Ukraine crisis. News in brief. Wednesday 8 March. [Ukrainian sources]

WEDNESDAY

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NEWS:
Russia feels hyper over lawsuit against it. Trump supports an increase, rather than decrease assistance to Ukraine and we are ready to resist Russia. All of this drives Kremlin mad.  Russia denies that supplying weapons for attacks against civilians in eastern Ukraine.  Sanctions against Russia not canceled, until return of Crimea and Donbas - US State Department.In Donbass is 4,200 Russian soldiers, 400 tanks and thousands of artillery systems - Klimkin in US Senate.  Rail blockade by Ukraine patriots creates headache for Kiev. Ukraine Threatens Russian Bank With Sanctions Over Separatist Documents.

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The Kremlin’s machine of propaganda, lies, and tampering will run on all cylinders at today’s hearing of claim against the Russian Federation filed by Ukraine in the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Verkhovna Rada First Deputy Speaker Iryna Herashchenko, who represents Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group to resolve the conflict in the Donbas, wrote on Facebook, Censor.NET reports.

"The next round of the session of the International Court of Justice starts in The Hague at 11 a.m. Kyiv time. Russia will take the floor today. The Russian Federation feels hyper over the lawsuit filed against it. The trial has caught the eye of the Dutch and world media. All of this drives the Kremlin mad.

"There is no doubt that the Kremlin's machine of propaganda, lies, and tampering will run on all cylinders in The Hague today. We will listen and record - record every untrue statement - as the Russian Federation must be held accountable for its atrocities: for terrorism funding, for human rights violations, for discrimination against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in the occupied territories, and for the hostages.

"It would be morally, psychologically, and humanly hard for our delegation to listen about the 'civil war', 'punitive operations', and 'junta' in The Hague today. We express support for our delegation," Herashchenko said.

On Jan. 16, 2017, Ukraine filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice to hold Russian Federation accountable for acts of terrorism and discrimination in the course of its illegal aggression against Ukraine. The lawsuit is based on the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The hearing is scheduled to take place from March 6 to 9 inclusively. Ukraine presented its position on March 6, Russia - on March 7. On March 8-9, both sides will present their objections to each other's positions.

ua.censor.net.ua, Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

The Russian side in the International Court of Justice does not deny that supplies lethal weapons to the east of Ukraine, besides not considering it a violation of the Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.

As Tsenzor.NET referring to Ukrinform, it said representative of the Ukrainian delegation to the International Court of Justice Professor Harold Hondzhu Coe at a hearing in the case against Ukraine against Russia on Wednesday in The Hague.

"If you carefully listen to the presentation, Mr. Wordsworth (Samuel Wordsworth, a representative of the court - ed.), You heard that he had never denied absolutely important fact that Russia is supplying lethal weapons groups for attacks against civilians in eastern Ukraine" - said the representative of Ukraine to the International court of Justice, acting objections made public on the eve of Russia's position.

Assessing Russia's explanation "not involved" in terrorist financing in eastern Ukraine, Coe called the position of the defendant "legal gymnastics".

As reported, on March 6-9 International Court of Justice held hearings in the case against Ukraine against Russia.

Ukraine in The Hague accuses Russia of violating two international conventions - the fight against terrorist financing and on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Today's hearing devoted to Ukraine submitted a request for the introduction of interim measures to prevent continued violations by Russia during the consideration of the merits.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, who participated in the meeting of the American Congress Committee on Appropriations, warned that "Moscow is a threat to the entire Western world and NATO."

As Tsenzor.NET referring to CNN, according to Klimkin cyber attacks are made every day and are a threat to everyone, "regardless of whether you have 500 or 5000 miles from the Kremlin."

In turn, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham urged the Committee to look at broader policy and intentions of Russia to Eastern Europe, whose representatives participated in the meeting.

said the senator, should be applied against "soft power", while funding democracy formed, among which he named Ukraine, Poland, Georgia and the Baltic countries.

Senator Graham also told European officials at the hearing, that he had just had lunch with the president, "I think you was a good ally in the person of President Trump because it supports the presence of American troops and an increase, rather than decrease assistance to Ukraine and we are ready to fight back (Russian aggression. - Ed.). "

In the report notes that the State Department before takoyeh task to cut costs by at least 37%.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

US sanctions against Russia will be valid until Moscow does not stop the occupation of all territories of Ukraine.

This was stated by US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, reports Tsenzor.NET referring to Ukrinform.

"The sanctions will remain until Russia will not comply (obligations - Ed.) On eastern Ukraine and Crimea", - said Toner.

State Department spokesman explained that this topic is raised during the meeting the head of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Rex Tillerson.

also spoke of Domestic Ukrainian question concerns the United States to comply with the Minsk agreements and reforms conducted by the government of Ukraine.

Toner added that it was "a good meeting."

Tillerson conversation with Klimkin said that the US supports Ukraine in confronting Russian aggression and the implementation of reforms by the Ukrainian government.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Move to halt trade with separatists could cost country $3.5bn and up to 75,000 jobs

The men patrolling some of Ukraine’s far-eastern rail links see themselves as patriots who have proved it by battling Russian-backed separatists. But for Volodymyr Groysman, the prime minister, these Ukrainian veterans of the war in the country’s breakaway eastern regions are engaged in nothing less than “sabotage against our nation”.

For six weeks dozens of combatants have mounted an expanding blockade of rail lines carrying coal from those regions to the rest of Ukraine. They are protesting over a trade across the front lines that, with 10,000 killed in the conflict, one of their leaders has said is “tainted with blood”.

In retaliation, leaders of the separatist “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk last week moved to take over management of 40 Ukrainian-registered enterprises in their regions, including several owned by Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest oligarch.

Yet with cheap eastern coal vital for Ukraine’s power generation and huge steel industry, Mr Groysman has warned that if the blockade stopped the trade for good, it could cost the country $3.5bn and up to 75,000 jobs.

Three years into the conflict, the blockade has brought a dilemma for Kiev into sharp focus. Should it preserve economic links with the breakaway regions, supporting jobs for thousands of Ukrainians on both sides of the lines but helping prop up the separatist leaders? Or should it sever them and risk driving the regions deeper into the embrace of Russia?

“We should recognise as a country that we cannot afford to be dependent economically on the aggressor,” said Viktoria Voitsitska, a pro-western opposition MP. Her Samopomich (Self-Reliance) party is sponsoring legislation that would do what Kiev has so far shied away from: officially recognise the eastern regions as Russian “occupied territories” — as it has with Moscow-annexed Crimea — and so cut economic ties.

A senior presidential official counters that Ukraine should keep doing business with the east. “These are our citizens,” he said. “We need to fight for the hearts and minds of those people.”....................



Access complete text of the editorial:   In English

Ukrainian authorities are threatening to impose sanctions on the local subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia's main state bank, after Sberbank said it would recognize passports issued by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian central bank (NBU) made a statement on March 7, after Sberbank said it would comply with Russian President Vladimir Putin's February 18 decree ordering Russian authorities to recognize identity documents issued by separatists who hold parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

It said that if Sberbank's acceptance of separatist-issued documents was confirmed, the NBU would ask Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on the Russian bank's subsidiary in Ukraine.

It did not specify what measures it would seek, and added that the sanctions would be subject to approval by President Petro Poroshenko.

The bank issued its statement after Interior Minister Arsen Avakov called for a ban on Sberbank's operations in Ukraine.

Putin's decree has been criticized by Kyiv, Western governments, and international groups that say it violates or will undermine the European-brokered Minsk peace accords..........

[url=]http://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-warns-sberbank-sanctions-separatist-documents/28357491.html rferl.org[/url]

The city of Odessa region Savran unknown destroyed the wall in front of the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
As the Tsenzor.NET, reported by the local edition Lighthouse referring to the statement by the Director of the Odessa Holocaust Museum Paul kid.



"Scoundrels and moral freaks continue to mock the memory of Holocaust victims. The other day at the new Jewish cemetery in Savran completely destroyed the memorial to victims of the Holocaust," - he said.



Meanwhile, local police believe that no one paplyuzhyv monument - its happened destruction "of old age and natural causes."

reported that the memorial to victims of the Holocaust in Savran established Jewish community, but now none of the participants in left. Later Savransky district council specified that destroyed was not the memorial and the wall before him. Immediately Memorial Holocaust is:



ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові

Russia sent in Donbas to 1,000 artillery systems, 400 tanks and 200 missile systems of volley fire.

As Tsenzor.NE T with reference to UNIAN, about it said the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin during a speech in the Senate.

According to him, the hybrid war against Ukraine Russia manifested in shocking quantities of Russian weapons deployed on the territory occupied Donbas and Crimea. "Now we are talking about approximately 4,200 regular troops and 40,000 fighters. We are talking about more than 400 tanks and 800 armored vehicles. It is about a thousand artillery systems and 200 rocket systems of volley fire of about 23,000 troops in the occupied Crimea", - informed the Foreign Minister.

he noted that the UN International Court of representative made ridiculous statement that Russia supported the Donbas militants allegedly found weapons in all to the old Soviet mines. "Can anyone believe it?" - Klimkin said.

The minister also said that the war of Russia against Ukraine in the last three years has led to the occupation of 7.2% of the territory. According to him, nearly 10 thousand Ukrainian citizens - both military and civilian - were killed and about 23 thousand Ukrainian were injured.

Recall, March 7, Russian representative, Ilya Rogachev at the hearing in the International Court of Justice in a case against Ukraine , said that Russia does not supply arms to Donbass. "As for arms supplies, the source of supply is a former Soviet Army, which was stored in the vaults, which were located in the mines were captured by rebels. Or it is a weapon that was left Ukrainian army" - he said.

ua.censor.net.ua , Original in Ukrainian / на українській мові