company:pro-russian

Avakov: Ukraine’s wall along Russian border nearly half complete

Ukraine has built almost half of its 2,300-kilometer wall on the border with Russia, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Nov. 24 during his visit to the border checkpoint in Kharkiv Oblast.

“The project has been extended until 2021,” Avakov said. “The budget plan for the 2019 allocates Hr 400 million ($14.4 million) for it. But the head of the Border Guard Service hopes to receive additional funds.”

The Kharkiv section of the Ukrainian-Russian wall has been almost completed with only 20 kilometers left, according to Avakov. The works will continue on the border sections in Sumy and Luhansk oblasts. It includes fortifications with a barbed wire fence, two-meter deep anti-tank trenches, 17-meter-high watchtowers, 40 border checkpoints as well as equipment with motion sensors, border security closed-circuit television (CCTV) and alarm systems.

Overall, 47 percent of the 2,300-kilometer wall has been built, the minister said.

In addition, starting from January, Ukraine has launched the biometric control system for Russian passport holders at all border-crossing checkpoints.

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Former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who is running for president in the upcoming March presidential elections, joined Avakov on the trip to the border in Kharkiv Oblast on Nov. 24.

The ambitious project known as the European Wall was announced by then-Prime Minister Yatsenyuk in 2014 in the wake of the Russian military intervention in the Donbas. Ukraine lost control over parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts and 400 kilometers that border with Russia. The wall was designed to protect Ukraine from further attacks on its territory as well as to stop illegal flow of weapons from Russia.

In the aftermath of the EuroMaidan Revolution that drove pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014, Kremlin incited mass anti-government demonstrations in eastern Ukraine and occupied Crimean peninsula. In Donetsk and Luhansk, protesters “declared independence” from Ukraine which escalated into an armed conflict between Ukrainian forces and Kremlin-backed forces. In April 2014, pro-Russian protesters took over the Kharkiv administration and “declared independence from Ukraine” but the Ukrainian government managed to retain control over the region.

The construction of the wall, however, halted due to lack of funding and a corruption scandal.

In 2015-2017, the Border Guard Serviced received Hr 800 mln ($28.8 million) — less than a quarter of the total cost of the project estimated at over Hr 4 billion ($147.6 million).

In November 2017, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested eight people on embezzlement charges. NABU detectives found that the officials of the Border Guard Service in cahoots with local contractors had siphoned off Hr 16.68 million ($600,800) from the Project Wall funds.

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#Ukraine #Russie #murs #frontières #barrières_frontalières

North Korea’s Missile Success Is Linked to Ukrainian Plant, Investigators Say - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/world/asia/north-korea-missiles-ukraine-factory.html

North Korea’s success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia’s missile program, according to an expert analysis being published Monday and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies.

The studies may solve the mystery of how North Korea began succeeding so suddenly after a string of fiery missile failures, some of which may have been caused by American sabotage of its supply chains and cyberattacks on its launches. After those failures, the North changed designs and suppliers in the past two years, according to a new study by Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Such a degree of aid to North Korea from afar would be notable because President Trump has singled out only China as the North’s main source of economic and technological support. He has never blamed Ukraine or Russia, though his secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, made an oblique reference to both China and Russia as the nation’s “principal economic enablers” after the North’s most recent ICBM launch last month.

Analysts who studied photographs of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, inspecting the new rocket motors concluded that they derive from designs that once powered the Soviet Union’s missile fleet. The engines were so powerful that a single missile could hurl 10 thermonuclear warheads between continents.

Those engines were linked to only a few former Soviet sites. Government investigators and experts have focused their inquiries on a missile factory in #Dnipro, #Ukraine, on the edge of the territory where Russia is fighting a low-level war to break off part of Ukraine. During the Cold War, the factory made the deadliest missiles in the Soviet arsenal, including the giant SS-18. It remained one of Russia’s primary producers of missiles even after Ukraine gained independence.

But since Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from power in 2014, the state-owned factory, known as #Yuzhmash, has fallen on hard times. The Russians canceled upgrades of their nuclear fleet. The factory is underused, awash in unpaid bills and low morale. Experts believe it is the most likely source of the engines that in July powered the two ICBM tests, which were the first to suggest that North Korea has the range, if not necessarily the accuracy or warhead technology, to threaten American cities.

“It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine — probably illicitly,” Mr. Elleman said in an interview. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”

Important accord du Groupe de contact à Minsk, le 19/09/14

BBC News - Ukraine deal with pro-Russian rebels at Minsk talks
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29290246

Ukraine’s government and pro-Russia rebels have agreed a memorandum on a peace plan for the eastern conflict.

The nine-point deal includes setting up a 30km (19-mile) buffer zone, a ban on overflights of part of eastern Ukraine by military aircraft and the withdrawal of “foreign mercenaries” on both sides.

L’OSCE serait d’accord pour envoyer ses observateurs dans la zone tampon.

Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, representing Kiev at the talks, said that all sides had agreed to move back some of their heavy weapons.

“Heavy artillery will be moved 15km away from the front line” he said.

He added that the deal would be implemented within 24 hours and monitors from the OSCE would travel to the buffer zone to check for compliance.

Odessa : 46 morts, incendie de l’immeuble des syndicats

Dozens of people killed in Odessa as Trade Union goes up in flames (UPDATES, VIDEO)
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/dozens-dead-in-odessa-as-trade-union-goes-up-in-flames-346055.html

Dozens of people were killed in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on May 2 after the city’s Trade Union building went up in flames following clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian groups.

The blaze marked Ukraine’s deadliest day since more than 70 people were killed on Independence Square during the EuroMaidan Revolution in Kyiv on Feb. 20, most of the 105 killed in those demonstrations.

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Death toll in Odessa rises to 46 people, 144 detained; OSCE observers free (LIVE UPDATES)
►http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/sbu-russia-behind-kidnapping-of-osce-military-observers-updates-videos-346

According to Interfax Ukraine news services, the death toll in Odessa has reached 46 people killed during clashes and a fire on May 2, Odessa Oblast prosecutor Ihor Borshuliak told reporters at a press conference on Saturday. He said that law enforcement officers have launched several inquiries, including into police professional negligence. A total of 144 persons have been detained as a part of criminal proceedings. According to the Odessa City Council, as of 9 a.m. on May 3, 214 people came to hospitals of Odessa. Of this number, 88 have been hospitalized, including a 17-year-old boy. — Brian Bonner