Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Thursday 29 October [Ukrainian sources]

THURSDAY

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


NEWS:

Within the last 24 hours, One ATO soldier died and three others wounded from small fire and a booby-trap. Terrorists continue to violate the cease-fire, using small arms and using grenade launchers.

Ukraine is refusing talks with Russia on lifting the traffic ban over Ukraine. It's costing Russia airlines more money, as they have to travel further around Ukraine's borders to its destinations.

WEATHER:

Sunny today in Kyiv, with temperatures around +5c. Clouds and sun in the south, with temperatures of +8c.

Three soldiers have been reported wounded in ATO area over past day, one soldier was killed.
As reported by Censor.NET citing Ukrainski Novyny, this was announced by Presidential Administration representative on ATO matters Oleksandr Motuzianyk at a daily briefing.

According to him, a Ukrainian soldier was fatally wounded in a tripwire blast in the Yasynuvata district of the Donetsk region.

Engagement occurred near Butivka mine: three Ukrainian fighters wounded.

Three servicemen were injured in a grenade launcher attack.

censor.net.ua In Russian

The achievements include relative stability of the currency over past six months, establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, restructuring of the state debt, IMF support programs, new corruption-free police, and other.

The video on reform progress was presented to CEOs of the largest American companies who accompanied the visit of the United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker to Kyiv on Oct. 26-27, Censor.NET reports.



censor.net.ua

After invading and annexing Crimea and banning Crimean Tatar leader Refat Chubarov from his homeland, Russia now wants to remand him in custody – after ‘extraditing’ him, of course. It accuses him of – wait for it – “encroaching on Russia’s territorial integrity” by insisting that Crimea is Ukraine.

Refat Chubarov is the Head of the Mejlis, or Crimean Tatar representative assembly, an elective body which Russia is now threatening to ban as ‘extremist’. Taking advantage of the latest propaganda drive aimed at justifying Russia’s military intervention in Syria, there have even been totally unsubstantiated allegations that members of the Mejlis are recruiting fighters for the so-called Islamic State. These new attacks are especially lacking in credibility given that Russia’s offensive against the Mejlis began well over a year ago.

The veteran Crimean Tatar leader and former Head of the Mejlis Mustafa Dzhemiliev was the first to be exiled from his native Crimea, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar People when he was just 6 months old. Chubarov was warned against ‘extremism’ over peaceful protest against that ban, then in July himself banned from Crimea. The armed offensive against the Mejlis as a body began in September 2014, and then in January the Deputy Head of the Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz was detained on legally absurd charges. He remains in detention, together with two other Crimean Tatars. Grave violations of Crimean Tatar rights under Russian occupation have been reported by numerous international NGOs and European structures.

In response to the ever-worsening situation for Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians in Russian-occupied Crimea, Dzhemiliev, Chubarov and other prominent Crimean Tatar leaders initiated a blockade of the ‘border’ between mainland Ukraine and Crimea. Mustafa Dzhemiliev stressed that the situation is unheard of where a country whose territory has been occupied by an aggressor state continues to provide the occupied territory with food, electricity, etc., The blockade, preventing trucks from entering Crimea, has been in force since Sept 20. The occupation authorities and Russia have consistently denied that it is having any effect. This clashes with reports coming from Crimea, and also with the heightened attack on the Mejlis and on prominent Crimean Tatar figures.

As reported, it was Natalya Poklonskaya, the de facto Crimean prosecutor who announced on May 29 that Russia’s FSB [Security Service] had initiated criminal proceedings against Chubarov under Article 280.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (public calls to action aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation). According to the document which Chubarov has now received, he is in fact charged under 280.1 § 2. – where such calls are published in the media or Internet, with this carrying a longer sentence. This article was introduced in May 2014, and there was concern from the outset that Russia would use it to stifle opposition to its occupation of Crimea.

Poklonskaya said that the ‘investigators’ would take procedural decisions with respect to citizen Chubarov”, adding that he had been placed on the wanted list. “We are waiting for him”, she added, almost a year after Russia banned the Mejlis leader from his homeland.

That ban was for 5 years which is the same maximum term envisaged for the charges under which Russia wants to charge him................

To read further go to this link: khpg.org

U.S. Army delegation led by the U.S. Army Chief of Staff Mark A. Milley arrived to Ukraine for an official visit.
The representatives of the Ukrainian General Staff held talks with the U.S. delegation and discussed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and forecast of its development, Censor.NET reports citing the Defense Ministry of Ukraine press service.

"Ukraine strictly observes the Minsk agreements achieved during the Prague EU Leaders Summit," Col. Gen. Hennadiy Vorobiov, First Deputy Chief of General Staff, Ukrainian Armed Forces, stressed.

Read more: US Department of State allowed import of military sniper bullets in Ukraine, - Chief Editor Butusov. PHOTO

The parties also analyzed current security challenges, outlined the prospects and efficient forms of military cooperation, as well as possible U.S. aid considering the current situation in the east of Ukraine.






censor.net.ua In Russian

In 2016, Ukraine will be able to do without Russian gas. If necessary, the required volume could be reversed from Europe.
This was announced by Naftohaz Ukrainy CEO Andrii Kobolev at the Second Annual Forum of Directors "Orchestrators of Change" in Kyiv, Censor.NET informs referring to Ukrinform.

"I believe we have reached quite a progress in Naftohaz's foreign relations. First of all, we started with tackling current challenges: relations with Gazprom and external debts. As for Gazprom, we have managed to diversify the supplies and started receiving gas from Europe. I think that in 2016, we will be able to completely do without Russian gas, if necessary, the required volume could be reversed from Europe," Kobolev said.

Read more: Ukraine uses up paid Russian gas on Saturday while further import depends on cost, - Naftohaz CEO Kobolev

According to him, an important achievement is that Gazprom approaches Kyiv and offers negotiating a price that is acceptable for Ukraine.

However, according to Kobolev, there is another challenge - the construction of Nord Stream, which is a bright example of common sense being overcome by political motives. "Nevertheless, we have a prospect and means to win," the Naftohaz CEO said.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Terrorists have released nine Ukrainian soldiers.
This was announced by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Facebook, Censor.NET reports.

"Friends, I've got good news - nine Ukrainian Heroes have been released from captivity today. Glory to Ukraine!" he wrote.

Read more: "DPR" voiced its intention to release four Ukrainian soldiers on Thursday

No other details have been reported.

Later, adviser of SBU head Yurii Tandid released a list of the released fighters:

1. Oleksandr Shyrin
2. Volodymyr Polishchuk
3. Volodymyr Dmitrenko
4. Ivan Boiko
5. Dmytro Polishchuk
6. Serhii Tkachenko
7. Karat Mukhammedov
8. Roman Smahulov
9. Oleksandr Mykhailiuk

censor.net.ua In Russian

A new patriotic footage about Ukraine has been released on the Internet.

As reported by Censor.NET, Oleh Prylutskyi, the author, named the new video "Ukraine - my home." The video describes the central and western parts of the country and the people who live there.



censor.net.ua In Russian

In 2015, Ukraine has risen significantly in the Doing Business rating, up from last year’s 112th position to the present 83rd, Economy and Trade Minister Ivaras Abromavichus said in a press conference in Kyiv Oct. 28, UNIAN reports.

“We are moving in the right direction — 2 years ago Ukraine was 112th in the rating and not it is 83rd,” the minister said.

World Bank experts say the key reform that promoted such a steep rise is the simplified registration of business.

However, Ukraine’s weak points remain the connection to electricity networks, construction permits, trans border trade and bankruptcies procedures.

time-ua.com

The Ministry of Infrastructure has no plans to conduct another round of talks with Russia regarding sanctions against Russian air carrieers, and Ukraine's position is that Russia pay fines for unauthorized flights in occupied Crimea, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Shulmeister told journalists at a business forum in Kyiv on Thursday.

"It's not planned. I know of no plans to conduct another round of talks," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on September 25, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced that in keeping with National Security and Defense Council decisions, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers had decided to toughen anti-Russian sanctions by banning flights carried out by Russian airlines, namely Aeroflot, Transaero, Rossiya and S7. Ukraine also banned transit flights of Russian airlines through Ukrainian airspace "if they carry defense goods, duel-purpose equipment, or Russian military personnel," the press service said quoting Yatsenyuk who announced this decision at a recent Cabinet meeting. The ban came into force on October 25..................

To read further go to this link: unian.info

The self-proclaimed leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Aleksander Zakharchenko says Facebook has banned his personal account because of numerous complaints submitted by Ukrainian users.

According to Zakharchenko more than 2500 users reported that his Facebook page incites violence and violates human dignity, though he claims he ‘didn't use any word or terms which could provoke aggressive reaction from the part of Facebook administration.'

Earlier UN experts said that every week Facebook receives more than 1 mln reports about militant- and extremism-related content.

uatoday.tv

Natalya Sharina, Director of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow, has been detained for 48 hours, and the Investigative Committee is seeking to have her remanded in custody on new charges of ‘inciting hatred’ over books found during Wednesday’s armed search of the library (see end for updated information)

On Wednesday morning, Oct 28, armed and masked OMON police officers carried out searches of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow and the homes both of Natalya Sharina and of the head of the Association of Ukrainians in Russia. They appear to have been on the hunt for so-called ‘extremist’ material and took away material, memory sticks and some documents.

It was first reported that Valery Semenenko, head of the Association of Ukrainians in Russia and a member of the World Congress of Ukrainians, had been detained. He explained to Radio Svoboda that men in masks with machine guns had turned up at his home and unceremoniously carried out a search, removing computers, laptops, memory sticks and a large amount of literature. He was then taken away for questioning, but released.

A criminal investigation was initiated against the Library and Natalya Sharina at the end of 2010. The charges were of inciting hatred (Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code) with the library accused of circulating anti-Russian books. The investigation was terminated in August 2011 for want of a crime.

It has now been reinstated, with the investigators reportedly saying that this is “due to a change in the political situation”.

Russia’s Sova Centre has condemned the reinstatement of the criminal proceedings. “A library is designed for storing printed material, not for propaganda of the ideas expressed in such material. The point of its existence is to provide researchers and those simply interested with access to a whole range of Ukrainian thought. We would furthermore point out that according to the Library Code, a library is obliged to hold all incoming material.”

During the day Natalya Sharina told UNIAN’s correspondent in Moscow that her flat had been searched and several books removed. Among them was a book on Holodomor 1932-33 [the manmade Famine in Ukraine]; a book by Oksana Zabuzkho, several copies of a newspaper from 2011, office equipment and electronic storage devices. She understood the search to be linked with the 2010 criminal investigation and said that the investigators had stated that they wanted to get “additional material”.

She added that they had found no ‘prohibited literature’ in the library, but had removed books about the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ‘- Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Not one of the books removed, she said, was on Russia’s very large list of ‘extremist materials’.

REN-TV reported that the police were looking for copies of “Chas Rukhu” where supposedly there was “Russophobic distortion of historical facts”. REN-TV points out that one of the leading authors of this publication is Boris Tarasyuk, a former Ukrainian Foreign Minister and deputy leader of Yulya Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna faction.

‘Extremism’ the Russian way

In January this year, the director of a library in Russian-occupied Crimea was fined for supposedly holding ‘extremist material’, in the form of 12 books about Holodomor. The specific book published in 2007 by Vasyl Marochko under the title ‘Genocide of Ukrainians’: Holodomor 1932/1933’ is on Russia’s Federal List of Extremist Material (no. 1154). The Feodosiya Prosecutor claimed that the book had “an anti-Russian orientation” and used language “aimed at inciting inter-ethnic enmity on the basis of belonging to a particular social group.”

According to the Sova Centre, the book by Marochko had been removed together with other material during a search of the Ukrainian Literature Library at the beginning of 2011. Although the investigation was then stopped, a number of books were added to the federal list of banned material which then contained just 1271 works, and as of Oct 28, 2015 holds 3, 113 items. The books deemed ‘extremist’ included publications about Holodomor as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people, as well as material about the crimes of the NKVD, Stepan Bandera, etc. They were all placed on the Federal List on the basis of a ruling of the Meshchansky District Court in Moscow from 01.12.2011.

There is also a Federal List of Extremists and Terrorists which includes, for example, Rafis Kashapov, sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for posts critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, etc.; Alexander Byvshev, the Russian poet convicted of ‘inciting enmity’ and sentenced to 300 hours of community service for a poem expressing opposition to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and, more recently, Yekaterina Vologzhenova who is on trial for sharing material criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine on social networks. That list currently holds over 4, 500 names...............

To read further go to this link: khpg.org

Ukraine observes all terms of the Minsk agreements while the same can't be said of Russia.

This was announced by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov during the meeting with the French Ambassador to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont, Censor.NET informs citing the NSDC press service.

According to the report, Turchynov and Dumont have discussed the current developments in Ukraine.
According to Turchynov, despite the fact that Ukraine adheres to all commitments undertaken within the Minsk agreements, "the same cannot be said of Russia."

"Attempts of provocative attacks on our positions indicate that they want to disrupt the peace plan for the withdrawal of weapons," the NSDC secretary said.

Dumont, in turn, noted that France has always been a reliable friend of Ukraine, "and we will continue to assist in every possible way on the path to democratic change in your country."

censor.net.ua In Russian

The Russian leaders failed to notice that the gas pipe has two ends, and the seller can be a looser, Russian economist Karl Volokh writes for Novoje vremya Oct. 29.

“Looking at the gas price set by Gazprom for 2016 (less than $200 for Europe and less than $150 for Ukraine) I recall Putin’s declarations in Munich in 2007 about the gas weapon.

I also recall how I tried to prove to my friends that it was a sentence to Gazprom because the West would never agree to the gas blackmail.

I recall too how my opponents laughed at me in 2009 during the gas war and gas cut-offs to Ukraine and Europe, when I warned that the fall-out would be imminent and disastrous.

Then, Gazprom KGB managers who viewed themselves as tough businessmen found out that the pipe has two ends, putting the seller in a vulnerable position.

As a result, the imperial colossus (Gazprom) not only lost its value 6 times but is reducing its prices to all buyers, flirting with Ukraine not to buy gas from Europe.

However, the most ridiculous fact is that the Russians still believe Putin to be a great ruler.

Meanwhile, the ruler not only cashed in earning $3 trillion on the rise in gas price, but embezzled the money and wasted his chance to modernize Russia’s economy, driving the country in a historical and economic dead-end,” Karl Volokh says.

zik.ua

Militants continue to desert their units in the occupied Donbas.

As reported by Censor.NET, it is stated by Ukraine's Defense Intelligence.

"Having failed to receive wages, militants of the 2nd army corps resorted to an alternative method of enrichment - they started to sell hardware spare parts that can be used in civilian equipment or vehicles. Militants continue to desert. The majority of deserters are repeat offenders," the report reads.

The authority also noted that the situation in ATO area remains relatively stable: "During the day, a single small arms attack occurred in the vicinity of Donetsk (near Butivka mine).

"The OSCE SMM and the DI continue monitoring the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The mission has been informed of the presence of enemy artillery systems over 100-mm (self-propelled howitzers) and 220-mm Uragan rocket systems near Mykhailivka, Krynychna, Donetsk, and Novooleksandrivka, which is a violation of the Minsk agreements," the statement notes.

censor.net.ua In Russian

The very existence of Independent Ukraine is driving nails daily in the coffin of the Russian imperial revanchism.

As reported by Censor.NET, this was announced by the National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov on his website.

"This is regular Ruscism [Russian fascism - ed.]. The most common illustrations from the Nazi Germany period were those depicting burning confiscated books which did not fit their anti-human ideology. Today, the wheel of history has one more time turned by 360 degrees, and the director of the Ukrainian library in Moscow was arrested.

"Ukrainian history books and content about our state are being confiscated from the library. Russian regime is copying Hitler in everything, from aggressive violations of foreign territory and destruction of any opposition resistance and dissidence within the country, from total brainwashing of millions of citizens, and to destruction of Ukrainian books and any mentions of our national identity, our history, and misrepresentation of any truthful information about Ukraine.

"All of this proves their fear, their blind fear to lose power, and panic fear of Ukraine. They are afraid of us because they cannot win, because the very existence of Independent Ukraine is driving nails daily in the coffin of the Russian imperial revanchism, destroying any attempts of revival of the bloody Russian empire," Oleksandr Turchynov.

censor.net.ua In Russian

OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) cannot verify weapons withdrawal by terrorists of the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" due to observers not being allowed to storage areas.


This was announced by Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE SMM in Ukraine Alexander Hug at a briefing, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrainski Novyny.

Hug said it was a pity that the Mission was not allowed to see storage of withdrawn weapons in the area not controlled by the government. Interfering with the verification process is also a violation of the additional protocol, he noted.

Read more: Ukrainian military started withdrawing artillery at Mariupol direction, - General Staff

Besides, Hug said that the Mission was not always let to monitor holding areas of heavy weapons. Sometimes equipment is recorded missing from storage facilities, both for Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics, he commented.

Besides, the Mission continues to observe cases of redeployment of military equipment..................

censor.net.ua In Russian

Sir, Whether one loves or loathes modern Russia and its president, the tone of Martin Wolf’s column “Resist Russian blackmail over Ukraine’s debt” (October 21) resembles that of Radio Tirana in the time of Enver Hoxha, or perhaps modern day broadcasts from North Korea. Its shrillness was quite unbecoming of such a fine commentator.

More importantly, he missed the real story in the sorry saga of Ukraine’s debt repayment — one in which Russia is not the villain. Former president Viktor Yanukovich is alleged to have embezzled some $70bn from his country, but is, as one newspaper in Kiev put it recently, a “disgraced runaway”............

To read further go to this link:  ft.com