What happened in Ukraine's politics by 9 September 2019?
A look back at the days around 9 September 2019, from the prisoner swap with Russia to parliamentary and Cabinet decisions in Kyiv.
What had Ukraine's political agenda become by 9 September 2019? The days leading up to that date brought a dense run of decisions in Kyiv and a major exchange of prisoners with Russia.
On 3 September 2019, the Verkhovna Rada approved a bill providing for the removal of immunity from members of parliament. The next day, 4 September, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to dismiss Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, from his post as head of the Kyiv City State Administration.
The Tsemakh ruling
On 5 September 2019, the Court of Appeal in Kyiv ruled to release Volodymyr Tsemakh, a person of interest in the case of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014 by Russian-backed forces with a Buk missile, and all 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the two countries were finalising negotiations on a "rather large-scale" prisoner exchange.
The 35-to-35 exchange
On 7 September 2019, Russia and Ukraine carried out the swap on a 35-to-35 basis. Among those released were Oleg Sentsov, Mykola Karpyuk, Olexandr Kolchenko and Roman Sushchenko, along with 24 Ukrainian Navy sailors detained by Russia during the 2018 Kerch Strait incident. Kirill Vyshinsky was also part of the exchange.
The inclusion of Tsemakh drew a response from the Dutch government, which said it seriously regretted that he was part of the swap. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the exchange, calling it perhaps a first giant step to peace.
Taken together, the events of 3 to 7 September 2019 set out the picture that stood as the week closed into 9 September: a legislature acting on deputies' immunity, a Cabinet decision on Kyiv's city administration, and a prisoner exchange that drew both praise and regret abroad.
