region:east ukraine

The Farce Is Complete : Joe Biden’s Son Joins Board Of Largest Ukraine Gas Producer | Zero Hedge
▻http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-13/farce-complete-joe-bidens-son-joins-board-largest-ukraine-gas-producer

R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, Mr. Alan Apter, noted: “The company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals.”

Ukraine rebel envoy says weapons pull-back could mean ’end of war’ | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/30/us-ukraine-crisis-separatists-idUSKCN0RU27Y20150930

A separatist representative to east Ukraine peace talks said on Wednesday an agreement signed with Kiev this week to withdraw more weapons could mean an end to the war with the Ukrainian government, separatist website DAN reported.

It said rebel leaders had signed the agreement to extend a pull-back of weapons to include tanks and smaller weapons systems, as part of a 12-point peace plan designed to end a conflict that has killed over 8,000 people since April 2014.

“This could mean the end of the war,” rebel representative Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying.

The agreement with the government was struck on Tuesday during talks in Minsk, Belarus, on the ceasefire, which has seen regular accusations of violations from both sides.

Mais toujours rien sur le blocage politique.

Even after the lighter weapons are withdrawn, the sides still need to end a deadlock over the ground rules for local elections.

’Power struggle’ in Donetsk prompts flurry of speculation in Kyiv and beyond
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/power-struggle-in-donetsk-prompts-flurry-of-speculation-in-kyiv-and-beyond

An apparent power struggle among Russia’s proxy authorities in separatist-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast has left experts speculating about its causes, and what the Kremlin’s future intentions for the region now might be.

Reports came on the evening of Sept. 4 that Denis Pushilin, the vice-speaker of the pseudo parliament in the part of Donetsk Oblast controlled by Russian-backed separatists, had ousted the body’s speaker, Andrey Purgin at an extraordinary meeting of the so-called “People’s Council,” and taken the role of speaker for himself.

The Kremlin-controlled information mouthpiece Sputnik said an anonymous source had told it Pushilin was now the interim head of the body. The Kremlin-controlled TASS information agency said that deputies in the pseudo parliament had voted for the move by a narrow margin of 73 for, to 70 against.

Explaining the ouster of Purgin, Pushilin said the former had tried “to disrupt (the Sept. 4) meeting of the People’s Council, when the deputies had to listen to false declarations made with the aim of increasing tensions and destabilizing the situation,”the separatist Donetsk News Agency information source reported. In his first decision as a newly appointed head of the people’s council, Pushilin dismissed the chief of staff of the People’s Council,” Aleksey Aleksandrov, who is a close ally of Purgin.

La suite de l’article donne la parole aux inévitables « experts » qui y voient évidemment le renforcement de la mainmise de Moscou…

Alors que la trêve de la rentrée des classes tient bon, ce qui ne doit pas plaire aux va-t-en-guerre, ce qui précède donnerait plutôt à penser à une remise au pas des agités. Du moins, de ce côté-là de la ligne de front…

Return of Ukraine fighters alarms Russia - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5744a2b0-31e4-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html#axzz3gp7CLIGm

Many of his fellow nationalists who travelled to join the rebels in east Ukraine felt similarly, he said. “All the people who travel to Donetsk to help the rebels they don’t necessarily support the Russian authorities — and now these people have military experience,” he said.

While much has been made of the official Russian soldiers in east Ukraine whose presence has been repeatedly denied by Mr Putin, less attention has gone to the scores of Russian volunteer fighters, motivated by nationalism or an itch for adventure.
With the fighting in east Ukraine now largely at a standstill, many are beginning to drift home — a conundrum for Russian authorities who were happy to see them cross the border but are less thrilled to see them return.

Over the past few months, Russia has significantly increased its security on the Ukrainian border.
In late May, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Russia’s official state newspaper, reported that Russia’s border service had stopped 60 attempts by smugglers to bring illegal weapons into Russia from east Ukraine so far this year, confiscating more than 40 firearms, 6,000 rounds of ammunition and 200 grenades in the process.

Les espoirs anti-Poutine se tournent maintenant vers les anciens combattants des milices nationalistes déçus…

Sinon, une énième confirmation du rôle central du massacre d’Odessa dans l’approfondissement du conflit. Massacre presque toujours effacé ou minimisé dans la presse occidentale. Et pour lequel on attend toujours une enquête présentant le déroulement des faits…

Of this group, Mr Melnikov is likely to be more unusual than most.

While Mr Melnikov was initially a vocal supporter of the anti-government protests on Kiev’s Maidan, by his account this changed in May 2014, after more than 40 pro-Russian activists died by arson in Ukraine’s Odessa. The conflict in his view suddenly became “a war against ethnic Russians”.

EDIT et surtout, l’absence totale de réaction de l’État ukrainien (on rappellera que le Procureur général d’Ukraine était membre du mouvement d’extrême droite Svoboda) interprétée comme une autorisation de tir à vue sur les russophones d’Ukraine.

Ukraine, rebels reach preliminary deal to broaden weapons withdrawal | Top News | Reuters
▻http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0PV23O20150721

Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists have reached a preliminary agreement to extend a pull-back of weapons in east Ukraine to include tanks and smaller weapons systems, the chairman of the OSCE security watchdog, Ivica Dacic, said on Tuesday.

Peace Protests Erupt in East Ukraine While Unrest Rises in the West - The Daily Beast
▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/17/peace-protests-erupt-in-east-ukraine-while-unrest-rises-in-the-west.h

What seems to be a war without end has filled the hearts of many in Ukraine with anger. The national currency, the hryvnia, continues to collapse and the average salary in this European country has melted down to $150 a month. Many doubt their lives will improve any time soon, and many, mad as hell, are taking to the streets. Waves of protests have erupted from Lviv in the staunchly nationalist west to, importantly, Donetsk in the insurgent east.

In Kiev this week National Guardsmen lined up to protect the parliament from hundreds of protesters who were worried about the safety of their money in Ukrainian banks. They vowed to keep up the protest for days.

In Donetsk, where people have been shaken by months living under siege and often under fire, people came out for the first time to rally for peace. On Monday, several hundred blocked traffic on Artema Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, while more people were gathering around the administration building run leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR).

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkDWt_oAk64

After Novaya Gazeta posted a video of the rally, the DNR detained the paper’s reporter, Pavel Kanygin.

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/06/17/p19o0ggm6f15o49mdaggvcd13174/original_top.JPG

The government in Kiev is facing a restive population, too. The increasingly angry opposition to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko constructed a 2-meter-high toilet to flush him and his cabinet away on Wednesday. But for the refugees from the east, fighting corruption and economic mismanagement is less daunting than trying to live amid the devastation in the separatist regions. “Ukraine suffers from different types of psychoses,” says Grigoryeva, “but there is nothing worse than the madness people live in Donetsk.”

AFP reporter injured in east Ukraine shelling - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/afp-reporter-injured-east-ukraine-shelling-154540144.html

A local reporter working for Agence France-Presse (AFP) covering the war in eastern Ukraine was injured in the leg by shrapnel on Sunday in the separatists’ de facto capital Donetsk.

Alexander Gayuk, 33, said he was “wounded in the knee, probably by shrapnel” during another round of intense shelling in the biggest city in the war zone.

The video and photo journalist, who has covered the 14-month conflict extensively and lives in eastern Ukraine, said he was checked out of hospital after receiving 12 stitches and has been advised to rest for a few days.

Shell pulls out of east Ukraine gas exploration project
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/business/shell-pulls-out-of-east-ukraine-gas-exploration-project-390803.html

Ukraine’s government received a “Notice of Withdrawal” to abandon a potential $10 billion gas exploration project from Royal Dutch Shell, the Financial Times reported citing “sources familiar with the situation.”

Citing “circumstances beyond” the company’s control, a shell spokesman told the Kyiv Post in an e-mailed statement that it has “been prevented from performing its commitments under (the) Yuzivska production sharing agreement” in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Poltorak says Kyiv includes all military entities deployed in east Ukraine in Armed Forces or National Guard
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/poltorak-says-kyiv-includes-all-military-entities-deployed-in-east-ukraine

All Ukrainian military entities deployed in the zone of the government’s military operation in eastern Ukraine have been officially included in the Armed Forces or the National Guard, a statement from the Defense Ministry on April 11 evening cited Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak as saying.

(intégralité de la brève)

et donc plus de milices indépendantes.

Cossacks in east Ukraine fight government — and other rebels - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/cossacks-east-ukraine-fight-government-other-rebels-032239359.html

But the enemy the Cossacks fear most is the enemy within — the separatist leaders of the self-declared Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) who they refuse to obey.

“We’re under the orders of our Russian brothers of the Great Army of the Don Cossacks. We don’t recognise the authority of the LNR,” said the soldier.
(…)
Igor Plotnitsky, head of the Lugansk rebels battling the Kiev government, set an April 4 deadline for the Cossacks to either join the LNR’s military wing, hand over their weapons — or be outlawed.

The deadline was no idle threat. Faced by blatant Cossack disobedience, the Lugansk rebels have hit back hard against the militiamen in recent weeks.

On March 30, Cossacks were attacked and disarmed in the neighbouring town of Petrovsk in an operation in which several people died. A month earlier a leading local Cossack Ataman, or leader, was arrested nearby in a deadly raid.

In January the Cossack mayor of Pervomaisk, Yevgeny Ischenko, was shot dead by unknown gunman while a local warlord allied to another group of Cossacks, Alexander Bednov, known by his nickname “Batman”, died along with six bodyguards when his armoured car was hit by an anti-tank missile in an ambush.

“LNR special services liquidated the head of a criminal group,” the Lugansk authorities said at the time.

Azeri opposition holds rally as economy slows - Yahoo News UK
▻https://uk.news.yahoo.com/azeri-opposition-holds-rally-economy-slows-170128513--business.html

About 1,000 Azeris held a rally on Sunday to protest against rising prices and a crackdown on human rights as economic problems mount ahead of a parliamentary election this year in the oil-producing former Soviet republic.
Hit by the fall in global oil prices, the rouble’s drop against the dollar in neighbouring Russia and the separatist war in east Ukraine, the South Caucasus country devalued the manat currency in February.
(…)
Protesters chanted “Freedom!”, “Resignation!”.
Two weeks ago, a similar rally attracted some 4,000 people.

Pendant ce temps-là, à Saint-Nazaire,…

France’s second Russian-bought warship tested at sea - Yahoo News
▻http://news.yahoo.com/frances-second-russian-bought-warship-tested-sea-174922515.html

http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/Part-PAR-Par8121922-1-1-0.jpg

The second of two French Mistral warships whose delivery to Russia has been suspended due to violence in east Ukraine began its first open sea outing Monday, AFP journalists observed.

Poroshenko: Ukraine conflict risks spiralling out of control | World news | The Guardian

▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/11/leaders-minsk-ukraine-peace-talks-heavy-fighting

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/2/11/1423644441971/8988c4d1-28e6-470f-b1a6-971880138df3-2060x1236.jpeg

Everybody warns everybody.

Ukraine’s president has warned that the separatist conflict in east Ukraine will spiral out of control if there is no de-escalation and ceasefire.

“Either the situation goes down the road of de-escalation, ceasefire … or the situation goes out of control,” he said.

With Washington warning Putin that the costs of failure at a summit in Belarus would starkly increase for Moscow.

‘People Starving’ in Eastern Ukraine as Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds

Vulnerable people living in east Ukraine are in serious danger of starving if normal government services aren’t restored by the government in Kiev. In November 2014 the decision was made to stop social benefits being sent to east meaning, among other things, that elderly Ukranians in the region are no longer receiving their pensions.

http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embedded/public/2015/01/13/east-ukraine.jpg?itok=8sRYbygg

New report says it proves Russian forces downed flight MH17
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/new-report-says-it-proves-russian-forces-downed-flight-mh17-377063.html

A report released today by German investigative group CORRECT!V concludes that a Buk surface to air missile launcher operated by the 53rd Russian Air Defense Brigade shot down passenger jet MH17.

The report, titled MH17: Searching for the Truth, marries fresh testimony from military experts, separatist fighters and residents of east Ukraine, with photo, video, social media and satellite evidence to produce a compelling account of the events that led to the tragic deaths of all the Malaysian Airlines flight’s 298 passengers and crew on July 17 2014.
(…)
Aside from the new testimony, much of the report’s findings are drawn from information already in the public domain, including evidence from renowned open source investigators Bellingcat.
(…)
“The new investigation confirms Bellingcat’s earlier work on the movements of the Buk on July 17, and that it originated from the 53rd brigade in Russia. At this point it’s undeniable the Russian military provided the Buk, and there’s more and more information that links it to the downing of MH17,” says Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat.

“It seems that the one key piece of information is autopsy data from the Dutch criminal investigation. They’ve confirmed pieces of metal were found in the bodies, and if they come from a Buk warhead then I don’t think there will be any question about who was responsible for shooting down MH17.”

En résumé : deux nouveaux témoignages, plus la compilation des éléments de Bellingcat.

Apparemment, des éléments des autopsies commencent à sortir, mais toujours rien de précis : IF they come from…

Ben oui, c’est LA question.

OSCE : Monitors come under fire in east Ukraine | News | DW.DE | 20.11.2014
▻http://www.dw.de/osce-monitors-come-under-fire-in-east-ukraine/a-18075483

A convoy of international observers has been shot at by unidentified “uniformed personnel” in eastern Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday.
In a statement, it said the observers were driving in two vehicles just west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Wednesday afternoon when one of two uniformed men fired two shots at them from the back of a truck.
“The bullets struck about two meters (yards) from the second OSCE vehicle,” the statement said, adding that no one was hurt in the incident. The convoy left the area immediately due to security concerns, it said.
The OSCE did not say where the two uniformed men were from, but said the shooting occurred in government-held territory near the town of Mariinka.

Russian armoured vehicles and military trucks cross border into Ukraine - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11035401/Russian-armoured-vehicles-and-military-trucks-cross-border-into-Ukraine

A column of armoured vehicles and military trucks crossed the border from Russia into Ukraine on Thursday night, in the first confirmed sighting of such an incident by Western journalists.

A separate, larger convoy of around 270 Russian trucks, which Moscow claims is carrying aid, rumbled to a halt just short of the border on Thursday night, while in east Ukraine, shells hit the centre of rebel-held Donetsk for the first time.

The Telegraph witnessed a column of vehicles including both armoured personal carriers and soft-skinned lorries crossing into Ukraine at an obscure border crossing near the Russian town of Donetsk shortly before 10pm local time.

The Ukrainian and Western governments have long accused Russia of filtering arms and men across the border to fuel the separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but such an incident has never before been witnessed by Western journalists.

The convoy, which included at least 23 vehicles, appeared to be waiting until sunset near a refugee camp just outside Donetsk, before moving towards the crossing without turning off headlights or making any other attempt to conceal itself.

While it was not immediately clear whether all of that convoy crossed the border, The Telegraph did see a substantial number of vehicles pass through check point manned by gunmen after shadowing the convoy down narrow country lanes near the frontier.

While the force did not seem to be a substantial invasion force, it confirms that military supplies are moving across the border. While the APCs carried no visible markings the fuel tankers and soft-skinned trucks in the convoy bore black Russian military number plates.

« it was not immediately clear » mais bien assez pour crier victoire : on va pouvoir passer à la suite. Et le MH17, y-a pas de droit de suite ?

#ukraine #russie

À Ivano-Frankivsk (ex-Stanisławów, en Galicie), les réfugiés du Donbas sont accueillis par une organisation promouvant l’identité ukrainienne et une partie d’entre eux logés à l’hôtel Banderstadt (soit : la ville de (Stepan) #Bandera…)

Western Ukraine’s Banderstadt shelters eastern Ukraine’s refugees
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/western-ukraines-banderstadt-shelters-eastern-ukraines-refugees-359873.htm

IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine — It’s probably not deliberately ironic that refugees from predominantly Russian-speaking east Ukraine, arriving in Ivano-Frankivsk, are directed straight to the headquarters of Osvita, an organisation promoting Ukrainian language and culture.
(…)
When Tanya arrives, she is at once offered a food package and up to two week’s free stay in the Banderstadt hotel.

The name Banderstadt comes from controversial Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, who lived from 1909-1959, when a KGB agent murdered him in Munich, Germany.

Bandera’s followers are called “Banderites,” a term used by Russian media to demonize western Ukrainians as extreme nationalists and fascists bent on wiping out the Russian people and language in the south and east of the country. It is one more of the Ukraine conflict’s many ironies that Ivano-Frankivsk’s Banderstadt now provides shelter for dozens of families fleeing violence inspired by the alleged ‘Banderite’ threat.

Biden says US considering extending support to Ukraine in various areas
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/biden-says-us-considering-extending-support-to-ukraine-in-various-areas-35

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has had a telephone conversation with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, during which they discussed the situation in Donbas and the progress of the international inquiry into the circumstances of the crash of the Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight.

Tiens, au hasard : augmenter l’indépendance énergétique de l’Ukraine en aidant le développement du gaz de schiste.

Company In Which US Vice President Joe Biden’s Son Is Director Prepares To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine | Global Research
►http://www.globalresearch.ca/company-in-which-us-vice-president-joe-bidens-son-is-director-prepares-to-drill-shale-gas-in-east-ukraine/5393403

Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings.

(…)
R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2014/07/Dnieper%20Donetsk%20shale%20basin_0.jpg

Government auditors to check use of allocations for armed operation in east Ukraine
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/government-auditors-to-check-use-of-allocations-for-armed-operation-in-eas

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk on July 2 announced he had decided to send auditors to eastern Ukraine to check the use of funds allocated for the current military operation there.

Où passe l’argent de l’Opération Anti-Terroristes ?

Le Monde devient vraiment un torchon !

Sloviansk pilonnée par les séparatistes
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/video/2014/06/09/slaviansk-pilonnee-par-les-separatistes_4434475_3214.html

A Sloviansk, le pillonage de la ville par des séparatistes prorusses a provoqué dimanche 8 juin de nombreux incendies.

Pour mémoire, Sloviansk est toujours tenue par les « séparatistes prorusses »…

Version de #bullhorn_propaganda

ITAR-TASS : World - At least several civilians were killed in east Ukraine’s Sloviansk
▻http://en.itar-tass.com/world/735307

At least several civilians were killed and many were wounded as Ukraine’s military subjected the center of the east Ukrainian city of Sloviansk to artillery fire, local self-defense forces said on Sunday.

“There were many people in the center of the city during these hours as a festive service had just ended in the church located in the square,” the self-defense forces said. “There are victims among civilians and many received fragmentation wounds,” the self-defense forces said, without specifying the number of those killed and wounded.
The shells exploded in the area of the central square, the city administration building and the communications center, the self-defense forces said.

NB : sur la vidéo mise en ligne par LM, on voit en effet longuement un bâtiment administratif (mairie ?)

New York Times tries to whitewash publication of faked Ukraine photos - World Socialist Web Site

▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/04/24/nytu-a24.html

New York Times tries to whitewash publication of faked Ukraine photos

By Alex Lantier
24 April 2014

The New York Times responded yesterday to the exposure of its fabricated report alleging that Russian Special Forces are stirring up protests in east Ukraine against the pro-Western regime in Kiev.

An article Tuesday, titled “Scrutiny over Photos Said to Tie Russia Units to Ukraine,” is a clumsy attempt at damage control. Buried in the paper’s inside pages, the article begins: “A collection of photographs that Ukraine says shows the presence of Russian forces in the eastern part of the country, and which the United States has cited as evidence of Russian involvement, has come under scrutiny.” The Times also noted that “US officials” provided some of the pictures to US Secretary of State John Kerry before his talks with Russian, European and Ukrainian officials last Thursday in Geneva.

#manipulation #propagande #ukraine #médias

In East Ukraine, Protesters Seek Russian Troops - NYTimes.com

▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/world/europe/russia-crimea-ukraine-unrest.html?emc=edit_th_20140408&nl=todaysheadlines&n

MOSCOW — Under the attentive eye of Russian state television, several hundred pro-Russian demonstrators in the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, declared on Monday that they were forming an independent republic and urged President Vladimir V. Putin to send troops to the region as a peacekeeping force, even though there was no imminent threat to peace.

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/08/world/08UKRAINE2/08UKRAINE2-articleLarge.jpg

#ukraine #russie