‘Ministry representative to meet with Jordanian students in Ukraine’

AMMAN — A Ministry of Higher Education representative is due in Ukraine soon to follow up with the Jordanian students who want to move to another university for safety concerns, Ukrainian Ambassador to Jordan Sergiy Pasko said Monday. 

Pasko said Jordan has recently accredited 14 universities in the west of Ukraine to give Jordanian students in east Ukraine the option to move there.

There have been no incidents involving Jordanians in Ukraine except for Thaer Nawaiseh who was found killed in Donetsk in June, and the case is still being investigated.

Nawaiseh, who graduated from a Ukrainian university in 2010, was running a restaurant with an Egyptian who was also found dead.

At a meeting with reporters, Pasko said Jordan’s exports to Ukraine increased by 34 per cent in the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 2013. He noted that pharmaceuticals comprise 70 per cent of Ukraine’s imports from Jordan.

Ukraine’s exports to Jordan witnessed an 11 per cent drop, standing at $151 million between January and April this year compared to the same period in 2013. 

Pasko also briefed reporters on the Malaysian airliner that crashed in Ukrainian territory.

The ambassador said terrorists are hindering investigators from Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

“They allow examining only specific details of the jet,” he said.

“There is information that terrorists have transferred some of the bodies and parts of the jet to Russia in order to cover the evidence,” Pasko added.

A Malaysian airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine last Thursday, with 298 passengers on board.

Ukraine has accused “terrorists” — militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia — of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, according to Reuters.