Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Sunday 06 December [Ukrainian sources]

SUNDAY

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

News -
Putin's terrorists continue attacks yesterday on the Ukrainian nation.
The Russian murderers killed one more Ukrainian soldier yesterday.

Weather -
Warm overnight for this time of year. +4 at 0900. May get close to +8 today. Normal would be 2 or 3!!
Some cloud, but pleasant. No snow, obviously.
Update 1300. Turning into a really lovely day. +9 and sunny near the capital. Unreal for December. Slava Ukraini ))

Footie -
Chelsea lost again last night. 0-1 at home to Bournmouth.
Pressure really mounting on Mourinho. They play Porto on Wednesday - when Dynamo Kiev play Maccabi, to an empty stadium, I would think, following the UEFA ruling about rascism during their last home game. Dynamo must win.
But if Chelsea lose it could well be the end of Mourinho - again. But I am sure he will receive millions in compensation.

http://www.unian.info/economics/1203728-erdogan-vows-to-break-turkeys-dependence-on-russian-oil-and-gas.html
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his rhetorical attacks on Russia on Saturday, vowing to break his country's dependence on the Kremlin's oil and gas, according to The Telegraph.
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More words than actions from Turkey at the moment.

http://www.unian.info/economics/1203272-ukraine-sees-9-drop-in-tpp-stocks-of-deficit-coal.html
The coal reserves of all brands at the warehouses of thermal power plants across Ukraine decreased 3.8% in one week.
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This could be interesting in a month or two.
Understand some deliveries arriving from South Africa this month. But we'll need more from there to keep the lights burning.
TPP = Thermal Power Plants.

http://censor.net.ua/photo_news/363906/v_krymu_poyavilis_rublevye_kupyury_s_nadpisyu_slava_ukraine_foto
12:31

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/12/6/7091547/
One day that passed, in the zone of hostilities ATO killed one Ukrainian soldier.
Told a news briefing on December 6 AP spokesman for ATO Alexander Motuzyanyk.
According to staff, the military killed in the village of Zaitsev.
However, during December 5th largest number of enemy provocations were registered in the village of Pisky, heavy weapons .
"In Donetsk area during the day the enemy made a series of provocations near the village. Lugansk near Svetlodarsk. Mostly gunmen opened fire in the daytime. Despite significant losses during the battle of Mayorsk, occupiers continue to" bother "the Ukrainian military in the suburbs Gorlovki" - said Motuzyanyk.
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Putin's mad Russian terrorists killing and killing.
The hatred towards Russia will last for generations. And all of Russia's own doing. Madness of Putin's imperial psychotic dreams. And his henchman Lavrov.
Hitler and Goebbels in Russian uniform.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/06/poland-considering-asking-for-access-to-nuclear-weapons-under-nato-program
Poland’s deputy defence minister has said the ministry is considering asking for access to nuclear weapons through a Nato program in which non-nuclear states borrow the arms from the US....
Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey have hosted nuclear weapons as part of the program.
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With mad dictator Putin kicking at the border, just like Hitler in 1939 - it is a good idea.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-girl-five-among-civilians-killed-by-russian-air-strikes-on-rebel-held-areas-a6761056.html
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Story from Friday. Putin's "humanitarian aid" for the Syrian civilians. Just like Ukraine with Shaun Walker's "DNR guys", known to normal civilized human beings as "terrorists".

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-03/russian-president-sees-worrying-signs-in-the-economy
....Last year's annual address was heavy on biting remarks about Ukraine's attempts to leave the Russian sphere of influence, revisionist history to justify Russia's annexation of Crimea and sarcastic anti-Western rhetoric. This time around, Putin cut his mentions of foreign policy in half. Ukraine was not mentioned once. Criticism of the U.S. was limited to a couple of contemptuous sentences about its role in the Middle East. ...
Putin admitted that the two main proposals to improve conditions for private business, made in his 2014 speech, have failed.....
Again, the president showed he was not uninformed -- just unable or, more likely, unwilling to do anything for private business in a system that redistributes resources to those with administrative power. It was he, after all, who built the system, calling it the "power vertical."....
Within this framework, a non-militant state of the nation speech was a bizarre misstep, a temporary weakness. Soon, saber-rattling will be back: There's nothing else Putin can do to keep Russians' support in the face of a weak economy and a corrupt state.
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Not your usual bland reporting from bloomberg. This article is written with considerable insight. Not sure who the author is, but a good read.
Recommended.
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Not much bio on the author, but found this about and by him, from last year -
No Illusions Left, I'm Leaving Russia
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/no-illusions-left-im-leaving-russia/502173.html

The Pentagon is preparing a “significant” increase in its budget for its operations in Europe for the next fiscal year in response to Russia.

In a series of comments by senior officials, the department of defence has indicated that it intends to use its budget for the 2017 fiscal year to try and send a message to Russia in the wake of the confrontation in Ukraine.

The planned increase in funding for the European Reassurance Initiative — a 2014 programme to expand the US military presence in the region — is designed to enhance deterrence against further Russian adventurism, especially in the Baltics, and to reassure allies who doubt America’s long-term commitment to their security.......................

To read further go to this link:   ft.com

Dec. 5, OSCE monitors registered 12 122-mm self-propelled artillery systems, SAU, in the rebel-controlled zone near Yuryivka which must have been pulled out under the Minsk agreements, OSCE press service reports.

“Dec. 5, an OSCE patrol came to Yuryivka north-west of Luhansk where it found 12 SAU systems kept there in violation of the Minsk agreements and 3 rebel guards,” the OSCE report runs.

As the patrol approached the weapons within 100 m, one of the rebels made shots into the air and the other pointed his gun at the observers.

zik.ua

The State Border Service registers that the number of illegal immigrants detained in Ukraine has grown 2.5 times on 2014. Their number on the border with Hungary has soared 7 timers, SBS head Col. Viktor Nazarenko said, addressing a meeting of EU border-protecting agencies in Lviv Dec. 2.

Over the past 4 months, Ukraine border guards held 5 joint operations with their EU partners, detaining 1,327 migrants and preventing 4,300 migrants from entering Ukraine and planning to illegally cross the border into the EU, the SBS head said.

Illegal migration can exist because it is supported by trans-border criminal gangs, and Ukraine and the EU countries must deal with them, Nazarenko said.

Hungarian border guards detained 390,000 illegal immigrants this year. Due to effective work, their number has fallen from tens of thousands a day to several scores a day, a Hungarian official said.

Hungarian officials predict that the main channel of illegal migration to the EU will go via Russia and Ukraine.

zik.ua

The public opinion in Belarus is negative towards the developments in Ukraine. This is mainly explained by the fact that, save for several independent media outlets, Belarus information space is dominated by the Russian media, Natalia Radina of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament research think tank says Dec. 5.

“As a result, 60% of Belarusians support the actions of Moscow in Ukraine.

If the level of support reaches 80%, Ukraine will be faced with an additional 1,000-km long frontline, and then no one will ask Lukashenka nor Belarusians for their permission to invade Ukraine – Russian tanks will pour into Ukraine from the north, with Belarusians hailing them.

Russia is bending over backwards to brainwash Belarusians, using its flags, Cossacks (none of whom had existed before), military camps for schoolchildren.

The Belarusians are fed the typical propaganda myths (Russians and Belarusians are a single people with a single church and a single enemy – the West).

Much of what took place in the spring of 2014 in Donbas when Russia wanted to separate Ukraine’s eastern regions, is going on in Belarus now.

Ukraine has to take several important steps to turn the tide in Belarus:

- demand the opening of a Ukrainian information channel agreed last year with the Minsk authorities;

- provide support to Belarus independent media;

- launch radio broadcasting from Ukraine’s border areas with Belarus;

- Counter the effect of BT-24, a pro-Moscow propaganda channel operating freely in Ukraine,” the expert says.



zik.ua

A resident of Berdychiv, a small town near Vinnytsya, had one of her lucky days Dec. 3 when she was returned the $40,000 she had left behind travelling by bus, TCH reports.

On leaving the bus, she soon remembered she had a bag with the money. However, the bus was gone, and she couldn’t recall its number or how the driver looked.

The following day a man called and said he would return the bag. “He didn’t take any money. I offered a reward but he turned it down. I was stunned,” the woman said.

The humble savior is a 31-year old Oleksandr Dudnyk, now serving a 9-year sentence for burglarizing a jewelry store. As an exemplary conduct prisoner, he can go home for several hours a week.

“I picked up the bag the woman left behind from instinct. When I came home I saw a bundle of money and documents inside. The following morning I decided to return everything I found after I put myself in place of the poor woman,” Oleksandr says.

“Many, after reading this story, will think of me as a dodo, a simpleton. Several years back, I would have thought the same,” Oleksandr admits frankly.

After serving his sentence, Oleksandr wants to find a job and get married. “I’m not going to become a criminal again,” he says.

zik.ua

A special group to investigate the links of the police with bandits and election counterfeiters has come to Kryvyi Rih.

Samopomich MP Yehor Sobolev announced at the Popular Assembly in Kryvyi Rih, Censor.NET correspondent reports from the scene.

The National Police confirmed the arrival of the group. Sobolev asked everybody who knows about such actions to report to him.

"We will get rid of werewolves in the Kryvyi Rih police," Sobolev promised.

If the 5th column in the Verkhovna Rada will oppose the appointment of new elections in Kryvyi Rih, direct democracy will be established in Kyiv, the MP said.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Presidential envoy on the Crimean Tatars matters, "Petro Poroshenko Bloc" MP Mustafa Dzhemilev visited the XXII session of the OSCE Ministerial Council, which was held in Belgrade (Serbia).


This was announced by the press service of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People on Facebook.

Dzhemilev held meetings with the heads of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada, USA, and Turkey.

"Having spoken on the current situation in Crimea, in particular on the violation of human rights and international law, Dzhemilev emphasized the need to send a monitoring mission on the peninsula," the statement reads.

During a briefing to the representatives of the OSCE, leader of the Crimean Tatar people suggested creating a working group on the situation in the Crimea, which would include countries of the Budapest Memorandum.

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on Dec.5, 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

censor.net.ua In Russian

Russia says it has received an official refusal from the U.S. government to provide guarantees for Ukraine's debts and that Moscow will sue Kyiv if it doesn't pay its debt on time.

The Russian Finance Ministry says that without Washington's guarantee for Ukraine's debt, Moscow cannot restructure the $3 billion loan and will sue Kyiv if it doesn't repay the debt by December 20, when it is due.

Russia had offered to restructure Ukraine's Eurobond loan in equal installments over the next three years if the West agreed to provide guarantees.

But Ukraine has included the Russian loan among several loans that are to be restructured in a deal with a group of its largest creditors, in effect spurning Russia's restructuring offer.

The Russian Finance Ministry claimed that its restructuring offer had better terms for Ukraine than the International Monetary fund (IMF) loan terms......

rferl.org

It took over a year and a half for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to even begin implementing his most important campaign promise: On December 1, a new head of the anti-corruption prosecution agency was finally appointed, and now the office is ready to start working. US officials think this took far too long, and they are losing patience with Ukraine's government, especially since Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, a Poroshenko confidant, has delayed filling the anti-corruption position. In September of this year, Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Kyiv, took an unusual step. He tweeted his demand for Shokin's dismissal, albeit in a convoluted, diplomatic manner.

Joe Biden will likely express heavy criticism in Ukraine's capital. The United States is losing its patience with regard to Ukraine's judiciary reforms and its battle against corruption. Frank Hofmann reports from Kyiv.

But Poroshenko is holding on to Pyatt, a man who has been accused of leading an extremely corrupt state apparatus. After Euromaidan, the judiciary holds great emotional significance for Ukrainians. Almost 100 people were killed in the revolt two years ago.

"The entire Prosecutor General's Office must urgently be reformed," a high-ranking US official demanded ahead of Joe Biden's visit to Kyiv, where the US vice president's scheduled to start holding meetings on Monday. Ukraine has a "long history of corruption," the official said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. Biden's schedule for the visit reflects how low respect for Ukraine's leadership has sunk in the United States: The vice president will speak with representatives of pro-EU civil society groups before holding talks with politicians.

Biden will put pressure on the Ukrainian government, the US official said, and "the recently adopted anti-corruption reforms will be implemented." The vice president will probably urge Ukraine's government to force Shokin to resign. Diplomats in Kyiv are becoming increasingly distraught with regard to the placatory attitude of Ukrainian leaders.

It seems questionable that the required judicial reform will be swiftly implemented. Poroshenko's people are being advised by the European Council in Strasbourg - an institution that is not known for quick reforms. Behind the scenes, a Japanese diplomat insisted that the entire Ukrainian judiciary be thrown out. In the past, judges often acted as trustees, representing the interests of oligarchs. Japanese officials suggest that the Ukrainian government dismiss all its jurists and then start a "recruitment campaign" to put "judges with integrity" in office. This has already worked for Ukraine's new traffic police, for which Japan has donated about 1,300 cars. Since summer, the hybrid vehicles have zipped around Kyiv, blue lights flashing to give a sense of security. Above all, these actions are meant to say, "We are doing something." Now it turns out that the police patrols just showcase a proclaimed change in politics, but, behind the display, many moldy structures prevail.

This also applies to political structures. It is striking how intricately entangled they are with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's milieu. That is why Yatsenuk confidant Mykola Martynenko remains chairman of the energy committee in Ukraine's unicameral parliament, or Rada, although Switzerland has been directing investigations into him for at least half a year. Martynenko is suspected of transferring bribes worth millions to a Swiss account. It is doubtful that the Ukrainian prosecutor general has provided the Swiss with satisfactory support.

Conflict with Russia as an excuse?....................

time-ua.com
I was surprised, when Shokin was chosen for his position, knowing what party he belonged to, in the past. You can't remove a tiger's stripes.

I do hope this will wake-up the current government, which I still believe they've made plenty of improvements, but in some sectors, it's still the status quo. Anyone should be up for investigation, including Yatseniuk. Nobody's above the law. I recall "I'm not a crook". Remember how that ended up?  They have to shed that corruption bred skin they still walk around with.

I still think, when some bash Poroshenko, who can do a better job than him. Till this day, I can't find a one, other than Vyacheslav KIRILENKO, MP. I recall going to one of his public speeches. He had a very good reputation. Not sure if he ran for the presidency. He needs top expose himself more. But for now, all Ukrainians must support Poroshenko, as there's nobody else that can do better, IMO. Division, such as the recent events caused by the Right Sector and other of that area isn't needed. And I'm a Banderite.

Turkey accused Russia of a "provocation" on Sunday after a serviceman on the deck of a Russian naval ship allegedly held a rocket launcher on his shoulder while the vessel passed through Istanbul, according to Reuters.

The NTV news channel broadcast photographs that it said showed a serviceman brandishing a rocket launcher on the deck of the landing ship Caesar Kunikov as it passed on Saturday through the Bosphorus Strait, which bisects the city of Istanbul, Reuters wrote.

It said the ship was believed to be en route to Syria.

"For a Russian soldier to display a rocket launcher or something similar while passing on a Russian warship is a provocation," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, according to the Hurriyet news site. "If we perceive a threatening situation, we will give the necessary response."

The Bosphorus offers the only passage to the world's oceans for the Russian Black Sea fleet. A World War One-era treaty obliges Turkey to allow all ships to pass during peacetime...............

To read further go to this link: unian.info  

Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak will visit the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, December 7, the press service of the alliance reported.

Poltorak will meet with NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, the alliance said in a communique on Friday.

interfax.com.ua

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war in the Donbass, which distract from the problems of the citizens of the Russian Federation within the country. This opinion was at Inter, "Apostrophes" stated the German political scientist, political adviser to the Council of Europe Andre Hertel.

"After the first two terms of Mr Putin as president of Russia, he managed to stabilize the country, but he was not able to upgrade it: to make the country more democratic, pluralistic, and less dependent on the sale of energy. He found a new model for Russia, which has created a lack of legitimacy. After how Putin managed to achieve stability in the country, he struggled to simply maintain it, not that build on the success. Therefore, in order to distract people from domestic problems, he turned their attention to foreign policy, "- he said." So He wanted to increase its legitimacy, to gain time, to postpone the significant changes in Russia. Therefore, I believe that the so-called Ukrainian crisis - it is also the Russian crisis, "- added the analyst.

Hertel believes that now Putin "has entered a vicious circle." "He began military intervention in Ukraine annexed the Crimea, started the war in the Donbass, and now must deal with the consequences. Due to the fact that the situation in Russia this is not improved , it is necessary to continue an aggressive foreign policy. This, incidentally, explains the Russian military operation in Syria ", - he concluded.

As reported by the "Observer", formerly a Russian political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, suggested that a military operation in Syria, Putin is trying to divert attention from it initiated the armed conflict in the Donbas and the annexation of Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, but the West will not forgive.

obozrevatel.com In Russian

Ukrainian journalist analyzed the OPEC decision on increasing oil production quotas, noting the negative context in this situation for the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Thus he wrote on his page on Facebook.

"OPEC decision to increase oil production quotas - one more nail in the Russian coffin. Not only because of the willingness of OPEC to dump, but also because of the unwillingness of the Russian limit production in any case - what is clearly said on the eve of the OPEC meeting, Vagit Alekperov "- said the journalist." Next year will be the year otpolzaniya Putin regime from the occupied territories. The operation in Syria, too, will have to fold. korezhit mode starts, the Russian society - a fever. And then starts collapse, "- said Portnikov.

obozrevatel.com In Russian

The conflict between Russia and Turkey showed that the tactics used by Moscow "hybrid war" does not work against the countries of NATO - NATO members are ready to respond to new provocations Kremlin real war.

This writes the journalist Vitaly Portnikov in his blog site "Radio Liberty".

"Observer" brings his opinion completely:

"Military history - not an easy thing. In order to get in a textbook is not enough to walk in a beautiful uniform or cast militaristic speech. It is necessary to win (or lose) a great battle, or at least to develop a classic transaction to which the students will study and conduct exercises.

So Vladimir Putin came to the military operations and no history of battles. Knocked down by their contribution to the logistics of "hybrid warfare": precisely because it is recognized by the Russian president this war, the war, which you can not answer statements, sanctions or even special operations and force of arms.

Of course, Putin has not invented a "hybrid war". The same was in the Soviet Union "hybrid warfare" all the years of its existence - is still here and there are found "soldiers-internationalists" who performed their duty in the countries, the existence of which he himself knew nothing. But it was under Putin "hybrid warfare" was used not for some kind of subversive activities or ordinary military coups, and to the capture of territories and the creation of new self-proclaimed republics. They will say that it does not come up with Putin that the first self-proclaimed republics emerged in the Soviet period. But Anatoly Lukyanov special operations special operations different from Vladimir Putin. Ally Gorbachev appreciated legitimacy. In his case, the decision taken local authorities - and not surrounded by the troops of the buildings, as happened in the Crimea - and the army was connected at a stage of protection of these same local authorities. Perhaps all this was also a taste of "hybridity", but initially not military but political. Moreover, it is escalating political differences into a military conflict was considered one of the most tragic consequences of the plan to destabilize the "naughty" union republics. And Putin - is the opposite. First - the hidden war, then - open political decisions and appeals to enter into negotiations with their own puppets.

West initially taken aback by this new tactic, this "we is not here." Ukraine is trying in every way to keep from direct military confrontation with Russia not only because it feared defeat of its troops by the Russian army - it is not clear as it was, who will fight the army or "polite little green men" - but also because it considered it necessary to respond to "hybrid" own "hybrid". Thus was born the idea of ​​economic sanctions. You pretend that is not at war - and grab someone else's territory. And we pretend that it is not at war - and destroy your economy. And even see whose "hybridity" effective.

Above all this is constantly hung unspoken question - what would happen if Putin wants to organize a "hybrid war" in the country - a member of NATO? If the "polite" blissfully men reappear somewhere in Narva with sewn in the Kremlin studio flag of another "people's republic" and the slogan "protect the Russian world"? What then? Fight or enhance the economic sanctions? And do not it happen that, while the West will strengthen sanctions and hope for the economic collapse of the Russian regime, Putin will capture half of Europe? The fact that there is no clear answer to this question no one wanted to give, once again demonstrated: Europe is still not united in earnest. Is Europe, which will fight for - and Europe, which until recently was in the Soviet sphere of influence. And in this a Europe Putin can porazboynichat for fun - and we Sanctions Sanctions to teach it!

All changed Turkey. The conflict between Ankara and Moscow over the systematic violation of Russian aircraft of the Turkish air space, which led to the destruction of "defenseless Russian bomber" - only part of the problem. The other part - the willingness of the Kremlin revenge. If space is limited economic sanctions, refusal of tomatoes and knitwear - it's certainly not a problem of the West and NATO. But the Russian media are increasingly talking about "cardboard" of the Turkish state, that its territory do not belong, the Great Greece and the Great Armenia, the Kurdish "liberation movement" - is enough to open any close to the Russian government's website and come across in the scattering of such comments. It's just a word, or preparation for action? And the West must act if the Kremlin suddenly decide that the rejection of tomatoes - insufficient "punishment Erdogan" and "independent Kurdistan" and "Turkey federalization" - at the time? After the meeting, the foreign ministers of NATO in Brussels, it is clear how. "Hybrid war" declared a real war - that is the war, which is applicable to the action of the fifth article of the Washington Treaty, NATO. This means that any "hybrid war" on the territory of the Alliance will not.

Anyone who wants to hit the country - a member of NATO with the help of a provocation, "the polite men" and support for separatism, will be forced to fight for real."

As reported by the "Observer", Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 3 again accused the Turkish authorities in making money on the "looted oil", which it buys from the alleged terrorists "of the Islamic state." Putin also vowed that Turkey will bitterly regret downed Russian bombers Su-24.

obozrevatel.com In Russian