Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Monday 23 November [Ukrainian sources]

MONDAY

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

News -
37 attacks by Putin's mad terrorists during the hours of darkness last night.
Update - 59 attacks during the past 24 hours.
Sadly, 2 soldiers killed, 2 injured.
The fact that Crimea is without electicity has really made the western press.
The fact that over 100 areas of western Ukraine are without electricity because of flooding and storms doesn't get a mention.
Reading that the Rada will consider the decentralization bill on the 26th - Thursday.

Weather -
It is not raining. But cold. 2. high maybe of 5. Same for Lviv.
Odessa is much warmer, double figures, same with Donetsk.

5:57
http://www.facenews.ua/news/2015/298553/
"For the 1.5 years of premiership Yatsenyuk his friends became billionaires by" milking "of state enterprises. Contract Odessa Portside Plant will bring Ukraine 90 million dollars in damages each year, 20 November Yatsenyuk night telephoned and demanded that ministers come to the defense of the contract. I confirmed it ministers.
I will do everything so that this contract was canceled, I will not let Yatsenyuk and his friends rob Ukraine.
Yatsenyuk said that if you go down, it will come with the Popular Front coalition and go into opposition. What he is entitled to take the country hostage? Why does he think about himself, not about Ukraine? ", - Saakashvili said.
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Some politicians really having a go at Yatseniuk now - pressing for his resignation. This scandal is over gas contracts to the Odessa Portside Plant.

6:42
http://zik.ua/ua/news/2015/11/23/v_interneti_pokazaly_vyd_znestrumlenogo_aneksovanogo_krymu_z_kosmosu_645374

http://glavcom.ua/news/342364.html
In exchange for two cans of corned beef, and three cans of sardines militants "DNI" urging residents of Donetsk blood donations within the campaign "Donor Day".



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Thought. Poster above says 30 november. There has been talk that Putin will launch his next offensive on 01 December.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-euromaidan-anniversary/27379000.html
Government officials, Maidan protest participants, and ordinary citizens on November 21 held ceremonies and placed flowers at a Kyiv monument to the "Heavenly Hundred" -- protesters who were killed in clashes with security forces during the protest.
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This was on Saturday.
To be honest, not much of a holiday. Several programmes on tv recalling the events of 2 years' ago.
21st november marked the start of the protests when Yanukovich allied with Putin, and moved away from the EU.
3 months to the day later, he fled Kiev, never to return.

MP, leader of the group "Information resistance" Dmitry Tymchuk confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not stop funding the project "New Russia". He said this in an interview with "Commander in Chief".

According to him, the problems with the financing of so-called "DNR" and "LC" associated with the removal from supervision Surkov breakaway "republics". "After Surkov removed from supervision, and dispersed his" Foundation fraternities Donbass "which receives all cash streams immediately started having problems with financing. Now connect the other funds, but because even at the lowest level gangs went delay salaries militants, it is clear that a major scheme was broken, and how quickly it will restore Moscow, another question ", - said Tymchuk.

But funding after forced hitch certainly continue, he said. "No doubt. If Putin had decided to close the project "New Russia" that would act like a little more wisely than simply ceased to support terrorists. While we did not observe - are still supply material and technical resources, mercenaries ... "- said Tymchuk.

According to him, will not stop, and social benefits. "I do not think that completely stop any proceeds from Moscow, just connect other circuits. Over the past year - somewhere between April and September-October - the social component of the Kremlin is not particularly worried, the rate was on the fighting. But by the autumn it became clear that if this continues, the local population, no matter how it may have been brainwashed will start elementary die from hunger and turn the weapon against the "liberators." So, I think the Kremlin will not step on the same rake and avoid any critical points, "- said the expert.

glavcom.ua In Russian

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/moscow-finally-approves-monument-to-celebrate-author-mikhail-bulgakov?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Alec Luhn in the Guardian.
What the article doesn't mention - his books were effectively banned by the Soviet authorities. Luhn says he had "difficulties"...
Also - he was born in Podol, Kiev. And spent over half his life there, setting up a surgery on Andrevski Spusk 13.  
If you walk up to the heights around there, and to the graveyard - which people still claim is haunted - you understand where he got some of his ideas from.
Of course, Master and Margarita had to be based in Moscow - that's where the "devil" - i.e. the Soviet Union - has its home.
Most of Bulgakov's relatives moved to Paris following the Russian revolution.

On Sunday, November 22 in Poltava unknown woman torched a passenger bus standard, following on from Suprunovka-Poltava.

According to the driver of the bus, near the bus station at eight in the evening he dropped almost all the passengers. When intrusa, wearing sunglasses and a black jacket with a hood, got on the bus, in his cabin there was only one girl, the newspaper notes Poltava.

At the stop Furmanova both passengers out. After the woman in black ran out the back door, the bus caught fire. The flames quickly spread through the cabin, so he put out the driver did not even try. The bus was burned in a few minutes. Those standing at the bus stop People called firefighters.

According to the newspaper, the woman rushed into the room burning mixture. Bus quenched with two fire engines.

Police launched an investigation under Part 2 of Art. 194 of the Criminal Code (arson).

glavcom.ua In Russian

http://obozrevatel.com/politics/87023-chem-poraduet-rada-do-kontsa-goda-detsentralizatsiya-byudzhet-i-dva-kodeksa.htm
Until the end of 2015 at the deputies there are only three plenary working week, which seems to be hot - because the Verkhovna Rada to adopt the amendments to the Tax Code, the budget for 2016, amendments to the Constitution on the part of the decentralization of the Labour Code in the second reading and the amendments to the Basic Law on Judicial Reform.
Rent [gas prices]. In the coming week Parliament is going to take the project to reduce the rent for the gas companies from 70% to 29% of authorship "Batkivshchyna". If the President signs it, Petro Poroshenko, the price of gas for the population may decrease by 1000 UAH (from the current 7200 UAH / th. Cubic meters to 6200 UAH) and preferential consumption will increase from the current 200 cubic meters per month to 350 cubes. On these two key amendments to the bill agreed to the prime minister and the president's faction.
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Looks like they've come to some agreement on reducing the gas price.
Will the IMF agree to this? Probably, I would think. The gas price has fallen massively on world markets since the IMF agreement a year or so ago.

https://www.charter97.org/ru/news/2015/11/23/179672/
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Basically saying that, following the G20 meetings, The international anti-terrorist coalition is not going to take part on Russian terms. - sanctions because of Crimea and Donbass are further extended.

Really, Putin has absolutely failed in Ukraine. I am sure that he has done exactly the reverse of what he wanted. He has alienated the vast majority of Ukrainians, and many Europeans. Even visiting Russians to Ukraine have commented on how massively the attitude has changed towards them. Russians are now seen in a very negative light.
What has Putin gained? A wasteland called Crimea, and a small part of far eastern Ukraine, to go with Transdniestr. The price - the destruction of the Russian economy.
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I myself have translated многоходовка as strategy. Basically "many-moves". Can't think of a better alternative at the moment.

In a very sporadic and ad hoc fashion, throughout 2015 this blog has made numerous comments suggesting that the State get to grips with the illegal actions of certain groups employing the use of firearms and explosives on occasion that clearly falls far outside of the rule of law.

For example “…Right Sector (or anybody else) cannot be allowed to shoot people or blow up police cars without legal consequences…” from an entry in July. There are several other entries during the year that call for the disarming of illegally armed entities (whatever the brand), and some thoughts upon just how to go about it.

And lo now in Kherson Oblast there is the downing of power lines to Crimea via explosives causing a blackout across the peninsula. Readers may be right to point out that the Geneva Convention puts the onus on the Occupying Power (Russia) to keep the lights on (certainly in some facilities). Indeed Russia would (unlawfully) consider Crimea as its territory, thus it is no less obliged to keep the power on for “its” citizenry.

Crimea, like the rest of Ukraine, is not unused to power outages or cut-offs. The Kremlin has turned off the gas on more than one occasion over the years during the winter months, and Ukrainian power outages are hardly unheard of. Only a sustained disruption will go beyond a collective “tut” within society.

It is perhaps right to bemoan what appears to be the absence of a “Crimean Strategy” by the Government of Ukraine. If there is a “Crimean Strategy” then the Ukrainian leadership, as with so many other matters of import, has spectacularly failed to inform the Ukrainian constituency of its existence. Even if the State policy more or less boils down to sustained international and domestic rhetoric, Crimea orientated sanctions, and then “wait” – then it should be communicated along with the reasons why.

It is certainly right to bemoan the failure to communicate any State “Crimean Strategy” if one actually exists, for it has led to an unofficial blockade of the peninsula, and now the demolition of power lines by “activists”...................

To read further go to this link: odessatalk.com  

http://www.unian.info/economics/1190865-ukrenergo-says-four-days-needed-to-restore-power-transmission-following-blasts-in-kherson-region.html
The Crimean occupying authorities have announced Monday, November 23, will be a bank holiday on the peninsula due to a total power blackout
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From what i can tell, the general reaction of Ukrainian people here to the blackout is one of quiet satisfaction.
Perhaps the "Crimean authorities" could create a new holiday on 23 Nov, called "Dyen Putin", and each year put the electricity off to remember how Putin turned Crimea into a wasteland.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/11/13/the-donbass-war-assessing-the-aftermath
by Pavel Kanygin,
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Amazing report on life in Donetsk. From 10 days' ago.
Some extracts. Recommended read.

The major retailers and car dealerships closed up and left Donetsk. Not a single major electronics store remains in the city. Following several incidents of armed robbery, there are still no mobile phone stores open in Donetsk...
Over the last six months the price of essential commodities has risen 50-60% on average; this while the real mean income in the region has fallen by 65-75%. Now it stands near 2,500 rubles per month.

http://telegraf.com.ua/ukraina/mestnyiy/2175305-lyisenko-boeviki-narashhivayut-kolichestvo-obstrelov-v-zone-ato.html
За сутки боевики 59 раз нарушили режим тишины в зоне конфликта на Донбассе.
Don't need a translation on that. 59 times during the past day.
"Over the past day as a result of the fighting, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two injured", - he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

http://www.unian.info/society/1191123-donetsk-resident-tries-to-smuggle-grenade-on-board-at-kyiv-airport.html
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No word on what flight he was trying to board.
Trying to take it in his hand-luggage. Lucky it was spotted.

http://en.censor.net.ua/news/361928/poroshenko_proposes_government_to_terminate_freight_transport_communication_with_occupied_crimea
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Crimea seems to be returning to the agenda. Putin won't like this.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-crimea-black-out-pylons-russia/27381110.html
KYIV -- The Ukrainian Interior Minister says just one of the four damaged transmission towers carrying electricity to Crimea can be repaired at the moment.
Arsen Avakov told an emergency cabinet meeting on November 23 that the possible presence of mines and the threat of "subversive attacks" made repair work impossible.
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Putin won't like this either. Are the Soviet Babushkas in Sevastopol still singing Putin's praises?

http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1448248390
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Putin won't like this either.
Normally Putin makes threats, kills people. Unusual for people to threaten Putin.

http://energy.apostrophe.com.ua/enerhetychnyy-rynok/novyny/novyny-ukrayinskoyi-enerhetyky/ukrayna-otkazalas-ot-zakupky-haza-u-rossyy-do-kontsa-hoda/
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but cannot currently open site.

16:22
http://hvylya.net/news/digest/germaniya-prizvala-vosstanovit-energosnabzhenie-v-okkupirovannyiy-kryim.html
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Clearly Herr Putin has been on the phone to Frau Ribbentrop.

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, two pictures sent a powerful message about how international politics are changing. One was of Barack Obama hunched in discussion in a hotel lobby with Vladimir Putin. The frosty body language of their previous meeting at the UN had given way to something more businesslike. The US and Russian presidents almost looked like colleagues. Picture number two, artfully released by the defence ministry in Moscow, was of a Russian bomb being loaded on a plane in Syria with the words “That’s for Paris” scrawled on the side.

Together the two images highlighted an interesting possibility. Might Russia and the west begin to bury their differences by making common cause in the war against Isis? The idea horrifies many Russia analysts in the west and presents enormous complications. Nonetheless, it is worth a try for a number of reasons...............

Recommend to read further go to this link:   ft.com

When President Barack Obama hosts French President François Hollande on Tuesday, he’ll have more on his agenda than demonstrating solidarity against terrorism. He’ll also be working to make sure Hollande sticks with the international effort to punish and isolate Vladimir Putin for his aggression in Ukraine.

Privately, Obama officials say they are concerned about whether key European leaders are prepared to extend sanctions on Moscow, which expire in late January. And they are wary of any effort by Putin — who will host Hollande in Moscow later this week — to link events in Syria and Ukraine. The fear is that Putin might try to trade more aggressive Russian action against the Islamic State for France’s backing in reducing or ending the sanctions.

A premature end to sanctions in Europe “is always our worry,” said Evelyn Farkas, who served until last month as the Pentagon’s top official for Russia and Ukraine. “They can’t back away from sanctions. Ukraine is a separate situation” from Syria.

That is also the fear of Ukrainian government officials, who in recent days have shared their concern that Putin might be trying to earn Western good will in the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks by pounding ISIL targets in Syria — and that Kiev’s struggle to defend its borders will suffer as a result.

A top-level debate is underway behind the scenes among administration officials over how effective sanctions have been at curbing Putin's ambitions. The sanctions, which limit travel by Russian officials and restrict the access of Russian companies to international markets, were imposed after Putin's March 2014 annexation of Crimea and subsequent support for a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine. The conflict has left some 8,000 people dead, most of them civilians.

Twice caught off guard by Putin's sneak attacks — in Ukraine and in Syria, where he unexpectedly began airstrikes this fall — officials are also debating what the Russian president's next game-changing move could be.

In public, the White House strikes a confident tone, insisting that Putin won't get away with any effort to connect Syria to Ukraine................

To read further go to this link:  politico.com 

Iran's Ambassador to Russia said Monday that Moscow had started the procedure of supplying Tehran with S-300 anti-missile rocket systems.
Censor.NET reports citing the Jerusalem Post.

"Iran and Russia signed a new contract and the procedure of delivery of S-300 has started," Iran's Ambassador to Russian Federation Mehdi Sanaei said.

Russia and Iran signed a contract for Moscow to supply Tehran with S-300 surface-to-air missile systems on Nov. 9.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Pres Petro Poroshenko instructed Premier Arseny Yatseniuk to form a work group to assess cutting truck cargo traffic and trade with Crimea. Ukrayinska Pravda reports Nov. 23.

In his letter, Poroshenko proposes, prior to the cabinet’s final decision, to cut railway and road communication with the peninsula.

“There has been a significant confrontation between the Crimean activists and the authorities, with the police and secret police using intimidation and coercion of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian activists.

The initiators of the permanent blockade of supplies of Ukrainian food to Crimea and Donbas which started Sept. 20, demand that trade with the occupied territories be stopped,” Pres Poroshenko says in his letter.

zik.ua In Russian

Kiev also refused to offer any timetable to resume electricity supplies to Crimea a day after a suspicious explosion on a transmission line wiped out nearly all electricity to the peninsula’s 2m inhabitants.

Ukraine’s unusually bold move risks deepening a stand-off with Russia at a time when tensions between the two nations have been creeping up again.......................

To read further go to this link:   ft.com

Iran’s Supreme Leader said on Monday that the US had “no right” to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and described Washington’s policy in the Middle East as a threat.

“Americans have a long-term plan to dominate Syria and then expand their control over the region to compensate for their historical absence in western Asia,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran. “This road map is a threat to all nations, in particular Iran and Russia.”

Mr Putin was in the Iranian capital for his first visit in eight years and had two hours of talks with Mr Khamenei. The ayatollah praised Russia’s campaign in Syria, where Moscow says it has intervened to fight Isis, the militant group, although many of its air strikes have targeted Mr Assad’s opponents rather than the jihadis.......................

To read further go to this link:  ft.com 

According to DM personnel department head Oleh Yatsyna, 32% of candidates for key positions in the defense ministry failed polygraph tests, Liga.net reports Nov. 23.

So far, 175 candidates have taken the test, with 32% of them denied the jobs they wanted to take, O. Yatsyna said.

It takes 3 hours to test a candidate, with several more to analyze the results. It follows that we need the whole day to clear on candidate, the official said.

Heads of DM and General Staff departments are to take the polygraph test, deputy defense minister Yury Husev said.

zik.ua