Ukraine News. Monday 31 December. [Ukrainian sources]

MONDAY HEADLINES:
FSB has announced the detention of a US citizen in Vilnius on suspicion of espionage.  Putin wrote Trump that Moscow was open to dialogue and did not congratulate Poroshenko and Zurabishvili.  Putin is ready for a big war in Crimea: a dangerous forecast appeared. Putin prolonged for six months restrictions on transit through Russia from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. There are 53 thousand servicemen of the RF, the Ministry of Defense, near the borders of Ukraine. Kirill wrote a letter to Bartholomew calling for Ukraine not to give Tomos.

Kyiv, Ukraine
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The FSB of Russia has announced the detention of a US citizen, Paul Villa, in a suspected alleged espionage in Moscow.

It TASS reported Monday in the Center Public Relations Office, reports Cenzor.NET.

"On December 28, 2018, in the city of Moscow, the employees of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation during the spy action arrested a US citizen Paul Vila," the FSB said in a statement.

"Investigative administration of the FSB of Russia against a US citizen filed a criminal case under Article 276 of the Criminal Code (" Espionage ")" - added in the department.

The FSB did not provide other details of the charge. An article on which a criminal case was initiated provides for a sentence of imprisonment of 10 to 20 years.

"The necessary investigative actions are being carried out," - added the Center.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote to the American colleague Donald Trump in a New Year letter that Moscow is ready for a "broad-based agenda".

This is written by Censor.NET with reference to Voice of America.

"Vladimir Putin emphasized that relations (Russia-US) are the most important factor in guaranteeing strategic stability and international security," the Kremlin's statement says.

"He confirmed that Russia is open to dialogue with the United States with the broadest agenda."

It should be noted that Volodymyr Putin sent new year greetings to 40 leaders of different states and several leaders of international organizations. But ignored the presidents of Ukraine and Georgia - Petro Poroshenko and Salome Zurabishvili.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Russian President Vladimir Putin is looking for an excuse to launch a major war on the Crimea, even if it would lead to self-destruction of his regime.

This is for "Krym.Realiyi" writes blogger under the pseudonym of Crimea Zarema Seitablayeva.

She notes that "the situation with the captured warships of Ukraine is an open signal that Russia is ready for a major war."

"It is clear that Russia is not ready for a big war through the so-called" DPR "and" LNR", but here for Crimea the Putin regime is ready for full-scale aggression", - the blogger is convinced.

In her opinion, this is confirmed by the tyrants of Russian officials. In particular, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov, who claimed that in the event of a "provocation" on the administrative border with Crimea, Ukraine "will receive an answer - almost do not give up."

"If the war begins, then it will not seem to be enough for anyone." Russia still thinks that the Ukrainian army is all the same as in 2014, when the Yanukovych regime overthrew the combat capability of the country's armed forces, but now the situation is completely different. Ukraine has gained a modern army capable of effectively fulfilling its tasks, "writes the blogger.

However, Seitablaeva notes that the situation is warmed up by the "Russian hurray-patriots who, lying on the couch," write in the social networks that the Russian army was in a "time to" restore order in Ukraine, not even imagining the consequences of such a war.

"If it does not become the beginning of the Third World, it will still lead to sad consequences for Russia itself and, most likely, to its collapse ... And here the collapse of the Putin regime will be complete and final." The war with Ukraine awakens in itself Russia is such an excitement that Lavrov, or Putin himself, would seem to have left. But the problem is that the Putin regime, apparently, is ready to self-destruct, and therefore dangerous as never before, "said the blogger.

She notes that the war will begin precisely from the Crimea, because "it is not for nothing that the soldiers and armament have been plunged here, as they say, under an ovation".

"All the newspapers in Crimea are full of advertisements for recruiting a contract service to the Russian army, a feeling that the generals are ready to put all the young Crimeans under the gun." It looks like the Kremlin now looks for a formal reason to move its armada on the land of the Kherson region and beyond, adds a blogger.

At the same time, she believes that the Crimean Tatar people in the event of a war can wait for a new deportation.

"And this deportation will be, apparently, in the cold spots of Siberia, and it's terrible to even imagine waiting for our activists from already large lists unreliable for the regime," she summed up.

apostrophe.ua  In Ukrainian/український

The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, extended the decree "On Measures to Ensure Economic Security and National Interests of Russia in the Implementation of International Transit Transport of Goods From the Territory of Ukraine to the Territory of Kazakhstan through the Territory of Russia" by July 1, 2019.

The decree was signed on January 1, 2016, in connection with the suspension from this date of the Treaty on the Free Trade Area with regard to Ukraine, reports Censor.NET, referring to Interfax-Ukraine.

The decree provides for the introduction of identification (seals), in particular those operating on the basis of the GLONASS navigation system, with respect to transit goods from Ukraine through Russia to Kazakhstan.

The decree also introduced requirements for the presence of account coupons for drivers conducting such automobile transit traffic. At the same time, in the decree of the President, it was emphasized that such international transit transportation of goods from Ukraine is possible only upon the entry of vehicles and trains from Belarus.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

At the end of December 2018, the Russian Federation continues to expand its presence near the borders of Ukraine, with a concentration of about 53,000 servicemen there.

This was reported by Ukrinform in the department of communications and press of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, reports Censor.NET.

"The Russian Federation continues to build its military groups near the Ukrainian state border, in particular, 28 battalion-tactical groups are deployed near the borders of Ukraine and the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea by the end of December 2018. The total number of these troops (excluding those deployed in the temporarily occupied territories Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) is about 53 thousand servicemen", - the ministry notes.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український

Moscow Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev) wrote a letter to the patriarch of the universe, Bartholomew (Archondissos), in which he urged him not to grant autocephaly to the Local Church of Ukraine.

The text of the appeal was published on the site of the Russian Orthodox Church, reports Censor.NET.

"On the so-called" local council", which you convened and led the three, consisting of your representative, the self-styled" patriarch "(now referred to as" honorary") and the secular head of the Ukrainian state, were present only two of the 90 bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church What you call a "local council" was the assembly of scholars under the umbrella of the Holy Church of Constantinople. What is this, if not the legalization of the Ukrainian split, which you publicly promised not to allow?" - said in a letter to Kirill.

According to Kirill, the Metropolitan of Vinnitsa and Barys Simeon and the Metropolitan of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky and Vyshnevsky Alexander do not represent the Moscow Patriarchate, therefore the council can not be called unifying.

He also assures that the Ukrainian authorities began to persecute the UOC-MP.

"Already, archpastors and the clergy in Ukraine, under fictitious acutenances, are being called into questioning, blackmailing, threatening close people, conducting searches in temples and settlements, putting pressure on families and children. The law came into force the other day, the purpose of which is to deprive the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on its behalf, so that under the guise of a "voluntary transition of communities" to forcibly seize its temples, do you see the unification of Orthodox Ukraine?" - wrote Kirill.

Cyril also threatened that in the case of the provision of autocephaly to Ukraine, the name of Bartholomew would be included in the list of the most evil universe patriarchs.

"Do not enter your honorable name in one list with such unchaste bishops of Constantinople as Nestorius, iconoclasts Anastasias, John VII and Theodotus, Uniates Joseph II, Mitrophan II Matervivets and Gregory III Mother," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said.

"If you do in accordance with the intentions set forth in your letter, you will forever lose the opportunity to serve as the union of the saints of the Divine Churches, cease to be the first in the Orthodox world, which includes hundreds of millions of believers, and the suffering of the Orthodox Ukrainians that you have suffered by you will follow you at the Last Judgment impartial Lord, and will testify against Him before you.Ill pray with my whole heart that this should not happen. It's not too late to stop, "said Kirill.

censor.net.ua  In Ukrainian/український