Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin met in Brussels today with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fuele and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht in Brussels.
Here are some sound bites from Klmkin's post-meeting presser:
"We agreed that we would arrange and we would agree, during the next meeting of the association council in December, on our vision but also on the exact practical plan for the implementation of the Association Agreement. We will also agree on the instruments on how to effectively implement the Association Agreement."
"The key red line here, the absolute red line is not to make any sort of changes to the text of the agreement but to explore the possibilities and flexibilities within the regulatory framework."
"The timing for the donors' conference [for Ukraine] is dependent on the most effective way to get a result out of it. We need to be prepared. We discussed this issue for a considerable time today and as you know I wold prefer to call it a 'donors' and investors' conference' because it is not just about donor pledges."
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed into law a new lustration measure aimed at cleaning the new government of corrupt officials and of those with links to separatists in the east of the country.
In recent days, Ukrainians who were frustrated at the failure to bring the bill to law have been tossing suspect officials in trash cans and, in some case, beating them up. RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth wrote this feature last week.
Reuters has an interesting feature on women fighting on both sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
It includes this frightening quotation from a Cossack separatist commander in Luhansk: "I had doubts before allowing women in. But now I actually have more trust in them then in men. Women don't drink and I am sometimes seriously worried seeing my men's condition when they are relaxing after a mission."
Here are some more details from RFE/RL's news desk about Porsoshenko putting his signature to a new lustration law.
Poroshenko's press service said on October 9 that the bill adopted by the parliament on September 16 has been signed by the president.
Under the law, up to one million public servants, including cabinet ministers will be screened for loyalty to root out the corrupt practices of previous pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych's administration.
The law is expected to purge officials linked to the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's east and other Russian structures.
Officials unable to explain their sources of income and assets will be banned from public office for five to 10 years.
Poroshenko said he signed the bill with the aim of "restoring confidence in [Ukraine's] authorities."
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said earlier on October 9 that he would start the lustration process within his ministry as soon as the law was signed by Poroshenko.
(UNIAN, Interfax)
We had a feature on this yesterday. Hardening attitudes to IDPs in Ukraine. There's also a handy infographic.
Some soccer-related developments from our news desk:
Police in Belarus have detained about 100 Ukrainian soccer fans after spectators at an international match chanted vulgar verses targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The majority of those detained were released later, but 12 Ukrainians were found guilty of hooliganism and jailed for five to 10 days, and 12 Belarusians were fined, on October 10.
The incident came the day before Putin's arrival in the Belarussian capital on October 10 for a meeting of leaders from the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independence States.
The anti-Putin chant has become a rallying cry for Ukrainians angered by Russian interference in their ex-Soviet state this year, since the ousting of a Kremlin-backed president and Kyiv's embrace of the West.
Ukrainian fans unfurled a giant banner in the blue-and-yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag and the words: "We will not allow anyone to rule our homeland."
Ukraine won the match 2-0.
(AFP, "Nasha Niva," football.ua)
And, speaking of soccer, there also seems to have been a Ukraine-related kerfuffle on the terraces of the Sweden-Russia game in Stockholm last night. (Incidentally, the game finished 1-1)
Вчера в русском секторе в Швеции братья-шведы не дали петуху повесить тряпку террористической организации "#ДНР" #РФ pic.twitter.com/Xdv7Y5Hvan
— Новости Украины (@Dbnmjr) October 10, 2014
The Hollywood Reporter: Documentary filmmakers equip #Ukraine's volunteers in struggle against pro-Russian insurgents http://t.co/M97h1k7HJ2
— Kyiv Post (@KyivPost) October 10, 2014