Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Saturday 8 April. [Ukrainian sources]

SATURDAY

Please scroll to view news items added during the day.

NEWS:
US Strike Assad: the Russian Federation gave a disappointing forecast for Putin. Special forces involved in the preparation of Putin assassination of former Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova.  In the West, called the four major reforms to Ukraine.  US preparing a crushing blow to the budget of the Russian Federation and the Russian ruble.  The attack in Stockholm, there was a video of a truck rushing on the sidewalk.  Turkey finds US strike on Assad's positive but insufficient, President Erdogan says.   A third consecutive session of the UN Security Council on Syria ended without result.

WEATHER:
Kyiv, Ukraine
9c / 48f HI | RealFeel® 8c / 46f
Precipitation 75%
Breezy this morning; chilly with periods of rain

The US Congress will consider a bill on new sanctions against Russia . If support for the document, it will significantly enhance the existing restrictions.

The text of the bill published on the website single database documents US lower house of parliament.

The document provides for sanctions against individuals and entities who invest in the Russian sector of hydrocarbon production of over 20 million. The list of sanctions are also planning to introduce investors who invest any amount for the construction of pipelines Russia worth more than $ 1 million. Such restrictions block the financing of major projects "Nord Stream - 2" and "Power of Siberia". Also under threat of US sanctions to be hanging over wanting to buy government bonds of.

New restrictions propose to introduce not only against companies and US citizens, but also those from third countries.

Russian experts believe that foreigners out of the Russian debt, among other things, bring down the federal loan bond quotes and raise borrowing costs for the government of the Russian Federation.

Previously, "Apostrophe" reported the plans of Congress to consider a new bill imposing sanctions against Russia. The author of the document was the Republican Alexander Mooney. The new sanctions should be a response to Russian interference in the process of presidential elections in the United States, the Russian Federation failure conditions Minsk II and illegal annexation of Crimea, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Jovanovich told when cancel sanctions against Russia.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted imminent departure, which eventually lead missile attack US troops Aasada Bashar in Syria.

This writes the journalist Igor Yakovenko in his blog on the site Kasparov.ru.

"Ends the period of debility television Hawks joy over the fact that Russia has all and no one is afraid and those who are with Russia, so too afraid of nothing," - he said. Russia stated that the systems S-300 and S-400 fully monitor and ensure the safety of not only the Russian military, but also allies in the skies over Syria. But now advocate Igor Korotchenko says that the Russians have not promised to protect allies and videoconferencing systems only protect Russia.

Yakovenko points to the possibility that the State Duma, celebrating the victory of Donald Trump on the US presidential election will carefully remove your photos from the event. "Professional paranoid Bagdasarov, Satanivskyi and Jean will compete who are louder and bezumnishe will call for immediate war with the US and Kiselyov in his broadcast pryymetsya sprinkle map of US nuclear ashes" - continues journalist.

He points out that the situation is fraught with sad consequences for Putin. "Supporting dictator dictator Assad Putin completed what it was bound to end, leaving alternate both in nothing, however, the timing and sequence of their withdrawal difficult to predict. Well, before the world after 07.04.2017 become much more dangerous," - said Yakovenko.

Previously, "Apostrophe" reported in Russia pointed to the threat of direct military conflict with Putin Trump in Syria.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

The preparation of the attempted assassination of former Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova Vladimir Plakhotnyuk Russian special services involved.

This is stated in a message on the website of the State Border Service of Ukraine.

It is noted that the criminal group numbering 10 persons were citizens of Ukraine and Moldova.

For killing the leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova attackers promised 200 thousand dollars, of which 100,000 are received in advance as an advance.

Earlier, members of RAM committed a number of crimes on the territory of Kyiv and Kyiv region.

Guardians of Ukraine and Moldova on April 7 moved to action on both sides of the border.

In Moldova immediately after the money was delayed customer 2 organizers and accomplices of the murder. At the same time in Ukraine was detained the leader of a criminal gang.

It is noted that malicious intent was in fact to discredit law enforcement system of Ukraine and worsen the Ukrainian-Moldovan relations.

As reported by "Apostrophe", formerly interior minister Arsen Avakov said details of the operation to prevent the assassination of former Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova Vladimir Plakhotnyuk.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that in the absence of strong follow-up efforts, the U.S. missile strike on Syrian regime base could amount to nothing but a “cosmetic" move that accomplishes little.

Censor.NET reports citing Anadolu.

In a speech in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the ideal solution is a political one and allies need to implement a transitional government in Syria as soon as possible.

"The world, in these recent events, began to understand what we meant by calling for safe zones. Hopefully stability and peace will come back to Syria, and Turkey will play a major role in that," the official added.

On April 7, U.S. warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase following a chemical airstrike in the province of Idlib blamed on President Assad.

UNICEF confirmed at least 27 children had been killed in the attack in Idlib.

The United States' Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the response was "fully justified" and warned that the U.S. was prepared to do more but hoped that it would not come to that. "The United States will not stand by when chemical weapons are used. It is in our vital national security interest to prevent the spread and use of chemical weapons," Haley said.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

In the near future will be crucial for Ukraine pension, land, health and anti-corruption reforms.

This was stated by World Bank Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Satu Kahkonen, reports the publication zn.ua.

According to the World Bank, in 2016 Ukrainian economy has shown a slight increase of 2.3%.

"Given the current rate and the unfavorable situation on foreign markets, blockades in Donbas and other factors, in 2017 we also expect a slight increase of 2%. In order to accelerate growth and achieve sustainable recovery should introduce reforms. No other recipes "- said Kahkonen.

As reported by "Apostrophe" earlier in Ukraine, experts spoke about the situation of shortage of coal.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

The Trump administration is giving serious thought to providing Ukraine with lethal defensive aid, U.S. Senator John McCain told The Weekly Standard, a move that is likely to rile the Kremlin if realized.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is slated to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin next week, expressed support for such aid during his January confirmation hearing, The Weekly Standard reports. McCain said that Tillerson signaled the potential for providing lethal defensive aid to Ukraine in a meeting Tuesday. "He certainly said that we need to provide more assistance to—they're seriously considering more assistance to the Ukrainians," McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told TWS. "I reminded him that it was in the defense authorization bill, he said, 'yes, we are considering that option."..................

Access complete text of the editorial:  unian.info/politics In English

Swedish police have confirmed reports that the detainee on suspicion of committing a terrorist attack in Stockholm on 39-year-old man comes from Uzbekistan.

This was stated by the head of the Swedish police Dan Eliasson, said ONLINE.UA with reference to Deutsche Welle.

According to him, the police believe that the arrested is the person who is involved in a truck hit a people. "Nothing indicates that we arrested the wrong person", - said Eliasson.

He added that the attack could a few people participate in Stockholm.

The policeman also said that a suspicious object was found in the cab of the truck, which he called "technical device that was not supposed to be there."

Meanwhile, the investigation is still investigating the attack as a terrorist act.

According to a representative investigation Gansa Irmana, "he says a lot" about that attack was just a terrorist nature. As I reported ONLINE.UA, before it became known about the arrest of the second suspect after the terrorist attack in Stockholm .

According to recent reports, the victims began to attack four people, another 15 were injured.

news.online.ua, Original in Russian / На русском

UK Foreign Minister Boris Dzhonson canceled his visit to Moscow, which was scheduled for April 10.

It is reported with reference to ONLINE.UA Twitter British minister. "I'm not going on a visit to Moscow on Monday, April 10

My priority -. The talks with my colleagues in the G7 on the Syrian and Russian support for Assad," - he wrote.



Meanwhile, the website of the British diplomatic authorities to abolish the decision in Johnson's visit to Russia is explained by the need to continue contacts with the United States on Syria.

"Events in Syria has radically changed the situation My priority is now to continue contacts with the US and the other in advance of the meeting G7 10-11 of April -.. To create a co-ordinated international support for the cease-fire on the ground and activate the political process I will work to arrange for other like-minded partners meeting to discuss further actions ", - the report says.

According to Johnson, he discussed his plans with US Secretary of Rex Tillerson, who will go to Moscow after a meeting of the G7, as planned. "We deplore the fact that Russia continues to defend the Assad regime even after the attack with chemical weapons against civilians.

We call on Russia to do its utmost to reach a political solution in Syria, and to cooperate with the international community, to ensure that the shocking events of the last week will not be repeated ", - said the British minister. In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry the reasons for canceling the visit Johnson described as "absurd".

"This," the abolition of the visit, "followed immediately after his" transfer. "The reasons for the British side were called different. It seems that our Western colleagues live in some kind of self-reality in which they are first trying to single-handedly build a collective plan, then they are also single-handedly change inventing absurd pretexts, "- said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

According to her, in Russia "has always advocated the forming of stable relations on a solid basis of international right." "Unfortunately, the stability and consistency of long ceased to be the hallmark of western foreign policy", - she said.

As reported Online.ua, previously in the United States expressed the need to create a "hybrid" tribunal on war crimes in Syria, and Kremlin officials have called these plans "symptoms of paranoia".

news.online.ua , Original in Russian / На русском

Russian Foreign Ministry believes "absurd" excuse to cancel the visit of British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson in Moscow, said spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova

This is reported by "Vedomosti" .

"This cancellation of the visit followed immediately after the transfer. The reasons for the British side called different. It seems that our Western colleagues live in some own reality in which they were originally trying to single-handedly build a collective plan, then they also unilaterally changed by inventing absurd reasons" - said Zakharov.

Recall, the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson canceled a visit to Russia because of the situation in Syria.

espreso.tv, Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

The leader of the French "National Front" Marine Le Pen, known for his pro-Russian views, addressed the deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Le Pen addressed the Russian parliamentarians at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Stating the need to preserve and strengthen the Russian-French relations, the politician noted that its position with regard to Ukraine coincides with the Russian policy.

Le Pen also reminded that has always defended the special point of view, making it clear that the European Union is responsible for the beginning and the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

Earlier, the "Apostrophe" reported that the pro-Russian candidate in the presidential elections in France, Marine Le Pen and Fransua Fiyon gave way to an independent candidate Emmanuel Macron at the end of a televised debate.

apostrophe.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed disappointment with the reaction of the Russian authorities to missile attack US military aerodrome Shayrat in Syria.

Reported Tsenzor.NET referring to DW .

Criticism stroke sounded from Moscow, he described as "disappointing, but not unexpected." Such a reaction, according to Tillerson, demonstrates that the Kremlin continues to support the government of Bashar al-Assad - "a regime that carries out such terrible blows of his own people."

Recall the early morning of 7 April US released 59 cruise missiles "Tomahawk" on board Navy ships based in the Mediterranean, in military airfield "Shayrat" in central Syria, from which, as the US claims, flew planes committed a chemical attack in the province of Idlib 4 April. President Donald Trump called a rocket attack in retaliation for the chemical attack.

As reported, the US permanent representative to the UN Nikki Heyli said that the attack on the air base in Syria - "fully justified" step. Washington has threatened new attacks on military targets in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, if need be.

Russian Security Council qualified the US missile attacks as an act of aggression contrary to international law.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Russian media, including a website closely linked with the defence ministry, have misreported the findings of a new Bellingcat investigation to falsely claim that a Ukrainian Buk missile launcher was in Donbas just before the Malaysian MH17 airliner was downed in July 2014. Frustratingly, many sloppy Ukrainian websites have come close to following suit.

Bellingcat journalists have played a major role in uncovering evidence helping investigators into the MH17 disaster and in debunking versions Russia has put forward to blur the truth. For those reasons, it is unusual for the pro-Kremlin media to quote Bellingcat, which should have warned Ukrainian journalists to take care.

A new, relatively short, report entitled Photographs of Ukrainian Buks Geolocated in Poltava Oblast, Nearly Three Years Later was posted on April 4, 2017. The investigators explained that they had been able to successfully geolocate photos that had been posted with the wrong geotags just before the MH17 disaster. In the very first paragraph, they state quite unequivocally that the new information demonstrates that the Buk missile launcher in question had been in the Poltava oblast, not eastern Ukraine.

They then explain the problem, namely that photos posted by a Ukrainian army chaplain on July 15, 2014 contained geotags “geotags indicating that the photographs were taken near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine”, and go on to say that “the apparent location of these photographs seemed to contradict statements from the Ukrainian government claiming that there were no operational Buks in the zone of the “Anti-Terrorist Operation,” or the “ATO zone.”

All has now been clarified, however, and the photos accurately geolocated as having been taken on the Myrhorod Air Base in the Poltava oblast.

Nothing could be clearer – unless you write for Russian media interested in reporting the opposite or some Ukrainian media, who prefer sensationalist titles or copy-paste reporting to accurate information even on such an obviously critical subject.

Deliberate distortion

It would be difficult to suspect Russian TV Zvezda of not having understood the original report, since it deliberately selects a part of it to turn the text on its head. One of two reports is entitled: “Ukrainian ‘Buk’ was in Donbas before the MH17 disaster – western investigation’, the other: “Ukrainian ‘Buk’ in Donbas was exposed by a priest’.

The entire point of the Bellingcat report, clearly articulated in the title and opening paragraph, has thus been deliberately omitted in order to falsely claim – citing Bellingcat! – that Ukraine had a Buk missile carrier in Donbas.

On July 17, 2014, Russian media swiftly reported the news received from the Kremlin-backed militants that they had downed a Ukrainian military plane. Over the next hours, as it became clear that a passenger plane had been hit and 298 civilians killed. they began trying to remove the incriminating footage, Since then, Russia has put forward a huge number of different ‘versions’ for the disaster, none of which was taken seriously by the international investigation team who concluded that the plane had been downed by a Russian Buk missile launcher which was then taken back to Russia.

It was noticeable that even the British lawyer representing Russia at the International Court of Justice in March this year was careful not to deny the possible use of a Buk missile, but only the intent to kill civilians.

Any Russian attempt to claim that there was a Ukrainian Buk missile launcher on the scene seems pitched at a local audience who are unlikely to check the original.

Bafflingly irresponsible Ukrainian journalism......................

Access complete text of the editorial:  khpg.org In English