.
What was Ukraine's news picture on 22 February 2018? The days just before it brought a change at the top of the country's constitutional court, a guilty plea in Washington with a Ukrainian link, and a small earthquake.
On 21 February 2018, Stanislav Shevchuk was elected head of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, a post that places him at the centre of the country's constitutional adjudication.
On 20 February 2018, attorney Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to making false statements to the FBI. The case arose from the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The charges said he lied to investigators about his interactions with political consultant and lobbyist Rick Gates, and about an unidentified Ukrainian-based associate of Paul Manafort.
The same day, 20 February 2018, an earthquake of magnitude 3.2 was recorded in Kryvyi Rih.
Why the sequence matters
The three reports are unrelated in substance, but together they show how Ukraine appeared in different arenas in the days before 22 February 2018: a domestic judicial appointment, a Ukrainian dimension in a high-profile American inquiry, and a minor seismic event in a central industrial city.
