Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Wednesday 06 January [Ukrainian sources]

WEDNESDAY - Christmas Eve

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News -
14 times Putin shoots at Ukrainians yesterday evening - 23 total for the day.
Move to boycott Coke and related products like Sprite and Schweppes gains momentum. See below.
Update - no military casualties yesterday. Slava Ukraini.

Weather -
A little warmer, relatively speaking. -11 now. High perhaps near -5.
Better than the -20 of a couple of days' ago. Snowing for much of yesterday, but not heavy.
Transport in the capital moving normally.

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/01/6/7094577/
Wednesday, January 6, 2016, 7:03
Last night the situation in the zone of relatively ATO intensified - after 18.00 to end the day militants 14 times violated the ceasefire conditions.
The press center informs Staff ATO page on Facebook.
The greatest number of attacks by militants Ukrainian fixed positions in Gorlovka-Svetlodarsk arc. In particular, separatists have repeatedly opened fire with heavy machine guns and small arms toward ATU forces in the region of Novgorod, Zaitsev, Myronivka, Lugansk and Troitskoi....
Overall, the last day recorded 23 episodes of violations of the "complete silence" by terrorists.
Since the beginning of the current day fighters only once, around 4.00 am, with small arms fired randomly at Pisky.

Admin sent me into the city, despite the cold temperatures yesterday, to check out the situation.
The temperature has been -20 in the mornings for the past few days. But yesterday was a little better, at -15. This morning -13 in the capital.
Transport is running fine, although people on the metro are wearing more clothes, and some of the "larger" people seem to take up almost two seats!
I even saw a Tram-snowplow working. Fantastic! I have some strange nostalgia for trams. Snow was falling for much of the day, but never too heavy. On the roads outside of the capital it seemed that the wind was doing the best work, keeping the snow of the cold roads - blowing it off.
The Dnepr has now frozen over, and many lakes also. I met a friend at Borispol airport, and on the metro gowing over the bridge we saw a good 50 people fishing on the ice. A nice quiet spot from the bustle of the city, if a little cold.
At times it appears that there is no war going on against Russia. People have almost forgotten it in their daily lives - rushing to work, and so on.
One amusing observation on the metro - still some old adverts, posters. One said "Kiev - Krim"... still advertising travel from the capital to Crimea. Of course, this would never happen now, with the occupation, and the need for visas.
Fortunately the forecast is for it to warm up today to nearer normal temperatures for this time of year - in the -10 to 0 bracket.

7:26
Today, the Orthodox celebrate Christmas Eve (GolosUA)
http://ru.golos.ua/suspilstvo/segodnya_pravoslavnyie_otmechayut_sochelnik_3044
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Many people will have a "koritki dyen" - short day - at work today. Get home early, for Christmas.
Short, but informative article on some traditions for Christmas.

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http://obozrevatel.com/crime/43128-vyisshij-uroven-konspiratsii-terrorist-lomanulsya-na-ukrainskuyu-territoriyu-v-futbolke-dnr.htm
[forgive my adapted headline; the original reads]
7:17
The highest level of secrecy: a terrorist rushed on Ukrainian territory in the T-shirt "DNR." Publish photo (Columnist)



Tried to enter Free-Ukraine wearing this. Idiot.
As already wrote "Observer", the terrorist detained in the Konstantinovka district of Donetsk region on Saturday, January 2nd. According to the terrorist, he was tired of the war and came on vacation to see his family.

7:44
http://expres.ua/news/2016/01/06/167710-vyatrovych-ukrayini-demontuvaly-ponad-800-pamyatnykiv-leninu

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7:43
http://vsviti.com.ua/newss/50896
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Includes the Kuchma era, as well as the time when Tymoshenko was Prime Minister, and Yanukovich, of course.

http://www.radiosvoboda.org/content/article/27469418.html
Coke produce a map showing Crimea as part of Russia. The response from Ukraine - ban Coke.




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http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/01/06/why-ukrainians-boycott-coca-cola/

Map shown below



The American company even apologized for not showing Crimea as being Russian!
Following outrage among Russian clients that the map did not include Kaliningrad Oblast, the Kuril islands which Russia still disputes with Japan, and annexed Ukrainian Crimea, the brand decided to change its map to include these territories. [Apology - ]
“Dear members of the community! Accept our sincere apologies for the current situation. The map has been changed! We hope for your understanding!” the official message stated.

Apart from coke itself, of course -  Also
the company sells in Ukraine a range of other products such as Burn, Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes, Bon Aqua, Nestea, and juices Rich, BotaniQ and “Добрий.”
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Info from link above.



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http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/264498-ukraine-blames-russia-for-cyberattack-on-grid
..."We found that the [malware] came from Russia," the Ukrainian Security Service SBU told Reuters on Thursday. "It was an attempt to interfere in the system. But it was discovered and prevented."
The malware failed to work as intended and Ukrainian authorities were able to neutralize it, thereby preventing a much broader blackout, an SBU spokesperson said.
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Attack on Dec 23.

http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1452045521
Transparency International in Ukraine has joined MPs in trying to find out how a norm appeared in Ukraine’s 2016 Budget allowing officials to defer making electronic income and property declarations until 2017. ....
Radio Svoboda reports that the members of the budget committee also claimed to not remember who had added the clause.  ...
Chumak said that he believed some of the members of the committee might have an interest in dragging out the electronic declarations so as to have time to re-register property, etc. in their families’ or relatives’ name.
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Rada still full of corrupt scumballs. Apparently this "addition" spotted - too late - by a Poro MP. Will they introduce new legislation to stop it?
It will probably go the way of removing "immunity from prosecution"... 2084?

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http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20070311/lajcak-nord-stream-ii-contradicts-european-policy-on-ukraine.html
“Its realisation and the subsequent elimination of Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas transport would significantly affect Ukraine’s geopolitical and economic position in a negative way, as it earns €2 billion a year from gas transit,” said Lajčák as cited by the TASR newswire, adding that Kiev itself views the project as hostile against it....
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Slovakian source. via twitter, Anders Aslund

http://www.sq.com.ua/rus/news/politika/05.01.2016/girkin_strelkov_obvinil_lidera_harkovskih_separatistov_v_krazhe_deneg_video/?_utl_t=fb
Former leader of the terrorists, "DNR" Igor Girkin (Strelkov) said that the money that was personally committed to the creation of "the People's Republic of Kharkiv," disappeared. He stated this in an interview, which appeared in the video network. According to him, the money he gave to one of the separatist leaders of Kharkiv Konstantin Dolgov (pictured), who now holds the position of "Foreign Ministry spokesman DNR."...
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This also shows how much Russia was behind the "uprising" in eastern Ukraine. 100%, I would say.
Without Putin's intervention and money nothing would have happened. Clearly there were plans also for a "Kharkiv Peoples' Republic", and Odessa also.

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http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/putin-s-next-potential-target-the-baltic-states#.VoyuKfGUVnA.twitter
....Poland and Lithuania are opening LNG terminals and a series of interconnectors to reduce Gazprom and Moscow's power and gain genuine energy security based on diversification of supply. Latvia is also pondering new energy legislation .... it will become possible to reduce Russia's leverage over gas supplies to Central and Eastern Europe.
All of these trends spell negative results for Moscow and heighten the possibility of some form of Russian strike against one or more Baltic state....
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Medium length article. Ok. Rather stating the obvious. - basically, Russia is a terrorist state, and Putin will invade anywhere he feels he stands a chance of gaining territory.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/05/where-is-russia-actually-mordor-in-the-world-of-google-translate/
[Posted by Admin yesterday - other source. What a funny story! Super )) ]

A “Russian” was also translated as an “occupant.” No word yet on whether Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has lodged an official complaint over his last name being translated as “sad little horse,” or “grustnaya loshadka.”



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www.bloomberg.com/energy/
1 minute ago

Crude Oil & Natural Gas
INDEX UNITS PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE CONTRACT TIME ET 2 DAY
WTI Crude Oil (Nymex)
USD/bbl. 35.50 -0.47 -1.31% FEB 16 03:32:51
Brent Crude (ICE)
USD/bbl. 35.75 -1.47 -3.95% FEB 16 03:33:18
Natural Gas (Nymex)
USD/MMBtu 2.32 0.00 -0.17% FEB 16 03:33:01

Brent down almost 4%. Wow. Remember, the revised Russian budget is based on a price of 50 dollars a barrel.
This should help control Putin's war plans for this year. Just hold back his imperial ambitions a little maybe.

As a result of the falling oil price, the Russian ruble has fallen significantly this morning -

Rubles for one dollar / one euro / one British pound
Inverse: 73.9644 79.3413 108.299
www.xe.com one minute ago.
Basically 74 rubbles to a dollar. But the dollar is also very strong against the euro and pound, so their exchange rates are fairly similar to a week ago.

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Currently the Ukrainian weather people are only predicting average temperatures for next week.
But - looking at www.weatheronline.co.uk and going to the Europe view, you get



This is Monday's supposed - predicted pressure chart. If true - this looks like warmer weather on the way to me. Time will tell.
December was incredible. The past week - below average, but changing slowly now. -6 now where I am. Normal would be -2.
N.B. Low pressure is blue. And air circulates in an anti-clockwise direction around such a depression system -
theoretically bringing warm air up from the Mediterranean area to Ukraine - maybe. I live in hope!

Even if this low pressure system doesn't spread so far across - eastwards - then much of Europe should have warm weather - and reduced gas consumption.
And hopefully willing to sell gas to Ukraine at a cheaper price than Gazprom is offering (212).
As for the place to build wind turbines - I would put the UK at the top of the list!

Nelson wrote:

As for the place to build wind turbines - I would put the UK at the top of the list!

That's a bit late! As of mid-December 2015, wind power in the United Kingdom consisted of 6,675 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of over 13.5 gigawatts: 8,501 megawatts of onshore capacity and 5,098 megawatts of offshore capacity.

In fact, I would suggest Europe is constantly installing wind farms both on and offshore.

There is an interesting PDF for reading:

Wind in Power - 2014 European Statistics

I was thinking more of the "potential" for wind power.
The UK is still way behind countries like Germany and Dennmark in terms of generation.
This article from 15 years' ago, but says UK is the windiest place in Europe.

The windiest country in Europe
April 27, 2001
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The UK may be the windiest country in Europe, but it sits only eighth in the wind power league and generates less than 10 percent of the wind energy produced by world leader, Germany.
http://edition.cnn.com/BUSINESS/programs/yourbusiness/stories2001/windiest/
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Tidal power is possibly a better option. Always there - as long as the moon stays in place.
Found this from 2011
Niall Stuart: Europe’s windiest country is blessed with limitless energy potential
http://www.scotsman.com/news/niall-stuart-europe-s-windiest-country-is-blessed-with-limitless-energy-potential-1-2337919
SCOTLAND has the resources for renewable energy and is officially Europe’s windiest country. Scotland has 25 per cent of Europe’s wind energy and tidal energy, as well as 10 per cent of the continent’s wave energy.
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Question - why do the British MPs therefore love nuclear power?
Answer - they get nice big fat bonuses - directorships and the like - from the Nuclear power industry. Corruption, UK style.

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12:41
http://gordonua.com/news/worldnews/Evrodeputat-Korvin-Mikke-zayavil-o-namerenii-snova-posetit-okkupirovannyy-Krym-114228.html
...Member of the European Parliament from Poland, the leader of the "Congress of the New Right" Janusz Korwin-Mikke said Facebook, that he is going in a week for the second time to visit the Russian-occupied Crimea....
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The ultra-right-wing - for example, the Le Pen group in france, the right-wing in Italy, the fascist right in Poland, etc etc... they all adore Putin.
They obviously see him as being a true fascist.
And Corbyn and his Stalin adoring side-kick advisor, Seamus Milne, - the same thing. The ultra left see him as the equivalent of the communist Stalin.

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http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/315875.html
Inflation in Ukraine slowed to 0.7% in December 2015 from 2% in November, the State Statistics Service reported on Wednesday....
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Not bad. 0.7% for the month. And falling.
I don't see the hryvnia falling much more now. And oil and gas prices are falling internationally.
Of course, Ukrainians are still buying heavily subsidized gas and electric.
But, given the level of domestic anger, it is probably better now to let things settle. Keep domestic prices the same for the next year, and let inflation drop to say 10%.
That would bring stability.

http://nv.ua/ukr/ukraine/events/u-krimu-zaginuv-turist-z-moskvi-89917.html
In Crimea, Bakhchisarai area, a tourist from Moscow fell down a mountain and died, reported the Crimean Emergency Management in.
"Unregistered tour group of 9 people (7 residents of Moscow, one of the district. Alushta and one of the district. Feodosia) directed from Ai-Petri to the" baths of youth "in the Great Canyon" - said in a statement.
It is noted that the area was covered with ice and snow and sleet through the night-time visibility was limited.
"In conducting the search and rescue operation fell off a cliff man born in 1985 (resident. Moscow) was discovered in the gorge canyon. Unfortunately, in the fall he received injuries incompatible with life. The other eight tourists rescuers brought to a safe place, where they assisted ", - reported in the department.
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Idiotic on three counts -
1. Going on holiday to occupied Crimea,
2. Going to Ai-Petri at night, and
3. Managing to fall off a cliff.

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https://www.charter97.org/ru/news/2016/1/6/185855/
Soon there will be sent a claim to the European Court of Human Rights against the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin as aggressor in the case of MH17.
The European Court of Human Rights will soon be sent a lawsuit against the Russian Federation and personally President Putin aggressor in the case of the destruction of the flight MH17. This was stated by the founder of the expert and journalist groups Bellingcat Eliot Higgins in an interview with UNIAN, writes LІGA.net....
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Pity the UN is toothless to do anything - because of the Russia veto. Disgusting.
I am sure Hitler would also have enjoyed playing around with the UN - just as Putin and Cherkin do.
I assume Russia will simply ignore any decision.

http://delo.ua/ukraine/boeviki-ne-puskajut-nabljudatelej-obse-v-kominternovo-310049/
...OSCE observers on Tuesday twice: once at a checkpoint near the s.Zaichenko 4km east of Kominternovo where "armed men again prevented HMM ... without any explanation," and another time - check point at the entrance to Kominternovo from the southwest "armed men again denied passage SMM to the village."...
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So much for Minsk.
Putin, Russia, Lavrov, Cherkin - liars and deceivers; lovers of war and death; no desire for peace; sick in the head.

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http://en.censor.net.ua/video_news/368047/resident_of_occupied_donetsk_showed_deserted_street_and_shopping_center_video
A video has been published on the Internet, showing the Russian-occupied Donetsk.
As reported by Censor.NET, the recording shows a deserted street of the city and the once popular shopping center "Donetsk City."
"Jan. 5, 8 p.m. local ime, 7 p.m. Ukrainian time, Donetsk, I'm near Donetsk City. The place used to swarm with people before..," the author comments.
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Incredible.
Yesterday at this time I was in a restaurant in a shopping centre in Ukraine. The place was packed with people, including lots of children ice-skating, people doing last-minute shopping before Christmas.
Donetsk is a waste land.

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http://en.censor.net.ua/news/368054/7700_russias_military_remain_in_our_territory_mod_intelligence_head_skibitskyi
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In the ATO area. From what I have heard, the mercenaries are leaving gradually, and being replaced by regular Russian troops. Transdniestr in progress.

U.S. intelligence and security agencies are investigating whether Russian government hackers were behind a cyber attack on the Ukrainian power grid last month, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told The Daily Beast.

Computer security experts at the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Homeland Security Department are examining samples of malicious software recovered from the networks of a power company in western Ukraine, which said on December 23 that a large area of the country had been left without electricity due to "interference" in its systems. Approximately 700,000 homes were without power for several hours.........

uatoday.tv

Procedure 11.4 thousand. Residents of Rostov-on-Don were left without cold water because of the accident at the water line, "Interfax".

According to the local emergency services, the pipe meter diameter erupted outside Stalsky, residents were left without water and the October Pervomaisky district of the city.

In addition, the October stopped pumping station and water pipeline Sechenov. In one of the residential areas, water is supplied to the reduced pressure.

In the administration of Rostov-on-Don said that the accident occurred on Wednesday, the water supply is stopped at least until 8.00 am on 7 January.

According to preliminary data, the utilities should at this point complete the restoration work.

glavcom.ua In Russian

The World Bank cut its forecast for the Russian economy in 2016, according to RNS. Economists expect the Bank decline in GDP of 0.7% - forecast corresponds to the World Bank in December.

In 2017, the forecast for economic growth in Russia is 1.3%.

Also, World Bank economists have lowered forecasts for economic growth in China from 7% to 6.7% and the United States - from 2.8% to 2.7%.

The forecast of global economic growth decreased to 2.9% from 3.3%.

Earlier it was reported that the World Bank has improved the forecast of Russia's GDP in 2015-2016.

glavcom.ua In Russian

The Russian representative office of Pepsico removed from the site pamphlet that contained a map of Russia with the inclusion of the Crimea.

At the time of writing this news on the site still contains links to both versions of the brochures - Russian and English - but when you try to go to the site it says that the page is not found.

Nevertheless, to review these brochures are still possible in the Web archive

at this link.

As you know, on Tuesday in the Ukrainian social networking scandal because of the fact that Coca-Cola Company has published "Vkontakte" map, which indicated the Crimea as part of Russia. She also apologized to the Russians since the first version of the map was not the Crimea.

After that, users found a brochure site Pepsico, which was specified as the Crimea part of Russia.

glavcom.ua In Russian

In connection with the accession of the Crimea on the map of Russia from the Russian representation of corporation Coca-Cola in the US Embassy in Ukraine, stressed that the US position on the Crimea is clear and unchanging. This was announced by the speaker of the Embassy Jonathan Lally, reports UNN

«Coca-Cola apologized for the advertisement. The US position on the Crimea is clear and unchanging. In the words of Vice President Joe Biden in a speech in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the United States does not recognize and will never recognize Russia's attempt to annex the Crimea ", - said Lally.

Representatives of the American Coca-Cola Company on its official page "Vkontakte" brought Russian users apology for publishing maps of Russia, in which no Crimea, Kaliningrad region and the Kuril Islands, and posted an updated map, which includes the territories.

Later Ukrainian Coca-Cola representative apologized for a "misunderstanding", noting that the positions that caused the dissatisfaction of users have already been removed.

Embassy of Ukraine expressed concern representatives of Coca-Cola and the US Department of State in connection with the incident.

glavcom.ua In Russian

The leader of the militants, "LC" Igor Carpenter canceled the promised liberation of Ukrainian soldiers who are prisoners allegedly due to the fact that the Ukrainian government does not take the initiative.

"All attempts to contact the authorized representatives of Ukraine to give them prisoners of war, nor to no avail. Is Ukraine does not need her sons? I emphasize again that we were ready to transfer prisoners of war without any counter-conditions ", - said the leader of the terrorists.

glavcom.ua In Russian

Dismissal of judges should start with those who endured unjust judgment against the activists of the Maidan, and those whose declared unjust decision by the European Court of Human Rights. This was the TV channel «112.ua», said MP from the "Fatherland" Igor Lutsenko.

"There are two categories of judges, which should at least start to fire. These are judges who endured unjust decisions against the activists of the Maidan, and those judges decision unjust were recognized by the European Court of Human Rights. Already there are ready-made, so to say, the materials and why the government still has not started to fire them, "- he said, commenting on a proposal by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov dismiss all Ukrainian judges.

glavcom.ua In Russian