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Regional pressures on Ukraine's doorstep, July 2021
Summary
A look back at a mid-July 2021 cluster of events, from a ministerial resignation in Kyiv to migration and vaccines along the region's borders.
What did the region look like on 14 July 2021, the day after Ukraine's interior minister resigned? Arsen Avakov, who had held the post since 2014, stepped down on 13 July 2021, closing a tenure of about seven years at the ministry.
The resignation was one of several developments in the days before that date that shaped the picture for Ukraine and its neighbours.
Borders under strain
On 9 July 2021, Lithuania began building a fence costing $48 million along its border with Belarus. A week earlier, it had declared a state of emergency over a rise in undocumented migrants, mostly Syrians, crossing from Belarus. Lithuania accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing those crossings.
Vaccines and a return to normal
On 10 July 2021, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the United States had donated 500,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Moldova. Moldovan President Maia Sandu praised the United States for the deployment.
In Kyiv, the Atlas Weekend music festival took place on 11 July 2021 after a year's break caused by quarantine restrictions. It was a sign that public life in the capital was resuming.
Reading the moment
Taken together, these events show a region dealing with several demands at once: a major change at the top of Ukraine's interior ministry, a border dispute between two neighbours, vaccine supplies reaching Moldova, and the gradual lifting of pandemic limits on public events in Kyiv. Each was a distinct story, and on 14 July 2021 they sat side by side rather than forming a single trend.
