Tymoshenko announces presidential run:
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko says she plans to run for president in 2019, setting up a possible showdown with incumbent Petro Poroshenko.
In a video posted on her Facebook page on June 20, Tymoshenko said she will run for the presidency "not just to play an authoritarian game...but to lift Ukraine back on its feet."
"The presidential office for me is not a PlayStation, but a place to introduce real changes our country has been longing for," said Tymoshenko, who is leader of Ukraine's opposition Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party.
Tymoshenko, 57, lost to pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych in 2010 and to Poroshenko in 2014 after Yanukovych was driven from power and fled to Russia.
Tymoshenko, who was Ukraine's prime minister from 2007 to 2010, was jailed on embezzlement charges following her government's defeat by Yanukovych in 2010.
Her sentence was viewed by much of the international community as political in nature. She was released in February 2014 and later reelected to parliament.
According to recent polls, Tymoshenko and Poroshenko each have support of 14 to 16 percent of Ukrainian voters.
‘It’s Time To Endorse Safe Schools Declaration,’ HRW Tells Ukraine
By RFE/RL
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Ukraine to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, an intergovernmental political document aimed at better protecting children’s right to education in wartime.
The New York-based watchdog made the call in a June 20 statement, saying that fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine has a “devastating toll” on children.
Since the conflict began in April 2014, at least 740 education facilities in the region have been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.
In May of this year alone, the UN said at least four education facilities sustained damage as a result of continuous hostilities.
Both sides in the conflict have used schools and universities as bases and barracks, HRW said.
Seventy-five countries have signed the Safe Schools Declaration, which contains concrete commitments to better protect students, teachers, schools, and universities from the effects of war.
“The UN Security Council’s Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict is on July 9. What better platform for Ukraine to endorse the declaration than on one of the world's most influential stages?” HRW said.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya said in October 2017 that his country attaches “great importance” to the Safe Schools Declaration and expressed Kyiv’s willingness to endorse the document.
“These words were encouraging, but more than seven months later, it’s time to put words into action, HRW said. “Ukrainian children cannot wait any longer.”