Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Tuesday 13 September. [Ukrainian sources]

TUESDAY

Please scroll down to view news items added during the day.

News:
35 attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine.
Reports that 2 Ukrainian soldiers died in one of the attacks on Monday.
Putin has started using 122 mm artillery again.
AP update - sadly 3 Ukrainian soldiers died yesterday, and 15 were injured.

Weather:
Probably the last hot day of the year. Should be near 30 in the capital. (upper 70s).
Tomorrow is forecast to be a lot cooler.

Footie:
Dynamo play Napoli in the Champions League tonight.

ATO - separatists use 122 mm artillery near Chermalyk
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2016/09/13/7120429/

Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 7:40
During the last day of the Russian-occupation forces opened fire 35 times on positions of Ukrainian defenders, including with the use of large-artillery.
The press center ATO headquarters.
Thus, the direction Mariupol recorded 9 violations of silence. The enemy resorted to armed provocations in the area Chermalyk where prohibited Minsk agreements with 122 artillery caliber fired at Ukrainian strongholds, and defenders Shyrokynoho Krasnogorivka used mortars and 82-caliber. Also, grenade launchers, machine guns and small arms gunmen opened fire on Granite Mar'yintsi, Starohnativtsi and Shyrokynomu.
In Lugansk area recorded 10 violations of silence. Occupants fired from BMP to Novozvanivtsi, but with grenade launchers, machine guns and small arms - on Popasnaya, Novooleksandrivtsi, Novozvanivtsi and Nyzhnoteplomu. In addition, about 16.00 position of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Lugansk area villages were attacked by hostile DRG. Advocates of Ukraine opened fire.
In Donetsk area recorded 16 violations of silence. Provocative attacks of the enemy were the positions of Ukrainian defenders Avdiyivka, Luhansk, Zaitsev, and Verhnotoretskomu Novhoroskomu, and in the Avdeevki the occupation forces used mortars, 122 and 82-gauge.
ATO stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine strictly observed the Minsk agreements.

Poroshenko asks G7, EU to keep sanctions against Russia until Ukraine's full sovereignty

http://www.unian.info/politics/1517468-poroshenko-asks-g7-eu-to-keep-sanctions-against-russia-until-ukraines-full-sovereignty.html
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I think some are weakening on sanctions. A number of FMs of Europe visit Ukraine today, if I remember correctly.

Two Ukrainian soldiers killed as Russian saboteurs stormed Ukrainian positions near Stanytsia Luhanska today, - Staff
http://en.censor.net.ua/news/405661/two_ukrainian_soldiers_killed_as_russian_saboteurs_stormed_ukrainian_positions_near_stanytsia_luhanska
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I reported on this yesterday, but here now in English.
Russian forces continue to attack Ukraine - a "Putin ceasefire".

Letter from Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov smuggled out of prison
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/12/oleg-sentsov-jailed-ukrainian-film-maker-letter-siberian-prison-putin
.....In his first letter successfully smuggled out of jail, he denounces Russia’s “cowardly” war in Ukraine – a war in which Moscow maintains it isn’t a participant.
“For three years I’ve been sitting in a Russian prison. For those three years a war has been conducted against my country,” Sentsov writes. “The enemy is fighting like a coward, vilely, pretending he’s got nothing to do with this. Nobody believes it. But that doesn’t stop him.”.....

7th kilometer market near Odesa transfers $800,000 monthly for Yanukovych and Donbas, - Saakashvili
http://en.censor.net.ua/news/405715/7th_kilometer_market_near_odesa_transfers_800000_monthly_for_yanukovych_and_donbas_saakashvili
....Saakashvili reminded that the market belongs to Yurii "Yenakiyevskiy" Ivaniushchenko, one of Yanukovych's closest allies. The governor stated that Ivaniushchenko sends $800,000 monthly for Yanukovych personally and for the support the Donbas.

The politician also noted that other enterprises in the Odesa region provide financial support for illegal armed gangs in the east of Ukraine. ....

Putin-Polling Is a Dangerous Business
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/the-tricky-business-of-polling-under-putin
....Russia's designation of its most respected polling agency as a foreign agent last week, hobbling the Yury Levada Centre, shows the extraordinary challenges pollsters face in the country.
As Russia runs out of money stashed away during a decade-long oil boom, opinion polls are reflecting a growing discontent with the government. Its move on the Levada Centre comes a week after Levada released a poll showing an 8 percent decline in the popularity of the country’s ruling party, United Russia, and less than two weeks before parliamentary elections set for Sept. 18.
According to Lev Gudkov, who heads Levada, the government may as well have shut it down, since his pollsters will now have to introduce themselves as such to Russians. ...
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The dictator strengthens his stranglehold on power.

Russian election the most sluggish in 10 years
https://meduza.io/news/2016/09/12/golos-priznal-predvybornuyu-kampaniyu-samoy-vyaloy-za-desyat-let

"Voice" campaign conceded the most sluggish in ten years
Dozhd19: 53, September 12 2016Nadezhny source
The movement of "The Voice", engaged in election observation in Russia, called the pre-election campaign in 2016 "the most sluggish and inactive" for ten years. This is stated in a report on the coverage of elections by the media....

Character references "ER" more neutral than in 2011 (then 20 percent of the messages were negative in the current campaign - nine percent). Most references to the candidates from this party not connected with the elections, the report said. Positive references to the "United Russia" was three times more than the Communist Party, four times more than the Liberal Democratic Party and "SR", and 50 times more than the "Parnassa".
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So positive references to Putin's party in the media occur 50 times more than similar ones to the opposition party, Parnasa.
Campaign also slow due to summer holiday period. Intentionally, no doubt.

3 soldiers killed, 15 wounded yesterday - AP
http://glavnoe.ua/news/n283148
The AP cited statistics of those killed in the APU fighters ATO per day
September 13 201 613: 0745
Share:
Over the past day in the fighting in the ATO zone three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 15 were wounded and one soldier was missing. This was announced by the speaker of MOU on ATO Alexander Motuzyanik during the briefing, which was broadcast channel "112 Ukraine".

"Two military killed yesterday during combat clashes near the village of Lugansk, one soldier was killed yesterday as a result of the shelling, using 122-mm artillery shells in the area Chermalyk" - Motuzyanik said.

A mercenary from Russia captured by Ukraine army near Toretsk says all COs in the rebel troops are Russian regulars, UkrInform reports Sept.12.

“Ukraine intelligence revealed the information they got from the Russian officer, Denis Sidorov, 35,” Ukraine army spokesman says.

His CO is Col. Aleksei Berdnikov who came to Donbas in 2016. Before Donbas, Berdnikov was CO of the 60th brigade in the Far East.

Berdnikov came to Donbas with an AA missile unit equipped with Top-M2Y modern missiles, the captured Russian said.

Commanders of both Donbas army corps are Russian generals.

zik.ua

Two former presidents of Ukraine have presented the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew with a petition signed by 5,000 people, asking for recognition of the autonomy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Leonid Kravchuk and Viktor Yushchenko met with the Ecumenical Patriarch in August 2016, but details of the meeting were not immediately available. Now BBC has reported that the Ukrainian leaders asked Patriarch Bartholomew to recognize the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an autocephalous (self-governing) body, independent from the Patriarchate of Moscow.

The Russian Orthodox Church claims Ukraine as part of its "canonical territory," and traditionally the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was subject to Moscow's jurisdiction. After Ukraine won independence in the break-up of the Soviet empire, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolian Filaret, established an independent body: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church- Kiev patriarchate, of which he is now Patriarch. However, neither the Moscow patriarchate nor the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has granted recognition to this new body. The Russian Orthodox Church insists that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow patriarchate is the only legitimate representative of the Orthodox community in Ukraine.

catholicculture.org

Ukrainian side may suspend the membership in PACE if the powers of the Russian delegation are recognized, in spite of the illegitimate nature of the elections to the State Duma of Russia on the territory of annexed Crimea, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on a Svoboda Slova talk show on Ukraine's ICTV channel, UNIAN reports.

"We will consider various options, to the point of non-participation in the PACE. Of course, I cannot tell this to Ukrainian MPs, this would be their sovereign decision, but I will advise them to take very radical steps," Klimkin said.

Chairperson of Ukrainian delegation to PACE Volodymyr Ariev has confirmed the readiness of the delegation to such actions. "MFA Klimkin: "Ukraine is ready to boycott PACE if RUS delegation will be admitted." I'm to confirm moods in UA delegation," he wrote on Twitter.

This radical position was already supported by Rada Vice-Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko.

"I share the position of minister. If PACE recognizes the authority of illegitimate delegation of Duma if PACE will spit on its own principles and will return the delegation of the country which didn't fulfill ANY of the PACE resolutions," she wrote on Facebook.

Gerashchenko added: if it happens the Ukrainian delegation and delegations of other countries which "realize the degradation of such organizations should consider the suspension of its participation in the "Assembly of empty chatter"..................

Access complete text of the editorial:  uatoday.tv

Ukraine avoided being ‘served as a dish for Russia' at the G20 summit in China. Moscow had used various tactics, including snap military drills as a threat and blackmail to reach its goal, forcing the Normandy Format to negotiate on the Donbas crisis without Kyiv.

However, according to Ukrainian political expert Alexander Khara, Putin's plan failed as the Western leaders refused to come to any exclusive solid agreements with Russia on Donbas. Furthermore, after holding bilateral meetings with Putin, Merkel and Hollande consulted with the US President, Barack Obama, and coordinated their further position regarding the Minsk agreements. Khara described their talks as ‘Geneva Format minus Russia'..................



Access complete text of the editorial:  uatoday.tv

Spokesperson for the Russian president Dmitry Peskov says Russia will use the whole range of international humanitarian law instruments if Ukraine files claims regarding occupation of Crimea.

Censor.NET reports citing Gazeta.ru.

"Of course, it is known from the media reports and corresponding statements of official representatives of Kyiv. Russia will definitely use the whole range of international humanitarian law instruments for opposing such suits and protection of its interests," Peskov said.

Asked whether Russia would abide by the court's decisions regarding Crimea possibly made in favor of Ukraine, Peskov said that he was unable to answer this question.

ua.censor.net.ua In Ukrainian/український

The leaders of both breakaway Donbas republics in a statement today declared a unilateral ceasefire as of 24:00 on Sept. 14, urging Ukraine to join the initiative, Radio Svoboda reports Sept. 13.

In their statements, rebel leaders Zakharchenko and Plotnytsky say they are acting in compliance with the Minsk agreements.

This is the first time since the war broke out in April 2014 the rebel leaders, not Russia, come to the fore with such declarations.

Ukraine had earlier come up with ceasefire initiatives but they were blatantly ignored by the separatists. The latest one was on Sept. 1 but it was only short lived as the rebels did not stop the shelling of Ukraine army positions.

On Sept. 12, Ukraine army losses were 3 servicemen killed  and 15 wounded.

zik.ua

The foreign partners made it clear in the spring of 2014 that if the Russian armed forces invaded the territory of continental Ukraine, they would be unable to provide military assistance.

As reported by Censor.NET, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said in an interview with UNIAN news agency.

"Ukraine has created one of the most efficient armies in Europe virtually from scratch in a very short period. We are outmanned and outgunned comparing to Russia, but our troops are ready to defend their country and resist the superior forces of the aggressor nevertheless. Russia realized that it could not bring Ukraine to its knees. They failed to do it in 2014, even more so, they will fail to do it now as we have managed to restore the defense capability and create efficient army," the NSDC secretary stressed.

"A capable army is featured not by its size, but by its willingness and ability to fulfill combat missions. Frankly speaking, not everyone is thrilled by our increasing defense capability which makes us become mainly self-sustaining and act according to our national interest. In 2014, when we experienced a major shortage of time, sinews of war, weapons, and the like, I held intense talks with our foreign partners. I reminded them of the Budapest Memorandum, told them that we required assistance. But our partners were patting my shoulder saying something like: "Hang on. We will bear down upon Russia through diplomatic channels." I was constantly asked not to engage in saber-rattling, not to mobilize the population, not to provoke Russia in other words. They made it clear that if the Russian armed forces invaded the territory of the continental Ukraine, they would be unable to provide the military assistance," Turchynov said.

"But I clearly understood that no diplomatic efforts would stop the Russian aggression, it (Russia - Ed.) would only reckon with force. I had no right to take other decisions. We had to defend our country. We started training troops and redeploying them from the west to the east. I signed a decree on mobilization, the National Guard was created, and the volunteer battalions started to be formed within the Interior Ministry... I planned the first stage of military draft in view of the number of army boots, which our enterprises were capable to produce. We were even unable to provide the soldiers with boots!" the NSDC secretary explained.

"We did not receive a single cartridge then not to mention more sophisticated weapons. Today we have both weapons and troops. Although, we haven't still obtained a single unit of lethal weapons from our partners," Turchynov said.

ua.censor.net.ua In Ukrainian/український

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko says that his office (PGO) has opened a criminal case against Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on the basis of a letter sent by Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), a Ukrainian civil society organization, according to Channel 24.

"Every day I get [letters] from several dozen people, including from Mr. Shabunin whose letter became the grounds, as a routine practice, for opening a criminal case – you won't believe – against Interior Minister Avakov, because we treat everybody in the same way," he told Channel 24. "All the letters sent to the PGO undergo similar procedures," he added...............

unian.info

First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas Iryna Gerashchenko has called on the OSCE and UNICEF to verify online reports about detention and tortures of Ukrainian teenagers captured by militants from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

"Media reported shocking information that the 'orcs' from the self-proclaimed republics have detained a group of teenagers allegedly for 'sabotage' and are now torturing them… This information obviously requires verification. And I think this is a good opportunity for UNICEF to check this information, use access to the poor children who are being tried by public interrogations on video (...) The footage was posted by the 'orcs' on the Internet. It is obvious it needs to be verified and responded. Today, I've sent a letter to the OSCE and UNICEF, asking to urgently check these reports," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

She also said she would most likely raise the issue in Minsk on September 21, when the next Trilateral Contact Group meeting is to take place.

She stresses that it is appropriate to engage UNICEF to help with issues involving children in the conflict zone.........

en.interfax.com.ua

The English-speaking broadcaster, sponsored by the Kremlin, is accused of providing inaccurate information about a fracking company Cuadrilla. RT accused Cuadrilla of dumping poisonous waste off the coast of Africa. There is no truth in the claim.

Russia Today, or RT, had already been punished by Ofcom on 15 occasions of disinformation, inaccurate data, and other similar breaches of broadcasting rules. Ofcom is an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries............

uatoday.tv