Here's an update from our news desk on the controversy surrounding the photographer Dmytro Muravskiy:
Ukrainian Defense Ministry Cuts Ties With Photographer Over Purported 'Combat' Photos
Ukrainian Defense Ministry has cut ties with a photographer who served as a ministry adviser amid controversy over the authenticity of photographs purportedly showing combat scenes in eastern Ukraine.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on August 28 that he made the decision to release photographer Dmytro Muravskiy from his position as a ministry advisor "due to the ongoing debates about photographs" taken by him.
Poltorak said all of the photos in question had been taken by Muravskiy before his appointment to the post. Poltorak said the ministry never used them or presented them to media as legitimate scenes of real military operations.
Earlier in August, a group of Ukrainian photojournalists raised concerns about a photo by Muravskiy, which depicted Ukrainian soldiers in the country's east fighting against Russia-backed separatists.
The photojournalists claimed the photo was staged and accused the Defense Ministry of using fake photos as part of an information campaign against the Kremlin.
Muravskiy insists that he has never staged any photos of combat in eastern Ukraine.
Based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax
Good morning,
We'll start the live blog today with a story by RFE/RL's Christopher Miller on some disquieting allegations surrounding Ukraine's national security service, the SBU:
Rights Groups Say 13 Released From Secret Ukrainian Jail, Allege Torture
KYIV -- Thirteen civilians who were allegedly held incommunicado, interrogated, and tortured after being rounded up “abduction-style” have been released from a secret jail run by Ukraine’s domestic security service, two prominent human rights groups say.
In a letter to Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) said 12 men and one woman who had been held at a detention facility in the eastern city of Kharkiv were set free by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on July 25 and August 2.
At least five people were still being held in secret detention at the Kharkiv facility, according to the rights groups’ letter, which was dated August 23 and made public on August 29. Some of those who were released had been held for weeks, others for months.
The SBU, which has said it has no secret jails, did not respond to RFE/RL’s requests for comment.
“The SBU has denied the existence of the secret prison in Kharkiv and the use of the practice of secret detention, both in public and in our private meetings with them,” Krasimir Yankov, a Kyiv-based researcher for Amnesty International, told RFE/RL.
In their letter, Amnesty International and HRW said the SBU’s continued denial of enforced disappearances and secret detentions “fosters a climate of lawlessness and perpetuates impunity for grave human rights violations.” They called on the office of the chief military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, to take immediate steps to secure the release of those who remain in custody and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The recent releases, which Amnesty and HRW learned of through interviews with five of the freed individuals, followed the groups’ joint report on July 21 that accused Ukrainian authorities and pro-Kyiv militias of rounding up and abusing civilians suspected of supporting or having connections with Russia-backed separatists.
Besides the Kharkiv site, the report said detainees were held in secret SBU jails in the government-controlled eastern cities of Kramatorsk, Izyum, and Mariupol.
It also alleged that the Russia-backed separatists imprisoned civilians suspected of backing or spying for the Ukrainian government. Separatist leaders in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have called the allegations “absurd.”
The report detailed 18 alleged cases of arbitrary, prolonged detentions by both sides during the conflict, which has killed more than 9,500 civilians and combatants since April 2014. Fighting persists despite a February 2015 cease-fire deal signed by Ukraine, Russia, and the separatists, and little progress has been made on political steps to resolve the conflict.
“International humanitarian law acknowledges that during times of armed conflict there may be security grounds for temporary detention of civilians, but arbitrary detention is always prohibited, and parties to an armed conflict are required to ensure a legal basis and framework as well as basic safeguards for the detention of civilians,” Yankov said.
Allegations of torture by the SBU at secret jails were first raised by a group of United Nations (UN) inspectors in March.
In May, UN efforts to gain access to the facilities were thwarted by the SBU.
Because Ukraine is a party to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Optional Protocol to that agreement, UN inspectors should be able to make unannounced visits to any detention center.
Read the entire article here
Barring any major developments, that ends the live blogging for today.