person:andriy lysenko

Kuwait arrest raises specter of Ukraine black market as source of arms for ISIS
▻http://mashable.com/2015/11/20/kuwait-ukraine-isis-weapons

The arrest in Kuwait of a Lebanese man with ties to the Islamic State has raised the specter that Ukraine’s notorious illicit arms market may be a source of weapons for the the militant group.

One senior Ukrainian official with access to intelligence agency reports told Mashable on Friday that it is “plausible” the man, arrested by Kuwaiti authorities on Thursday, had obtained FN-6 surface-to-air missile systems he admitted to getting from a broker in Ukraine. Calling news of the arrest “interesting,” the official stopped short of giving a definitive answer to a question about whether Kiev had direct information about the arms sale in question.

Pour les purs et durs, ça ne peut venir, évidemment, que des zones tenues par les séparatistes…

FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems, manufactured by China, have never been sold to Ukraine, nor has the government given permission for their transit through its territory, the Ukrainian defense ministry said in a statement on Friday. And there have been no documented reports of the the FN-6 shoulder-fired missile systems appearing in Ukraine since the war began in April 2014.

But that doesn’t mean the weapons couldn’t have been transported into the country another way, the senior official admitted, adding that Kiev has monitored the illicit trafficking of weapons to and from separatist-controlled territories since the start of the war, and that it "really struggles" to stem the “heavy” flow.
[…]
But on both sides of the battle lines, weapons have a way of disappearing in Ukraine, where corruption remains rampant, an Ukrainian security official told Mashable in June.

“Weapons can disappear all the time,” possibly falling into the hands of extremist groups, said the official. “We have seen the black arms market flourish since the start of the war in Donbass,” the official said, using the colloquial term for eastern Ukraine.

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/newsphoto/2013-03-15/450/FN-6%20MANPADS%203-121005_copy1.jpg

Kyiv, Separatists Report Armored Clash Despite Cease-Fire
▻http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-army-separatists-armored-clash/27181238.html

Vladyslav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff, said on August 10 that Ukrainian forces had managed to maintain control over the town of Starohnativka after a separatist attack.

Starohnativka is located about halfway between separatist-held Donetsk and Kyiv-controlled Mariupol.

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, told reporters in Kyiv that up to 400 separatists supported by 10 tanks and 10 armored personnel carriers and other vehicles attacked Ukrainian positions overnight.

According to Lysenko, “the enemy suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment.”

Meanwhile, the de facto defense minister of the separatist Donetsk People Republic, Eduard Basurin, says forces under his command stopped an attempt by Ukrainian forces to advance in the same area on August 10.

According to Basurin, Ukrainian forces lost two tanks, one armored personnel carrier, and a military truck with a missile on it.

(UNIAN and Interfax reporting)

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Ukraine reports heavy tank battle with pro-Russians rebels | World | Dunya News
▻http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/World/292759-Ukraine-reports-heavy-tank-battle-with-proRussian

President Petro Poroshenko said about “200 insurgents used tanks to storm” Novolaspa — a village halfway between the separatists de facto capital Donetsk and the Kiev-held port of Mariupol — in a pre-dawn raid that caught government soldiers off guard.

Chief of Staff General Viktor Muzhenko “informed the president that the Ukrainian forces gave a fitting rebuff and repelled all the attacks,” the presidency said.

But the defence ministry later reported the insurgents mounting a second attack on the same village whose outcome was not immediately clear.

“Ignoring the truce agreements, our enemies are continuing to stage provocations that are meant to escalate the conflict,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry called the clashes “a dangerous indication of a further escalation to come”.

But the rebels denied the push and signalled that they had always had militia units stationed in Novolaspa.

“The armed forces of Ukraine simply put the village under a heavy shelling attack,” a local separatist official told the rebels main news site.

“Novolaspa remains under the control of the People s Republic of Donetsk.”

(AFP reporting)

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énième prémisse de la grande offensive russe <strike>de printemps</strike> d’été <strike>d’automne</strike>

Novolaspa et Starohnativka sont voisines (moins de 10 km)

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d5h2865drsurpfy/20150810_Donetsk_Oblast.jpg

Ukrainian army has no intention of fully withdrawing weapons from Donbas - Lysenko
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukrainian-army-has-no-intention-of-fully-withdrawing-weapons-from-donbas-l

Ukrainian army units in Donbas will not fully withdraw heavy weapons as there is no indication that the militants have done the same, Andriy Lysenko, a representative of the headquarters for the military operation in eastern Ukraine, said.

Petit à petit la trêve s’affaiblit.

On rappellera que, par ailleurs, les deux parties n’autorisent pas l’accès des observateurs de l’OSCE à certains endroits sensibles. Les séparatistes certes, largement repris dans la presse, mais aussi les gouvernementaux.

Intégralité du passage concerné dans le rapport de la Mission Spéciale en Ukraine de l’OSCE pour le 9 mars au soir

Latest from the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), based on information received as of 18:00hrs (Kyiv time), 9 March 2015 | OSCE
▻http://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/144336

Restrictions on SMM access and freedom of movement:

The SMM is restrained in fulfilling its monitoring functions by restrictions imposed by third parties and security considerations, including the lack of information on whereabouts of landmines.

The security situation in Donbas is fluid and unpredictable and the cease-fire does not hold everywhere. For this reason, the SMM requires security guarantees from “DPR” and “LPR” which are not always provided. Where such guarantees are limited to escorted movements, and escorts are not provided for all planned patrols or are delayed, this also represents a restriction of SMM freedom of movement.

In particular during the reporting period:

–The SMM was stopped at a “DPR” checkpoint located 1.2km north of the village of Komsomolske. The “DPR” personnel informed the SMM that the SMM was not allowed to visit the area and that access to the village was denied. The SMM asked further about its freedom of movement to monitor “DPR”-controlled areas of the Donetsk region, but “DPR” personnel informed that authorization from the “DPR” “MoD” was needed to allow the patrol to proceed. The “DPR” member said because of the presence of “DPR” military, access to the area was restricted.

– En route to government-controlled Volnovakha (47km south-west of Donetsk) the SMM was stopped at the Ukrainian Armed Forces checkpoint in the eastern outskirts of Volnovakha. The soldiers requested to know the nationalities of the SMM patrol denying its passage. The SMM contacted the JCCC in Volnovakha, which sent a Ukrainian Armed Forces colonel to the checkpoint to assist the SMM. After 55 minutes, the SMM was able to cross the checkpoint.

–At a checkpoint near Zhovten about 5km north of the border with the Russian Federation, “LPR” “border guards” said that the SMM is not permitted in the “border zone” without special permission.

–In the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel did not allow the SMM to visit a weapons storage site.

NATO : Russia Has Withdrawn Many Troops From Ukraine - WSJ
▻http://online.wsj.com/articles/pro-russia-rebels-say-they-are-pulling-heavy-artillery-back-from-eastern-ukraine-battle-zone-1411475620?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12584803618636143833504580171632416008238.html

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said that Russia had withdrawn a sizable number of troops from eastern Ukraine—though some remained. Meanwhile Russia-backed rebels in the region said they had begun pulling back their heavy artillery, after Ukrainian troops did the same.

Si même l’OTAN le dit,…

Mais la prudence reste de mise.

“There does seem to be, for the first time in several months, a set of indicators that seem to point in one direction, which is de-escalation,” one senior NATO diplomat said.

Still, he added, “we’ve seen any number of occasions in the last six or eight months where indicators pointed one direction, and we wake up some random Wednesday and they start pointing the other direction.”
(…)
On Tuesday, defense spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said that while some Russian units had been seen crossing the border back into Russia, others had entered Ukraine. “A rotation of units is taking place,” he told a daily briefing.

He also accused Russia of continuing to operate training camps for separatist fighters on its territory as well.

Ukraine Retreats in Effort to Isolate Rebel Stronghold - WSJ
▻http://online.wsj.com/articles/putin-lashes-out-at-ukraine-over-failure-of-talks-1409312151

(ordre des extraits inversé)

Along Ukraine’s southern coast, where Kiev said Russian forces helped open a third front this past week, the Russians and rebels dug in at the border town of Novoazovsk and shelled Ukrainian positions on the road to the port city of Mariupol, said Col. Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman.

But rebel claims that they had that city nearly encircled weren’t confirmed by witnesses. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who arrived in Mariupol on Friday, reported the situation was calm, while noting “significant movement of Ukrainian military vehicles—mainly armored personnel carriers.”

Elsewhere, however, the rebels appear to gaining ground after weeks of losses.

On Friday, a volunteer unit fighting for Kiev said it was outnumbered and was forced to abandon two key villages on a road linking Luhansk to Russia, a blow for Kiev’s efforts to encircle that city.

There were conflicting reports of whether Kiev’s forces were driven out of the strategic highland of Savur-Mohyla, south of Donetsk, which Ukrainian forces retook after heavy fighting last month.

“The situation remains very complex,” said Col. Lysenko.

(…)

Adding to the tension, the Ukrainian government proposed repealing a law banning membership in military blocs and moving toward joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a day after NATO said more than 1,000 Russian troops are fighting alongside the rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia has said such a move would be a threat to its national interest.

MH17 crash: Black boxes show plane suffered ’massive explosive decompression’ following shrapnel hit - Europe - World - The Independent
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mh17-crash-black-boxes-show-plane-suffered-massive-explosive-decompre

Flight MH17 was brought down by shrapnel that caused “massive explosive decompression,” analysis of the black box recorders has found.

The results, given today by Ukrainian security official Andriy Lysenko, have, however, left Dutch officials stunned as they did not expect the “premature” announcement.

Mr Lysenko told a news conference that the fragments had come from a rocket blast.

His source however, is under scrutiny after the Dutch Safety Board (DSB) confirmed they did not give the information to Ukraine.

DSB spokeswoman Sara Vernooij told The Independent: "I can’t make a comment on what source Mr. Lysenko has.

"We don’t want to confirm or say anything about the information on the black boxes right now; this in the best interest of the investigation itself.

"We want to analyse [and] combine information of several sources before we bring out anything, so we can give a coherent view on the whole investigation.

“Bringing out fragmented pieces of information is not on behalf of the investigation.”

L’offensive ukrainienne se poursuit.

Ukraine claims more territory as fight intensifies with rebels | Reuters
▻http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/uk-ukraine-crisis-idUKKBN0FX12820140728

Ukraine said on Monday its troops had wrested more territory from pro-Russian rebels, advancing towards the site where Malaysian flight MH17 was brought down, which international investigators said they could not reach because of the fighting.

Ukrainian officials said troops had recaptured two rebel-held towns near the crash site and were trying to take the village of Snezhnoye, near where Kiev and Washington say rebels fired the surface-to-air missile that shot down the airliner with loss of all 298 on board.
(…)
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Security Council, Andriy Lysenko, said Kiev was trying to close in on the crash site and force the rebels out of the area but was not conducting military operations in the immediate vicinity.

He said Ukrainian troops were now in the towns of Torez and Shakhtarsk, both formerly held by the rebels, while fighting was in progress for Snezhnoye and Pervomaisk. The towns are all located in rolling countryside near the wheat and sunflower fields filled with debris from the downed airliner.

Government troops were also readying an assault on Gorlovka, a rebel stronghold north of the provincial capital Donetsk.

“The Ukrainian military is conducting an active assault on regions under temporary control of Russian mercenaries,” Lysenko told a news conference in Kiev.