Ukraine crisis. News in Brief. Friday 30 October [Ukrainian sources]

FRIDAY

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

News -
The massive explosions at the Ukrainian ammunition dump appear to be abating. 2 dead, 3 injured.
Ato update saying 2 soldiers injured by a mine.
Cyprus has finally ratified the EU AA with Ukraine. That leaves just.... Greece.

Weather -
Very stable. The morning frosts have started. -2 or -3 - and as a result the leaves on the trees are turning red and gold.
At the moment it looks like Vermont in the fall. High today may be around 10. But the sun in shining.

Observation -
Admin sent me to visit the two countries that have yet to ratify the Associate Agreement with Ukraine - namely, Greece and Cyprus. (Cyprus actually did it supposedly yesterday, but awaiting confirmation.)
Cyprus in particular is packed with Russians. Also - many from the Donbass buying up properties; often full streets of villas - I joke not.
I saw five houses in a row in a coastal resort which were bought up by Lugansk (Yanukovich mafia-clan) families afraid that their stolen millions-billions will be taken away from them.
Property has the added bonus of giving people a route to an EU passport. Even rich Chinese are now getting in on the game. But in places like Limassol restaurants routinely have menus in Russian - that's how many Russians have left Putin's wasteland - both Russia itself, and now the Donbass - and moved away in hope of a better future for their children.

7:35
http://kiev.segodnya.ua/kpower/vybory-mera-kieva-kandidaty-voyuyut-za-vtoroy-tur-662782.html
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Slightly bizarre headline. As far as I understand Klitchko won with about 40%.
Apparently the count is very slow. But Klitchko will easily win a runoff.

7:29
http://obozrevatel.com/politics/78360-v-dnepropetrovske-falsifitsiruyut-izbiratelnyie-protokolyi-fotofakt.htm?nopopup
This is evidenced by various photos protocols with wet seals with the same polling station (№121306) - given to send "to the words" and made in some time.
The documents are virtually identical except for one - a quantitative indication of support, "the opposition bloc": the numbers on the "adjusted" the report immediately increased by a quarter - from 239 to 299 votes on a site with thousands of voters.
"Was there intent or common technical mistake - this is not our competence. It is the competence of law enforcement agencies, which would need to seek after the establishment of the election results in this area," - said a member of the media Dnepropetrovsk city election commission Andrei Gusak.
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Putin has stolen Crimea. He has occupied the Donbass. He has gained a lot, but he still wants his corridor to Crimea. And for that he needs Dneprpetrovsk, and preferably also Odessa. Nobody expects him to give in yet.

8:27
Cyprus Parliament ratified the Association Agreement EU-Ukraine (Public people)
http://pl.com.ua/parlament-kipra-ratifitsiroval-soglashenie-ob-assotsiatsii-ukraina-es/

http://ua.112.ua/avarii-np/derzhns-z-400-vybukhy-na-skladakh-u-svatovomu-prypynylysia-v-misti-pratsiuiut-riatuvalnyky-i-pirotekhniky-268535.html
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Still difficult to find out much information about what happened. Ukrainian ammunition dump. 2 soldiers killed, 3 injured. Local residents evacuated.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/former-separatist-commander-strelkov-may-found-russian-political-party/540662.html
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I would see this as a clever move by Putin. It feeds the west the idea that there is democracy in Russia, and Girkin - Strelkov is undoubtedly fully under Putin's control.
Illusion is everything.
I should add that the Moscow Times is beginning to struggle in its role as an independent news outlet. Ownership change - and I would now expect a slow shift over to propaganda for Putin. Sad, but a sign of the times in Tsar Putin's imperial Russia.
Update - read elsewhere that it stops daily production today. It will be interesting how it continues online... and if the perspective changes.. Sad.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/director-of-moscow-library-of-ukrainian-literature-accused-of-inciting-hatred/540663.html
On Wednesday the peaceful routine of the Moscow Library of Ukrainian Literature, located in a residential building in northern Moscow, was interrupted by law enforcement officers who raided the library, seizing books and files, and detained Natalya Sharina, the library's director.
The search was prompted by claims that the library was storing newspapers that “distort historical facts” and exhibit a “Russophobic nature,” news reports said, citing unidentified officials.
===
This sort of headline, and story, would be surreal in the US, or Canada, or the UK. But in Russia - normal. The state control of society plunges new depths.
A raid on a library... !!!! Surreal....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ukraines-war-on-two-fronts/2015/10/29/64647760-7e40-11e5-afce-2afd1d3eb896_story.html
The fight against corruption also requires cultural change, even moral change, and that can’t come only from the top. The mayor of Lviv, in western Ukraine, has forged a successful political movement around the idea that the war on corruption begins at the very lowest levels of local government. ...
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So-so article.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/vladimir-putins-coup-112025#ixzz3pmjzr4zH
The war in Ukraine is no longer only about Ukraine. The conflict has transformed Russia. This increasingly is what European leaders and diplomats believe: that Vladimir Putin and his security establishment have used the fog of war in Ukraine to shroud the final establishment of his brittle imperialist dictatorship in Moscow..
“What is happening now is the full embrace of neo-imperialism,” ...
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Not the sort of article you would get from the likes of the "Moscow journalists" - Shaun Walker, and the new bbc woman there.

12:10
http://vesti-ukr.com/kiev/121439-88-obrabotannyh-bjulletenej-vo-vtorom-ture-vyborov-mjera-kieva-srazjatsja-klichko-i-bereza
за Кличко проголосовали 308 тыс. 444 избирателя; Klitchko 308,444
за Березу - 67 тыс. 410;  Berioza
Александра Омельченко (Единство) - 65 тыс. 298; Omelchenko
Владимира Бондаренко (ВО Батькивщина) - 59 тыс. 456; Bondarenko - I think this is the Batkivshina guy with a "Yanukovich" - like garage of cars - Bentleys, Porsches, etc etc etc.
Сергея Гусовского (Самопомич) - 59 тыс. 190. Samopomich
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So - apart from Klitchko, the vote was amazingly split!
N.B. TiC - is short for "trisitch" - i.e. thousand.
Berioza will likely get translated online as Birch. The tree )
Latest - just read elsewhere speculation that Berioza may withdraw from the 2nd round.
To be honest this would save a lot of money. But it could just be speculation.

12:23
http://novosti.dn.ua/details/262482/
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In hospital. No word on injuries. Happened on the 29th - yesterday.

12:19
http://tyzhden.ua/News/150160
[map at link]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/29/world/europe/ap-eu-ukraine-arsenal-fire.html?ref=world&_r=0
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No more info. Could be terrorist attack. Close to Russian "border". Read elsewhere of 2 dead, 3 injured.

http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1446177051
This time she was treated in a manner that was gratuitously brutal. According to Yevgeny Smirnov who arrived at the police station to represent Natalya Sharina, she had by then not slept for 30 hours. During that period she had been through two searches, interrogation as a witness, then interrogation as a suspect. The 58-year-old had suffered two hypertonic attacks and had very high blood pressure, yet the investigators refused to allow her hospitalization. She was given neither food nor water, and spent the night on a wooden bench in the Taganka police station.
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Russia beginning to make North Korea look civilised. Not a word on this from scumball journalists Rainsford (bbc) or Shaun Walker (Russiaprofile / Guardian). No wonder.
I saw Rainsford on BBC world during the week. Revolting pro-Russian report from Moscow.

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/10/30/7086924/
During the last day on the boundary there were no enemy attacks, while two soldiers were injured by a mine.
This at a traditional briefing on Friday, spokesman of the Presidential Administration on ATO Andrey Lysenko.
"In the village Syze Stanichno-Lugansk district, Luhansk region stretching blew up and wounded two soldiers who were engaged in de-mining territory", - said Lysenko.
According to him, in Shyrokynomu militants were twice point-blank fire advanced towards the strongholds of forces ATO.
Also, our border guards who serve at the control posts "Zolotoi" and "Marinka" reported shots from small arms and grenade launchers, which are coming from the occupied territory.
Near KPVV "Novotroickoe" man hit a bomb. The victim was taken to the central hospital Volnovakha with fragmentation wounds to the legs.
Lysenko said that around 19:30 on Thursday because of the explosion of ammunition on the field stock Armed Forces in Svatove Luhansk region on fire.
Because of the extraordinary events of 1 soldier killed, 2 - were wounded. Losses among civilians: 1 dead and 1 wounded.
35 high-rise, located near the warehouse were damaged. According to preliminary information, the cause of an emergency situation could be a terrorist attack.
Security Service on this fact opened a criminal investigation.
[complete report]

The US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt blamed slow reforming of the government and rampant corruption for keeping foreign investors from coming to Ukraine. G. Pyatt praised the work of Vitali Kasko and David Sakvarelidze, deputies of the prosecutor general, Pyatt told the Voice of America Oct. 29.

The West expects more determined actions from Ukraine in the reform of law enforcement, with the PGO and Anti-Corruption Bureau being the priorities.

“There are very brave prosecutors in the PGO involved in reforming. I like Vitali Kasko’s and David Sakvarelidze’s work,” the ambassador said.

Earlier, Pyatt conditioned the release of credits to Ukraine on the pace of reforms. The principle was later worded by Premier Yatseniuk like “No reforms – no money.”

zik.ua

The reason for local politicians’ crooked ways displayed during the recent elections lies in Kyiv, Odesa Governor Mikheil Saakashvili wrote in Facebook Oct. 30.

“I realize absolutely how disheartened and even angered the residents of Odesa must be, seeing undisguised manipulations to prevent the rerun of mayoral election.

The majority of reasons causing the blatant impudence of political crooks are in Kyiv. Ukraine’s sober-minded political forces are to press for the radical change in the country,” the reformist governor said.

“I am determined to fight all this to the end. First, we have to deal with graft, with clans in Kyiv without whose support the abuse of law in Odesa and other cities would have been impossible,” M. Saakashvili said.

The conflict in Odesa can be resolved in a legal way, the governor continued, as prosecutors succeeded in their demand to arrest the faked ballots.

On Oct. 25, the running Odesa mayor, Genady Trukhanov, allegedly got 52.9% of the vote, with his main rival, Sasha Borovik, saying 4-5% of the ballots were faked in favor of Trukhanov.

zik.ua

The fire at the artillery shells and missiles warehouse in Svatovo is now in its second day, with the army speaking about the let-up, Ukraine army spokesman told Espreso.TV Oct. 30.

It’s a warehouse from which the first-echelon troops are to be supplied.

“The cause of the fire is not clear. It can be a planned action or incidental fire. The experts already in Svatovo will try to establish the causes of the accident, the spokesman said.

Over 3,500 tons of ammunition were kept at the warehouse.

According to Luhansk administrator Georgy Tuka, the fire began when the warehouse came under flare pistol attack.

zik.ua

15:23
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/10/30/7086949/
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Moldova borders Ukraine. It is also where Russian interference created the "Transdniestr" region. A wasteland now.
There have been many Maidenesque protests against government corruption.
Moldova also seeking closer ties with the EU.

This in English

Moldovan Parliament dismisses govt, bringing instability
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/world/article/Moldovan-PM-says-he-won-t-resign-ahead-of-6597627.php
Tensions within the pro-European ruling coalition have grown since the Oct. 15 arrest of Vlad Filat, the prime minister from 2009 to 2013, over a massive bank fraud. Filat was arrested on charges of taking bribes of $260 million, allegedly linked to a fraud in which up to $1.5 billion went missing from three Moldovan banks ahead of the November 2014 parliamentary election....
Moldova signed an association agreement with the European Union in 2014, despite Russian opposition. Russia then placed a boycott on Moldovan fruit, vegetables and wine, hurting its economy...

At around 10:50 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, an explosion occurred into the courtyard of Lviv mayor Andrii Sadovyi's house.

No one suffered as a result.

As reported, the police officers guarding the territory near mayor's house, arrested a man who had threw a grenade into Sadovyi's courtyard. As established, the detainee is a 29-year-old local resident.

Investigative team and explosive engineers are working at the scene.



censor.net.ua In Russian

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11963934/Russias-defence-minister-secretly-builds-12-million-palace-say-campaigners.html
Documents published by campaigners suggest that Mr Shoigu tried to hide his ownership of the palace by registering the property under the name of his daughter, Ksenia. In 2012, the estate was transferred to the formal ownership of one Yelena Antipina, a woman who shares the maiden name of Mr Shoigu’s wife. Campaigners believe she is Mr Shoigu’s sister-in-law....
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Why try and hide the ownership if you have nothing to hide?
Putin's regime stinks of corruption.

http://gantdaily.com/2015/10/30/russia-threatens-ukraine-over-debt-repayment/
If Ukraine can’t pay up, Siluanov said Russia will take legal action.
Russia’s insistence on full repayment creates a tricky situation for Ukraine, which runs the risk of losing billions of dollars in bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund if it doesn’t repay the debt.
The IMF has rules that bar it from loaning money to any nation that’s in arrears on an official loan.
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This could yet get interesting.

http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Banderites%20vs%20New%20Russia%20The%20Battlefield%20of%20History%20in%20the%20Ukraine%20Conflict.pdf
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30 page paper by Christian Esch. A historical look at events on Maidan and in Ukraine. Not bad.
Who is the author?
Christian has been a Moscow correspondent for the last seven years, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union. This included reporting two wars, mass protests in seven capitals, and ethnic pogroms. It also meant reporting deep social and cultural change which usually goes less noticed. In the last year, Christian has spent much of his in Ukraine.
Christian started his journalistic career as a trainee with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. He went on to become an editor with Berliner Zeitung, one of the leading daily newspapers with a GDR history. He was responsible for the literature pages and wrote non-fiction book reviews. In 2003, Christian became deputy head of the “Feuilleton” (art and features) section.
Christian has studied History of Eastern Europe and Economics in Heidelberg, London (LSE) and Berlin. He holds an M.A. degree from Freie Universität Berlin. He grew up in Berne, Switzerland.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/people/christian-esch-moscow-correspondent-berliner-zeitung

One soldier was killed and one more wounded in militants’ assault on the ATO troops in the village of Pisky in the Donetsk region.

Censor.NET reports citing the statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded as a result of the attack. One of them refused from hospitalization, another serviceman received fatal injury," the statement reads.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Russia is resettling residents of Central Russia to occupied Crimea, Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev said, UNIAN reports Oct. 29.
The Russians are violating the Geneva Convention and resettling their subjects to Crimea, he said.

The Moscow policy has never changed since WWII, he said. The Russians are pressing the local Tatar population into leaving their native land and resettling its citizens to the peninsula.

The Soviet Union in fact did the same when Eastern Ukraine, whose Ukrainian population was exterminated by man-made hunger (Holodomor) in 1932-1933, was populated by trainloads of Russians.

New settlers, predominantly the families of Russia military, are given land and credits to build homes, Dzhemilev said.

zik.ua

NATO's top commander says Russia's military deployment to Syria was aimed at showcasing Moscow's resurgent armed forces, but also to distract Western attention from the simmering conflict in Ukraine.

The comments by U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove on October 30 came the same day that Russia staged a major test of its strategic and tactical missile forces, firing multiple ballistic and cruise missiles at testing ranges throughout the country.

Breedlove told reporters at the Pentagon that Moscow continued to defy the so-called Minsk agreements that resulted in a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. He said Russia was supplying command-and-control units, artillery spotting and support, and other materiel to the separatists.

"Folks have taken their eye off of Ukraine a little bit because of what's happening in Syria," Breedlove said. "It's technique they've employed in the past, a couple of times. Invade Crimea. Take the world's eyes off of Crimea by invading Donbas. Take the world's eyes off of Donbas by getting involved in Syria."

"This is part of a larger construct by Russia and we need to be thinking holistically about our response," he said. "We need to remember that these are connected."

"What we have not seen is Russia removing any of its forces in Ukraine. As you have heard me report at this podium before, command and control, air defense, artillery spotting support, artillery support, personnel, supplies, all still being supplied to the Donbas by Russia," Breedlove said.

The conflict between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has killed more than 7,900 people since April 2014.

The Russian missile tests, which appeared to be the largest it has conducted in at least a year, included the launch of a Kalibr cruise missile from a Russian ship in the Caspian Sea, as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea in the north and one in the Sea of Okhotsk, off Russia's eastern coast, the Defense Ministry said....................

To read further go to this link: rferl.org

In recent decades, the West was trying to deal with Russia as a partner, but its action is not allowed to see it as a partner. This was stated by Chief of the united NATO forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove at a briefing at the Pentagon, said «112.ua».

"In the last few decades we have sought to ensure that Russia was our partner. In 2008, the Russian invaded Georgia. This has caused concern, but the world has returned to in order to continue to see Russia as a partner, and then there was the annexation of the Crimea ", - he reminded.

"Now I do not see Russia as a partner. You yourself can make an assessment of their actions in the past 18 months, "- said Breedlove.

At the same time, he does not rule out a return to the partnership with Russia in the future.

"If Europe is whole, free, peaceful and prosperous future, and in a certain way, they change their behavior, we will be able to go to cooperate with Russia or something else in the same way", - said Breedlove.

glavcom.ua In Russian

Sales of industrial goods in Ukraine January through September 2015 totaled UAH 1.075 trillion, which was 24.4%, or UAH 211.354 billion, up on the same period last year, when industrial sales amounted to UAH 864.621 billion, according to the State Statistics Service.

The service said that the data did not include information from the occupied Crimea, Sevastopol and part of Donbas.

Sales in the processing industry, which accounted for 68.2% of total sales, stood at UAH 733.523 billion. Sales of electricity, gas, conditioned air, which together accounted for 18.2% of overall sales, totaled UAH 195.394 billion. Sales in the mining industry and quarry development, which accounted for 12.4%, amounted to UAH 134.232 billion.

Dnipropetrovsk region accounted for the highest sales of industrial goods in the nine months, which was 20.3%, or UAH 218.287 billion. The share of Donetsk region was 11.8%, or UAH 127.276 billion (information is subject to updating), and that of Zaporizhia region was 8.9%, or UAH 95.803 billion..............

economics.unian.ua In Ukrainian

The surplus of Ukraine's national budget January through September 2015 amounted to UAH 8.8 billion against a UAH 40.1 billion deficit recorded in the same period last year, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

The surplus of the national budget in September alone amounted to UAH 1.1 billion, the NBU said in its macroeconomic and monetary review.

"The growth of state budget revenues decelerated (to 54% year-over-year), while that of expenditures accelerated (to 27.3% year-over-year). Despite this, the budget reported a UAH 1.1 billion surplus (although the positive balance narrowed sharply compared to the previous month) thanks to under-execution of expenditures as well as significant increase in non-tax revenues (the NBU transferred UAH 8 billion in its profit to the budget). The consolidated budget also reported surplus mainly due to local budgets," the NBU said in the review.

unian.info