region:western ukraine

Uncertain Borders in the Post-Soviet Space
▻http://journals.openedition.org/pipss/4405

http://journals.openedition.org/pipss/docannexe/file/4404/chernivtsy2-small300.jpg

numéro époustouflant sur les frontières et leur évolution dans l’espace post-soviétique. Juste le problème, ça manque de cartes.

Ukraine’s border is sacred and untouchable," reads a sign in a border garrison in the Chernivtsy region of western Ukraine. Sacred and untouchable? The news coming out of Ukraine seems to indicate the opposite. Though protected by a specific international agreement1, the Ukrainian border was brutally redrawn with the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. Immediately after, the armed conflict that erupted in Donbass deprived Kyiv of its control on almost four hundred kilometres of borders in eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian situation is not unique in the region. Post-Soviet borders offer a particularly rich and complex picture, rooted in Russian and Austro-Hungarian imperial history, as well as in the consequences of the two world Wars and of Soviet Union’s foreign policy. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, local wars on the periphery led to the formation of unrecognized states and disputed borders. More recently, with the EU’s eastward enlargement, these problematic boundaries have become the external borders of the European Union.

#frontières #urss #ex-urss #espace_post-soviétique

Solidarité entre animaux. La video est effrayante, mais l’histoire finit bien.
This heartwarming story from western Ukraine tells a tale of true friendship and love coming from the animal kingdom. A dog spent two days protecting an injured buddy that couldn’t move from the tracks.

Facebook user Denis Malafeev posted pictures of the two dogs that he found at a small train station not far from the town of Uzhgorod.
▻https://www.rt.com/viral/371925-dog-saves-injured-friend
#animaux

Ukrainian blackout blamed on cyber-attack - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/12082758/Ukrainian-blackout-blamed-on-cyber-attack-in-world-first.html

A blackout that left thousands without electricity in Ukraine has been blamed on a sophisticated cyber-attack, in the first known example of hacking bringing down a major power network.
The attack, which left around 700,000 homes in Western Ukraine without power for several hours on December 23, had been blamed on Russia by Ukrainian authorities.
It has now emerged that hackers inserted malicious software in systems used by several electricity networks, and in one case –the Prykarpattyaoblenergo network - successfully shut down power and prevented computers from rebooting, bringing the network offline.
It is the first confirmed case of power networks being brought down by hackers, confirming fears that have existed for years among energy companies and security experts.
Security company Eset, which examined the incident, said that so-called “#BlackEnergy” malware had infiltrated the energy networks, activating a “KillDisk” component that would prevent systems from rebooting.
“This particular variant contained code specifically intended to sabotage industrial systems,” Eset
[…]
iSight Partners, an intelligence firm, told technology website Ars Technica that the group behind BlackEnergy, dubbed the #Sandworm gang, has ties to Russia.

Ukraine ‘ready to go’ in polio fight after outbreak scare, says health minister
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/ukraine-ready-to-go-in-polio-fight-after-outbreak-scare-says-health-minist

Ukrainian Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili has sought to allay international concerns of a potential polio epidemic in the country after two cases of infection, promising an immediate immunization drive after weeks of delays.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 9, Kvitashvili said the government was already “ready to go” with immunization efforts after an action plan was drawn up and a decree on the matter prepared the night before.

Kvitashvili’s comments came in response to scathing international criticism after two documented cases of the polio virus in western Ukraine’s Zakarpattia Oblast in late August left two young children paralyzed – and warranted little to no reaction from authorities.

It was the first case of the disease’s documentation in Europe since 2010, and it set off alarm bells throughout the international community.

Ellyn Ogden of the United States Agency for International Development said those alarm bells should still be ringing, despite the Health Ministry’s action plan.

Ogden expressed shock at the authorities’ delayed reaction to the situation, noting that “in the past, a confirmed case of polio would have gotten immediate attention.”

This time around, however, she said the response has been “inadequate” – so much so that the recent polio cases threaten to leave the country’s reputation with a “black eye.”

“Ukraine went from 90% coverage a decade ago, to 14% today. This is one of the lowest coverages in the world, including countries at war and those facing security and economic challenges,” Ogden said.

The two documented cases of the virus were vaccine-derived polio, meaning they could have been prevented if the population had a higher level of immunization.

“No other country in the world is in such a dire situation, or has shown such disregard for protecting children against childhood diseases,” Ogden said.

“It is now 45 days since the outbreak has been announced, and not a single child has been vaccinated,” Ogden said.

Reports : Millionaire lawmaker Yeremeyev dies after horse riding accident
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/lawmaker-dies-after-horseriding-accident-395607.html

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2015/08/12/p19shh89l513ottthgerjo8dse4/original_big.jpg

Lawmaker and businessman Ihor Yeremeyev died on Aug. 12, two weeks after he received a head injury falling from a horse, according to reports in Ukrainian media.

Several media reported Yeremeyev’s death, quoting their own sources. There has been no official announcement as of yet.

Yeremeyev, 47, was the owner of Continuum, a group of companies that owns the chain of WOG gas stations. He was elected to Ukraine’s Parliament in 2002, 2012 and 2014. Ukraine’s Focus magazine estimated his net worth to be $95 million in 2015, making him Ukraine’s 68th richest person.

Yeremeyev was married. He leaves two children.

Yeremeyev’s accident occurred in Volyn Oblast in western Ukraine on July 26. He received first aid in a hospital in the regional capital Lutsk, and was then moved to Kyiv. On July 28 his press service announced that he had been medevaced to a clinic in Europe.

During his last term in Parliament, Yeremeyev was best known as the creator and leader of the Volya Narodu (People’s Will) group of 19 lawmakers, most of whom ran for election as independents. The group was dubbed by the Ukrainian media as the Group of Yeremeyev.

Yeremeyev was reported to be giving financial support to Ukrainian volunteer battalions fighting in the country’s east against combined Russian-separatist forces. His fund has donated Hr 40 million to these battalions since 2014, according to the fund’s own figures.

According to media reports, Yeremeyev had been in a coma since the accident.

Hungary to Give Aid to Kin in West Ukraine, Minister Tells Napi - Bloomberg Business
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-18/hungary-to-give-aid-to-kin-in-west-ukraine-minister-tells-napi

Hungary will extend financial aid to ethnic kin in western Ukraine in a bid to prevent a mass exodus from the conflict-torn nation, a senior government official in Budapest told Napi Gazdasag in an interview.
Hungary will help finance teachers’ wages, children’s meals and also some municipalities in western Ukraine that are in financial trouble, said Janos Lazar, the minister in charge of the Hungarian prime minister’s office, according to a transcript published on the newspaper’s website on Saturday.
“Our priority is for ethnic Hungarians” in western Ukraine “to be able to live at home and that’s why we’re starting a new aid program,” Lazar said.

Priorité aux #Hongrois_ethniques, mais c’est pour la bonne cause : pour les empêcher d’émigrer (après leur avoir distribué des passeports hongrois, faut-il rappeler…)

Shootout in western Ukraine kills at least two people ; risk of wider conflict exists
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/shootout-in-western-ukraine-takes-away-the-lives-of-at-least-2-people-ques

“A major tragedy occurred in Mukachevo today. A group of 15-20! people arrived at the location which had to do with the Ukraine’s member of parliament that had sobering experience from the 90’s – Mykhaylo Lanyo,” wrote Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Interior Ministry, on Facebook.

Prosecutors in Zakarpatya Oblast say that there were 20 people dressed in camouflage suits with signs of Right Sector on their clothes and vehicles. It says that the Right Sector members were meeting with some locals in a café to redistribute power.

“After this the mentioned individuals… began the shooting,” the prosecutor reports.

The local police, the report says, then came to the scene and blocked the entrance to the café after which the armed individuals opened fire at the police using such weapons as rocket-propelled grenade launchers and Kalashnykov automatic rifles. The remaining shooters were hiding in a forest plantation.

But according to the Right Sector’s official website, Lanyo, a former member of the Party of Regions, is said to have tried to use force against members of the right-wing group.

“We demand: the immediate public arrest of deputy Lanyo, that was directly involved in the events, all of the bandits and security forces that opened fire and who gave the orders,” the Right Sector wrote.

Mustafa Nayyem, member of parliament and former journalist, who as of late July 11 was in Mukachevo, wrote on his Facebook page that redistribution of the cigarette smuggling business was the likely reason for the conflict between the two groups.

Affaire très opaque… mélange de trafic et de politique.

Mikhaïl Ivanovitch Lanyo (ou Lano) est député de la circonscription de Moukatchevo en Transcarpathie, il est membre de Volia Narodu (la liberté du peuple) ▻http://volyanarodu.com.ua/member/lano-mihaylo-ivanovich sa biographie indique qu’il est président de la Fédération de Football de Transcarpathie depuis décembre 2006.

La Ruthénie subcarpatique est une zone disputé. C’est le nom qu’on lui donnait quand la région est devenue autonome dans la foulée des Accords de Munich, puis indépendante lorsque la Slovaquie s’est détachée de la Tchécoslovaquie lors de l’invasion de celle-ci par les Allemands, indépendance. Immédiatement envahie et annexée par la Hongrie, avant d’être annexée à l’Ukraine en 1945.
La région actuelle contient une minorité hongroise (12-13% dit WP ▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblast_de_Transcarpatie ).

Lenin’s Legacy : Huge memorial to Bolshevik leader hidden in Carpathian forest - watch on - uatoday.tv
▻http://uatoday.tv/society/lenin-rsquo-s-legacy-huge-memorial-to-bolshevik-leader-hidden-in-carpathian-

Foresters planted several dozen trees in the 1970’s to display the word ‘Lenin’

From ground level, it is practically impossible to see. But in this Carpathian forest in western Ukraine, a huge memorial to communist leader Vladimir Lenin has stood for almost half a century.

While statues of the Soviet Union’s founder are toppled across Ukraine, this one still rises up some 50 meters high. Despite this, some local residents haven’t even noticed it. It’s because the memorial can only be seen from a satellite – the words Lenin written among the trees.

Donc Lénine est caché dans les Carpathes, sauras tu le trouver
▻https://www.google.fr/maps/@48.768874,25.2439161,17z/data=!3m1!1e3
Bon, on peut pas dire que ça saute aux yeux, mais ç’est là…

Outre cette « inscription » pour son centenaire (1970), on trouve aussi « 60 SRSR » pour le 60ème anniversaire de l’Union soviétique (en ukrainien).

Sur cette vidéo (qui interroge les personnes citées dans l’article dont la maire du village) il est utile de rajouter le guide de lecture.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLfLKbCsC7s

Giant sinkhole swallows seven homes in Ukraine leaving villagers terrified - Europe - World - The Independent
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/giant-sinkhole-swallows-seven-homes-in-ukraine-leaving-villagers-terr

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10218527.ece/binary/original/ukraine-sinkhole.png

A gigantic sinkhole in western Ukraine has left villagers terrified after it reportedly swallowed seven houses.

The sinkhole, measuring 100m wide and 60m deep, suddenly opened up in the village of Solotvino in the Zakarpatska Oblast region of western Ukraine.

Villagers say that it formed in just one day.

Sinkholes in the region are caused by 220-year-old salt mines abandoned and left to collect water underground.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VVy9Xkiuo

100 x 60 mètres : exactement UN #terrain_de_football

Sinon, comme on peut le voir sur la vidéo, ce n’est pas le premier effondrement dans le coin. Celui d’à côté est déjà bien raviné et est encore plus gigantesque…

Et sinon pour le cadre général des Carpathes de l’ouest ukrainien,…

http://www.kyivpost.com/media/images/2013/11/10/p1891kfecph5f32uajf1i281je74/original_big.jpg

Not everyone answering Ukraine’s call to mobilize for war
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/not-everyone-answering-ukraines-call-to-mobilize-for-war-380055.html

The arrest of an Ivano-Frankivsk journalist whose campaign against general mobilization has highlighted the problems that Ukraine has been having in getting its men to fight in the war against Russia.

On Feb. 8, Ruslan Kotsaba, a vocal campaigner against the military draft, was arrested in a courtroom in him home town in western Ukraine. In his recent video address to President Petro Poroshenko, Kotsaba claimed he would rather spend up to five years in jail for refusal of being drafted to the army than start killing his “fellow citizens who live in the east.”

Now Kotsaba actually faces up to 15 years in jail, because the security service has accused him of state treason and spying activities, Security Service of Ukraine senior adviser Markian Lubkivskyi wrote on his Facebook page. Lubkivsky said that the SBU found evidence of his crimes among his belongings.

The arrest caused an outcry among the public, and highlighted the differing opinions of the war that Ukraine has had to contend with since mobilization of young men began more than nine months ago.

Et devinez ce que les services ont trouvé chez ce misérable défaitiste ?
Des preuves de ses activités d’espionnage !
Encore un à la solde de VVP !

The Forgotten? International refugees in #Ukraine live life on a breadline

Recently, 70 or so refugees in Latoritsa refugee camp in #Mukachevo (Western Ukraine) went on hunger strike, they protested against the conditions under which they are held and most notably against their malnutrition. The inhabitants of the camp entirely depend on the support they receive from the camp administration: a food package in the value of UAH 210 (about Euro 13) for two weeks.

▻http://bordermonitoring-ukraine.eu/2014/11/20/%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BFthe-forgotten-international-refugees-in-u
#réfugiés #asile #migration #grève_de_la_faim

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.

Energy minister says will ask Russia to lower gas prices
▻http://www.todayszaman.com/news-350810-energy-minister-says-will-ask-russia-to-lower-gas-prices.ht

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız said on Thursday that the existing natural gas sales contract between Russia and Turkey stipulates that prices can be revised at the start of 2015, and so Turkey will submit a request to Russians to adjust its gas prices downward.

Turkey gets about 42 million cubic meters of natural gas daily from the pipeline in western Ukraine, and in the event of an interruption on this line due to the current political crisis, the amount of gas lost cannot be made up elsewhere. This means that Turkey’s commercial and industrial heartland, the Marmara region and İstanbul in particular, may face a natural gas shortage. The minister, however, added that he didn’t believe there would be a serious problem in gas flow that would shake Turkey.

Prices unlikely to fall

The energy minister commented on the domestic market prices of natural gas, too. There has been tremendous pressure to hike prices, especially due to the social turbulence and chaos in the region, particularly in Iraq, Yılmaz said. He added that domestic market prices are hard to bring down, even if Russia concedes to lowering the price of the natural gas it sell to Turkey. “We are struggling not to transfer the increasing costs to households and industries. If we can get a reduction [from Russia] and pull down our costs, this will be used to decrease the losses of BOTAŞ [the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation],” Yıldız noted.

#Géopolitque
#Turquie
#Ukraine
#Irak
#Russie
#Gaz

BBC News - Ukraine far-right leader Muzychko dies ’in police raid’
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26729273

Oleksandr Muzychko, better known as Sashko Bily, died in a shoot-out with police in a cafe in Rivne in western Ukraine, the interior ministry said.

He was a leader of Right Sector, a far-right group which was prominent in the recent anti-government protests.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73796000/jpg/_73796585_ukrainersectormainbbc.jpg

Oleksandr Muzychko - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleksandr_Muzychko

Oleksandr Ivanovych Muzychko (Ukrainian: Олександр Іванович Музичко, 19 September 1962 – 24 March 2014), also known under the nickname Sashko Bily (Сашко Білий), was a Ukrainian political activist, a member of UNA-UNSO and coordinator of Right Sector in Western Ukraine. He fought in the First Chechen War on Chechen side.
During the First Chechen War he led the UNA-UNSO “Viking” group. In 1995 Muzychko was convicted in causing a heavy bodily harm to an individual. In 1997 he attempted to kill one of the UNA-UNSO members in Kiev. In 2003 Muzychko was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for racketeering and kidnapping.

#Volhynie