According to a draft bill, Russian observers will be excluded from all future elections in Ukraine. The OSCE has misgivings, experts are torn between appreciation and criticism – and have offered a solution.
Image: picture-alliance/Sputnik/S. Averin
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Ukraine fears that Russia could – by making use of its representatives in international observation missions – interfere with the presidential elections scheduled for March 31. Kyiv believes it's possible that Russian election observers, in particular, could become a "weak spot" when they supervise the voting process and vote count.
For this reason, Parliament on Thursday passed a law which bans Russian nationals from taking part in the planned election observation mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The law stipulates that citizens of a country that has been classified as an "aggressor state" by Ukraine's parliament cannot be employed as observers – neither in the Ukraine presidential elections in spring, nor in the Ukraine parliamentary elections in autumn. Kyiv has categorized the Russian Federation as an "aggressor state" – due to Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula, which was against international law, and the war in eastern Ukraine.
Misgivings from the OSCE
On February 6, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) began its mission of observing the presidential elections in Ukraine. With respect to the law passed by Ukraine, ODIHR representative Thomas Rymer told DW: "We have reservations as to whether this is compatible with OSCE commitments regarding access of international observers."
According to Rymer, the OSCE will continue to monitor developments surrounding the initiative. "As is customary in the course of every election observation mission, the mission will review whether agreements on election observers, both national and international, are in accordance with obligations vis-à-vis the OSCE," Rymer said.
Within the OSCE, there had already been cases of a country not accepting election observers from another country, Peter Kleppe of the Brussels-based think tank "Open Europe" told DW. In the summer of 2018, for example, Turkey refused permission to one parliamentarian each from Germany and Sweden to enter the country.
"For Ukraine, however, this option is not the best idea," he said, pointing out that the international community still had misgivings regarding the state of democracy in Ukraine. For this reason, the elections should be held with maximum transparency.
In 2019, Ukrainians will elect a new president and a new parliament (file photo)Image: Reuters/V. Ogirenko
Sympathizing with Ukraine
According to Roland Freudenstein of the Brussels-based think tank Wilfried Martens Center for European Studies it's hardly surprising that a nation which has been attacked by a neighboring country wants to exclude that country's citizens from an election observation mission. Freudenstein believes that the OSCE should take Ukraine's arguments into consideration. "It is realistic to assume that the Russian secret services will talk to every Russian citizen taking part in such a mission – before and after," he said.
Florian Bieber, a political analyst at Graz University's Center for Southeast European Studies, also sympathizes with Ukraine's rejection of Russian election observers, who Kyiv believes may not be independent . In addition, he says, we cannot be sure that the Russians would not meddle in the election.
Bieber said he could not imagine Croatian representatives having taken part in election observations in Serbia and vice versa in the 1990s, at the time of armed conflicts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In those days, however, elections were only monitored by very few observers.
A day in the life on Maidan
Anti-government protesters calling for Ukraine’s integration with the European Union occupied Kyiv's Independence Square, also known as Maidan, for months. Photographer Filip Warwick documented their everyday life.
Image: Filip Warwick
Defeating subzero temperatures
Anti-government protesters calling for Ukraine’s integration with the European Union occupied Kyiv's Independence Square, also known as "Maidan" in early December 2013. They set up camp on the capital’s main square and endured subzero temperatures for weeks, hovering around makeshift campfires, like the one pictured above, to stay warm.
Image: Filip Warwick
Trying to stay warm
During the day the temperature hovers around -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit), at night it can easily plummet to -25 degrees Celsius (-13 degrees Fahrenheit). To survive the cold, tents are sealed and heated with wood-burning stoves. Firewood is brought in by Kyiv residents but police have stopped and arrested people transporting wood.
Image: Filip Warwick
Clothes for free
Warm clothes are stocked and donated by Kyiv residents who support the EuroMaidan volunteers. Thick coats, sweaters, socks and shirts are in abundance, bundled on top of each other. Anybody who wishes or needs can take any item of clothing, day or night.
Image: Filip Warwick
Maidan’s soup kitchens
Operating around the clock, soup kitchens, tea stations and wood-burning stoves help thousands of demonstrators brave the subzero temperatures. Soup kitchens, like the one above, are a highly disciplined operation made possible by donations and support from surrounding residents.
Image: Filip Warwick
Mustafa’s famous Plov kitchen
Mr. Mustafa’s Plov kitchen is one of the most popular kitchens on Maidan, with a seemingly endless line of cold and hungry protesters. Originally from Uzbekistan and now based in the Crimea, Mr. Mustafa offers Plov, an Uzbek national dish served with rice, onions, spices and meat or fish. It’s cooked in a "kazan," a type of large cooking pot used throughout Central Asia and Russia.
Image: Filip Warwick
A cool game of chess
Another popular activity around Maidan is playing a game of chess. Though it is very cold, Kyivians enjoy playing this game on a frozen fountain. Chess is a traditional and popular game in the Ukraine and is played no matter the season. The 50 cm chess pieces made of sturdy polystyrene do not require much effort.
Image: Filip Warwick
Singing keeps the heart warm
To keep the heart warm on a cold winter night, a Ukrainian bard sings and narrates patriotic hymns, songs and poems on Maidan’s main stage. Pictured above, the bard holds a "Kobzar," a Ukrainian stringed instrument of the lute family. Singers, actors and activists use the main stage as a 24-hour platform. During breaks, film and historical documentaries are also shown.
Image: Filip Warwick
Maidan selfie
Standing by a Metro exit blocked with tires, barbed wire and a "no way through" sign, a Kievian takes a "selfie." Many locals enter Maidan in order to use the underground passage, which acts as a Metro entrance for the Khreshchatyk metro station, a short-cut to the local supermarket and small businesses. It's an opportunity to warm up in freezing weather or to satisfy their own Maidan curiosity.
Image: Filip Warwick
Mourning on Maidan
But life on Maidan isn’t always fun. Last month three protesters were killed in clashes with riot police bringing the official death count to six, including two police officers. More than 1,000 have been injured. The circumstances of some of the deaths still remain unclear. Four people died from gunshot wounds; ambulance services have confirmed bullet wounds from sniper rifles and other handguns.
Image: Filip Warwick
Separated only by barricades
Protesters have constructed a layered defense system. At the front barricades, protesters are only a few hundred meters away from police. Ice, bricks, burn barrels and scrap metal separate both groups. There are many young men patrolling the Maidan, armed with a long stick and usually wearing helmets, trying to keep the peace and enforce the ban on alcohol and recreational drug use.
Image: Filip Warwick
Training the protestors
The order and security on Maidan are provided by the protesters themselves; many of whom are former police officers or former members of special forces units, including soldiers from various public organizations, who fought in Afghanistan. They train volunteers in tactical and formation awareness, striving to prevent any provocations by instilling self-discipline within the ranks.
Image: Filip Warwick
'Mothers of Maidan' marching
Accompanied by Orthodox priests, the "Mothers of Maidan" are often seen marching in groups carrying printed slogans, such as "Not our Children." Many of the mothers have come from all over the Ukraine. Since their sons are serving in the police and special force units, they have pleaded with officials not to deploy them in Kyiv. The compulsory military service for men aged 18-25 ended in 2014.
Image: Filip Warwick
Pro-Europe, pro-democratization
While you can’t take EuroMaidan home, you can bring home small souvenirs, such as magnets with slogans like "Ukraine is Europe" or "(Your) Choice Matters." Though Ukraine joining the EU was one of the protestors' initial demands, the demonstrations are now addressing a larger issue: demanding the Ukrainian government to show transparency and respect for their constitutional rights.
Image: Filip Warwick
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Hand-picking observers
Oleksandr Kliuzhev of OPORA, a civil network which observes elections in Ukraine, told DW that, on the one hand, there was in fact a danger of Russian meddling in the Ukrainian elections. On the other hand, however, Ukraine risked losing external support if citizens of certain nations were excluded from observation missions. "For international institutions, in particular for the OSCE, this is a challenge, because, later on, other countries might cite certain missions as a precedent," Kliuzhev said.
The Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) believes that Russian election observers should be hand-picked. The NGO's head, Oleksii Koshel, suggests admitting only those who "expose Putin's tampering with elections and fight for democratic elections." Koshel told DW.
"We need barriers against Putin's propagandists, but not against Russian public figures who really oppose election fraud, both in Russia and in Ukraine." According to Koshel, this approach would enable Kyiv to kill two birds with one stone — it could prevent Russian secret services from meddling in the elections, and it could avoid being accused of a lack of transparency by the international community.
