Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Saturday 13 February [Ukrainian sources]

SATURDAY

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News -
Russian forces attack Ukrainians 67 times yesterday. Update - 2 soldiers wounded.

Weather -
Coolish morning. 0. Freezing point. Should get up to +5 or so. Ok.

http://ua.112.ua/ato/punkt-propusku-v-marintsi-zakryto-cherez-obstrily-rnbo-291603.html
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Correct. They need to do this more. If Putin shells a crossing point, then close it. Simple. Nothing to think about.

14:36
http://hyser.com.ua/politics/rossijskie-fury-pytalis-pro-60768
On the night of 12 February, 13 Russian trucks trying to drive deep into the Transcarpathian region.
According to the press service of the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Gennady Moskal was night several such attempts to get to the border with the EU.
Chairman of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Gennady Moskal said that social activists have the right to express such blocking its position, and he is preparing an appeal to the Cabinet....
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Just send them back to Russia.

http://en.censor.net.ua/news/374121/russian_soldiers_are_in_donbas_thats_a_given_without_them_ukrainian_army_will_leave_separatists_in_tatters
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Russian militant Anton Raevskiy, who fought in the Donbas for the ‘DPR’, gave up all hopes on the “People's Republics”.

Raevskiy told vlada.io, Censor.NET reports.

Anton Raevskiy, who, by the way, sympathized with the ideas of National Socialism, explained how he managed to get into Ukraine.

"I was contacted by the Russian General Military Union. I was offered, together with a group of Russian volunteers, to travel to Sloviansk and fight; we crossed the border on June 21 and found ourselves in Krasnodon town. We arrived in Sloviansk next day. I had a chance to join the battles in Mykolaivka and Sloviansk. Basically we shelled the Army with mortars and cluster bombes (made air strikes). I have not seen the enemy. We mainly shelled them. We faced the enemy near Donetsk, next to Karlovka in the vallage of Netailove. I was wounded there," the terrorist said.

Moreover, Raevskiy admits that the Russian troops, together with the militants, have participated in the battles against Ukrainian soldiers.

"I was in a car with Russian soldier. I am sure that there were Russian troops in Sloviansk, aside from separatists. I do not believe in fairy tales about militias repulsing the Armed Forces of Ukraine in traps. Ukrainian Army will leave separatists' strongholds in tatters in a few hours. Local miners and tractor drivers could not have made it without Russia. The same situation was in Sloviansk. Of course, there was a beautiful legend about unarmed and inexperienced separatists who restrained Ukrainian army created. But, that's a given that Russian soldiers were there. A Russian military advisor was in a car with the commander of the Mykolaiv garrison. There were also Russian advisors," Raevskiy added.

Raevskiy is in Russia at the moment. At the same time, he notes that the number of Russians wishing to fight in the Donbas has been diminished.

Deputy infrastructure minister Oksana Reiter says the ministry has no authority to stop the blockade against Russian trucks in Zakarpatya and Volyn oblasts.

Feb. 10, Poland banned Russian truck transit in response to the Russian ban on the Polish transit.

Ukraine activists joined the ban by imposing road blocks preventing Russian trucks to reach the EU border.

The problems arising from Ukraine blockade should force the Russian authorities to think less about politically motivated bans and think more about the well-being of its subjects, the deputy minister said.

Earlier, Russia banned Ukraine rail transit traffic to Central Asia.

zik.ua

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin has stated that he had shown his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov photo evidence of Russian weapons crossing the Ukrainian border.

Censor.NET reports citing Interfax-Ukraina.

"I have demonstrated a few pictures, as an example of how Russian weapons are crossing the border. Lavrov neither respond, nor commented on that," Klimkin told journalists on Saturday, after Normandy Four meeting in Munich.

Ukrainian Minister noted that he has also informed the participants about the situation in the Donbas. "And I was talking not only about persistent violations of the cease-fire and the militants' attacks, but also about real situation in the area - joint military exercises of the Russian troops on the one hand and the terrorists on the other," the minister said.

"We have shown the photos of Russian military vehicles (tanks as well) crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border. We know how much ammunition was transported into the Donbas. The militants may use it to launch an offensive operation," Klimkin added.

He also mentioned that the militants continue to use banned weapons, artillery and heavy mortars. "This is the clear tendency of calculated destabilization," the minister summarized.

censor.net.ua In Russian

The Russians placed heavy artillery and Grads missiles at the border of Crimea and Kherson oblast, the army says Feb. 12, Ukrayinska Pravda reports.

Russia has placed on alert its troops in the southern and central districs close to Ukraine, the army says.

In all, 8.5 thousand Russian troops, 900 armor and APCs, 200 planes and helicopters and 50 naval ships are involved in the military exercise. The chief of Russia’s general staff, Gen. Gerasimov, is in Crimea.

To deploy their artillery and Grads, the Russians set a heavy smokescreen in the area.

Ukraine army is taking adequate steps to counter the Russian threat, the army said.

zik.ua

The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its support for separatists who control parts of eastern Ukraine and have fought government forces in a devastating war.

Sanctions will remain in place until "the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine is protected in full implementation of the Minsk agreements," Kerry said at the Munich Security Conference on February 13.

He said "Russia faces a simple choice: fully implement Minsk" or face continued sanctions.

He added that implementation includes the withdrawal of Russian forces -- which Western governments say are in Ukraine despite Russian denials -- and restoration of Ukrainian control over the entire Ukrainian-Russian border...........

rferl.org

The meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on the afternoon of Friday, February 12, in Havana has resulted in the signing of a joint declaration on religious unity, according to a posting on the website of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine.

The declaration calls for peace in Syria, Iraq and Ukraine and urges Europe to "maintain its faithfulness to its Christian roots."

"It is our hope that our meeting may also contribute to reconciliation wherever tensions exist between Greek Catholics and Orthodox. It is today clear that the past method of 'uniatism', understood as the union of one community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to re-establish unity. Nonetheless, the ecclesial communities which emerged in these historical circumstances have the right to exist and to undertake all that is necessary to meet the spiritual needs of their faithful, while seeking to live in peace with their neighbors. Orthodox and Greek Catholics are in need of reconciliation and of mutually acceptable forms of co–existence!" the document reads.

With regard to the war in Ukraine, the two religious leaders invited all the parties involved in the conflict to prudence, to social solidarity and to action aimed at constructing peace.

"We deplore the hostility in Ukraine that has already caused many victims, inflicted innumerable wounds on peaceful inhabitants and thrown society into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis."...........

To read further go to this link:  unian.info

Six Russian soldiers were killed and 12 were injured in a friendly fire attack in the Donetsk region.

Representative of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine on ATO issues Colonel Andrii Lysenko, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainski Novyny.

According to him, the wounded and the dead were brought to one of the Donetsk city hospitals.

censor.net.ua In Russian