Ukraine News in brief. Friday 12 January. [Ukrainian sources]

FRIDAY HEADLINES:
On new sanctions against Russia will be announced soon.  It became known how the new US sanctions will affect Russia.  Marine Navy of Ukraine conducted joint exercises with the US Navy ship in the Black Sea.  Putin said Russia was not interested in a frozen conflict in the Donbas.  Aggravation in the Donbas: OSCE made an alarming statement.  It became known about the preparation of the Armed Forces to receive Javelin from the United States. Groisman regards an exaggeration of the problem of corruption in Ukraine. In Moldova, the Stalin Soviet tank was poured paint. World Wildlife Fund Urges Merkel To Stop Construction Of North Stream-2: It's the Deadlock to Fight Climate Change.  

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The new sanctions package, which the US prepares against Russia, will be a serious blow to Russia and personally to President Vladimir Putin.

This was stated in an interview with "Apostrophe" by a political scientist-internationalist, a teacher of the course of modern history of Ukraine at the Paris Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilization (INALCO), Volodymyr Poselsky.

"But what will change fundamentally for Russia, whether it will strike, for example, with certain oligarchs, will weaken their position. But they, I believe, are still not so dependent on the US, their business, that this will fundamentally change the functioning of the Russian regime, the rule Russia's collapse is not threatening,"- said the expert.

According to him, due to the foreign policy of Donald Trump, the United States has lost the role of a single leader of the West and have less opportunities to assist Ukraine.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

New US sanctions against Russia, which must be applied in accordance with the Act of Counteraction to the opponents of America, are now under development and will be announced in the near future.

This was stated at a briefing at the White House by US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin on Thursday, according to Tsensor.NET, referring to Ukrinform.

"As we have said, we are working on developing new sanctions, which will be announced in the near future, and we are, of course, focused on this," the head of the American Finance Ministry replied to a journalist's question about new sanctions against the Russian Federation.

We remind that in August last year Congress almost unanimously approved, and President Trump signed the law HR3364 "Act to counter America's opponents by imposing sanctions."

The law foresees, in particular, the introduction of additional restrictions in Russia's financial and energy sectors regarding the state-owned Russian enterprises of the metallurgical and mining industries, as well as rail transport. In addition, Russia is punished because of its actions in the information field, including cybercrime and attacks.

Separately, the law determines the need to punish those responsible for violating human rights in the territories occupied by Russia, as well as those acting in the interests of the defense and intelligence sectors of the Government of the Russian Federation. The law also criticizes the Russian project of the North Stream 2 pipeline

In addition, the document establishes at the legislative level the previous sanctions against Russia imposed by the decrees of the president. That is, if the head of the White House intends to weaken or cancel some sanctions against the RF, the law requires the mandatory agreement of these issues with the US Congress.

At the same time, the legislation confirms support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including not recognizing Russia's attempt to annex the Crimea and condemns the occupation of territories in the east of Ukraine.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Naval Naval Naval Forces of Ukraine in the Black Sea conducted joint training such as PASSEX with the USS CARNEY (DDG 64) Navy of the United States of America.

According to Tsensor.NET, this is stated in the press service of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.

It was reported that the goal of the event was to work out cooperation in accordance with NATO standards and increase interoperability.

In the course of training helicopters of the Ukrainian Navy Ka-27PCH and Ka-27PR in complicated meteorological conditions carried out more than ten landings aboard the American ship, conducted exploration and surveillance of the surface conditions.



"It is a common practice for us to work out such common elements," said Andriy Kurylenko, the Captain of the Armed Forces Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on an interim basis, "But, of course, every such opportunity is a good opportunity to get additional knowledge and improvement of the skills of interaction with our foreign colleagues according to modern standards".



It is also noted that the USS CARNEY (DDG 64) ship of the United States Navy arrived in the port of Odessa on January 8, where he had a friendly visit before January 11.



ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the situation in the Donbas is becoming a sign of a "frozen conflict", but nobody is interested in it.

Putin said this at a meeting with Russian journalists on January 11, reports RIA Novosti.

"With regard to the prospects for a settlement in the Donbas, it becomes a character of frozen conflict, nobody is interested in this, including Russia. We would like the situation to be resolved so that it is resolved. But it was decided not to cause concern to anyone who lives in this territory", - said Putin.

At the same time, he stressed that he did not want to "decide anything in advance."

"Russia would quite have arranged if Putin had fully implemented the Minsk treaties, the Minsk agreements in full, not selectively, as someone else likes, but in full, so that it would accommodate those who live in the Donbas," Putin added.

He explained that this is also the case, and about the law on the special status of the Donbas.

Previously, Putin said that Russia was ready to transfer warships and aviation equipment to Ukraine , which are in the annexed Crimea. At the same time, he suggested that the Ukrainian military pick them up from the Crimea independently.

The commander of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine responded to Putin's statement about the readiness to send ships to Crimea in Ukraine. According to him, the decision on this will be taken by the leadership of the state.

hromadske.ua  In Ukrainian/український

In the east of Ukraine, a new phase of aggravation of violence has begun. The facts of the New Year-Christmas armistice are fixed daily.

This was stated by the first deputy chairman of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Oleksandr Hug, reports Radio Liberty.

"After the armistice agreement on the holidays, a relative peace was established, but there was no one day without violations, and the parties are not fully committed to their obligations," Hug said.

According to him, in fact, on December 28, the OSCE PMM reported on average 500 violations of the silence regime.

"Comparing with the high rates of violence recorded in confirming the commitment to compliance with the cease-fire regime, the current figures are relatively low, however, this is anxiety," Hug summarized.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

On January 15, the Armed Forces will begin the training of operators for the American portable anti-tank missile system (JTR) Javelin.

This is reported by the Ukrainian Military Pages.

It is noted that the preparation of candidates will begin on January 15 on the basis of the National Academy of Army named after Hetman Sagaidachny for language training in order to obtain the required level of English language proficiency.

"After completing the language training, the selected candidates will be sent abroad for training in the combat use of anti-tank missile systems," the edition writes.

Recall that on December 23, it became known about the decision of US President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with 210 anti-tank missiles and 35 missile launchers of the Javelin Missile Complex (PTRK).

Yesterday, January 11, a scandalous deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, made a hysteria on the air in connection with the decision of the USA to provide Ukraine with American lethal weapons.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The number of areas in which corruption is dominant is decreasing, and statements that corruption is widespread in Ukraine is an exaggeration.

This was announced by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman in an interview with Georgian Forbes.

The PM assured that "we completely eliminated the corruption factor through Internet purchases. The system of electronic procurement that functions now does not give a chance to those corrupt officials who have previously assigned billions of dollars."

At the same time, he acknowledged that the law-enforcement system remains a corrupted one. But to the journalist's question that corrupt power structures give grounds for saying that corruption remains the country's main problem, Groysman replied:

"I will be absolutely honest with you, without all sorts of sweet pills. I believe that many of our enemies are interested in destabilizing Ukraine, and they always raise the issue of corruption in our country. They constantly repeat that corruption is very widespread. And they do it everywhere, including abroad. From time to time I encounter this problem, and I think it is exaggerated, "said Groisman.

hromadske.ua  In Ukrainian/український

In Moldova, in the town of Kornestha, unknown people poured paint a pedestal with the Soviet tank IS-3 (Joseph Stalin), established in 1970.

This is reported by the publication Ekspresul.

Several kilograms of red, yellow and blue paint on January 10 were unknown to the tank and pedestal on which it stands.

In the colors of the paint used by the tank, you can see the colors of the flag of Moldova.

City Mayor Vira Buga said she knew about the incident, but there was no complaint to the mayor of the incident. Law enforcers also did not receive messages.

The publication notes that the tank was installed on the pedestal at night in the '70s "without any permission."

During the many tanks they called for removal, however, the participants of the local socialist parties are against it.

On Thursday, January 11, the tank again painted green.

hromadske.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Nature's advocates believe that Nord Stream 2 is a dead end to tackling climate change.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the German Nuclear Conservation Union (NABU) call on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, head of the CSU Horst Zeehofer and SPD SDPP leader Martin Schulz to ban the construction of the North Stream 2 pipeline, according to Der Tagesspiegel, the Censor. link to zn.ua.

"NABU and WWF experts believe that Nord Stream 2 is a dead end to fighting climate change, threatens the fragile ecosystem of the Baltic Sea and destroys solidarity and confidence within the European Union," a letter from environmentalists said.

They believe that procedural errors, as well as the lack of transparency in the construction of the pipeline, "are in contradiction with the confidence in the policy of Germany and contribute to the disappointment of the country's population."

The authors urge politicians not only to distance themselves from the construction of the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, but also to designate and conduct an independent environmental review of this project.

In addition, environmentalists reported that they were ready to seek the closure of the pipeline "North Stream 2" through the court.

The North Stream 2 project envisages the construction of two gas pipelines around Ukraine with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The company Nord Stream 2 AG, which is planning to build, is owned by Russia's Gazprom 100%. Earlier, it was reported that half of the cost of the pipeline should be financed by five European oil and gas companies - Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper and Wintershall. Earlier it was reported that North Stream 2 received the first partial permission in Germany. According to experts from the REKK analytical center, the scenario of gas supply through the North Stream 2 can lead to an increase in the gap between gas prices in Western and Eastern Europe by 2020.

ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

For president of the Czech Republic, Milos Ziemana, a half-mooned woman cried out "Zemen - Slut Putin".

The incident occurred at a polling station in Prague on Friday, January 12, reports  Tsensor.NET with reference to Radio Liberty.


Guards beat down the woman on the floor, and Zemaana was taken out of the polling station. But after a while he still returned and voted.

The press service of the Femen said that the action was held by Ukrainian Angelina Dias.

 ua.censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Google Drive will cease to exist in the old format, but a new version of the disk with advanced features will replace it.

This is reported by the official Google blog.

Today, some Ukrainian media have reported that Ukrainians will allegedly disable access to Google Drive. In fact, this is in no way true. This information applies to Google's release of September 2017. It was about replacing Google Drive with an updated application that will work right away instead of two apps: Google Drive and Google Photos Uploader.

"Google Drive for Mac / PC is outdated and will not be supported from December 11, 2017, and it will be completely disconnected on March 12, 2018. We recommend using the Stream Drive File as an alternative or in addition to the Drive File Stream setup, you can go to A new version of Drive for Mac / PC called "Backup and Sync" - said in a message.

What is the difference between these two programs?

1. Private users will have Backup and Sync available - in fact, this is an updated version of Drive, but with additional features;

2. Drive File Stream promise as a more complex and convenient "cloud" solution. But full use of it will be possible only with a paid subscription.

Consequently, the rapid closure of the Google Drive desktop program was misinterpreted by many as an access closure. Indeed, on March 12, 2018, the Google Drive program will be disabled, but no user will lose access to their files in the cloud repository.

-Google, along with an update to the operating system Android 8.1 released a lightweight version of Android Go Edition , capable of working on "low" devices
Android mobile devices collect data about the upcoming cell towers and send this information to Google even in the background.

-Google's engineers, Xi Zhong Ryu and Florian Schroff, have developed technology to help determine when someone else looks at the phone screen.

Google has begun to mark ambient air pollution levels on Google Maps, merging with Aclima, which is committed to calculating the level of harmful substances in the atmosphere.

-Soon, with the help of Google, Kyiv residents will be able to receive the necessary information about all city events, as well as municipal institutions and utilities.

espreso.tv  In Ukrainian/український