Category Archives: Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Ukraine has uncovered Russian-linked coup plot, says president

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there is evidence of ‘coup d’état’ being planned for early December

Ukraine’s president has said intelligence services uncovered a plot involving a group of Russians and Ukrainians to overthrow his government next week.

Speaking at an hours-long press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained audio recordings of the plotters discussing their plans, which he said involved tying to enlist the support of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

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Ukraine has legal right to Crimean artefacts, Dutch court rules

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Russia had sought to take control of ‘Scythian gold’ on loan to museum in Amsterdam

An appeals court in the Netherlands has ruled that Ukraine has legal control over a trove of artefacts from Crimea that was on loan to a Dutch museum when Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Russia had sought to take control of the historical treasures, often called the “Scythian gold”, which includes gold and ceremonial daggers used by the nomadic tribe, a golden helmet from the 4th century BC, amulets, jewellery, and other treasures, including a Chinese lacquered box that made its way to Crimea along the Silk Road.

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Top aide to Ukrainian president survives assassination attempt

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At least 10 bullets hit car carrying Serhiy Shefir with driver in surgery after being struck three times

A top adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has survived an assassination attempt that officials suggest is tied to a political battle with criminal and corrupt interests, including the countries’ oligarchs.

At least 10 bullets struck the car of Serhiy Shefir, an aide and longtime friend of Zelenskiy, on Wednesday as he travelled through the village of Lesnyky toward the capital, Kyiv.

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Ukraine urges Nato to hasten membership as Russian troops gather

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President calls for his country to be put on pathway to membership of western military alliance

Ukraine’s president has called on Nato and key member states to hasten his country’s membership of the western military alliance in response to a growing buildup of Russian forces on his country’s borders.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on Tuesday, and urged for Ukraine to be put on a pathway to future membership to halt the long-running conflict in the eastern Donbas region.

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Ukrainian president endorses animal rights documentary to end hostage siege – video

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A gunman in Ukraine has released 13 hostages after the country's president agreed to post a video on Facebook recommending a 2005 animal rights documentary.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy promoted Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, to help end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh had seized a bus with the people onboard.

The video has since been taken down from Facebook and Kryvosh arrested.

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Hostage siege ends after Ukrainian president endorses Joaquin Phoenix film

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Gunman surrenders after video recommending 2005’s Earthlings posted on Facebook

A gunman in Ukraine armed with an automatic rifle and grenades has surrendered to police and released 13 hostages after the country’s president consented to his demand to recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix.

The niche film recommendation, delivered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over Facebook, helped end an hours-long standoff in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, where 44-year-old Maksym Kryvosh seized a bus and demanded that dozens of government officials admit to being “terrorists”.

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Ukraine to investigate leaked calls between Joe Biden and ex-president

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Recordings containing edited conversations between the two while in office published by Ukrainian associate of Rudy Giuliani

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that leaked recordings of phone calls allegedly between Joe Biden and former president Petro Poroshenko would be investigated by the country’s law enforcement agencies, adding that their contents might be “perceived, qualified as treason”.

The remarks prompted an angry rebuttal from Poroshenko, who said that the Zelenskiy administration may have played a role in their release and should be investigated.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy: ‘My White House invitation? I was told it’s being prepared’

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The TV comic turned maverick Ukrainian leader on Putin, power and Trump’s impeachment

What’s the difference between playing a president on screen and being one in real life? Not much, according to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the man who’s done both.

“It’s very similar,” he says, his compact frame engulfed by a green leather armchair in his opulent presidential office. Then he changes his mind: in fact, the real job lasts a whole five years, and comes with far greater challenges than can fit into one season of a television show. “It’s true there are more problems. They are catastrophic. They appear, I’m sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don’t know where they will pop up, or when.” The 42-year-old speaks in his native Russian, his expressive face switching from boyish amusement to tortured concern in a flash.

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Ukraine president gives Putin one year to strike deal to end war

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In an exclusive interview, Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is ready to walk away from Russia talks unless there is progress

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, believes he can negotiate a deal with Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, but has threatened to walk away from talks after a year if there is no progress with his Russian counterpart.

“Time is ticking,” he told the Guardian in a rare interview, to be published in full on Saturday. “The government can spend one year on the entire agreement. Then it should be implemented. Any longer is prohibited.”

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Iran plane crash: drone collision and terrorism being explored

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Ukraine investigators also cite engine failure and Russian missile among possible causes

A senior Ukrainian security official has said his country’s investigators will explore a range of possible reasons why one of its passenger jets crashed in Iran, including a drone collision, a terrorist bomb and a missile attack, but did not rule out a technical fault was to blame.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, cited unconfirmed reports circulating on social media that debris from a Russian-made missile had been found at the site, on the outskirts of Tehran, where the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed on Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and staff onboard.

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Iran says it will not give black box from crashed airliner to Boeing

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Leaders of Ukraine and Canada vow to find cause of crash that killed dozens of their citizens

Iran’s aviation authority has said it will not hand over flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed moments after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew onboard, either to the aircraft’s manufacturer or US aviation authorities.

The statement was issued on Wednesday as the leaders of Ukraine and Canada, from which dozens of citizens died, vowed to identify the cause of the crash amid contradictory statements and swirling speculation.

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Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists exchange 200 prisoners

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Five riot police suspected of killings among those handed to separatists, provoking outrage

Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in the war-torn east of Ukraine have exchanged 200 prisoners, swapping detained fighters for civilians and service personnel held captive in some cases for years.

The exchange provoked outrage in government-held Ukraine after Kyiv handed over to separatists five riot police suspected of killing protesters during a pro-western uprising in 2014 as part of the swap.

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Russian TV axes show starring Ukraine’s leader after Putin joke

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Zelenskiy sitcom lasted just one night after alluding to Putin in crude sub-language

A Russian television channel has abruptly cancelled a sitcom starring Ukraine’s president after an allusion to a crude joke about Vladimir Putin was aired in Russia’s far east.

The political satire Servant of the People served as a platform for the former comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy to gain popularity and eventually win the Ukrainian presidency, in a vote largely driven by anger at the country’s previous leaders.

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Ukraine’s new president comes face to face with Putin in Paris

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet Russian counterpart at summit on Kyiv’s five-year war with Russian separatists

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, faces a major test at a high-stakes summit with Vladimir Putin in Paris as he pursues a campaign promise to negotiate an end to the war in south-east Ukraine despite vocal opposition at home.

Zelenskiy and his Russian counterpart will meet at the Élysée Palace on Monday alongside European leaders for their first face-to-face talks since the comedian-turned-president took office in May.

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Trump abused presidency for own gain, Democrats’ impeachment report concludes

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  • Democrats vote to adopt the report, moving the inquiry forward
  • They say evidence shows president improperly pressured Ukraine to influence 2020 election
  • Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. This Giving Tuesday, consider making a contribution

The US House intelligence committee voted on Tuesday evening to adopt Democrats’ damning 300-page impeachment report, moving the inquiry into Donald Trump into its next phase.

Trump “abused the power of his office for personal and political gain, at the expense of [US] national security”, congressional Democrats concluded in the report released on Tuesday, which laid out incriminating conclusions after two weeks of public hearings.

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Zelenskiy: Ukraine tired of hearing about company at centre of impeachment inquiry – video

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said everyone in Ukraine is ‘tired about Burisma’, the company at the heart of the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump. The inquiry is trying to establish whether the US president pressured Ukraine to open an investigation into Hunter Biden, son of former US vice-president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, one of Ukraine’s largest gas conglomerates

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Key witnesses tell of concern over Trump’s ‘inappropriate’ Ukraine call

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Kurt Volker, witness requested by Republicans, says the investigations Trump requested amounted to ‘conspiracy theories’

Two witnesses in the impeachment inquiry have described their concern over an “unusual” call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president in July, in which Trump ignored official talking points about fighting corruption to instead “demand” an investigation tied to Joe Biden.

Related: Donald Trump has dragged America's global reputation to an all-time low | Simon Tisdall

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Trump personally kept pressure on Ukraine, says impeachment inquiry witness

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David Holmes, diplomat at the US embassy in Kiev, says Trump did not ‘give a shit’ about Ukraine and only cared about what would benefit him politically

Donald Trump personally kept up pressure on Ukraine to carry out investigations he had requested in a phone call with a senior US diplomat, who then observed the president did not “give a shit” about Ukraine and only cared about what would benefit him politically, according to dramatic new testimony in congressional impeachment hearings.

In a deposition to the House committees investigating the Ukraine scandal, David Holmes, a diplomat at the US embassy in Kiev, described an extraordinary phone call between Trump and the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, on 26 July.

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‘It’s revenge’: Ukraine’s ex-central banker blames oligarch for attacks

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Accusations levelled by Valeria Gontareva against Ihor Kolomoiskiy provide test for Ukraine’s new president

It is possible that when a car drove into Valeria Gontareva at a pedestrian crossing in Knightsbridge, central London, in late August it was merely an accident.

But soon after, while Gontareva was recovering in hospital, her son’s car was set on fire back home in Kyiv. A few days after that, her family home in the Ukrainian capital was also burned down. For Gontareva there is no doubt that the attacks are part of a disturbing pattern.

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Alexander Vindman’s Trump-Ukraine testimony: five key takeaways

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Army lieutenant colonel to describe his concerns Trump’s Biden plot was undermining US foreign policy in Ukraine

In his opening statement before congressional impeachment investigators on Tuesday, Lt Col Alexander S Vindman planned to describe his concerns that Donald Trump’s plot to undermine Joe Biden was undermining US foreign policy in Ukraine.

Related: Army officer to testify Trump-Zelenskiy call 'raised internal alarm'

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