The year 2020 has one of crisis: a global pandemic, economic downturn and political instability.
While COVID-19 and its effects on all spheres of life and the economy have dominated the media coverage, a number of other events occupied the headlines too.
With the end of 2020 now in sight, the Kyiv Post is taking a look back at the most defining events of the year not connected to the coronavirus.
People arrange flowers and candles at a memorial site for the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crash in Iran’s capital Tehran at the Boryspil airport outside Kyiv on Jan. 8, 2020. The crash killed 176 people — everyone on board. The majority of victims were Iranians, many of whom had Canadian citizenship or ties to Canada. Ukraine lost 11 citizens, nine of whom were crew members. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Iran plane crash
On Jan. 8, the day after Christmas, Ukrainians woke up to shocking news: Ukrainian International Airlines flight PS752 had crashed near the Iranian capital of Tehran. None of the 176 people on board survived.
The majority of victims were Iranians, many of whom had Canadian citizenship or ties to Canada. Ukraine lost 11 citizens, 9 of whom were crew.
Three days after the crash, under international pressure, the Iranian government admitted to mistakenly shooting down the passenger plane. Later, the analysis of the black boxes from the plane revealed it had been hit by two surface-to-air missiles.
Five states that lost their citizens — Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom — created an international coordination and response group that has demanded a transparent investigation and that Iran pay reparations to the victims’ families. Ukraine was picked as the leader in talks with Iran.
Ukraine, Canada, and the United Nations aviation agency have been dissatisfied with Iran’s handling of the probe.
On Dec. 22, Iranian media reported that the country’s Civil Aviation Organization released its final technical report on the downing. The details of the report have not been made public by the time this story went to print. However, it is said that Iran blamed the downing on “human error.”
Government reshuffles
In 2020, it was difficult to track the resignations, dismissals and appointments in the Ukrainian government.
Delivering on his promise to bring new people to power, President Volodymyr Zelensky picked two reformists backed by western partners, Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka. But both men were sacked only six months later. Most of the young ministers of Honcharuk’s cabinet left, too.
The new government of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal formed in March, when the pandemic was at Ukraine’s doorstep, and struggled to find and retain ministers. Some ministers lasted less than a month (Pavlo Kukhta was the minister of economic development for 13 days, Ihor Umansky and Illia Yemets lasted 16 as ministers of finance and healthcare, respectively). New appointments took place throughout the year.
President Zelensky’s office saw some staff changes too: starting with the dismissal of Andriy Bohdan as chief of staff in February and ending with the recent resignation of deputy chief of staff Yulia Kovaliv on Dec. 22.
This handout picture taken and released by the press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on July 7, 2020 shows heavy smoke rising from a wildfire at Novoaydarivsk district, Luhansk Oblast. Five people died and nine were hospitalized after a major forest fire in eastern Ukraine.
Climate change
2020 is set to be the third warmest year on record in the world and the second for Ukraine.
Summer this year was the second hottest on record in the country and fall was the warmest since 1881, with an average temperature exceeding the climatic norm by 3.6°С, according to the Srezvevsky geophysical observatory.
Rising temperatures continue to contribute to extreme weather events. In April, Kyiv had the most polluted air in the world for several days as a massive dust storm and smoke from burning forests in the Chornobyl exclusion zone and neighboring areas covered the city. While most fires in Ukraine are man-made, caused by arson or burning dry grass before sowing crops, the emergency service said the number of fires and their coverage increased by 30% due to the dry weather.
In June, western Ukraine saw the worst floods in a decade as heavy rains caused rivers to overflow. And crops in Odesa Oblast were destroyed by severe drought following a snowless winter and exacerbated by a hot summer. More forest fires raged through Luhansk Oblast in October, displacing hundreds of residents of front line villages.
Kaharlyk
In May, protests erupted in the United States in response to the killing of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer. Soon rallies spread across the world, mixing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement with opposition to police brutality and racism in their own countries.
Ukraine had its own moment.
On May 23, a woman named Nelya Pogrebytska was tortured and raped at a police department in Kaharlyk, a small town outside of Kyiv.
A probe revealed that torture was widely used in the city’s police department to coerce confessions. Five police officers were indicted, including — for the first time — the chief of the police, who was accused of turning a blind eye to brutal and unlawful practices. In Ukraine, where police impunity and violence against women run rampant, this case heading to court is already a big win.
Read more: Rape case exposing systemic police brutality goes to trial
Lutsk terrorist
On July 21, President Zelensky posted a bizarre short video on Facebook. “Everyone should watch the 2005 film Earthlings,” he said, referring to a documentary about human exploitation of animals narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.
Zelensky was fulfilling the request of a terrorist who held 13 people hostage on a bus in the western city of Lutsk. All the hostages were soon freed, happy ending to the first case of domestic terrorism in Ukraine’s history.
The terrorist, identified as Maksym Kryvorosh, 44, turned out to be a former convict who had written an autobiography about his life in prison. Besides demanding Zelensky endorse Earthlings, he wanted the Prime Minister, ministers and judges to post on that they were “terrorists in law.”
Kryvorosh is still in custody awaiting trial. His alleged accomplice was released on bail.
An-26 crash
Ukraine was forced to grieve plane crash victims again in 2020 when an An-26 military plane crashed during an exercise on Sept. 25 in Chuhuiv, a town in Kharkiv Oblast.
Twenty-six crew members and cadets of the Ivan Kozhedub National Air Force University were killed. One cadet survived.
A state commission set up to investigate the causes of the crash blamed engine failure, crew errors and systemic violations of safety rules during training flights at the university.
On Dec. 18, the State Investigations Bureau served a notice of suspicion to Air Force commander Serhiy Drozdov for the systemic breaches of flight rules and service regulations.
In response, Drozdov said the tragedy could have been averted had the Air Force flown newer planes.
A woman throws a ballot into a ballot box at a polling station in a village of Bilka, Zhytomyr Oblast on the local elections day of Oct. 25, 2020. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Local elections
Amid the worsening pandemic, Ukraine held local elections on Oct. 25 under the new Election Code, which increased the role of political parties, and decentralization reform, which granted local authorities more funds and autonomy from the central government.
In major cities, incumbent mayors predictably won reelection by comfortable margins. Their parties also beat national parties for seats in oblast and city councils.
As expected, European Solidarity, the party of former President Petro Poroshenko, won seats in western Ukraine, while the pro-Russian Opposition Platform remained popular in the southeast.
The biggest loser of these elections was Zelensky, whose Servant of the People party failed to take first place in any big city.
Read more: Winners & losers of Ukraine’s Oct. 25 local elections
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden gestures to the crowd after he delivered his speech in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov. 7, 2020. Democrat Biden was declared winner of the U.S. presidency Nov. 7, defeating Donald Trump and ending an era that convulsed American politics, shocked the world and left the United States more divided than at any time in decades. (AFP)
Joe Biden’s victory
It seems so long ago, but the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump ended this year. In February, the Republican-led U.S. Senate acquitted Trump after the Democratic-led House of Representatives charged the president with abuse of power and obstruction to Congress for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
But Democrats got the last laugh. Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden. Ukrainian leaders are undoubtedly relieved, after being inadvertently dragged into a partisan impeachment fight under Trump. Now, they hope for better ties with the U.S. and more support against Russia.
Read more: Experts say that Biden’s victory means ‘tough love’ for Ukraine
Ukrainian serviceman with the National Guard Vitaly Markiv (C) arrives in Kyiv’s Boryspil airport on Nov. 4, 2020 after being acquitted on appeal by an Italian court in the trial over the death of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rochhelli during shelling in the Donbas in 2014. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Free Markiv
Ukrainian soldier Vitaly Markiv could have spent 24 years in an Italian prison on highly contested charges of killing Italian photojournalist Andrea Rochelli in May 2014, during fierce fighting in the Donbas war. Rochelli’s interpreter was also killed.
Luckily for Markiv, Ukrainian diplomats and journalists didn’t give up. On Nov. 3, a court in Milan acquitted him during an appeals hearing.
Ukraine’s campaign to #FreeMarkiv turned into a battle against disinformation, Italian media bias and Russian propaganda. They influenced the jury’s initial decision to sentence the soldier last year, according to Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk, who played a key role in discovering flaws in the prosecution.
Read more: How Ukraine fought Italian disinformation to free Vitaliy Markiv from prison
Ceasefire in the Donbas
One year after the first and (so far) last meeting between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, little progress has been made toward ending the war in Donbas, where Russian-backed militants control large swathes of territory.
Negotiations under the Minsk agreements have again hit a deadend. But despite disagreements over the peace plan, the ceasefire that began on July 27 has held, albeit imperfectly.
OSCE monitors recorded a significant drop in violence, with only four Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat since then. Over 4,300 ceasefire violations were recorded as of Dec. 22 — an increase this month. Still, that’s less than the 8,000 violations that monitors recorded in the week before the July 27 ceasefire.
Still, hardships for the civilian population on both sides of the front line have grown due to the pandemic. In November, Ukraine opened two new checkpoints in Zolote and Shchastya. However, movement through them is currently blocked by the militants.
