Ukraine crisis. News in Brief. Tuesday 25 August [Ukrainian sources]

TUESDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the course of the day

News -
Putin fired 77 times yesterday at Ukraine and its people.
UPDATE - sadly reading of another 2 soldiers killed, 9 injured yesterday, Independence Day.
UPDATE - Sentsov given 20 year sentence by Russian military court.
Poro, Merkel, Hollande met in Berlin last night. They also telephoned Putin.
Their news conference carried live on Euronews. Although for the latter two they have big problems now with the migrant crisis.
It seems that everybody in Africa and the Middle East wants to go to the EU, and most to Britain.
The stock market fall is also a worry to them, but nothing too serious. China making some major adjustments.

Weather -
Back to hot. High of 30C again today. Blue sky. Sunshine.

Patriotism -
I spent a couple of days in the capital. I have never, never, seen Ukraine so united behind the flag and other national symbols.
So many men, women, children, in traditional costume. Amazing. And many walking around draped in the national flag.
And now, I think the parade was a good idea. It reignited some national pride. The military were well turned out, and well drilled.
I took a walk down Andrevski. Some good souvenirs on sale -

In Berlin, during the tripartite talks between the presidents of France Francois Hollande and Petro Poroshenko, as well as federal chancellor Angela Merkel held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This was during a press conference, said Merkel, transfers "UNN".

"We talked on the phone with the Russian president, who did not take part in this meeting", - said Merkel.

In addition, the Chancellor stressed that the Tripartite Liaison Group in Minsk should work in the current format.

glavcom.u In Russian

3:45
http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1493835-rosiya-perebuvaye-pid-neglasnimi-energetichnimi-sanktsiyami-svitovogo-spivtovaristva-radnik-prezidenta
===
Joke of the day from the Russians.
It is all an "international conspiracy"...
The problem is there are plenty of Russians who are sadly naive or educationally inept or inebriated enough to believe this garbage.

7:19
http://zik.ua/ua/news/2015/08/25/shtab_ato_za_dobu_boyovyky_obstrilyaly_ukrainskyh_viyskovyh_77_raziv_618837
At the end of day August 24 the situation in the area ATU remained stable. Illegal armed groups significantly reduced the provocative shelling Ukrainian position. However, already the traditional scenario, militants several times caliber weapons used more than 100 millimeters in the night-time.

7:04
http://zik.ua/ua/news/2015/08/25/poroshenko_u_berlini_vidvidav_vystavku_prysvyachenu_nadii_savchenko_618835
===

Poroshenko has had a busy Independence Day indeed.
1000 - at the parade, and a long speech. Then the service at the cathedral.
Then flying to Berlin, meeting with Merkel, Hollande and others, then going to exhibitions.

The representatives of the terrorist organization "Donetsk People's Republic", scaring residents of Donbass possible onset of Ukrainian troops, trying to extend the term of a "power" of its leader Alexander Zakharchenko.

Such an opinion on his Facebook page expressed journalist Alex Matsuka.

"Well, and where on the offensive all week talking Kotormo (" deputy commander of the Ministry of Defense Corps "DNI" Edward. - Ed.) Eduard Basurin ?! "- he wrote.

"What else do they invent interesting, just to prolong Zakharchenko?", - Added the journalist.

Well, and where on the offensive all week Kotormo said Eduard Basurin ?! What else do they invent interesting, just to prolong Zakharchenko?

obozrevatel.com In Russian

7:34
http://kriminal.tv/news/terroristi-ponesli-poterifa.html
===
Self inflicted. Sverdlovsk. Drunk terrorist. Explosion, killed 2 separatists, one Russian.

7:52
http://kievnews.glavcom.ua/news/39542.html
==
Done by Russian refugees

07:26
http://vesti-ukr.com/strana/112103-v-ukraine-reshili-zapretit-bilbordy
Deputies of the BPP and "veterans" propose to ban political billboards, as well as all propaganda with tents, leaflets and via mobile phones. Explain this desire to move the discussion to a constructive plane - not slogans, but political program.
====
I think a good idea. But expect those with lots of money to oppose this. Advertising buys votes.
And who has the most money in Ukraine? - I would say Tymoshenko, without a shadow of doubt.

http://worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/alexander-j-motyl/anti-donbas-sentiment-growing-ukraine
Is Ukrainian public opinion turning toward getting rid of the Russian-occupied Donbas enclave?
The evidence is beginning to look persuasive. A year ago, the suggestion that Ukraine would be better off without the Russian-occupied bits of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces provoked cries of treason. No more. The view has become legitimate, and it may even be winning the day.
A May 2015 public opinion survey by the Sofia Center for Social Research showed that 61.8 percent of Ukrainians would be willing to give up the occupied territories in exchange for peace. Only 22.9 percent supported continuing military operations until the region’s full liberation. (The survey was not conducted in Crimea or the occupied territories.)
===
A view I myself put forward, odessite also, a few days ago. I have heard it mentioned here for some time now.
But I don't think Putin wants the Donbass. It is an economic millstone now.
Industry destroyed, mines destroyed, infastructure destroyed, and lots of "Soviet" babushkas.

The author, some professor from Rutgers, Newark. Not the one north of London, but in New Jersey.

An anti-Russian slogan on a t-shirt for sale in Kiev:
Дякую тобі Боже, що я не москаль - Thank you, Lord, that I am not a Moscovite.

http://theconversation.com/dont-call-it-a-civil-war-ukraines-conflict-is-an-act-of-russian-aggression-46280
===
Absolutely.
Opinion from two lecturers from Cambridge. Not Massachusetts, but the one north of London

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-foreign-minister-accuses-netherlands-of-concealing-facts-about-mh17/528545.html
===
Looks like they don't want Russia tampering with the evidence, or producing its own propaganda in advance.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putin-and-kim-jong-un-are-not-so-different-op-ed/528565.html
Both Kim and, to a lesser extent Putin, manage to send a signal to the outside world: "Don't touch me, I'm crazy."
====
Debatable. I think Putin is just as mad as Kim J U .

August 24, 2015 10:37 pm
Kremlin moves to ban Russian Wikipedia
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38bbbd98-4a7f-11e5-9b5d-89a026fda5c9.html#axzz3jnvrcM2Q
====
I'm hearing from people in Russia that the site has indeed been blocked.
Talk about freedom of information. North Korea, here we come!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11817321/Russian-summer-madness.html
===
Not a bad article, for once, from Oliphant in the Telegraph. The last paragraph is worth reading.
He can blow hot or cold. Remember he works, or has worked for RIA Novosti, the Russian News Agency.
And his idiotic boss David Blair wrote about Ukraine using "Excessive force" against Putin's 10,000 tanks in occupied Donbas.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21661810-journey-capital-hinterland-shows-how-grim-life-has-become-and-how-russians?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/thepathtopenury
Yet no matter how bad it gets, a flock of chickens and an expansive garden with rows of potatoes, beets, cucumbers and onions offer insurance. After the second world war “we survived on grass,” says Ms Stepanova. “Russia will survive whatever happens now.”
====
Typical Putin supporter. Happy to live in complete poverty and ignorance while the President's friends exchange 50,000 dollar watches as presents.
I can't see a name, but the article is likely by American Noah Sneider. Not a bad read.

A lot of articles in English during the past 2 or 3 days about how Russia is crumbling.

http://ukraineatwar.blogspot.de/2015/08/russian-mortar-may-have-killed-russian.html
====
Long long article showing that the Russians killed their own journalists, not Nadia Savchenko.

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/74806
On August 24, Professor Marcel de Haas went public with allegations that he is being squeezed out of the state-funded university over the management’s displeasure at a planned lecture on Ukraine that it deemed “politically sensitive.”...
The scrapping of the lecture followed a complaint to the university by Ruslan Kuznetsov, the defense attache at the Russian Embassy in Astana, de Haas said.
The Russian diplomat’s letter, which was sent to Nazarbayev University administrative staff and copied to an official with Kazakhstan’s Defense Ministry, warned that de Haas’ proposed lecture, entitled “The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict,” would “introduce falsehoods into the minds of students.”
===========

Putin blocking the truth to those in the Soviet arena - and that includes Kazakhstan.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2015/08/20/is-a-slow-putsch-against-putin-under-way/
....Putin’s failures are becoming more evident on a daily basis. No one denies that Russia is a kleptocratic state whose leaders have stolen much of the national wealth. But Russia has also become a pariah that breaks rules of the international order, engages in official lies, and owes huge damages in international courts...
Putin’s economic policies are a disaster....
Putin’s war has at long last created a united Ukraine that will hate Russia for generations to come....
None of Putin’s options are good. ...Those who benefited from Putin’s kleptocracy would face ruin.
====

And all done with Putin's own hands. The west has done remarkably little while Putin single-handedly destroys Russia himself.

10:21
http://sled.net.ua/node/25883
"Europe is engaged in self-deception. We are on the brink of the abyss, as it was on the eve of World War II. Ukraine is in a difficult position. If the mercenaries will achieve independence in eastern Ukraine, it will be a triumph Lavrov (Foreign Minister of Russia. -  Ed.).

Statement by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko following the negotiations with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and President of France Francois Hollande, August 24, 2015, Berlin
http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/zayava-prezidenta-ukrayini-za-pidsumkami-peregovoriv-z-feder-35854
[In English; Pres website]

There is no alternative to the Minsk process...
We clearly declare that for today, unfortunately, Russia and Russia-backed militants pose the only threat to the restoration of peace and stability in the region...

====
Photo from the same website of Maidan yesterday

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/08/25/7078911/
========

Putin, Lavrov and Shaun Walker's "DNR guys". Blood on their hands. Independence Day. ..

http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1493928-dvoye-morskikh-pikhotintsiv-zaginuli-pid-chas-obstrilu-bilya-sopinogo-volonter
====
I'm not sure if these are the two mentioned by the General Staff above

14:11
http://censor.net.ua/photo_news/349006/marsh_na_den_nezavisimosti_v_kramatorske_foto_dnya

http://www.screendaily.com/news/ukrainian-filmmaker-oleg-sentsov-sentenced-to-20-years/5092022.article
[3 minutes ago]
On the last day of his trial last week, Sentsov had made a defiant statement calling cowardice “the greatest sin on Earth” and called on the more enlightened citizens in Russia to start to “learn how not to be afraid.”
===
Read also at
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russian-court-sentences-oleg-sentsov-817446

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11821293/Russia-sends-more-troops-to-eastern-Ukraine-as-leaders-get-together-for-crisis-summit.html
Fears of a return to all out warfare continue to mount in Ukraine after Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, accused Russia of sending fresh troops and equipment into the eastern part of the country.
[Article from yesterday]

15:37
http://censor.net.ua/news/349021/eto_parodiya_na_pravosudie_presssekretar_mid_ukrainy_o_prigovore_rossiyiskogo_suda_sentsovu_i_kolchenko

http://www.charter97.org/ru/news/2015/8/25/166099/
15:56
This was reported by a volunteer Denis Pyatigorets referring to fighters brigade.
"On the night of 23 August 24 APU retaliatory fire in the area was destroyed Debalcevo Russian ammunition depot. Intelligence reports of numerous casualties of the enemy, "- wrote in" Facebook "volunteer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11822921/Russian-court-sentences-Ukrainian-filmmaker-Oleg-Sentsov-to-20-years-for-terrorism.html
One key prosecution witness, Gennady Afanasyev, refused to stand by his original testimony incriminating the two men, saying it had been extracted under duress.
====

Rather "sitting on the fence" report from RIA Novosti "journalist" Oliphant. But he does mention some facts, rather than simply kiss Putin's butt.

Rather stronger reporting, I have to say from Oliphant's best buddy in Moscow, Shaun Walker, normally super-pro-Putin-butt-kisser.
====

Russian court jails Ukrainian film-maker for 20 years over terror offences
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/25/russian-court-jails-ukrainian-filmmaker-oleg-sentsov-for-20-years-over-terror-offences

A Russian court has sentenced Crimean film director Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in jail, after a trial that has been criticised as fabricated and farcical....
...Lawyers for Sentsov and Kolchenko said they always expected the court to issue a guilty verdict: innocent verdicts are almost unheard of in the Russian legal system.
====

Maybe Walker himself is shocked just by how autocratic Russia has become.
Frankly, any foreigner in Russia must fear for themselves. Anything can happen to you. A dictatorship gone mad.
Putin makes fellow-dictators Kim in N Korea, and Luka in Belarus look like nice normal people.

This in the Canadian press
=====
http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/ukrainian-filmmaker-oleg-sentsov-sentenced-to-20-years-after-russian-terrorism-trial-1.3202814
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on his Facebook page sent a message of support for Sentsov.
"Hang in there, Oleg," he wrote. "A time will come when those who set this trial for you will land in the dock."

Re: Anti-Donbas Sentiment Growing in Ukraine - Alexander Motyl

Since the 1970s I have been debating the idea of "Ukraine without the Donbas".

My tendency is to support the continued struggle to keep Donbas in Ukraine, not just because it IS Ukraine, but also because the opinion expressed in one of the comments after the above Motyl article has some good points:

elmer  Peter K • 3 days ago
I think you are exactly right.

It takes 2 to tango. It may very well be that Ukrainians are willing to give up a portion of Donbas for peace. But Putler Khuylo and his sovok mafia have definitively and demonstrably proved that they are more than willing to turn Russian soldiers into Cargo 200.

It is no skin off Putler Khuylo's nose to have Russian soldiers die for him, just so he can keep his palaces. And Putler Khuylo will not back off. He is a demented KGB psycho. If he, in some fantasy world, stopped the war, then he's got to do an about face from all the sovok propaganda that he's been peddling about "Rasha being under attack".

What is Putler Khuylo protecting? He is protecting his palaces, and those of his sovok KGB mafia inner circle. It costs him nothing. Like Stalin, people don't matter to him and his Kremlinoid sovok mafia thugs - they are cannon fodder.

On top of that - Kravchuk. Really? The worthless former Commie asshole who allowed the sovok mafia oligarchy to develop in Ukraine? The asshole who simply threw up his hands and said "we have what he have - маємо то що маємо." You've got to be kidding.

2 guys are pointing guns at each other after they've been shooting at each other. One of them is Putler Khuylo. Putler Khuylo is the one who started the gun fight.
The other guy says - "ok, let's put our guns down."

WOULD YOU REALLY TRUST PUTLER KHUYLO TO PUT HIS GUN DOWN???

15:59
http://tyzhden.ua/News/144416
At the public hearing on renaming Artemovsk (Donetsk region), it was decided to return the historical name of the city - Bakhmut. Reported site Artemivsk City Council...
Recall Artemovsk was called Bakhmut until 1924. Then the city was renamed in honor of the Russian revolutionary, ..

16:40
http://www.capital.ua/ru/news/51871-u-yatsenyuka-oprovergli-polnoe-ob-edinenie-s-bpp
===
Under discussion, apparently. BPP = Block Petro Poroshenko.
NF = Narodni Front, Yats party. He was previously with Tymoshenko, but left her when he realised what a liability she was, and when YT insisted on staying as party leader.

I actually think that Yats, Poro, Turchinov, Lutsenko all work well together.
Tymoshenko and Liashko are more popularist, and will go where they think they can get extra votes.
Even if they are traitors to Ukraine. These latter two are definitely politicians first, and patriots second.

http://glavcom.ua/news/319802.html
As of 15:40 the fire engulfed the warehouse and containers with flammable materials.
The fire occurred in a warehouse where he kept varnishes, paints and fuels. In addition, one of the tanned tanks exploded.



=====
Bucher is on the main rail line - northern route - from KIev to Lviv - the route the fast Hyundai train takes.
But I'm not sure where this fire is in relation to it.
I've travelled through Bucher both in a car, and on the train, many times.
An expanding town, due to its proximity to KIev - maybe 35 km from the capital? North-west.
Apparently Bulgakov - whom Sentsov quoted a few days' ago, in his court trial - used to stay there in the summer (he had a dacha there).
One of his famous lines was, "manuscripts don't burn". Maybe - but glass factories certainly do. I hope nobody is injured.
The Bulgakov monument in Bucha -



===
Regarding, Manuscripts Don't Burn, The Story Behind The Name
http://freethebooks.blogspot.com/2006/12/story-behind-name.html

"Manuscripts don't burn" is a quote from Mikhail Bulgakov's book Master and Margarita.
...The mere existence of the manuscript, had it come to the knowledge of Stalin's police, would almost certainly have led to the permanent disappearance of its author.
When the book was finally published nearly three decades after his death, it caused a sensation. Of course, it got banned. But that added more to its appeal and soon "Manuscripts Don't Burn" became a rallying cry for oppressed writers, playwrights and poets. .. Bulgakov himself had to rewrite the novel from memory after he had burnt his draft in a picque of despair.

17:36
http://obozrevatel.com/politics/63421-klimkin-ponyatiya-svoboda-i-spravedlivost-rossii-neizvestnyi.htm
===
In relation to the Sentsov Stalin-Putin show-trial.
He also has a swipe at Lavrov, rephrasing the latter's "genetics" garbage from yesterday.

17:40
http://svidok.ua/ua/news/article/19191-vatazhok-dnr-obitsjaje-povnomasshtabnu-vijnu
Andrei Purgin, President of the National Council of the DNR: "Here any provocation could lead to full-scale hostilities. I doubt that Poroshenko immediately would give the order to attack, but he could
====
He wouldn't say this without his master's bidding. Putin. Terrorists' talk.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and President of France Francois Hollande discussed the red lines which the Russian Federation should not cross in Berlin, Aug. 24.

Presidential Administration Deputy Head Kostiantyn Yelisieiev said at a briefing, Censor.NET reports citing 112 Ukraine TV channel.

"It was crucial that we discussed the red line yesterday, Russia's crossing of which would trigger a strong reaction of the international community, particularly the EU, while not only sanctions were meant," he said.

At the same time, he did not specify what exactly was discussed.

"We have discussed the line, but diplomatic efforts require silence. There is understanding on these lines. One of them, in particular, is the holding of fake elections in the territory of the so-called "LPR" and "DPR". We are talking about Oct. 18 and Nov. 1, in particular. We have clearly stated, first of all, that Russia must put pressure on its supporters to prevent or cancel these elections. And if the elections take place, they will not be recognized and they would pose a serious threat to the Minsk peace process," he said.

According to Yelisieiev, certain negotiations, including with the Russian side, will be carried out in the near future.

"I can tell you in advance that we have agreed that if the situation remains the same as it is today, the European Union will decide in September to extend the so-called personal sanctions against certain representatives of the Russian Federation involved in destabilization of the situation in the Donbas," Ukrainski Novyny quoted Yelisieiev.

censor.net.ua In Russian

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/08/russia-crimean-activists-sentenced-after-fatally-flawed-military-trial/

“This whole trial was designed to send a message. It played into Russia’s propaganda war against Ukraine and was redolent of Stalinist-era show trials of dissidents,” said Heather McGill, Eurasia Researcher at Amnesty International.
===========

Normally Amnesty sits on the fence when it comes to politics, but this is very clear. Contrast this with Roland Oliphant's "Russia denies... Russia denies... Russia denies..." garbage in his same take on this news story.
Incidentally, I saw this AA article on Kanal 5 News at 1800 hrs here in Ukraine. They showed it in English, and translated it in part.

from youtube
Russian court sentenced Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov to 20 years of imprisonment; left-wing activist Olexander Kolchenko is penalized with 10 years; both in a high-security penal colony. After pronouncing of the sentence the political prisoners sang Ukrainian anthem.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko does not rule out a meeting of the Normandy Four leaders during the UN General Assembly in September in New York.

As reported by Censor.NET, Poroshenko announced this during his visit to Odesa. According to the president, the key task at the moment is to get Russia at the negotiating table and stop escalating the conflict with Ukraine. The UN General Assembly is a good ground for such steps, and should the meeting be prepared, Poroshenko sees such negotiations rather possible.

censor.net.ua In Russian

In response to the abominable and cruel sentences passed today by a Russian court to two Ukrainian journalists (20 years to Oleh Sentsov and 10 years to Oleksandr Kolchenko) for allegedly conspiring to dislodge the regime in Russia, Ukraine has to put several Russian army officers taken prisoner in Donbas with weapons in their hands to an open trial.

This was written in Facebook Aug. 26 by Anton Herashchenko, lawmaker and adviser to the interior minister.

"The pocket Russian court has fulfilled Putin's instructions and hatched up another unjust sentence," he wrote.

In a symmetric response, Ukrainian judges must start open trials of the three Russian officers imprisoned in the line of duty in Donbas, the lawmaker said.

zik.ua

The European Union has drawn several red lines, threatening to impose very tough sanctions if the rebels cross them, presidential deputy chief of staff Kostyantyn Yeliseyev announced, European Pravda reports Aug. 26.

The red lines were agreed on Monday during the 5-hour meeting of Pres Poroshenko with the presidents of Germany and France, he said.

“We have discussed the red lines for Donbas. If the rebels cross them the reaction of the world and EU will be very tough. I am not speaking about the sanctions only,” he said.

The diplomat refused to clarify the list of the red lines, saying the information is not public.

“However, I can tell you about one of the red lines – the pseudo elections planned by the rebels and their Russian masters. The Russians have to talk their allies into cancelling the fake elections,” he said.

The EU also confirmed that it has no demands to Ukraine to give the rebel republics a special status.

Ukraine has repeatedly stated that, unless it has complete control over its Russian borders and Russian and rebel troops are pulled out of Donbas, no honest and safe elections can be held in the rebe-held territory.

zik.ua

"In the east of Ukraine, the Russian army is being activated," the NSDC press service quoted Turchynov as saying on Tuesday.

According to the reports, Russia's engineering detachments have built five pontoon ferries over the Siversky Donets river on the Ukrainian-Russian border, as well as building access routes to the ferries.

"Thus, military infrastructure is being formed to ensure redeployment of additional detachments of Russian troops to the occupied territory of Ukraine to use them in battle," Turchynov said, adding that this is more evidence of the direct involvement of the Russian military in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

interfax.com.ua

"The value of electricity imports from Russia at 21:00 on August 24 amounted to 0 MW (the target is 50 MW)," the report said.

The press service of Ukrenergo told Interfax-Ukraine that the suspension of imports from Russia does not mean that such supplies will not be resumed at another time, if the power system requires it.

interfax.com.ua