Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Friday 15 July. [Ukrainian sources]

FRIDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the day

News:
Terrorist Putin attacks Ukraine 64 times yesterday.
Terrorist in France kills 84.
Putin offers condolences re terrorist attack in France. But not for attack on Ukraine yesterday.
Update - sadly one soldier dead, four wounded following Putin's attacks yesterday.

Weather:
Only - only !! - 21 at 0930. Fresh. Nice.
High maybe in upper 20s today. Probably 30 again tomorrow. Party cloudy.

ATU 64 attacks, the militants used 152-mm guns and assault guns
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/07/15/7114808/
Friday, July 15, 2016, 7:40

Over the past day in the area of ​​anti-terrorist operation Russian occupation forces opened fire 64 times on positions forces ATO, including 38 times in Mariupol, 20 in Donetsk and Luhansk in 6 directions.
This is stated in the press center ATO headquarters.
In Mariupol direction prohibited under fire from Minsk II 152-mm artillery hit Ukrainian bases in Mar'yintsi and Krasnohorivtsi.
Also, Krasnohorivtsi enemy used a 122-mm self-propelled installation. With 120mm mortars hit by enemy Shyrokynomu and Mar'yintsi. Mortars 82 mm caliber opponent used in water, Lebedinsky and Birch.
Do not stop the enemy and armed provocations in Donetsk area. The hottest was in Avdeevka. Here Russian invaders used the 120 and 82-mm mortars, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms.
Also, 120 caliber mortars fired by the enemy Novoselivtsi Second, and positions forces ATO in the questionnaire and Zaitsev - with mortars caliber 82 mm grenade launchers.
In Luhansk occupiers were as chaotic sighting and fire on Novooleksandrivtsi, Luhansk and villages Novozvanivtsi.

9:24
Ukrainian airports Passenger traffic grew more than 13%
http://www.epravda.com.ua/news/2016/07/15/599247/
During the first six months of 2016 passenger airports in Ukraine grew by 13.1% compared to the same period of 2015 and amounted to 5,326,000 persons.
Reported TSTS referring to operative data of the State Aviation Service of Ukraine.
In international passenger traffic grew 11.2%, reaching 4.612 million people.
Also, according to operative statistics, Ukrainian airlines for January - June 2016 the volume of passenger traffic increased by 19.1% compared with the first half of last year.
For six months of this year were transported 3.253 million passengers....
===

The war against Russia has stabilized. And clearly people are returning to Ukraine, and also visiting as tourists.
19% up this year - that's a lot more visitors!

Rada to hear Lutsenko's report on Ilovaisk tragedy investigation [today]
http://en.censor.net.ua/news/397461/rada_to_hear_lutsenkos_report_on_ilovaisk_tragedy_investigation_tomorrow
On Friday morning, July 15, Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko will report in the parliament on the investigation of the encirclement of Ukrainian troops near Ilovaisk. ...

OSCE drone records three militants’ SP-guns, 23 tanks and MLRS in Donetsk
http://en.censor.net.ua/news/397469/osce_drone_records_three_militants_spguns_23_tanks_and_mlrs_in_donetsk
===
Lots of equipment mentioned in the report - main battle tanks, Grad, and so on. Putin NOT abiding by the Minsk agreement. No surprise there.

10:28
Lyashko blocked the podium in a fashionable shirt costing 6000 hryvnia (FastNews)
http://fastnews.info/ru/news/1/Lider-radikalov-Ljashko-blokiroval-tribunu-v-modnoj-rubashke-za-6000-griven

...The media claim that ihe was wearing a shirt cost more than six thousand hryvnia.
Lyuksovsky brned Burberry (UK) turned out to be expensive for Ukrainian policy. The online-shops give this shirt as low as 6400 griven...



Looks something like this
https://us.burberry.com/button-down-collar-gingham-cotton-shirt-p40238931
275 dollars. Peanuts if your name is Tymoshenko. She goes for 10,000 dollar dresses - and handbags.
Such is the level of poverty among Ukraine's "opposition".

Only 18% of residents of the occupied territory consider themselves "DNI" citizens
http://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/27858865.html
18% of the inhabitants of the occupied Donbas identify themselves as citizens of the illegal "DNI" armed group. These figures are the latest sociological research International research agency «IFAK Instityt». In turn, the residents of both Ukrainian and the occupied territory of Donbass, consider that in terms of socio-cultural features of Donbass and today is one....
===
Various graphics.

One soldier killed, four wounded, yesterday in the ATO zone - Staff
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/07/15/7114842/
Friday, July 15, 2016, 12:49

One day in the area of ​​anti-terrorist operations 1 military killed and 4 injured.
This at a traditional briefing on Friday, spokesman of the Presidential Administration on ATO Colonel Andrei Lysenko.
"For the past day because of fighting one Ukrainian soldier killed, four injured," - said Lysenko.
When asked ATO spokesman said that one soldier was killed and two injured as a result of mortar fire in the area of ​​Marinka. Because of the automatic grenade attacks injured soldier during Avdiyivka 1 and 1 - in the Zaitsev.
According to Lysenko, militants continue aerofotorozvidku positions forces ATO.
Thursday was recorded three flights of enemy drones in Mariupol direction.

Ukrainian killed in Nice attack, another one injured
http://www.unian.info/world/1419087-ukrainian-killed-in-nice-attack-another-one-injured.html
====

Sad. Terrorism from Putin in Donbass, and terrorism from others in France yesterday.

"Certain female political leader stating that Ukrainian gas costs $20 is rampant populism," - PM Hroisman. VIDEO
http://en.censor.net.ua/video_news/397513/certain_female_political_leader_stating_that_ukrainian_gas_costs_20_is_rampant_populism_pm_hroisman
....You know, one female leader of a political party says that Ukrainian gas costs $20, which is nonsense. As I said, it's rampant populism, and she has not proven her ability to solve the people's problems over a period of 20 years," Hroisman said and cited a 2008 IMF memorandum signed by then-prime minister Yuliia Tymoshenko. ...

===
You won't read this story in the Yulia Post - aka Kyiv Post. The Kyiv Post owner - business partner of Tymoshenko, according to the Panama papers.
Heading says Video - but I can't see any video at the link.
===
Found video on original site



http://censor.net.ua/video_news/397513/odna_lider_odnoyi_politicheskoyi_sily_govorit_chto_ukrainskiyi_gaz_stoit_20_eto_ogoltelyyi_populizm

Well spoken by Groisman.
...reminded Tymoshenko signed it in 2008. The memorandum with the IMF: "It is impossible to make commitments and to deceive"
The memorandum stated that the Government of Ukraine to the end of 2011, is committed to equalize the price of gas domestic production and on imported gas prices...
"There is a true position,  a real leader, there are people who believe in what they say, there are leaders who are fighting for the country and its citizens, and there are (tapped on the table - Ed.)....
[i.e. - tymoshenko is a populist blockhead.... Agree. ]

Speaker Parubii closes Rada session until September. PHOTOS
http://en.censor.net.ua/video_news/397538/speaker_parubii_closes_rada_session_until_september_photos
===
Supposedly due to start again on Tuesday 6th of September.
The deputies don't do any work, and then they go on holiday.

The United Nations on Thursday said Ukraine's forces had indiscriminately shelled residents while pro-Russian insurgents and Kiev battalions had summarily killed civilians in what may have constituted "war crimes".

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) study painted a bloody picture of inhumane treatment of captives and non-combatants as well as the engagement of multiple-rocket systems never intended for use in urban areas.

It particularly pointed the finger of blame at rebel groups within the self-proclaimed "people's republics" of Lugansk and Donetsk -- a separatist region in Ukraine's eastern rustbelt that Kiev says is backed up by Russia.

The 26-month revolt against the pro-Western government in Kiev has killed nearly 9,500 people and plunged Moscow's ties with the West to a post-Cold war low that has complicated the resolution of other urgent matters such as the Syrian war.

The Kremlin persistently denies either plotting or backing the insurgency in order to keep its western neighbour -- the largest of the former Soviet republics outside Russia -- within its historic sphere of influence.

The exhaustive study into the Ukrainian conflict by OHCHR was conducted between January 2014 and May of this year.

"OHCHR recorded executions of members of Ukrainian forces and elements of armed groups who had surrendered... mainly in 2014 and during the first half of 2015," the report said.

"OHCHR also recorded a considerable number of alleged summary executions and killings of civilians who were not taking part in hostilities, mostly in 2014 and in early 2015."

The series of alleged crimes committed by Kiev's troops included one in which two suspected rebels were kept in a dry well and then killed by "a drunken soldier" who threw a grenade down the shaft.

Such cases are "recognised as a war crime in an armed conflict," the OHCHR said.

- 'Indiscriminate shelling' -

The UN report estimated that about 2,000 civilians have died in one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts since the 1990s Balkans wars.

"The vast majority of civilian casualties, recorded on the territories controlled by the Government of Ukraine and on those controlled by armed groups, were caused by indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, in violation of the international humanitarian law (on) principle of distinction."....................

To read further go to this link:  au.news.yahoo.com

A European Commission official has said that Russian propaganda was now powerful in all EU member states – but in some of them Moscow barely needed to make the effort, as local politicians were delivering its messages.

Speaking at a Brussels public event on the so-called “hybrid war” Russia is waging in Ukraine and other countries, Jakub Kalenski, a member of the European External Action Service task force assigned with studying Russian propaganda, said such disinformation was active in every European country.

In the Baltic countries, he said the target was the Russian-speaking population, via Russian TV channels.

But in the Visegrad countries – Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary – he said the means of disinformation were different. There were, he said, dozens or even hundreds of disinformation websites. A Hungarian think tank counted some 100 of them, and there were some 70-80 in Czechia, and a similar number in Slovakia, he added.

In Scandinavia, he said tactics were different again, and their disinformation was done mostly by trolling. Internet trolls are people who sow discord by posting inflammatory comments under articles. Russian so-called ‘web-brigades’ consist of state-sponsored anonymous political commentators................




To read further go to this link: euractiv.com

The city made the announcement on July 15, saying that some $39 million allocated for the stadium was unaccounted for. City authorities have asked prosecutors to investigate the Inzhtransstroi-SPB construction firm that has been overseeing the project.

The stadium, given the provisional name Zenit arena after the city's main soccer team, has been nearly a decade in the making and currently has a total estimated cost of $620 million. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently called the project "disgraceful."

In a statement on July 14, Inzhtransstroi-SPB said it wants to complete the 68,000-seat stadium by the end of the year, "but the city administration is doing everything to derail the completion of the project on time."........

rferl.org

There is a growing discontent among the residents in the rebel-held territories over the presence and actions of rebel troops, Ukraine intelligence report runs July 15.

On July 13 – 14, the residents of Krasny Luch protested against the deployment of rebel artillery and Grad missile systems near residential buildings in the city. The locals are also worried about the large stockpiles of ammunition at the local engineering plant.

Angry residents declared that they can leave the city and provide the Ukrainian army with the exact location of warehouses and hangars which can be destroyed without damaging their houses, the intelligence report says.

zik.ua

As was expected, sooner or later. The sanctions and deteriorating support from Putin has put a damper on the region's living condtions, thus increasing the discontent. And it's not going to get better.

IF! The terrorists had a chance to actually control that area the way they want, many of the current residency would leave the area. I doubt they'll want to live in worse domineering conditions that they didn't live in since before 1991. If they were so discontent after that date, they would've started this back then. Of course we know this was brewed by Putin and it's backfiring on him big-time, not because of the living conditions before this all started, and they all know it.

A report today showed a poll that only 18% of the locals approve the current conditions. If there was an election right now, the terrorists, including Zakharchenko would lose, big. So let them have an election now. I'd say Zakharchenko has given up on that, as in order to have an election, there would be a demand to have all kinds of foreign observer organizations in there and it would be VERY difficult to make it a fraudulent result.

This now has the sign of the demise of this ruthless movement. They won't have a population big enough to run the region's production. The only way it would work is, to duplicate what Stalin did back during the days of Holodomor. Putin will send (force) as many Russians as possible. With the negative sentiment against him currently in Russia, I doubt they'll trust him to go there on there own.

So! IMO, this is all going downhill for Zakharchenko and company, and he won't survive it. Just might have some really frustrated locals actually try to take him out. They'd think that would be the only way to stop all this.

The deputy commander of the Russian Army's 18th Air Defense Regiment, based in Feodosia, told Russian media on July 15 that the state-of-the-art system should be deployed by August.

It is unclear whether they will replace or augment the S-300 systems currently deployed there. The S-400 is capable of tracking some 300 targets and engaging three dozen simultaneously.

It has a range of several hundred kilometers.........

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-crimea-antimissile-system-s-400/27860314.html