Czech President Petr Pavel together with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova arrived in Ukraine on a visit.
“With Zuzana Chaputova, we both understand the value of freedom and justice. It is hard to see with our own eyes that Ukrainians are paying the highest price for it. With the blood and lives of its citizens. In fighting the aggressor, he defends what we have in common. That’s why we will support them,” Pavel wrote on Twitter, showing a picture with the president of Slovakia in front of the destroyed building.
For its part, the Czech media outlet Denikn reported that the Slovak president and her Czech counterpart Petr Pavel arrived in Kiev early this morning.
This is the first visit of the Czech head of state to Ukraine since 2013.
Pavel and Chaputova will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmygal, and will also visit cities liberated from Russian occupation near the capital.
A meeting with Crimean Tatar representatives Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Refat Chubarov is also scheduled.
Chaputova also later tweeted about the joint visit to Ukraine.
“Our first joint visit abroad with Peter Paul to Ukraine with a message of friendship, solidarity and support. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine share parts of a common history – and we also share our common future,” she stressed.
The Czech TV channel ČT24 reported that the Czech and Slovak presidents visited Irpen, then went to Borodyanka. In addition, the Czech president then headed to Bucha.
Turkey’s opposition bloc has nominated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the Republican People’s Party, as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election, the Sabah newspaper reported Monday.
According to it, the six parties of the opposition bloc made a statement to this effect after a meeting in Ankara.
In turn, Al-Monitor reported that the leader of the Happiness Party, Temel Karamollaoğlu, announced the candidacy on behalf of the entire opposition bloc.
Earlier on Monday, thousands of opposition supporters gathered outside the headquarters of the “Party of Happiness” to find out who will run in the elections from the opposition.
“Sabah” notes that Turkey’s Good Party leader Meral Akshener, who announced last week that she was leaving the opposition bloc, has rejoined it and also attended a meeting in the Turkish capital. Akshener left the bloc over disagreement over a presidential candidate.
In January, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held in Turkey on May 14.
The elections were originally scheduled for June 18, but Erdogan has repeatedly stated that the vote could take place earlier. His party has pointed out that the elections in June will coincide with the peak of the tourist season, so it would be better to postpone them.
Pre-election polls show that the battle in both the presidential and parliamentary elections will be fierce.
Western media call the upcoming elections “the biggest test” for Erdoğan in the last 20 years.
Newly elected Czech President Petr Pavel plans to visit neighboring countries in the first 100 days, a visit to Ukraine is planned for April, the Czech publication Ceske Noviny reported.
According to the newspaper, Paul intends to visit all neighboring countries within 100 days after his election as head of state. Also in the plans for April includes a visit to Ukraine.
The media noted that Pavel showed interest in visiting Ukraine soon after he was elected the new president of the Czech Republic. He said that he would like to visit Kiev together with Slovak President Zuzana Chaputova. In late January, Pavel was invited by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski, who in a phone conversation thanked Pavel for his support of Ukraine. Pavel asked the Ukrainian side about the date of the visit in February.
It is noted that with his trips abroad Paul wants to show that the Czech Republic has returned to an active approach in foreign policy at the presidential level. “I don’t expect to have to go anywhere else during this period, because I really consider our neighborhood a priority,” Ceske Noviny quoted Pavel as saying.
The head of the parliamentary committee on foreign policy and interparliamentary cooperation, Oleksandr Merezhko (Sluzha Naroda faction) has decided to run for president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for 2023.
“I am sincerely grateful to my colleagues for supporting my decision to run for president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,” Merezhko said on Facebook on Saturday.
According to the people’s deputy, one of the points of his election program is restoration of democracy inside PACE: “Anti-democratic system of presidential elections, which exists now, and which is, in fact, elections without elections, should be replaced by real competitive elections”.
Merezhko also believes that PACE “must decisively get rid of any Russian or pro-Russian influence” and make these changes unavoidable, preventing a return to a policy of dialogue with Russia.
According to Merezhko, PACE must expand its human rights protection system and actively oppose human rights violations and crimes against human rights committed by countries that are not members of the Council of Europe.
Merezhko released a scan of a letter from MPs to the European inter-parliamentary organization supporting his nomination as a candidate for PACE president.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski called for a review of the law on national minorities adopted in December, some provisions of which have drawn criticism from the Romanian side.
“Passed on to President Zelenski Romanian concerns about the recently passed law on minorities and agreed to intensify dialogue to find solutions that provide the highest standards of protection for the Romanian community in Ukraine, similar to the Ukrainian community in Romania,” Johannis wrote on Twitter.
According to the press service of the Presidential Administration of Romania, the presidents agreed that in the near future, the foreign ministers of the two countries will hold discussions on the bilateral solution of existing issues.
As it was reported, Zelenski signed the bill No. 8224 on December 29, 2022. The document establishes the definition of “national minorities (communities)”; rights, freedoms and obligations of persons belonging to national minorities, peculiarities of state policy on implementation of rights and freedoms of representatives of national minorities, the powers of the central executive body implementing the state policy on protection of rights and freedoms of persons belonging to national minorities.
Article 5 of the draft Law “Rights, Freedoms and Obligations of Persons Belonging to National Minorities (Communities)” guarantees citizens of Ukraine regardless of their ethnic origin, belonging or not belonging to national minorities (communities) the civil, political, social, economic, cultural and linguistic rights and freedoms defined by the Constitution.
A person belonging to a national minority (community) also has the right to self-identification, freedom of public associations and peaceful assembly, freedom of expression of views and beliefs, thought, speech, conscience and religion; participation in political, economic and social life; use of national minority language; education, including in national minority languages; preservation of cultural identity of national community.
Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania criticized the draft law, noting that the Verkhovna Rada adopted it without additional consultations with the Venice Commission and additional consultations with representatives of the Romanian diaspora in Ukraine. In particular, the Romanian side criticized the unclear regulation of the language of education and the use of languages of national minorities in documentation.
The Pechersk district court of Kiev decided on a measure of restraint in the form of detention with an alternative to bail of 9 million 880 thousand UAH to the president of the Ukrainian Football Association (UFA) Andrey Pavelko, bail has already been paid for him, reports the newspaper “Ukrainian Truth”.
“Today there was a meeting of the Pechersky court. Unfortunately, the court did not listen to our arguments and decided to arrest with the possibility of bail. Bail has already been paid. It was paid by the UAF. Now the legal procedures are being finalized to confirm the payment. And we hope that Pavelko will soon appear in the UAF office and will continue to perform his duties,” the newspaper quotes UAF lawyer Denis Bugai as saying.
According to him, the term of arrest is two months. Bail is 9 mln 880 thousand UAH.
According to Ukrayinska Pravda, Pavelko is being held at the Main Investigative Police Department. The UAF expects that “in a few hours” the bail issue will be resolved and he will be released.
“The investigation states that there is a seizure (Pavelko – IF) of UAF funds. This is not true. The funds in question are payments for services provided to the UAF by the famous soccer referee Pierluigi Collina. They had all this evidence, but this evidence was not submitted to the court, but hidden”, – said Bugai.
According to the newspaper, the criminal proceedings were investigated for over three years by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), then it was transferred to the police. It is about possible corruption of the FFU in the construction of soccer fields, which the NABU investigated in 2018.
According to the UAF lawyer, Pavelko and UAF general secretary Yuriy Zapisotskiy have been notified of suspicion under the article on embezzlement of funds as part of the investigation.
