Ukraine crisis. News in Brief. Sunday 01 November [Ukrainian sources]

SUNDAY

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

News -
Reading in UP that the ATO area was quiet last night.
Ammunition from the mega-explosion at the Ukrainian dump north of Donetsk is being destroyed.

Weather -
Super. Blue sky again this morning, and sunshine. -1 last night. Perhaps 10 again today. Pleasant.

Observation 1 -
Tymoshenko held a serious meeting of the heads of Batkivshina a few weeks ago.
I have a source who was present at the meeting. He/ She said that there was really only one thing -
At all costs, Tymoshenko must become President. That is the goal for Batkivshina. My source basically said that she is mad. But also said that she is a very strong woman. But one could say the same about Stalin or Putin - they are/were strong in their ways.
Observation 2 -
Putin never appeared on tv yesterday. Despite the air crash. May be nothing. May be something.

7:27
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/11/1/7087080/
Night in the area of anti-terrorist operation took place without violations Minsk agreements.
The press center reports to headquarters ATO Facebook page
"After the disaster in Svatove already recovered 100 percent and 90 water supply - electricity and gas. Food provided all affected. The work to restore the windows," - said in a statement.
Also reported that Engineer units found 681 pieces of munitions, 215 of which were destroyed in quarries.

7:45
http://nbnews.com.ua/ru/news/164830/
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27 and 24% respectively.
I think I have translated самовыдвиженец correctly as independent. Not sure, can't find my dictionary.
Sort of self-change, but not Samopomich.
I think Poroshenko has done ok in the elections. His support has stayed stable.
Yatseniuk decided not to run. Liashko lost support. Tymoshenko held her ground also. As did Samopomich.

9:23
http://news.liga.net/articles/politics/6797436-voyna_rossii_protiv_ukrainy_poslednie_sobytiya_v_donbasse.htm
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Actually a summary over the last few months.

9:12
http://kriminal.tv/news/perevorot-v-lnr-poka-zamorogen-razgnevannij-plotnitskij-uvolil-merovzagovorshchikov-neskolkih-gorodov.html
Latest news Donbass say that the leader of the "LPR" Igor Plotnitsky began to get rid of the people who opposed him in conflict with the "power structures", "republic".
Latest news Donbass recently reported coup attempt in the "LPR". As it became known to journalists Joinfo.ua Lugansk and Donetsk, the leader of "LNR" Igor Plotnitsky began to get rid of those "officials" who opposed him in conflict with the "power structures", "republic".
So, he ordered the "mayors" cities of Stakhanov - S.Zhevlakovu Krasni Luch - Yu.Kondratenko, Bryanka - M.Morgunovu write applications for voluntary redundancy, without specifying the date.
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Plotntsky - the local mafia leader - Putin puppet, making sure their is no competition to his overall power in the Lugansk area.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/belarus/2015-10-29/belarus-balancing-act
So what changed? In a word: Ukraine. Russia has alienated its neighbors since the crisis in Ukraine began in 2013. Russia’s aggression has alarmed Lukashenko, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. Lukashenko doesn’t want to become a second Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine who now lives in forced retirement in Moscow, and he doesn’t want to see Russian “little green men” deployed against Belarus. Russia’s actions have shored up Lukashenko’s domestic support, even among elements within the Belarusian opposition, who want to close ranks in the face of a potential Russian threat. Events in Ukraine have also reduced Western pressure on Belarus to democratize.
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Not a bad article. But how can the west support a dictator of an impoverished country? Politics?

A couple of photos I found on twitter.



Note that they are reading Vesti. Russian newspaper. Shaun Walker - Sarah Rainsford stuff.



Caption: You there in Russia are all zombies. Glory to Ukraine. Response: Glory to the heroes.

Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, based on information received as of 19:30hrs, 30 October 2015
http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/196136
[This right at the end of the report]
Denied access:
The SMM followed fresh tank tracks on the road to a farm building near “DPR”-controlled Krasnopillia (58km south-east of Donetsk), where armed “DPR” members did not allow the SMM to proceed further.
Delay:
Armed individuals stopped the SMM at a checkpoint in “DPR”-controlled Starobesheve (32km south-south-east of Donetsk) and asked to show the SMM patrol plan. After 15 minutes the SMM was allowed to proceed.
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SMM = Special Monitoring Mission
Headline - mine.

Protesters outside Poroshenko's house demanding the resignation of General Prosecutor Shokin (yesterday)



Part of an Automaidan protest. The blue flags? EU? Or Svoboda? Or.. Difficult to tell.



Poroshenko in the Rada with Shokin


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Being called "Poroshokin".... basically a pun....
Poroshok in Ukrainian, or Russian - is washing powder. Presumably a reference to the cleansing of corruption.
[Photos I found on google. Headline mine.]

Oleh Boiko, appointed head of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Cherkasy region by president Poroshenko, should be dismissed from the SBU according to the law on lustration.

Censor.NET Chief Editor Yurii Butusov wrote in his blog.

He reminded that Boiko was chief of the M Department which controlled the activity of media during the Yannukovych times. When Revolution of Dignity started, he was part of the anti-terrorist operation in the streets of Kyiv against the protesters. In particular, he was listed responsible for the shutdown of a number of leading media.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian

Security forces in Ukraine have arrested Hennadiy Korban, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Kyiv last month.

Officials say Korban, who is the head of the UKROP party and who is a close associate of former Dnipropetrovsk Governor and oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskiy, was arrested in Dnipropetrovsk on October 31 on suspicion of participating in an organized crime group.

UKROP issued a statement saying that the arrest and searches of the party's offices and the homes of party officials were an act of "political repression."

Korban is accused of involvement in several kidnappings when he served as deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk in 2014-15. He is also accused of stealing about $1.7 million from a fund earmarked for Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Russia-back separatists in eastern Ukraine.

About 500 security officers were involved in the operation, and an unknown number of other arrests were also made..............

To read further go to this link: rferl.org

NATO allies are working hard to deter Russian aggression against the Baltics.

Often criticized for being naïve and complacent about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, the Obama administration and its European allies are intensifying their planning and training for a potential conflict on NATO’s eastern flank, hoping to send the strongest possible message about Russian aggression.
Deterring Putin was a central theme at a conference here hosted by the U.S. Army, attended by generals from 38 European countries. Officials described escalating NATO activity — including a massive training exercise now underway and talk of U.S. troop increases — in terms reminiscent of the 1980s, when the alliance stared down Soviet-made Warsaw Pact tanks in central Europe. Tan and brown desert camouflage is out; forest greens are in.

The NATO exercise, named Trident Juncture, is the largest in more than a decade; it began in mid-October and wraps up late next week. It involves 36,000 troops responding to the invasion of a fictitious region called Ceresia by a hostile neighbor employing so-called hybrid guerrilla warfare tactics like those Putin has adopted in Ukraine. Operating in Spain, Portugal, Italy and surrounding Atlantic waters, the counter-force includes submarines, fighter jets and U.S. Marines storming beaches with landing craft.
The training is partly designed to increase military readiness—a sign of concern that Putin might launch another rapid military operation like his March 2014 seizure of Crimea, which caught the U.S. and Europe flat-footed.
But perhaps just as important, military leaders said, it helps Moscow understand that the U.S. and its allies are ready and willing to throw a counter-punch should he try something similar again.
“In order to deter an adversary, he has got to realize your capabilities. He’s got to be able to see it and smell it — from the news, from the exercises, from things like this conference,” the U.S. Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, told POLITICO. Milley was a co-host of the annual Conference of European Armies, a two-day affair in which generals from places as disparate as Lithuania and Italy discussed strategy, readiness and coordination.
While Washington’s focus has recently shifted to Putin’s Syria intervention, U.S. military planners in Europe are braced for another Russian thrust in their theater, possibly in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Attendees said that scenario was a key topic amid enduring concerns about the Islamic State and conflict refugees....................

To read further go to this link:  politico.com