Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Tuesday 22 March. [Ukrainian sources]

TUESDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the day

News -
Putin hits Ukraine 27 times yesterday.
Update - 3 soldiers wounded yesterday. No dead.
Sentencing of Savchenko today - Russian show trial.
Update - judge finds her guilty on all counts. The Russian press announced the verdict yesterday. Before the judge did.
A farce, from beginning to end.
Brussels bombs. Reading that there may be Ukrainian victims.

Weather -
Ok. +2 now. high maybe of +6. Forecast for next week much better.

Personal opinion -
What will the Russian verdict in the Savchenko case do for Russian - Ukrainian relations?
Ukrainians will hate Russians even more than before, if that is possible. Along with many many other people around the world.

6:32
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/03/22/7102863/
After the relative calm and reduce the number of attacks during the day, at dusk militants have stepped up attacks on positions forces ATO.
This is stated at the press center ATO headquarters in Facebook.
"In violation of existing agreements Minsk, Russian laborers Armed Forces fired at positions near Lugansk and stronghold of the" Zenith "in the vicinity of Avdeevki caliber 82 mm mortars and fired with 4 mines", - the report says.
For strongholds of Ukrainian soldiers near Zaitsev, Mayorska and Avdeevki militants fired with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, and ATO forces in Mar'yintsi - with small arms.
When the militants were sniping positions near Mayorska and Lugansk.
In just the past day registered 27 attacks MAT positions, 21 - in Donetsk and 6 - in Mariupol directions. Midnight position shelling stopped.

http://www.unian.info/society/1296314-lpr-militant-confirms-savchenko-captured-before-russian-journos-died.html
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No wonder he wasn't asked to testify in court. Russian Shaun Walker kangaroo court.

http://www.unian.info/politics/1296355-ukraine-gets-closer-to-new-cabinet-with-pm-groysman-media.html
The exhausting top-level negotiations on the issue of reformatting the Ukrainian Government have yielded first results: the main and only contestant for the post of a prime minister remains Volodymyr Groysman, now Rada Speaker, that’s according to LB.ua citing own sources familiar with the talks....
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Speculation. Looks like they might ditch Jareshko completely!
Suggestions of Liashko as speaker? Unbelievable.

http://www.france24.com/en/20160321-ukraines-economy-shrinks-10-still-better-expected
....Ukraine has further been hurt by a trade war with Russia and a drop in the global price of its wheat and steel exports.
But Ukraine's central bank still expects the economy to expand by 1.1 percent this year.
Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said last week that she was downgrading her government's initial two-percent growth projection to one percent because of persistent problems in the agricultural and metals manufacturing sectors....
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If Jareshko is removed from her position in a new cabinet I expect the IMF to react negatively.

11:05
http://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/multimedia_russian/2016/03/160322_ru_gongadse_coffin_funeral
===
Everybody knows that Kuchma ordered the killing of the famous journalist. But being Ukraine, nothing will ever happen.

http://asn.in.ua/ru/news/news/38867-v-zhitomire-zarabotala-novaja-policija.html
===
229 police. 21 cars.
Zhitomir. City of about 250,000 situated about 150 km west of Kiev.
Relatively run-down area. My opinion.

http://politeka.net/189003-mid-proveryaet-informatsiyu-o-nalichii-ukraintsev-sredi-postradavshih-v-bryussele/
===
No further details as of yet.
Several bombs have exploded in the Belgian capital today. Early reports say 30 or 40 dead. Many more seriously injured.

Lutsenko said he hopes parliament will vote on March 24 for a new prime minister, Cabinet and program. The new Cabinet needs to be approved as soon as possible in order to halt the lack of activity of the current government, he said, ruling out the possibility that Arseniy Yatsenyuk and all the current ministers will remain in his post.

Jaresko told Kyiv reporters on March 20 she has no ambitions to become prime minister. “My goal is to help the Ukrainian people, currently in the position of finance minister. Tomorrow will be what will be,” she said.

Concorde analyst Zenon Zawada added: “Jaresko issued a list of demands to become prime minister, including no party quotas in forming the next Cabinet, the full support of whatever parliamentary coalition emerges, as well as certain personnel. Not only do we think it’s unlikely Jaresko will get her demands met, but we don’t think a coalition supporting a technocratic government will emerge after last week’s developments. Self-Reliance already put forth unrealistic demands for supporting a new government, while Oleh Liashko’s Radical Party is strictly interested in securing government posts.

“MP Serhiy Leshchenko suggested on his Facebook page that all the publicity surrounding Jaresko’s nomination is being used as a smokescreen and that could very well be the case. The most likely scenarios for forming the next government coalition are (1) Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front and Radical Party, or (2) the current Cabinet remaining in place until September, when new early parliamentary elections could be called. The second option is more likely and, unfortunately, far worse than the first, likely delaying the arrival of the next IMF loan.”................

ukrainebusiness.com.ua

12:14
http://hyser.com.ua/community/protiv-naznacheniya-yaresko-na-dolzhnost-premera-vystupili-pochti-vse-frakcii-69263
According to the newspaper "Left Bank", the candidature of Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine has not actually seen. Thus, the main and only contender for the post today, is Vladimir Groisman. The current head of the AP Boris Lozhkyn claim to the post of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy.
Finance Minister Ivan Miklos may be, ex-Minister of Economy of Slovakia, and the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Deputy Ivan Klympush-Tsintsadze.
Arseny Yatsenyuk - according looming configuration - remain five 'portfolios. " The head of the Ministry of Natural Resources is currently not defined - "continue trading" with the BPP, "Fatherland" and Oleg Lyashko. The latter, however, is willing to give up positions in the Cabinet in exchange for the post of speaker of BP.
Thus, in the coalition are four factions - BPP, "People's Front", the Radical Party and the "Batkivshina."
The vote is scheduled next Tuesday or Thursday.
===

I agree with Yaresko.
The cabinet should be formed of the best people, and not according to how many seats a party has.
I hope she stays as Finance minister. If not there will be a lot of rumblings from the EU and the IMF.

http://nbnews.com.ua/ru/news/176175/
За сутки в зоне АТО были ранены трое украинских военных, погибших нет
Over the past day in the anti-terrorist operation zone (ATO) in the Donbass in the fighting there were no fatalities among the Ukrainian troops, but three soldiers were wounded ATO. On Tuesday, 22 March at the briefing said the representative of the Presidential Administration (PA) of Ukraine on ATO Alexander Motuzyanik, reports BNN correspondent.

http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/03/22/7102937/
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What a complete farce. Russia today. Avoid the place like the plague.

15:17
http://hvylya.net/news/digest/poroshenko-i-yatsenyuk-dogovorilis-naznachit-premerom-groysmana-istochniki.html
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Likely to be true, in my opinion.
Will they get rid of Jareshko?

http://zn.ua/UKRAINE/savchenko-prigovorili-k-22-godam-lisheniyam-svobody-208048_.html
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Strange they didn't go for the full 23 years the "prosecution" was asking for. Why not? Good behaviour? Sticking her finger up at the judge?!
Russia is a sick country.

P.S. Read elsewhere - with only 22 years, the prosecution can appeal, thereby keeping the trial going on for a few more years.

www.bloomberg.com/energy/
2 minutes ago

Crude Oil & Natural Gas
INDEX UNITS PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE CONTRACT TIME (EDT) 2 DAY
WTI Crude Oil (Nymex)
USD/bbl. 40.88 -0.64 -1.54% May 2016 9:23 AM
CO1:COM
Brent Crude (ICE)
USD/bbl. 41.06 -0.48 -1.16% May 2016 9:23 AM
Natural Gas (Nymex)
USD/MMBtu 1.86 +0.03 +1.48% Apr 2016 9:23 AM

www.xe.com

Hryvnia to one dollar / one euro / one pound
Inverse:      26.1997      29.4134      37.2504

Quite a bit stronger today. Strange. Do they know something about a new coalition?

https://www.charter97.org/ru/news/2016/3/22/196192/
Sniper terrorists killed peaceful resident in the Donbas
03/22/2016, 17:31
The real cause of the tragedy is carefully hidden and served as a "stray bullet".
This was reported at a briefing Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, reports informator.news.
Sniper so-called "1st Army Corps DNI" March 19 killed a Ukrainian woman.
"There are new facts of war crimes against the Russian occupiers civilians temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk region. Since March 19, sniper "1 AK" a woman was killed. The real cause of the tragedy is carefully hidden and served as a "stray bullet", according to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine press center.
It should be noted that the recent increase in this kind of "deadly provocations" by the Russian military, aimed at the escalation of the conflict in the Donbas and the failure of the Minsk agreements ", - stated in the department.
===
Shaun Walker's "DNR guys" doing what they do best - killing innocent civilians, including women.
You won't read about this from RIA Novosti "journalist" Walker in The Guardian. Stalinist editor Milne won't allow anything vaguely anti-Putin. Kremlin propaganda only.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35873683
....She burst into a folk-style protest song in the courtroom as she was finally pronounced guilty after the judge's two-day reading of the verdict....
===
Not bad from the bbc, for once.
(Song, I believe, "Burning tyre" - about Maidan, Kiev. I stand corrected. It may have a line in it about judges? )
One other fun bit - during his ramblings - called a judgement in Russia - the judge said,
"If anybody finds this funny they can leave the court room", to which Savchenko replied, "I find it funny"... !!! Amazing woman. God bless her.

Here - the judgement got so boring and unintelligible that one of the lawyers started reading a magazine!!



Apparently the magazine is "Civil War Quarterly". !!

«Горіла шина» Хіт Євромайдану -- пісня про події на Грушевського.
"Burning tyre." - a Euromaidan hit - song about events on Grushshevka.
It is based on the folk song "Burned pine, raging ..
===
For some reason, google translate does Schina as bus! But I am assured by my Ukrainian friends that it means tyre - as in Russian also.
“Горіла шина, палала, Горіла шина, палала, Там барикада стояла. Диких собак не пускала”.

More here
http://slovovolyni.com/ukr/ukraine/16738/

Found the text. About Maidan, about prisoners, a People's court... that's why, I would think.
Горіла шина, палала Горіла шина, палала,
Там барикада стояла, Там барикада стояла.

Там барикада стояла. Там барикада стояла.
Диких собак не пускала, Диких собак не пускала.

Горіла шина ще й бензин, Горіла шина ще й бензин,
Стріляв здалека сучий син, Стріляв здалека сучий син.

Горіла шина ще й мішок, Горіла шина ще й мішок,
Ой, навезли нам тітушок, Ой, навезли нам тітушок.

Ой, зеки, зеки, ви мої, Ой, зеки, зеки, ви мої,
Довго служили ви мені, Довго служили ви мені.

Більше служить не будете, Більше служить не будете,
Під суд народний підете, Під суд народний підете.

Під суд народний, трибунал, Під суд народний, трибунал,
Кожен піде регіонал, Кожен піде регіонал!
===
P.S. There is a chance I am completely wrong on this. But I don't think so.
But I haven't seen this reference in any English language - or other language paper, website, to date.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:cbdbf48644514bdd8b9c08f0f125413d
....Statistics reported Monday for last year said 19.2 million Russians — about 13 percent of the population — were living at or below the official poverty level of 9662 rubles ($142) a month. That's an increase of 3.1 million over 2014....
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So Putin will be even more popular than ever. Maybe 123% of the population approve of him now!
Actually - bizarre headline. Not the best.
The poor grew sharply? They were 1.6m tall, and are now 1.8m - with pointy noses??
Joking aside, if these are official figures, then the real picture is probably far worse. Maybe 20% of Russians living in poverty?

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/majority-of-russians-would-support-putin-re-election--poll/563138.html
...Sixty-five percent of Russians would like to see President Vladimir Putin elected for another term when balloting is held two years from now, a poll released Monday by the independent Levada Center pollster indicated.
This compares to 57 percent of respondents who said last year they would like Putin to win the 2018 election, Levada Center said in a report....
===
The poorer they get, the more they like him!!! Only in Russia.

Nelson wrote:

«Горіла шина» Хіт Євромайдану -- пісня про події на Грушевського.
"Burning tyre." - a Euromaidan hit - song about events on Grushshevka.
It is based on the folk song "Burned pine, raging ..
===
For some reason, google translate does Schina as bus! But I am assured by my Ukrainian friends that it means tyre - as in Russian also.
“Горіла шина, палала, Горіла шина, палала, Там барикада стояла. Диких собак не пускала”.

More here
http://slovovolyni.com/ukr/ukraine/16738/

Found the text. About Maidan, about prisoners, a People's court... that's why, I would think.
Горіла шина, палала Горіла шина, палала,
Там барикада стояла, Там барикада стояла.

Там барикада стояла. Там барикада стояла.
Диких собак не пускала, Диких собак не пускала.

Горіла шина ще й бензин, Горіла шина ще й бензин,
Стріляв здалека сучий син, Стріляв здалека сучий син.

Горіла шина ще й мішок, Горіла шина ще й мішок,
Ой, навезли нам тітушок, Ой, навезли нам тітушок.

Ой, зеки, зеки, ви мої, Ой, зеки, зеки, ви мої,
Довго служили ви мені, Довго служили ви мені.

Більше служить не будете, Більше служить не будете,
Під суд народний підете, Під суд народний підете.

Під суд народний, трибунал, Під суд народний, трибунал,
Кожен піде регіонал, Кожен піде регіонал!
===
P.S. There is a chance I am completely wrong on this. But I don't think so.
But I haven't seen this reference in any English language - or other language paper, website, to date.

Yes, this heroic woman DID sing the Burning Tyres:

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/zayava-prezidenta-ukrayina-nikoli-ne-viznaye-sudilisha-nad-n-36883
Too bad. The world hasn’t seen anything even remotely resembling a court in the process against Nadiya Savchenko.
It was a shameful show trial organized by the country-aggressor against the Ukrainian Officer who defended her land from enemy’s encroachment.
Ukraine will never recognize either this show trial or their so-called sentence, absurdity and cruelty of which proves that Russian justice has returned to the period of Stalin-Vyshinsky.
Both Ukrainian and international personal sanctions must be imposed against everyone involved in prosecution of Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov and other Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian patriots-hostages illegally tortured in Russian territory.
The whole world supports us in the battle for Nadiya’s liberation. From now on, this struggle enters the final stage.
I do not only hope that Nadiya Savchenko will return to Ukraine. I am doing everything possible and impossible for that.
In the course of the meetings at the highest level in the Normandy format, I have repeatedly raised the issue of liberation of Nadiya and other Ukrainian hostages. And I have received support from other participants of the format. President Putin said that he would return Nadiya Savchenko to Ukraine after the so-called court decision.
Now it is the time to fulfill that promise.
In my turn, I am ready to convey two Russian servicemen detained in our territory for their participation in the armed aggression against Ukraine. Judicial inquiry of their cases is on the final stage. Immediately after its completion, I am ready to ensure their transportation to the Russian Federation through appropriate procedures.
Such an approach corresponds to item 6 of the Minsk agreements – exchange all for all. This should be done immediately.
Today, the entire Ukraine is together with Nadiya, her mother Mariya Ivanivna and sister Vira.
I believe that our common efforts will be successful. And the Hero of Ukraine, people’s deputy of Ukraine, officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will come back home. We are waiting for her.
Glory to Ukraine!
====
N.B. Andrey Vyshinsky - known as a state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow trials. Born in Odessa, died in NY, NY.
He is also attributed as the author of an infamous quote from the Stalin era: "Give me a man and I will find the crime." wiki.

In Dnipropetrovsk region with a bribe law enforcers detained the deputy chief of one of the units of Novomoskovsk police department. This is stated on the official website of the SBU.

The ministry said that the arrested person is the captain, he demanded that the local resident of 20 thousand hryvnia for the closure of the criminal proceedings and the return of the seized vehicle.

"Law enforcement officers arrested the blackmailer when a piece of a bribe, which was 10 thousand hryvnia", - added in the secret service.

On this fact criminal proceedings in h. 3 tbsp. 368 (receipt of undue benefits) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

glavcom.ua In Russian/русский