Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Tuesday 26 July. [Ukrainian sources]

TUESDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the day

News -
61 attacks by Putin on Ukraine.

Weather -
Warm again. Already 22 at 0800. Expect highs throughout Ukraine around 30 today.

ATO forces repelled attack by saboteurs in Marinka and Avdiyivka; militants suffered losses - Staff
http://tyzhden.ua/News/170481
Ukrainian soldiers came in contact with fire saboteurs and causing them losses forced retreat.
For the past day 61 times Russian occupation forces again opened fire on the ATO Forces units, including 29 attacks recorded in Mariupol, 27 in Donetsk and Luhansk 5 directions. This was reported in the press center ATO headquarters....

Russia creating three divisions for deployment at Ukraine border – Intel
http://www.unian.info/war/1436402-russia-creates-three-divisions-for-deployment-at-ukraine-border-intel.html
The Russian Federation is actively regrouping its two armies near the border with Ukraine and new divisions are being formed, according to the representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency.....

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry urges international community to step up pressure on Russia as situation in Donbas worsens

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is deeply concerned by a dramatic worsening of the security situation in the anti-terrorist operation area in the country's east.

Censor.NET reports referring to the Foreign Ministry press service.

"We appeal to the international partners to step up political and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin in order to stop the dangerous escalation of tension in the Donbas," the statement reads.

As noted, the Ukrainian side steadily adheres to its commitments and will continue to do its utmost to stop killings in the Donbas and restore peaceful life, constitutional order, and respect for human rights in the temporarily occupied territory.

"We insist that the Russian Federation, as a party to the Minsk agreements, without a delay fulfill its obligations, withdraw its military, mercenaries and weapons from the Donbas, halt the illegal flow of arms and military equipment to militants, and unblock the work of the OSCE SMM," the ministry states.

As reported, only during July 22-24, Russian-backed militants committed 189 attacks on Ukrainian positions.

"At that, they continue to defiantly and provocatively use weapons that should have been long removed from the contact line under the Minsk agreements," the statement notes.

In addition, six clashes occurred in the vicinity of Novozvanivka, Trudivske, Avdiivka, which resulted in losses among ATO personnel.

"The deliberate aggravation of the security situation is accompanied by Russia's massive supplies of military equipment, weapons, and ammunition, as well as deployment of new mercenaries and professional soldiers," the ministry adds.

Clearly traceable facts of intimidation of OSCE SMM observers are also stressed.

"It is clear that the thesis of supposedly "domestic "character of the conflict in the Donbas, which Moscow is actively trying to impose on the international community, is just an attempt of the Russian Federation to divert attention from its real role as an instigator, a direct participant and a party to the conflict," the statement concludes.

http://en.censor.net.ua/news/399040/ukraines_foreign_ministry_urges_international_community_to_step_up_pressure_on_russia_as_situation_in
...."We insist that the Russian Federation, as a party to the Minsk agreements, without a delay fulfill its obligations, withdraw its military, mercenaries and weapons from the Donbas, halt the illegal flow of arms and military equipment to militants, and unblock the work of the OSCE SMM," the ministry states.....

Putin's DNR terrorist leader Alexander Zakharchenko was shot in the head by Ukrainian ATO.

Has anyone else seen this story? So far I haven’t been able to confirm elsewhere.

The head of the terrorist "DNR" Alexander Zakharchenko today on July 23, was taken to hospital with injuries sustained during his visit to the contact line, where he came under artillery fire.

It is reported, " Russian Conversation ", citing a source in the republican traumatology Donetsk, where Zakharchenko and taken straight from the front lines.

According to information, on the eve of the leader of "DNI" has visited the industrial zone at the contact line, which does not stop fighting. Zakharchenko was there and came under fire, allegedly by the Ukrainian army, and received light shrapnel wounds. Splinters wounded terrorist head - temple and forehead.

The current state of Zakharchenko is not known. At the time of admission to hospital he was conscious.

It should be noted that a week ago the leader of the militants already coming under fire during a visit to the industrial area.

http://www.technosotnya.com/2016/07/V-zone-ATO-podstrelili-Zaharchenka-U-Glavarja-boevikov-ranenie-golovy.html?utm_content=buffera0e9d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Zakharchenko - haven't seen anything about this at all. But will keep looking for a while.

Ukraine reports 5 WIA in past 24 hours
http://www.unian.info/war/1437283-ukraine-reports-5-wia-in-past-24-hours.html
===
Short report.

Religious procession breaks through police cordon, heads for Kyiv. PHOTOS+VIDEO






http://en.censor.net.ua/photo_news/399164/religious_procession_breaks_through_police_cordon_heads_for_kyiv_photosvideo
The religious procession that includes thousands of worshipers from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate managed to get through the police cordon in the village of Dmytrivka in order to proceed further along the Kyiv-Zhytomyr highway. ...

When I saw this group a few days' ago it comprised a lot of priests, and a lot of babushkas. Plus a few family members.
They've got quite a way to go. And the weather is very very hot. Probably 30C even now at 1830.

The U.S. intends to deliver UAVs and counter-battery radars in Ukraine before Aug. 1.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said at the "Open World" discussion club, Censor.NET informs citing Ukrainski Novyny.

According to the diplomat, the U.S. allocated $600 million for assistance in the security area. He also added that a big shipment of UAVs and night vision goggles was expected this week, followed by shipment of counter-battery radars a few days later.

However, Geoffrey Pyatt did not specify the exact number of the equipment planned to be passed to the Ukrainian troops.

ua.censor.net.ua In Ukrainian/український

His strategy is all defence and no offence, bringing stability but not growth, writes Ruchir Sharma

President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive foreign policy has sparked a global backlash. Russia’s intervention in Ukraine resulted in international sanctions; its internet hackers stand accused of interfering in elections in the US, and its state doping programme means many of its athletes are likely to be banned from the Rio Olympics. At home, however, Mr Putin has been playing a surprisingly quiet and effective game of defence on the economic front.

For a decade, Moscow had been a capital of decadence, the streets jammed with Bentleys, but the mood has sobered since oil prices collapsed in 2014. Today even large investors might find themselves chauffeured in a mid-range Toyota. Ordinary Russians have felt the pinch as gross domestic product per head has fallen from $14,000 to $8,000 since 2013. Most tellingly, even the president is showing restraint[/b].........................

To read further go to this link: (Financial Times) 

The anthem of Ukraine, turned on at maximum volume by anti-terrorist operation (ATO) fighters in Zaitseve, infuriated occupants and incited them to attack Ukrainian positions.

As reported by Censor.NET, a video of this episode was posted online. After the anthem of Ukraine started playing, Russian terrorists opened automatic grenade launcher and small arms fire on sandbags that fortify the strong point.



ua.censor.net.ua In Ukrainian/український

rferl.org

By Paul Goble* for “Window on Eurasia”:

Many argue that the fate of Vladimir Putin and his regime depend on the price of oil, but a more important factor in his and its long-term survival may be a secular trend that is even more strongly tilted against them the declining importance of oil as a component of the world’s energy resources, according to Igor Yakovenko.

In the 1970s, the Russian commentator points out, oil supplied 50 percent of the world’s energy needs; now, it meets about 30 percent; and with each passing year, that share is declining further – and with it the prospects that a ruler like Putin and a regime like his can survive (kasparov.rumaterial.phpid=5792FD7757CA1).

But the impact of this trend so far has been limited not so much by the meme of the victory of the television over the refrigerator, of propaganda over the standard of living, but rather by the victory of the couch, of an unwillingness on the part of the population to take action, over both, Yakovenko says.

Just now, many are comparing Putin with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan both have imperial dreams and both are dictators. But there is one big difference Erdogan has a political force that he can use against progress -- “the fanaticism of Orthodox Muslims” – and Putin does not.

Moreover, Yakovenko says, Russia as a result of Putin’s actions is increasingly isolated. Not only has Brexit not worked as Putin planned – Britain has just voted to modernize its nuclear shield because of the Russian threat – and the US has been anything but intimidated. President Barack Obama has even compared Putin with ISIS, Ebola and North Korea.

And Putin has lost even Russia’s former allies in Europe. The Serbs who have often followed Moscow blindly now are seeking to join not his Eurasian Union but the EU. “There is thus not a single European country which would be an ally of the regime of Vladimir Putin,” the commentator points out. Its “isolation” is complete as the doping scandal shows.

This isolation and declining importance have real consequences, he continues, consequences that those in the regime who increasingly appear to be living in “an alternative reality” are only adding to, driving some Russians to leave the countries and most others at least so far to retire to the couch.

“In this situation,” Yakovenko continues, “the only chance to keep Russia from an inevitably bloody scenario of disintegration is the replacement of the powers that be with cardinal changes in its system of rule.”

As far as changes of power are concerned, there are several possible variants suggested by events elsewhere. But “the majority of them are impossible in Russia.” There won’t be a Turkish style coup or foreign intervention, and that means that there remain only “two variants, which could reinforce one another and form a certain symbiosis.”

These are efforts to elect opposition figures to the Duma and “at the same time,” to mobilize “protest groups of citizens in peaceful street actions.” But “alas, the chances for such a symbiosis are extremely limited.”..................

To read further go to this link:  ukrainebusiness.com.ua

“…the extraordinary scale of Russia’s doping program, with government agents swapping out urine samples through a hole in the wall, required the I.O.C. to take a decisive stand against the corruption of international sport. Instead, the committee opted for a weak, chaotic response whose main effect is to take Russia off the hook.”

After the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russian government ran the biggest criminal doping program in the history of international sport, demeaning every notion of what athletic competition stands for, Russian athletes led by a Russian flag will still march at the Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.

By any reasonable measure of justice and fairness, Russia should be banned from the Games, as WADA and several national Olympic committees and Olympic athletes demanded. While doping is not limited to Russian athletes, the idea that a government would harness its scientists, athletes, secret services and bureaucrats to cheat on a scale surpassing even East Germany’s infamous Cold War program demands an unequivocal condemnation.

Instead, Thomas Bach — the head of the International Olympic Committee,who had called Russia’s cheating a “shocking new dimension in doping” and an “unprecedented level of criminality” — caved in and passed the buck. On Sunday, he announced that the I.O.C. was leaving it to individual sports federations to rule on which Russian athletes could compete.

Mr. Bach claimed the decision was meant to balance individual justice and collective punishment. Feigning evenhandedness, he added that this “may not please everybody on either side.”

Well, it sure pleased the Russian government, which can now claim the cheating was merely the acts of individual athletes.................

Access complete text of the editorial below:  nytimes.com

Olympic champion Robert Harting has launched a scathing verbal attack on IOC president Thomas Bach. The German discus thrower said he's “ashamed” of his compatriot’s stance on state-sponsored Russian doping.

"For me, he is a part of the doping system, not the anti-doping system. I am ashamed of Thomas Bach," the 2012 gold medal winner told news agency SID.

"Personally, I detest this person more than ever and am very ashamed that I have to work with him indirectly."

Harting’s comments come after Bach’s organization decided against a blanket ban on all Russian competitors in Rio despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reporting a wide-ranging system run from the very top of society designed to cover up positive tests.

While the International Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) ban on Russian track and field athletes competing internationally still stands, the IOC’s ruling gave individual sporting federations less than two weeks to decide their stance on the Rio Games, which begin on August 5.

Bach, an Olympic fencing champion in 1976, defended the IOC decision, claiming it "respects the right of every clean athlete around the world."

Speaking to DPA on Tuesday he said: "The IOC had to make a difficult decision. We had to decide between the punishment for a system and the extent to which you can hold athletes responsible for such a system."

Thomas Bach drew stinging criticism from Harting.

But Harting, who has long been a fierce critic of Bach and doping in sport, said the situation was "simply embarrassing," before expressing his belief that under Bach's presidency, the IOC has "reached a new level of disappointment".

ukrainebusiness.com.ua

The Ukrainian authorities over the past few years have in fact destroyed Moscow's energy weapon, which used gas in this way, Pyatt said during a meeting of the discussion club "Open World" on the transformations in Ukraine, progress and tasks for the future in Kyiv on Tuesday.

The diplomat said that Ukraine's national gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy currently purchases gas only if it finds the price acceptable, but the natural gas has ceased to be the instrument of manipulation. Ukrainians are no longer in the situation when the Kremlin uses energy resources as a weapon, as an instrument of manipulating Ukrainian politicians, so that they should take certain decisions, he said...........

en.interfax.com.ua

The detainees are suspected of creating a corrupt scheme, which caused the embezzlement of about UAH 50 million in state funds, the NABU's press service said on Tuesday.

NABU detectives say that the two signed a contract on the supply of 16,600 tonnes of third-grade maize to the corporation on the terms of full prepayment.

"Both parties knew that the said commodity was de facto not available, therefore the grain enterprise was not going to fulfill the contract. But the State Food and Grain Corporation transferred about UAH 50 million in budget funds to the enterprise's account for the commodity, which has not been supplied," the NABU said..........

en.interfax.com.ua

"Activities were carried out on the criminal proceedings, violated under Article 191 Part 5 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in respect of certain officials of the International Boryspil airport, who, with the assistance of the State Aviation Service officials, committed embezzlement of budget funds allocated for the purchase of equipment in the amount of UAH 4.3 million," the report says.

According to it, later funds were transferred to the company, controlled by a resident of the Russian Federation, followed by withdrawal from Ukraine in violation of the order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 829 p dated September 11, 2014..........

en.interfax.com.ua

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday, July 26, had phone conversation with Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, the president's press service reports.

The Head of State expressed deep concern over the drastic escalation of the situation in Donbas and the increased number of casualties caused by the intensification of artillery shelling by Russian militants and continuation of armament supply from Russia, according to the report. Petro Poroshenko also drew attention to the intensification of operations of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups that are efficiently rebuffed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. President Poroshenko highlighted constant violation of the Minsk agreements by Russia. He noted the importance of consolidation of the entire Europe in the issue of not only preservation of sanctions against Russia, but also their strengthening in case of further deterioration of the situation in Donbas. Read also Poroshenko announces road map for Donbas security The parties agreed to intensify work in the Normandy format and other formats. In particular, they discussed the elaboration of the clear roadmap of the Minsk agreements implementation, which should include the fulfillment of the security component by Russia.................

unian.info

The new guidelines, which the White House made public, defined five levels of danger of cyber attacks.

The US issued new guidance to public authorities to respond to cyber attacks, in which the main sources of possible attacks mentioned Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

As adviser to the White House anti-terrorism Lisa Monaco, Russia and China have become much more dangerous as cyber adversaries.

Iran and North Korea, she added, is also able and willing to carry out devastating cyber attacks.

The new guidelines, which the White House made public, defined five levels of danger of cyber attacks. The highest fifth level means that an attack is a critical threat to the large range of vital infrastructure, stable government or American lives.

Also, the guidelines for the first time publicly the role of federal authorities in the investigation of cyber security breaches in the government and private sectors in responding to these violations.

The document published at a time when the United States distributed assumptions about the likelihood of hackers associated with the state structures of the abduction of emails employees of the Democratic Party. Publication of letters provoked a scandal and it became apparent attempt to influence the outcome of the US presidential election on November 8 in favor of the Republican Party.

glavcom.ua In Ukrainian/український

According to media reports, the cause of death may be homicide, considered the version of suicide.

On the death of deputy chief of the FSB of the Stavropol regional Economic Affairs Sergei Bondarenko told a number of Russian media.

According to "Kommersant" Bondarenko died on 26 July. Allegedly, his body was found in his apartment with stabbing wounds. Officially, this information is not yet confirmed - in the FSB, these data do not comment. No comments Mr. Bondarenko and his wife, who is a deputy of the Duma boundary.

Unofficial sources reported that about death Bondarenko, appeared earlier in the day, however, about the violent death no one spoke. Himself Bondarenko sources described as one of the best professionals in the management, who led all the high-profile corruption case. July 31 he would have turned 50 years old.

The agency "Interfax", citing a source in law enforcement agencies reported the death of another version deputy chief of the regional FSB. According to her, does not exclude suicide.

"The nature of the injury, including, according to preliminary data, cuts in the veins can talk about what happened suicide. This version is not excluded, "- the source said. Currently, conducted a thorough investigation into the incident.

glavcom.ua In Ukrainian/український

It is reported that the survey involved 1,600 respondents from 130 settlements of 46 regions of the country.

On the lack of funds to purchase needed clothing or food said 41% of Russians polled within the HSE monitoring, according to an article published on the official website of the NDU.

"The share of respondents who assess the financial situation of their household as poor or very poor (poor for self financial position) was 23% and the proportion of the population that has money enough to buy the necessary clothes or food (poor for self consumer opportunities) was 41%, "- said in a text message.

It is reported that the survey involved 1,600 respondents from 130 settlements of 46 regions of the country.

glavcom.ua In Ukrainian/український