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Vladimir Putin of trying to divide the world into "spheres of influence"
during his video address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 22. “I would like to remind you that it is not only, and not just, war in Ukraine. It’s war in Europe,” Zelenskiy said. “It’s not just an encroachment on the sovereignty of an independent state. It’s like an attempt to return to the division of spheres of influence in the world.”
More than 20 Western-sponsored civil society organizations signed a Sept. 11 statement calling upon Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to dismiss her recently appointed deputy, Maksym Yakubovskiy​, as announced by the ZMINA Center for Human Rights. Yakubovskiy needs to be dismissed in order to ensure the independence of the departments in the Prosecutor General’s Office that he has been appointed to lead, the statement said. These are the departments to conduct EuroMaidan-related investigations, to combat the use of torture and to prosecute military crimes. The statement also called for Venediktova to voice public support for criminal casesinvolvingtheEuroMaidancrimes.​V​ enediktovaappointedYakubovskiy as her deputy on Sept. 10, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that day. In 2011-2013, Yakubovskiy served as an expert of criminal law for the Constitutional State Independent Ukrainian Center for Legal Initiatives and Examinations, which is sponsored by Viktor Medvedchuk, widely recognized as Putin’s righthand man in Ukraine. The center’s director is Vasyl Nimchenko, who is an MP with the Opposition Platform For Life party, which was co-founded by Medvedchuk (also an MP). Among the center’s key activities was discrediting the Ukraine-E.U. Association Agreement, the statement said. Yakubovskiy’s appointment “eliminates the independence of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office as procedural directors in the EuroMaidan cases, as well as the possibility for an effective conclusion to investigating these cases and an appropriate presentation of accusations in court,” said the statement, whose signers include the Anti-Corruption Action Centre and Transparency International Ukraine.
Ukrainian military positions in Donbas were fired upon four times, with casualties, on September 6​, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reports. One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and one wounded. This marks the first death on the front since July. Recall, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pointed to the approach ​of the 30-day mark of zero deaths on the front during his Independence Day speech on August 24.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions against Ukrainian legislator Andriy Derkach, OFAC announced on September 10. Derkach, an independent member of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, is among four individuals against whom sanctions are imposed for interference in the U.S. election process, OFAC said, without providing more details on why Derkach was included on the sanctions list. In addition to Derkach, sanctions were imposed against Russian citizens Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev and Darya Aslanova.
During the first 100 days of speed cameras, accident rates in the areas with cameras have dropped by a factor of six, ​said Aleksey Biloshitsky, deputy head of the police patrol department. Since the first 50 cameras were installed in Kyiv City and Region starting June 1, patrol officers have issued 833,949 speeding tickets. Drivers have paid fines in 77% of the cases. Drivers who pay within 10 banking days get a 50% discount. No driver has overturned a speeding ticket in court. Cameras click on cars going 20 km over posted
17​ UKRAINE Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com