Ex-central-bank official among seven detained over loan to troubled bank:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- The former first deputy chairman of the central bank is among seven people who have been detained on suspicion of embezzling $49 million that was part of a loan the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) gave to stabilize a struggling bank owned by one of the country's biggest agricultural producers.
In a Facebook post on November 11, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said those detained included former and current central-bank employees, VAB Bank staff, and companies linked to the lender's ultimate owners.
NABU wouldn't provide further details, citing confidentiality clauses related to ongoing investigations into the recapitalization of VAB Bank.
A source at NABU who is not authorized to speak to the media told RFE/RL that one of the detainees was Oleksandr Pysaruk, the current CEO of Austrian-owned Raiffeisen Bank Aval.
He previously was the first deputy chairman of the NBU when about half the country's banks were shuttered to end dirty lending practices and money laundering in the banking industry.
Earlier in the day, Pysaruk confirmed to local media that NABU officers were at his Kyiv Raiffeisen office but wouldn't say why the agents had entered the premises.
Oleh Bakhmatyuk, whose assets include Ukraine's largest egg producer and one of the country's biggest farmland holdings, owned VAB Bank, which was declared insolvent in November 2014.
Nearly 100 banks lost their licenses over a two-year period after Valeria Hontareva took over the NBU and installed her team in 2014. She resigned in April 2017.
During the process, Bakhmatyuk accused the NBU chairwoman of damaging the national economy.
Another bank taken into receivership was the country's largest lender, PrivatBank, where international auditors found a $5.5 billion whole on its balance sheet.
It's two principal former shareholders, multimillionaires Ihor Kolomoyskiy and Hennadiy Boholyubov, have not been criminally charged in Ukraine on issues related to the nationalized bank.
Kolomoyskiy has opposed the nationalization of PrivatBank and has been trying to regain ownership rights through the courts in multiple jurisdictions at home and abroad.
Authorities suspect billionaire Kostyantin Zhevaho of funneling approximately $100 million from his former Finance and Credit Bank.
An arrest warrant for him was issued on October 9.
Zhevaho, a former lawmaker, is also the majority owner of Ferrexpo, a London-traded iron-ore-pellet producer based in Poltava, a central region in Ukraine. The company boasts Europe's largest iron-ore deposit, with approximately 20 billion tons of resources.
He is believed to be currently residing outside Ukraine. (w/Novoye Vremya, Liga.net, Leviy Bereg, and Bloomberg)
Trump says will release transcript of first call with Zelenskiy this week:
By RFE/RL
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will by the end of the week release the transcript of his first phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, which took place on April 21, after the former comedian and political novice was elected.
"In order to continue being the most Transparent President in history, I will be releasing sometime this week the Transcript of the first, and therefore most important, phone call I had with the President of Ukraine," Trump tweeted on November 11. "I am sure you will find it tantalizing!"
The announcement came as the Democrat-led congressional impeachment inquiry into Trump switches to public hearings that begin on November 13.
A July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy is at the nexus of the investigation that is determining whether the U.S. president prodded his counterpart into probing a political rival whom he might face in next year's presidential election.
During the call, Trump, a Republican, asked the Ukrainian president to look into 2020 candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had been a hired board member of a controversial Ukrainian energy company.
While asking for the "favor," according to a rough transcript of the call made public, Trump was withholding some $400 million in military aid to Kyiv.
A National Security Council official assigned to the White House, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, has testified that the first Trump-Zelenskiy call on April 21 "was actually a very good call."
"It was exactly what we had -- we were hoping for," said Vindman, who is the director for European affairs at the National Security Council. "I do recall reviewing that transcript, but there was nothing normal, it was just -- everybody was happy, high-fiving from that call because were moving in the right direction for Ukraine."
High-ranking defense official arrested in faulty-bulletproof-vest case:
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
A Kyiv court during a custody hearing on November 11 ordered a major general at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to six months in pretrial detention or be released on bail set at $3.1 million in a public-procurement embezzlement case involving substandard bulletproof vests.
Dmytro Marchenko, the main directorate chief at the Defense Ministry, is accused with four other suspects of causing about $4 million in losses to the state when purchasing 100,000 sets of military uniforms, 20,000 inferior bulletproof vests, and defective tents for the army at inflated prices.
Three out of five bulletproof vests were found to be pierceable during testing, State Bureau of Investigations (DBR) chief Roman Truba said on his Telegram messaging channel.
In July, the DBR published audio recordings of Defense Ministry officials speaking about the specific brand of vests that were bought, their low quality, of having knowledge bullets could pierce them, and that they didn't meet technical standards.
The Pechersk district court of Kyiv has yet to preside over custody hearings for the other four suspects, who have not been named.
Truba added that more suspects will be arrested in the case in the future.
In June, the DBR conducted 40 searches at the residences of dozens of Defense Ministry officials related to purchases of military gear at inflated prices. (w/Ukrayinska Pravda and Interfax)
Former Kazakh president says working on Putin-Zelenskiy talks:
Nursultan Nazarbaev, Kazakhstan's former president, says he is working to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Speaking at a conference in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, on November 12, Nazarbaev said Zelenskiy had agreed to take part in such a meeting, while Putin had been informed about it.
Russia-Ukraine relations have been tense since Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 and began supporting pro-Moscow separatists in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
"If they [Putin and Zelenskiy] need a neutral site for talks, I have offered Kazakhstan," Nazarbaev said.
Russia has denied that its armed forces have been involved in the territories controlled by Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east, where more than 13,000 people have been killed since 2014.
Nazarbaev's office said earlier that the former president discussed by phone with the Russian leader the possibility of holding a Putin-Zelenskiy summit. It remains unclear when exactly Nazarbaev talked about the issue with Zelenskiy.
On November 11, Putin discussed plans for holding a summit between Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Kremlin said earlier, without mentioning Putin-Zelenskiy talks.
Known as the Normandy format, the last four-way talks took place in October 2016. (Kazinform, Tengrinews, and Reuters)
From last night: