What happened in Kyiv's courts and cabinet before 6 September 2019?
A look back at two decisions in Kyiv on 4 and 5 September 2019, and a prisoner exchange said to be near.
What was Kyiv dealing with in the days around 6 September 2019? Two developments from the days just before that date, one judicial and one administrative, had drawn attention.
On 4 September 2019, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers decided to dismiss Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, from his post as head of the Kyiv City State Administration. The decision concerned that administrative office, which he held alongside the mayoralty.
On 5 September 2019, the Court of Appeal in Kyiv ruled to release Volodymyr Tsemakh, described as a person of interest in the case of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The flight, a scheduled service from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down on 17 July 2014 over eastern Ukraine with a Buk surface-to-air missile, according to later background. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Wreckage landed near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, about 40 km from the border.
The same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Ukraine were finalising negotiations on what he called a "rather large-scale" prisoner exchange. No details of its scope were given in the reports from that day.
Taken together, the reports of 4 and 5 September 2019 show a capital where the government was reshaping the city's administration while a court ruling in a high-profile international case and talk of a prisoner swap stayed in the news as 6 September 2019 began.
