Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Saturday 19 September [Ukrainian sources]

SATURDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the course of the day.

News -
Putin fired three times yesterday at Ukrainian people. Less action now from him and Lavrov.
Sadly he has left lots and lots of landmines around. These will be a big big problem for Ukraine for many years to come. Evil.
Update - reading one soldier killed, one injured yesterday - mine again.

Tymoshenko - very popular online petition - for her to be sent to Honduras as Ambassador. See below.

Weather -
Quite warm. Was 30 where I was yesterday. Expect similar today.
Blue sky and sunshine now. And already 21 at 0800 hrs.

http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1502522-sogodni-v-zoni-ato-postriliv-zafiksovano-ne-bulo
KYIV. 19 September. UNN. Today, from midnight to 6 am on September 19th, the enemy regime did not break the silence, told UNN, the press center of the ATO.
Once during the day yesterday militants fired directly our strong point.
"So, Artemovsk direction from 21.10 to 21.50 on the part Nyzhnolozovoho criminals fired from automatic grenade launcher on ATO forces positions in Lugansk," - said in a statement.
Strictly following the peace agreements and not yielding to provocations of the enemy armed forces of Ukraine in response to the fire not opened.
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Online translator - be careful with negatives
Сьогодні в зоні АТО пострілів зафіксовано не було Using google translator -
Today, the area ATO shots were recorded
Should translate as - were not recorded... wierd..but often happens with negatives.

http://www.unian.ua/politics/1128375-boyoviki-vnochi-trichi-obstrilyali-pozitsiji-sil-ato-ranok-traditsiyno-buv-tihim-shtab.html
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Some conflict in the papers this morning whether Putin fired three times, or theoretically zero...

8:25
http://obozrevatel.com/abroad/70159-smi-timoshenko-proigrala-sud-protiv-firtasha-v-ssha.htm
The court in New York's Manhattan declined on Friday, 18 September, a lawsuit filed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against the oligarchs Dmitry Firtash and several others on charges of fraud in the United States.
This was stated by Judge Kimba Woods, reports Tass.
According to her, Timoshenko failed to provide sufficient evidence that the Ukrainian businessman engaged in money laundering in the US territory, to give a bribe of these funds in Ukraine.

http://obozrevatel.com/politics/71802-ukraintsyi-rekordnyimi-tempami-golosuyut-za-otpravku-timoshenko-v-gonduras.htm
Ukrainians massively voted for a petition to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko with a request to send the leader of "Batkivshchyna" Yulia Tymoshenko as ambassador to Honduras.
In just three days, the petition has collected 14,374 votes out of 25,000 required.
By the end of the collection of signatures it left 89 days, so that Tymoshenko has all the chances to travel to warmer climes.

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Interesting also.
Tymoshenko - income declaration last year, earned about 50 dollars a month.
But she has millions for a private lawsuit against Firtash in the USA. Make sense to you?

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-soldiers-say-quit-over-deployment-to-syria/531645.html
The four soldiers said they went to the military prosecutor's office in Novorossiysk, demanding to check the legitimacy of the orders given by their commanders — which didn't exist on paper. They also filed a complaint to the presidential Human Rights Council and handed in their resignation notices, ..
Russia's Defense Ministry on Friday said it was impossible that the soldiers could have been deployed to Syria.
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Now - where have we heard this before?

www.bloomberg.com/energy/

Crude Oil & Natural Gas
INDEX UNITS PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE CONTRACT TIME ET 2 DAY
WTI Crude Oil (Nymex)
USD/bbl. 44.68 -2.22 -4.73% OCT 15 17:14:55
Brent Crude (ICE)
USD/bbl. 47.47 -1.61 -3.28% NOV 15 17:59:50
Crude Oil (Tokyo)
JPY/kl 36,250.00 -840.00 -2.26% FEB 16 14:59:39
Natural Gas (Nymex)
USD/MMBtu 2.61 -0.05 -1.77% OCT 15 17:14:59
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I don't think I can remember seeing gas this low. 2.61 - wow...
WTI down a lot in the last day. 4.7% is a lot.

http://ua.112.ua/ato/za-dobu-v-zoni-ato-zahynuv-odyn-ukrainskyi-viiskovyi-shche-odyn-otrymav-poranennia-lysenko-259405.html
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Mine again. Lugansk area.

12:36
http://firstsocial.info/news/lyashko-ta-bilshist-radikaliv-ne-golosuvali-proti-areshtu-mosiychuka
Party faction Oleg Lyashko consists of 21 deputies, and the voting was missing 6 "radicals", voted against only 4. That is, 11 members of the Radical Party and including its leader, decided not to vote.
According to the arrest Mosiychuk voted 116 deputies from the bloc Petro Poroshenko "Solidarity", 64 - "Popular Front", 12 - "Fatherland", 6 - Opposition bloc 14 - "Renaissance", 7 - the group "will of the people" and 17 unaffiliated MPs, including three "svobodovtsev."
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Interesting. Batkivshina - 7 didn't vote in favour. And opposition block. They have about 40 seats, but only 14 voted for immunity to be lifted.
I have heard that there are various links between Liashko's Radical party, and the Party of Regions. - or Opposition block, as they are now called.

13:03
http://tyzhden.ua/News/146637
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Olevsk. Expect him to let himself off on drunk driving charges. Probably a fine of 2 dollars.

The Ukrainian army has launched a sweeping military operation on its territory against rebel terrorists and contrabandists in Donbas, Pres Poroshenko’s adviser Yury Biruykov writes in Facebook Sept. 19.

“Thousands of troops are involved in the operation,” he confirmed.

One of the aims of the operation is to crack down on contrabandists and Ukraine army servicemen assisting smugglers.

Yury Biruykov the contrabandists all the attempts to bribe army servicemen at checkpoints on the roads will be cut and their cargo may be burned.

There is a heavy illegal traffic of food, tobacco and alcohol from Ukraine to the rebel-held territories.

zik.ua

US Vice President Joe Biden issues warning to Poroshenko and Yatseniuk over corruption in Ukraine while the White House admitts that sanctions against Russia might easily be toughened.
This was reported by Michael Carpenter, Special Advisor to the US Vice President for Europe and Eurasia, at a press briefing in Washington, according to sources of Novoye Vremya website, Censor.NET reports. Carpenter did not specify what the "specific warning" for Ukraine stands for.

The White House is "extremely concerned" that the level of corruption in Ukraine does not show a sign of abating.

Biden sent a "strict and specific" warning to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk that Washington's further support for Kyiv will be jeopardized if the situation in Ukraine does not change.

Biden also fears that the Minsk agreement, even before the end of the year, will be completely disrupted by the elections to be held in the militant-controlled territories.

Carpenter also mentioned that Russia is building up a military base on the border with Ukraine. This may mean that the conflict may last "for years."

He added that in terms of a 10-point scale, the US sanctions against Russia are currently rank 3, and can be easily enhanced.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Then give it more assistance to fight the corruption. Very easily said and not considering what is being done, including all the other major issues that's been slapped on the Ukrainian government.

Seems they don't see daily results of criminals being caught, including from within. Lots of work to be done. If corruption was the only major issue, then I can see them getting after the government. They don't take into consideration they're also fighting an invasion. ANY government has only so much resources. So instead of bashing the Ukrainian government, help them. The US has plenty of resources to assist.

Savik Schuster’s political talk show was taken off the air by 1+1 TV channel at the eleventh hour on Friday, and Schuster had to flee for rescue to 112.UA channel.

As soon as the talk show started, 1+1 editor Oleksandr Tkachenko sent Schuster a cable to inform that shifting the talk show to a different channel was not in his contract with 1+1.

1+1 also explained why the channel decided to muzzle Schuster’s talk show on Friday – “the situation in Ukraine is overheated and your talk show will fan tensions even more”!

Responding on-line, Savik Schuster said,” There is nothing in the contract about putting me off the air when you wish it. I am not a piece of garbage to be dumped that way. Although you are a colleague journalist, Sashko Tkachenko, [1+1 editorI am not your slave.”

Schuster pointed his finger at Pres Poroshenko, saying he was behind his recent misfortunes [Schuster had to change several TV channels finding a base for his expository and extremely popular talk show – Ed.].

Friday’s show discussed rampant corruption in the legislature and government.

zik.ua

Do your research Shyster then tell everyone how much money it would take to get the resources to fight it better than now. You haven't considered that the country's economy's going through hell, because of Yanukovich and Putin. ALSO! fighting a military conflict. How much money does that take to fight? Why don't you lend some of your millions you make to help the government get those resources it needs badly. Obviously you'd rather raise eyebrows for selling advertisement instead of reporting and talking about the bad condition the country's in, not from the makings of Poroshenko, but by the likes of the leader of the country you came from.

Economy
Gas supplies
Pensions
Infrastructure
War with the Kremlin
Trying to attract foreign investments
Corruption from within
Corruption from the opposition
Division from western Ukraine
Kremlin's goal to financially destroy Ukraine
The lack of assistance from Europe and the US

The above is what you should be reporting on. Are you being paid by the Kremlin to cause further division? Are you pro-Kremlin? Or maybe you're being paid by Tymoshenko who's also trying to cause division. Everyone knows she wants it for her greedy political advantage.

By the way, why didn't you report that some in his own party are being investigated? It's not newsworthy? It won't raise eyebrows?

Do your research on stats regarding the fight against crime and corruption from the Yushchenko and Yanukovich years as compared to the Poroshenko years. Tell us who fought more.

Putin’s address at the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28 is widely discussed by the media and experts. The only feasible result of his address is that Putin will for the umpteenth time expose himself to ridicule, Ukraine ex-Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko writes in Novoe Vremya Sept. 18.


“Moscow opts to come to New York and say,” Guys, look at us – we are so nice! Drop all your coalitions and join us is a big new coalition against ISIS. Let’s save our precious Assad under the disguise that we are fighting terrorism,” Ohryzko writes.

“The Russians, as usual, are engaged in cheating – saying they are fighting ISIS they actually want to keep Assad in power. Russia’s main objective in the area is not Assad but Moscow’s military bases,” Ohryzko says.  

“It remains to be seen how our Western partners will react to Putin’s rhetoric. Will they fall for it yet again or will they tell Putin ‘We’ve heard this story before, Volodya?” V. Ohryzko says.

zik.ua

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the law on amendments to law of Ukraine on the state budget of Ukraine for 2015 that provides for the increase of pensions, social standards and salaries of public sector employees.

The press service of the Head of State reported.

"Our team has done everything possible to ensure this growth already on September 1, albeit at a modest value of 13 to 18%," the Head of State said.

The President called this step the first result of real introduction of reforms, for which the government has made everything possible.

He also added that the authorities managed to persuade the IMF, World Bank and other partners that this is a sustainable income that provides revenues for the state budget on a reliable basis.

time-ua.com

Posted by Denis Volkov for Carnegie - Moscow Center, Sep 9, 2015

Russian public opinion on the Ukraine crisis is poorly understood. In most of the discussion of opinion polls, there is a strong focus on the very negative views Russian citizens express toward Ukraine and their general satisfaction with the takeover of Crimea.

However we gain a much more nuanced picture and some unexpected revelations if we study the poll data collected by the Levada Center since the first protests in Kyiv in November 2013.

This data shows a Russia much less aggressive on Ukraine than outsiders might suppose. According to the most recent polls, 64 percent of respondents believe that Russia would benefit from having good-neighborly relations with Ukraine as an independent state. Even as fighting was raging in Ukraine at the end of last year, 60 percent of those polled had neutral views on Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, believing that the country should make up its own mind on this issue; only 22 percent disagreed.

In December 2013, most Russians supported a policy of non-intervention and were against giving Ukraine money or sending troops there. Today most Russians would like to see their country remain within its current borders (57 percent as of March 2015, the highest figure in the 17 years in which the question has been asked). 64 percent believe Russia shouldn’t keep the former Soviet republics under its control. Over half of the people (55 percent) think that the country should focus on its domestic problems, while 31 percent say that “geopolitical” and “strategic” interests trump economic and social issues.

How is it possible to reconcile these attitudes with the fact that Russians also unequivocally approve of the annexation of Crimea and continued aid to the rebels in Donbas, including sending arms there (but not Russian troops)

To understand this paradox, we must understand how Russians generally characterize the Ukraine conflict. In focus groups most respondents displayed a noticeable reluctance to discuss the topic and the most common answer was “officially, there is no war.” Only about 25 percent of respondents agree that there is a war between Russia and Ukraine, while 65 – 70 percent complete deny this (in Ukraine these numbers are completely reversed).

It is telling that only 11 percent of those polled are certain that there are absolutely no Russian citizens fighting on the side of the Donbass militants. But the majority believes that these men are either volunteers (48 percent) or mercenaries (24 percent) rather than actual Russian troops.

Russians are virtually unanimous (95 – 96 percent) in denying their own country’s responsibility for anything that’s happening in Ukraine the ongoing conflict, breaches of the Minsk Agreements, the shooting down of MH17 etc........

ukrainebusiness.com.ua

As many of you have heard me repeating that many of what Putin's doing is concern for his support at home. From blaming other governments to going into Syria to try and pull out a victory which would boost his ratings.

Above you can see that the majority don't care for what he's doing to and in Ukraine. This is fuel to the fire of a revolution slowly brewing within Russia. That scares the daylights out of Putin.

Suddenly he wants to be buddies to the US, regarding Syria. Wants to go to the UN to look like and plead to them that he's not a bad person and wants global peace. At the same time trying to divide Ukraine and boosting his influence via propaganda in other European countries, in order to also cause instability and weaken them.

He's got his hands full and going out of his way to correct his failures. How much more will his goons within his circles take, if the above shows that his people aren't thrilled with his actions on a country they at one time considered their brothers. They're losing millions and billions of Rubles. How much more of a loss can they or will they take?

He can try all the propaganda he wants in Ukraine, but what also must be considered is, there are large numbers of Russians that live within Ukraine and in other neighboring countries. They don't want to go back to Russia. They have it better where they are. How many Russians in Russia are contacted by their extended families not in Russia and are told of the facts and the truth. That doesn't help him within his population. It defeats his propaganda. If it's not soon, it'll be a matter of time when the majority in Russia will want to change the way things have been in their country and want to have the same kind of life those living outside of Russia have, knowing from them directly. Just a matter of time.