That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Monday, November 14, 2016. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
Investigation Uncovers Poroshenko's, Allies' Spanish Coastal Villas
By Christopher Miller
KYIV -- Along the picturesque shores of Estepona in southern Spain's Costa del Sol lie some of Europe's most elegant resorts and luxury estates, whose owners and residents include Hollywood actors, superstar athletes, and some of the continent's political elite.
But the list of property owners also includes the head of state, along with several key allies, of one of postcommunist Europe's most beleaguered and corruption-riddled states, an RFE/RL investigation has learned.
The Spanish properties of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko; Ihor Kononenko, a deputy head of the president's Bloc of Petro Poroshenko party and onetime business partner; and Oleh Hladkovskyy, a deputy secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, had previously been kept secret.
Each of those three men owns a lavish Mediterranean-style villa on or near the coast -- and in Kononenko's case, a second plot of land, too.
But none of the properties is enumerated in those public officials' publicly searchable asset declarations that came due on October 30 as part of a new, International Monetary Fund (IMF)-backed push to boost transparency and root out graft, according to an investigative program of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Skhemy (Schemes), that aired on November 10.
Instead, the declarations of Poroshenko, a confectionery mogul before his rise to the presidency of war-torn Ukraine in mid-2014, and Kononenko and Hladkovskyy include companies that in turn own the Spanish homes -- effectively rendering them invisible from public view.
Corruption has been a persistent problem in Ukraine, contributing to political stagnation that followed the so-called Orange Revolution in 2004-05 and the Euromaidan unrest a decade later that unseated a president. Western officials and international financial institutions insist such criminality is still a problem and threatens billions in assistance that have helped keep the country afloat since Russian troops invaded and seized Crimea from Ukraine in early 2014.
Two Allies in Ukraine Of Odesa Region's Former Governor Quit Posts
Two close allies in Ukraine of Georgia’s former President Mikheil Saakashvili have resigned from their posts, just days after Saakashvili himself stepped down from his post as the governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region.
Yulia Marushevska, the head of the Odesa region’s customs service, and Ukraine’s National Police Chief Khatia Dekanoidze announced their resignations on November 14.
Marushevska, who headed Odesa’s customs service since October 2015, said she was resigning because of what she said was sabotage by President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman of her anticorruption reform efforts.
There was no immediate comment from Poroshenko or Groysman about Marushevska’s allegations.
Dekanoidze said she was resigning because she had not been given enough powers to carry out radical reforms within Ukraine’s police forces.
Dekanoidze said she had “failed to root out corruption” within Ukraine’s law-enforcement bodies because of her limited powers.
She said police reform would only work if the courts and prosecution service also were reformed.
Based on reporting by The Kyiv Post and 112UA
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
