Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Thursday 26 November [Ukrainian sources]

THURSDAY 26 Nov Thanksgiving (US)

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

News -
Putin's terrorists attack Ukrainians 22 times last night. 43 times in the day.
Update - 2 soldiers injured yesterday. 0 deaths.
The western press are still full of Putin's rantings against Turkey. They don't think what Putin's planes were doing there, bombing ethnic Turks. Too stupid by far.
Rada in session from 10. But nothing much happened yet. 1300.

Weather -
-4 this morning. Chilly. Some frost on roofs. A little ice about. Should warm up to be near zero.
On the plus side, the sun is shining. Normally very little sunshine in November. Forecast if for it to be a little warmer next week.

Footie -
Exciting game in Lviv last night. Shaktar 3 - Real Madrid 4.
Madrid were 4-0 up. But in the last - I am guessing - 15 minutes Skahtar scored 3 good goals. Exciting at the end.
last game - they play in Paris, and Malmo in Madrid. Hopefully Shaktar can finish 3rd and get into the Europa league.
The Dynamo group is very exciting. 2 weeks to go, and we will know if they get through.

http://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-politycs/1920698-nich-v-ato-ponad-20-vorojih-obstriliv.html
In general, from 1800 to 6 am committed 22 terrorist attacks.
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All the usual places.

8:09
http://nbnews.com.ua/ru/news/166885/
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No real detail.

http://www.goonersguide.com/football-pick-27527-Lazio-v-Dnipro.htm
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Tonight.

https://grasswire.com/story/822/Turkish-Trucks
Russian warplanes bombed a Turkish truck convoy at the Syrian border on Wednesday amid increasing tensions between the two countries over Turkey's downing of a Russian jet.
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It looks like the Russians are bombing anybody and everybody.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21678831-year-after-colossal-bank-fraud-country-imploding-small-enough-fail?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/smallenoughtofail
...If it blows up, says a minister who asked for anonymity, “people will come on the streets and Russia will capture Moldova.”...
In 1991 there were 4.3m people in the country. Now, ... fewer than 3m left (including less than 300,000 in Transdniestria, a region controlled by Russian-backed separatists), ...
Wedged between Romania, a member of the EU and NATO, and Ukraine, Moldova cannot be ignored. If a new government came to power and changed the country’s Western foreign-policy orientation, a huge strategic prize would have dropped into the lap of Vladimir Putin, delivered to him by “pro-Europeans”. That “could undermine the fragile stability of the whole region”, says Arseniy Yatsenyuk, ....
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Moldova. Shades of Ukraine. Corruption, and Russian separatists.
Not a bad article. Worth a read. Not sure of the author yet. Possibly Tim Judah, from west London.

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Update!
Please scroll down to see a different story about Moldova - apparently an attempt to start a Pro-Russian movement and seize some towns - today!
About 10 posts down.

http://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/rada-nachala-zasedanie-1448525368.html
Recall, the Verkhovna Rada today, 26 November 2015, during the plenary session will consider the second reading of draft laws aimed at decentralization, as well as the draft law on public service.
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Rada live on Rada tv, Kanal 5, 112, etc.
Or you can watch the last 30 minutes of Shaktar v Real - 4 goals. Repeat from last night on Football 1 kanal.
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10:21
http://glavcom.ua/news/343220.html
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Seized property of ex-Yanukovich goons.
Babushkas are wondering if they can afford to put on the gas today, with temperatures below zero... and yet they would roll out to vote for Yanukovich and his Ferrari loving deputies. Such is Ukraine.

11:37
http://hvylya.net/news/digest/v-bpp-podgotovili-proekt-postanovleniya-ob-otstavke-pravitelstva-yatsenyuka.html
Asked whether the initiative or the position of the faction of his personal stance, the MP said that it was his personal initiative.
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Don't think this will get very far. Signed by 9 deputies.

12:04
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritania
The "DNR" recognized that all states of the world, only Mauritania has expressed readiness to discuss the issue of recognition of the "Republic".
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Mauritania, you might ask? Wiki -
Approximately 90% of Mauritania's land is within the Sahara... i.e. it is the Sahara desert!
About 20% of Mauritanians live on less than US$1.25 per day.[11] - what Donetsk is also aiming for...
Slavery in Mauritania has been called a major human rights issue, with roughly 4% (155,600 people) of the country's population – proportionally the highest for any country – being enslaved against their will, ...
Additional human rights concerns in Mauritania include...  child labour.

Yeah... endemic slavery, child labor, and all in the Sahara desert. ...
Zacharchenko's vision of "Novo-Rosseeya".

12:36
http://www.bagnet.org/news/accidents/272109
A citizen of the United States offered a bribe of 1,500 UAH Belgorod-Dniester border guard detachment for assistance in renewal in Ukraine, ....
At the checkpoint "Kuchurgan" exit from the Ukraine arrived on foot 49-year-old US citizen who wishes to communicate with the senior border change outfits.
Citizen was invited into the room for talks, during which he offered to Belgorod-Dniester border guard detachment cash award of 1500 hryvnia for assistance in the renewal on the territory of Ukraine.
Inspector Border Service of unlawful benefit refused and made a report to the leadership, the national police and the SBU.
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Very strange. The Border Guard don't normally refuse money. Perhaps there was some serious general present, or a camera.
I know a guy who did the same thing a few weeks' ago - German. No problems.
The Border Guard have to erase your travel history on the computer, and then start it anew. Simples...

12:39
http://censor.net.ua/news/362416/ukrainskaya_razvedka_soobschaet_o_riskah_lokalnyh_boev_v_zone_ato_terroristy_osuschestvili_43_obstrela
43 обстрела ....Авдеевка, Марьинка, Пески, Троицкое, Красногоровка, Новгородское, Опытное, шахта Бутовка (донецкое направление), 7 - Майорск, Луганское...
Avdeevka, Marinka, Pesky, Troitskoe, Krasnogorovka, Novogorodskoe, Opitnoe, Bytovka, Mayorsk, Luganskoe...
Right along the front line.

http://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/zone-ato-sutki-raneny-dvoe-voennyh-pogibshih-1448535153.html
"Over the past day in the fighting, no Ukrainian soldier was killed, but two of our soldiers were wounded," - said Motuzyanik.
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The dangers of online translation - google gives the headline
В зоне АТО за сутки ранены двое военных, погибших нет (РБК-Украина) in translation as -
In the area of ​​ATU per day wounded two soldiers who died there (RBC-Ukraine)

ATO map at the link also. Shows fighting mostly concentrated around Donetsk.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/26/putin-meets-hollande-france-and-russia-getting-closer.html
France's luxury goods, wine and cheese makers were some of the worst hit by sanctions imposed by Russia, in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russian businesses and individuals following the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Hollande has been one of the European leaders to most publicly raise the possibility of these sanctions being loosened.
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For the French, it's all about $$$$$$. In this case, Russian money.

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http://tyzhden.ua/News/152473
In particular, the operational management of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps in the so-called "DNR" and "LNR" by the Deputy Chief of General Staff, Colonel General Sergey Istrakov.
However, direct management entrusted to set up at the 12th Reserve Command of the Southern Military District of Russia - Centre of territorial forces, Chief of Staff - Lieutenant-General Mikhail Tyeplinskiy Armed Forces. // First and third in the diagram below.

Nelson wrote:12:04

Yeah... endemic slavery, child labor, and all in the Sahara desert. ...

Nellie, is your speel cheker set to Amreekan Ingerleesh? You mean "labour".

14:52
http://obozrevatel.com/crime/26198-rossijskij-spetsnazovets-zasvetilsya-v-ryadah-terroristov-dnr-opublikovanyi-foto.htm
Aytugan Yunusov, Armavir, Krasnodar Krai,..belonging to the North Caucasus Regional Command of Interior Troops of the Russian Federation "..
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Stupid idiot. Posts a photo with the name of his home town on it - admittedly with a fake name.
But you have to be very stupid in the first place, to join up to fight in Putin's idiotic war.
Clearly now lots of Russian soldiers filling the "ranks" of Shaun Walker's "DNR guys".

Today, the fourth Thursday in November, is Thanksgiving in America. Best wishes to all.
(Ods - appropriate today? P.S. I don't use a spiel cheeker. )

Though labor is now the American spelling, the form is many centuries old. The Oxford English Dictionary lists examples from as long ago as the 1400s, predating the development of American English by several centuries.
http://grammarist.com/spelling/labor-labour/

Odessite wrote:

Nelson wrote:12:04

Yeah... endemic slavery, child labor, and all in the Sahara desert. ...

Nellie, is your speel cheker set to Amreekan Ingerleesh? You mean "labour".

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/26/us-ukraine-crisis-netherlands-idUSKBN0TF1ER20151126#gMHgSdK97gjkF0ye.97
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Agree.
Putin shoots down MH17 - full of Dutch children - and so the Dutch vote to support Putin.
Truly "double-Dutch". Fruitcakes.

Please scroll up or down in order to view other news items added during the course of the day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3334961/Moldova-13-detained-suspected-wanting-attack-city.html
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldovan police have detained a total of 13 suspected members of a paramilitary group allegedly planning to attack the capital and a northern city with a majority Russian population, with the aim of creating a new separatist republic similar to the one in eastern Ukraine.
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See another article about Moldova about 10 posts up in this thread. - which partly predicted that this might happen!!!
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Thought for the day.
The Russians in Moldova are probably dreaming of the day when they get their "European" passport, without having to go the route of other thousands and thousands of Russians, i.e. by buying up million euro residences in Cyprus or Malta. The rich Chinese, incidentally, are now doing the same thing.
During my trip to Cyprus I noticed very posh small blocks of apartments - gated - pricey - and completely uninhabited. All bought by "Chinese investors".
The Russians tend to live in their mansions. This is the easiest way for Russians with money to get a European passport.
So imagine their horror if Putin arrived with his tanks and Girkin and with some dimwit with a brain of similar capacity to Zakharchenko, proclaiming some "novo - Rosseeya Respublica". I think they would scream. Somehow I don't think they moved to Malta, Cyprus, et al in order to return to the "USSR" utopia of Putin and Seumas Milne!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34922789
Judging by the quiet at the site of the fallen electrical posts, the government's attitude towards the Crimean power outage seems to be similarly ambivalent.
Police and protesters clashed on Saturday. However, by the middle of the week, all attempts to repair the remaining three pylons appeared to have been put on indefinite hold....
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Decent report from David Stern, American, I believe. I hope he doesn't have an electric oven, otherwise it's "cold turkey" for him for Thanksgiving.

Eyewitnesses report movements of Nona-C self-propelled artillery in areas close to the Crimean border with mainland Ukraine, Podrobnosti says Nov. 26.

A column of 30 Nonas was spotted at 17:00 on the Dzhankoi-Chaplinka highway moving towards the Kherson oblast.

Nonas are used for the artillery support of paratroopers.

zik.ua

Some could say that Ukraine will lose, with Russian air companies banned from Ukraine air space, says Vitali Portnykov, a well-known political analyst, writes in his blog Nov. 26.

Ukraine stands to lose much more is a Russian plane is downed in Ukraine – by a whim of some small Russian secret agent who thinks that it is time to go to a hot war with Ukraine, he says.

The fat cats both in Ukraine and Russia thought the Putin war would not affect their profits, and they will continue as before.

Russia’s bellicose reaction to the downing of its jet by Turkey clearly shows how dangerous to the world is Putin’s unrestrained authoritarianism and short-sightedness of Russia’s zombie population.

Ukraine’s dependence on Russia will be exploited by the Moscow tyrant till the moment it is brought to zero, Vitali Plotnykov says.

zik.ua

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with French TV station he could not get through to his counterpart Vladimir Putin after the incident with Russia's warplane on Tuesday.

Censor.NET reports citing BBC Russian Service.

According to Erdogan, the Turkish military would have acted differently if it had known for certain it was a Russian aircraft.

"If we had known it was a Russian plane, we would probably have warned it in a different way," the president said on air of France 24.

Earlier, Putin expressed his indignation at the fact the Turkish side had not apologized for the downed plane.

In response, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an interview with CNN said that Turkey would not apologize for the downed Russian bomber, because he who violated the country's airspace should do so.

censor.net.ua In Russian

The consequences inside Russia could prove to be the most fateful. While Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up the bellicosity of the government-controlled media in response to what Turkey has done, the steps he has taken simultaneously annoy Russians – now, they won’t be able to vacation in Turkey – but highlighted how isolated Russia is and how few levers its possesses.

Any Russian move against Turkey militarily or via hybrid war involving the Kurds would backfire. On the one hand, Turkey is a NATO member and can count on Article 5 guarantees. And on the other, Ankara could end Russia’s hopes for a pipeline west and even block the straits to Russian shipping; and any Russian support for the Kurds would undermine Syria’s Assad.

These have all been the subject of intense discussion in the Russian-language Internet media over the last 24 hours. (See among others dsnews.ua/politics/putin-vnutrennego-polzovaniya-24112015173000, charter97.org/ru/news/2015/11/25/180031/]dsnews.ua/politics/putin-vnutrennego-polzovaniya-24112015173000, charter97.org/ru/news/2015/11/25/180031/ and kavpolit.com/articles/chto_rossija_mozhet_protivopostavit_turtsii-21606/]kavpolit.com/articles/chto_rossija_mozhet_protivopostavit_turtsii-21606/ .


These discussions suggest that Russians can see an increasing gulf between the bombastic assertions by Putin about Russia’s power in the world and the real limits on the Kremlin leader’s ability to act when the chips are down, a gap some observers say may trigger greater opposition to Putin and his regime forum-msk.org/material/power/11148230.html]forum-msk.org/material/power/11148230.htm .

That the Russian government is worried about at least some of its citizens drawing such conclusions including in the first instance millions of Muslims and Turks inside Russia is suggested by the words today of the Supreme Mufti of Russia, Talgat Tadzhuddin, who said Turkey must apologize for what it has done interfax-religion.ru/?act=dujour&div=299]interfax-religion.ru/?act=dujour&div=299 .

That represents a bridge to the second set of consequences of the Kremlin reaction to the shooting down of the Russian plane.  Moscow has failed to see that its harsh words against Turkey have an impact on the much larger Turkic world that includes not only Turks inside Russia but those in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

While Kremlin propaganda has sought to portray the downing of the plane as the result of American opposition to Moscow’s line, Russian outlets have focused much of their anger on Turkey with articles talking about Russian-Turkish wars in the past and Turkey’s supposed duplicity regarding the Soviets.

That may play well with most Russians, but it is already having a negative impact in the Turkic areas of the Caucasus and Central Asia, something that is likely to become even more important because Ankara has explicitly positioned itself as the defender of the Turkmens of Syria ruskline.ru/news_rl/2015/11/25/eto_svoeobraznaya_mest_turok_rossii/]ruskline.ru/news_rl/2015/11/25/eto_svoeobraznaya_mest_turok_rossii/ and .

At a minimum, that will make the populations of these countries less well-disposed to Russia and likely make their governments more inclined to oppose Moscow and even ally themselves with Western countries, if the latter are clever enough to take advantage of the situation nr2.com.ua/News/politics_and_society/Politolog-Zapad-nachal-gibridnyy-konflikt-s-Rossiey-112133.html]nr2.com.ua/News/politics_and_society/Politolog-Zapad-nachal-gibridnyy-konflikt-s-Rossiey-112133.html .

And the third set of consequences of the plane shoot down are likely to involve Ukraine.  Many analysts have been suggesting that Putin’s involvement in Syria will limit his ability to expand his aggression in Ukraine. But there are at least two reasons to think that such optimism may be misplaced.

On the one hand, the only resources Putin has are those of hard power – that is to say military force.  He cannot use that easily against NATO: the risks are too high. But using force against Ukraine could give him a victory, especially if he decides to use Russian forces to obtain a land bridge to Crimea, currently suffering from an energy and products blockade.

If he used land forces to do that, he might be able to once again change the subject and come out looking like a winner, especially as he might even be able to avoid tougher sanctions given that some in the West would accept a Kremlin argument that he had no choice but to engage in such a “humanitarian” operation given Ukrainian policy.

And on the other, Putin may conclude that now that his conflict with the West has escalated because of Russian violations of Turkish and thus NATO airspace has escalated, he has nothing to lose by increasing his aggression in Ukraine and getting the land bridge to Crimea many have said all along he wants..............

To read further go to this link:   ukrainebusiness.com.ua

On Ukraine Today's Viewpoint, Rahim Rahemtulla is joined by Mykhailo Samus, one of Ukraine's top military experts, to discuss the electricity blockade in the Russian-occupied Crimea.

Rahim Rahemtulla: We wanted to talk to you today about the blackout in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. It hasn't had electricity now for several days, after electricity pylons in mainland Ukraine were attacked and destroyed, blocking electricity flows into occupied Crimea. It has been quite a controversial case, in general. Ukraine hasn't being in a hurry to repair those powerlines to get Crimea back on line. As a military expert you have obviously seen a different side to this. Apart from the civil problem created for residents and businesses, there is a military aspect here, which is less well-known. Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about that.

Mihailo Samus: Yes. It is very interesting that even from the Soviet times, Crimea was like an aircraft carrier for the Soviet military power in the Black Sea region. So if Ukraine now is in a conflict with Russia, we could understand it as power blackout for Russian aircraft carrier with huge military power now, let's say 30 thousand people: military, soldiers, sailors, staying in occupied territory. So, if we are talking about the power blackout, we need to understand that it's absolutely effective instrument to destroy military power of Russia in Crimea.

R.R.: And you believe this is what was in the minds of those who were behind this power blockage, the people who destroyed [the pylons]? Is that what they were partially looking to achieve?

M. S.: I am not sure, but as a military analyst I could say that it is pretty effective. Because if you could imagine how much electricity we need to keep, for example, ships to be in normal service, like air-defend system. It is a huge power to be able to control the airspace, for example, around the Black Sea fleet, to keep all of missiles, all of ships in proper condition - it is huge power. In this case, I absolutely support the situation, because when Russia is trying to make and collect its forces in this region to fret NATO, for example, because they are talking about tactical missiles with nuclear heads in Crimea against anti-missile base in Romania, for example. This is very interesting. To keep these missiles in proper condition they need a lot of power, so blackout now helps NATO to be more secure.

R.R.: I think, this comes as Russia is involved in Syria as well as stepping up its operations there in support of President Bashar al-Assad. I feel like it is not a coincident that this blackout is coming now: it's affecting the Russian military, the Russian military at the moment is obviously spread very thin. From your point of view, what does this mean for Russian military as it is trying to become involved more in the Middle East as well?

M. S.: Yes, but it is very interesting about some of the Black Sea fleet shipsparticipating in this operation, because the Black Sea Fleet is responsible for this Tartus base in Syria. It is normal.Of course, the ship from Northern fleet or Baltic fleet could participate, but the Black Sea fleet is responsible for this operation. It is very interesting that these ships, which actually need to be in service in the Black sea fleet main naval base in Sevastopol, now are under attack of power blackout. Of course, it doesn't make Russian position stronger. It is not very nice situation for Putin, because you told about this civilian information background for blackout, because they need to explain what actually is going on. After more than one and a half year of the Russian occupation of Crimea they don't have any capabilities even to supply energy to naval base. And I'd like to say that Novorossiysk Naval Base is not a solution for this problem, because during the winter period they have super strong Bora winter wind there. It is impossible to base military ships there. They need to base it in Sevastopol. And Sevastopol doesn't have enough energy. It is an absolutely crazy situation for Russian forces there. Couple of days ago, in reaction for this power blackout they sent a couple of battalion task forces for this airborne division from Russia to Crimea. Maybe they have some military ways to solve the problem, maybe attack Kherson oblast. We should take it into account...................

To read further go to this link:   uatoday.tv