Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

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DPR defense ministry: Ukrainian forces violate ceasefire regime 6 times over last 24 hours

http://tass.ru/en/world/848585

"The enemy fired six mortar mines and four more mines from automatic grenade launchers," Donetsk News Agency quoted Basurin as saying

MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have violated ceasefire regime in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic six times over the last 24 hours, DPR defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Saturday.

"The enemy fired six mortar mines and four more mines from automatic grenade launchers," Donetsk News Agency quoted Basurin as saying.

He added that Ukrainian snipers opened fire at the Zaytsevo settlement near Gorlovka. "In the morning, this settlement was shelled, and three residential houses were damaged," Basurin said.

A source in DPR law enforcement said earlier today that Kiev forces shelled Zaytsevo in the afternoon injuring one woman.

On December 22 the Contact Group on peaceful settlement of conflict in Donbass agreed at the meeting in Minsk to "fully and unconditionally" observe the ceasefire regime since 12am on December 23.

However, over the last weeks DPR defense ministry registered the growing number of shellings near Gorlovka and in Donetsk’s northern and western outskirts. Deputy Chief Monitor of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Hug said that Donetsk’s outskirts and Gorlovka remain the "hot spots" on the contact line in Donbass.

The Minsk accords were signed on February 12 last year, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.

The Minsk accords envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.

The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.

 

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Hackers used malware to confuse utility in Ukraine outage - report
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-cybersecurity-attack-idUSKCN0UO00W20160110

Hackers likely caused a Dec. 23 electricity outage in Ukraine by remotely switching breakers to cut power, after installing malware to prevent technicians from detecting the attack, according to a report analyzing how the incident unfolded.

The report from Washington-based SANS ICS was released late on Saturday, providing the first detailed analysis of what caused a six-hour outage for some 80,000 customers of Western Ukraine's Prykarpattyaoblenergo utility.

SANS ICS, which advises infrastructure operators on combating cyber attacks, also said the attackers crippled the utility's customer-service center by flooding it with phone calls to prevent customers from alerting the utility that power was down.

"This was a multi-pronged attack against multiple facilities. It was highly coordinated with very professional logistics," said Robert Lee, a former U.S. Air Force cyber warfare operations officer who helped compile the report for SANS ICS. "They sort of blinded them in every way possible."

Experts widely describe the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. Ukraine's SBU state security service blamed Russia, and U.S. cyber firm iSight Partners identified the perpetrator as a Russian hacking group known as "Sandworm."

Ukraine's energy ministry has said it will hold off on discussing the matter until after Jan. 18, following completion of a formal probe into the matter.

The utility's operators were able to quickly recover by switching to manual operations, essentially disconnecting infected workstations and servers from the grid, according to the report.

SANS ICS said on its blog it had "high confidence" in its findings, which were based on discussions and analysis from "multiple international community members and companies". (ics.sans.org/blog) The report's authors declined to identify those sources.

U.S. critical infrastructure security expert Joe Weiss said he believed the report's findings would be validated. "They did a phenomenal job," he said.

There is strong interest in the outage because of concerns that similar techniques could be used to launch more attacks on power operators around the globe.

"What is now true is that a coordinated cyber attack consisting of multiple elements is one of the expected hazards (electric utilities) may face," SANS ICS Director Michael Assante said in a blog.

We need to learn and prepare ourselves to detect, respond, and restore from such events in the future," said Assante, former chief security officer of the quasi-governmental North American Electric Reliability Corp.

 

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Kiev reinforces its positions in Donbass with artillery and Right Sector radicals

http://tass.ru/en/world/848624

MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Kiev has reinforced its positions along the line of engagement in Donbass with a howitzer battery and Right Sector radicals, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday citing reconnaissance reports.

"A battery of conventional artillery of the 30th brigade has been spotted in the settlement of Svetlodarsk. Moreover, units of Ukraine’s Right Sector paramilitary corps have reportedly arrived to the settlement of Spartak, which is an evidence of reinforcement of the Aidar battalion with nationalist units," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

Apart from that, according to the DPR defense ministry, Kiev has pulled an engineer unit to organize a pontoon ferry into the zone of responsibility of the 30th brigade at the Gorlovka direction.

The Contact Group signed the key package of measures for peaceful settlement in Donbass, known as Minsk-2, on February 12. Under the document, the sides are to withdraw heavy weapons from the contact line, namely artillery systems of 100 mm caliber or more to the distance of at least 50 km, multiple rocket launcher systems (MLRS) to the distance of 70 km and most powerful Tornado-S, Uragan and Smerch MLRS, as well as tactical missile systems Tochka/Tochka U to the distance of 140 km.

In late September, a supplement to the Minsk-2 package was signed withdraw weapons under 100mm calibre to a distance of 15 kilometres for the line of engagement. Still, the DPR regularly registers separate instances of shelling on the part of the Ukrainian army.

More:
http://tass.ru/en/world/848624

 

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Donbas militia accuse government forces of moving 80 weaponry units to separation line

http://tass.ru/en/world/848793

According to the DPR defense ministry, the largest concentration of military equipment has been recorded in the Mariupol area

MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have moved to the contact line in the country’s south-eastern Donbas region more than 80 weaponry units, including 29 howitzers and self-propelled artillery systems, spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin reported on Monday.

According to him, over the past week the Ukrainian military have been concentrating forces and equipment in the area of Gorlovka. Thus, four 152-mm weapons and up to six 122-mm D-30 howitzers of the artillery battery of the 30th separate mechanised brigade have been spotted in the area of Svetlodarsk. Also, an engineer unit was dispatched there to prepare and install pontoon bridges. Basurin said that five Pion and Giatsint artillery weapons were spotted in the areas of the city of Dzerzhinsk northwest of Gorlovka.

According to Basurin, the Ukrainian military during the past week also continued to concentrate equipment and manpower in the area of Donetsk. In particular, DPR reported the presence of up to 300 troops of the volunteer Ukrainian corps Right Sector (the organisation is outlawed in Russia) near the Spartak settlement. A battery of the 55th separate artillery brigade comprising up to six self-propelled artillery systems was spotted in the area of the Yelizovetovka settlement, two self-propelled artillery systems and four tanks - in the area of the Pobeda settlement and six trucks with ammunition - in the area of Maryinka, Basurin said.

According to the DPR defense ministry, the largest concentration of military equipment has been recorded in the Mariupol area. More than 50 units of self-propelled artillery systems, infantry fighting vehicles, 152-mm howitzers, antitank systems and tanks have been spotted there. More than 1,400 Ukrainian army troops have been dispatched to the area together with the equipment. They are concentrated near the Granitnoye, Novoselovka Vtoraya, Fedorovka, Gnutovo, Talakovka, Nikolayevka settlements, as well as at the settlements of the so-called "grey zone" - Pavlopol and Pishchevik, said the DPR defense official.

The DPR defense representative also said, referring to the reconnaissance data that the Ukrainian troops have conducted engineering work to equip trenches for equipment and personnel for combat operations at eight settlements of the buffer zone that had previously been "illegally seized by the Ukrainian armed forces." The DPR defense ministry has photographs on which weapons and equipment can be seen in the Shirokino, Pishchevik and Pavlopol settlements. "The photos also clearly show that the Ukrainian troops have prepared engineering works for hostilities. This confirms that the Ukrainian military grossly violate the Minsk agreements by means of the armed seizure of the so-called grey zone," Basurin said.

He added that the Ukrainian command plans to move Ukrainian army conscripts to the conflict zone in the Donbas region. "Our reconnaissance units report that the arrival of up to 100 new recruits is expected in Artemovsk to reinforce the units in the zone of the so-called ‘anti-terrorist operation.’ They were called up for military service during the 2015 autumn draft", the DOR defense spokesman said.

 

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US and Russia After Ukraine: Three Scenarios

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160111/1032956487/ukraine-us-russia-relations.html

The ongoing political and military crisis in Ukraine will continue to play a central role in relations between the West and Russia in the coming years, making or breaking the warming or cooling of bilateral ties between Moscow and Washington, a comprehensive analysis by the Washington-based Center for the National Interest suggests.

The 65 page analysis, entitled "The United States and Russia After the Ukraine Crisis," presents three 'what if' scenarios on the direction bilateral relations between the two powers may take.

The scenarios are presented as an analysis of events which may unfold in and around Ukraine between 2016 and 2018, and how they will affect Russian-American relations. To be sure, each of the scenarios presents events from the point of view of America's assumed national interests.

The first scenario, written by Samuel Charap, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the Washington-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, considers the conditions necessary for an improvement in US-Russian relations.

According to Charap, along with a series of other factors (from a deadlock in the Middle East to a shaky economic situation in China) a thaw in the bilateral relationship would require the situation in Ukraine to shift in a direction more conducive to compromise. This, in the analyst's words, might occur by means of a growing rift between President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, resulting in the collapse of the ruling coalition, and a new Ukrainian government more conciliatory toward the Donbass. With anti-Russian sentiment gradually fading, the EU would terminate most of its sanctions in 2016, with the US following soon after.

With the NATO-Russia Council resuming its work, Washington and Moscow would hold talks on NATO's military presence in the Baltic and the Black Sea, and NATO heavy weapons in Central and Eastern Europe, leading to a return to a measure of regional stability.

The second scenario, written by The National Interest contributing editor Nikolas Gvosdev, presupposes a growing division among European countries in relation to Russia, with the conflict in eastern Ukraine remaining unresolved and risking becoming 'frozen'. In 2017, in preparation for national elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is assumed to soften her tone toward Moscow, with other countries following Berlin's lead.

NATO, meanwhile, continues to struggle with internal contradictions which prevent the formation of a clear plan of action in relation to Russia and, by mid-2016, the EU partially lifts its anti-Russian sanctions, halting, at least temporarily, plans for its eastward expansion. The US, in turn, while rejecting the Europeans' backward sliding, continues to shift resources to Asia, and finds it difficult to build a coalition to balance against Russia. In any case, the new administration coming into office in 2017 is forced to choose between Moscow and Beijing, with the US military budget not allowing Washington to work against both emerging powers simultaneously. This leads to a strategy of selective pressure and engagement.

The third scenario, written by Wilson Center Kennan Institute Director Matthew Rojansky, examines the prospects for a continuing deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington, leading to a long-term 'Cold War-esque' confrontation. In his scenario too, the Donbass conflict effectively becomes "the latest and largest frozen conflict in the post-Soviet space," but this does not lead to renewed stability or normalization.

Anti-Russian sanctions are extended, with a Europe, fearful of Russia, turning to NATO as its chosen institute of collective security. Moscow, for its part, attempts a shift to China, but Beijing, due to its economic relations with the US and Europe, hesitates an open alliance. Ultimately, none of the players in the Ukraine conflict achieve their ambitious goals of regional economic integration, with China emerging the victor as the West and Russia focus on Ukraine.

In his write-up of the think tank's analysis, Svobodnaya Pressa journalist Andrei Polunin points out that "in all three scenarios, Washington is expected to consolidate its gains in Ukraine, and to secure the advantages gained in global geopolitical structures. At the same time, the Americans do not intend to 'defeat' Russia at the cost of losing to China."

Speaking to the independent online newspaper, Sergei Ermakov, the deputy director of the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, noted that the study indicates that the US realizes the Ukrainian crisis's central role to European security.

"US analysts write such scenarios in order to model the situation and to clearly identify where US interests are the most secure and feasible. As is evident from the Center for the National Interest's projections, the crisis in Ukraine, from Washington's perspective, is the dominant factor in the structure of European security. That's certainly something that would be difficult to argue with."

"It's another matter that the American contemplation on a split between Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk cannot be taken literally," Ermakov suggests. "It is hardly possible to consider seriously the idea that the Ukrainian elite controls the situation in the country."

"In practice, Washington is now seriously discussing the idea of Ukraine's federalization. Kiev had rejected Moscow's proposals in this regard, but now the West is attempting to 'implant' it, with Ukrainian intellectuals reacting quite favorably. In this situation, the think tank's 'probe' on the idea of a possible conflict between Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk indicates that the path to federalization may progress exactly along such a scenario."

"Of course," Ermakov suggests, "the US itself could call the process on federalization something else. For example, it could come down to the 'autonomy' of parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, or their 'special status'. Nevertheless, what is at stake is federalization. Moreover, it will affect not only the eastern, but the western regions as well. In western Ukraine, local elites also want to play a greater role, and the break between them and the center is growing wider. A Federal Ukraine, according to Washington, could play an essential element to a new security system in Europe. And it will be built around a compromise with Russia."

Ultimately, the analyst suggests, "the freezing of the conflict in Donbass, and the federalization of Ukraine, is the first and most likely scenario, from the US's perspective. In theory, another scenario is possible – an attempt to resolve the conflict in Donbass by force. However, Kiev does not have the strength, and the West will attempt to avoid direct military intervention. So too will Russia."

Asked to outline his own vision on how relations between Moscow and Washington might unfold in the next several years, Ermakov noted that in his view, in the next three years, Russia will make an effort to modernize its military and to achieve a sense of parity with the US.

"At the same time, Moscow will try to find compromises with Washington on a tactical level, followed by a more stable model, based on a balance of power. Another possibility, of course, is a worsening of the situation in the Middle East or the Donbass. But here much will depend on the new US administration – on which forces support the new president, and whether they will be able to come to an agreement on the reformatting of relations with Russia."

 

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Militia report another skirmish between Kiev's regular troops and Right Sector radicals

http://tass.ru/en/world/848999

Armed clashes were allegedly caused by struggle for control over freight traffic in this area

MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Right Sector radicals had another skirmish with Ukrainian marines in the zone of the force operation in Donbas, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Tuesday.

"Conflicts between Right Sector radicals and servicemen of Ukrainian regular troops ending up in skirmishes were reported from the vicinity of the settlement of Lebedinskoye near Mariupol, in the zone of the force operation," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

Armed clashes, according to Basurin, were caused by struggle for control over freight traffic in this area. "Marines of the 36th Ukrainian brigade are seeking to squeeze nationalists, who are currently controlling all cargo traffic, out of this settlement," Basurin said.

On January 8, the DPR defense ministry spokesman already reported a conflict between Ukrainian marines and Right Sector nationalists. "The conflict was caused by marines’ looting in the buffer zone settlements," he said.

Earlier, the DPR defense ministry numerously reported clashes between various units of Ukrainian army in Donbas and paramilitary battallions.

 

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Kiev forces fire mortar shells at Donetsk airport

http://tass.ru/en/world/849119

The forces used mortars with the caliber of 82 mm, grenade launchers and small arms, a source in the law enforcement agencies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic says

MOSCOW, January 13. /TASS/. Kiev troops shelled the territory of the embattled Donetsk airport on Wednesday morning, a source in the law enforcement agencies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has said.

"At around 8.00 a.m. Ukrainian military opened fire on the positions of the DPR armed forces in the airport," the source told the Donetsk news agency. The forces used mortars with the caliber of 82 mm, grenade launchers and small arms.

On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian forces carried out massive shelling in the village of Spartak near the Donetsk airport using mortars and tank guns. "They started shelling us late yesterday evening and the shelling continues," local citizens said.

Kiev troops also opened fire on the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, local militias told the LuganskInformCenter. "The shelling occurred on January 12 between 9.40 a.m. and 8.00 p.m." No casualties were reported.

On December 22, the Contact Group on peaceful settlement of conflict in Donbas agreed at the meeting in Minsk to "fully and unconditionally" observe the ceasefire regime since December 23. This is the sixth ceasefire declared since autumn 2014. However, Kiev forces continue shelling the territory of the self-proclaimed republics.

 

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French Delegation Visits East Ukraine, Talks About Horrors of War

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160113/1033082912/french-delegation-donbass-war.html

Life in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbass is as bad as a Hollywood post-apocalyptic flick – most buildings are destroyed, people are suffering from a lack of food, while hot water and electricity long ago became memories of the past, Jacques Clostermann, one of the members of a French delegation that visited Donbass on January 12, told Radio Sputnik.

The residents of Donbass aren't living, they're simply trying to survive, Clostermann told Sputnik.

The delegation of French human rights activists consisted of Jacques Clostermann, the leader of the human rights organization My Country France and two human rights lawyers, Josy-Jean Bousquet and Hanen Maksud, according to Novorossia Today News Agency.

"People live in basements with their children. We have seen entire cities where there is no heating. They said they continue to exist only with the help of Russian humanitarian aid… What we have seen is not living, it's survival," Clostermann said, according to Radio Sputnik.

The level of utter destruction in Donbass has shocked the French human rights activists. Ruins are everywhere — public buildings, roads, bridges, and even buildings which have no military value, such as churches, cemeteries and houses, have been destroyed with an intense ferocity, the French human rights activist said.

Despite an official ceasefire, shooting continues to happen near the front line. The shooting mostly takes place at night, while OSCE ceasefire control missions happen during days. That way, the OSCE can seldom record fire near the front line, the member of the French delegation said.

"We were told about an armored battle tank, which comes into a town and starts shooting around. Soldiers from the Ukrainian Army are often drunk. We had an impression that the Ukrainian Army is out of control," Closetermann said.

The French human rights activist said it was the first time his group had visited Donbass; however, they want to come back to eastern Ukraine again in three or four months with a much bigger group.

Next time, members of French media should come along to Donbass to see the situation in the region with their own eyes, Clostermann said, adding that he would tell everyone back home about everything that he had seen in Ukraine during his trip.

Southeastern Ukraine has been suffering from a crisis triggered by a military operation to suppress local independence supporters launched by Kiev authorities in April 2014 to quell secession moves.

In February of 2015, representatives of the central government in Kiev and Donbass independence supporters signed a deal on Ukrainian reconciliation in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

Ukrainian, German and French presidents discuss implementation of Minsk agreements

http://tass.ru/en/world/849424

KIEV, January 13 /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande discussed the implementation of the Minsk agreements by telephone on Wednesday.

"The leaders discussed further steps on the path of implementing the Minsk agreements, including the coordination of modalities of holding the local elections in some districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions according to Ukrainian laws and re-establishment of Ukraine’s full control over the state border," the Ukrainian president’s press service said.

Poroshenko reiterated the importance of linking all the steps provided by the Minsk agreements to concrete dates in 2016.

The sides agreed to continue their contacts next week.

 

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Source: Ukrainian security forces are again shelling the airport in Donetsk

http://ria.ru/world/20160115/1359994849.html

The fire at the airport in Donetsk conducted from 82 millimeter mortars, fired at least six minutes, said a source in law enforcement agencies DNR. Airport shelled in the previous two days.

MOSCOW, January 15 - RIA Novosti. Ukrainian law enforcers have resumed mortar attack in Donetsk airport, said on Friday the "Donetsk News Agency," citing a source in law enforcement agencies breakaway DNI.

"Ukrainian security forces from among natsbatalonov resumed shelling of the airport," - the agency quoted him as saying.

According to the source, the fire is conducted from 82 millimeter mortars, fixed release at least six minutes.

Earlier it was reported that Ukrainian security officials on Wednesday evening and on Thursday fired mortars territory of the former airport of Donetsk.

Ukrainian authorities in April 2014 launched a military operation against the breakaway LC and DNR. According to the latest UN data, victims of the conflict began more than 9 thousand people. The settlement of the situation in the Donbass is discussed, including during meetings in Minsk, the contact group, which since September 2014 has adopted three documents governing the steps to de-escalate the conflict.

 

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Ukrainian government forces reportedly shell Kominternovo village in Donbas

http://tass.ru/en/world/850255

According to the Ten residential houses were damaged in the shelling

MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military again shelled the Kominternovo settlement in south Donbas, where one civilian was injured, head of the local administration Oleg Morgun told the Donetsk News Agency on Monday.

"Yesterday in the afternoon, once again they shelled Kominternovo," he said. "One civilian was injured with a fragment and was taken to hospital. He is fine now."

Further information is under way, he said.

Ten residential houses were damaged in the shelling of the Kominternovo settlement the night to Friday.

One residential house was completely destroyed, the agency added. Commander of 9th regiment of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) defense ministry Colonel Andrey Oprischenko said that "five houses have been damaged only over the last three hours." Oprischenko noted that Ukrainian forces shelled Kominternovo from mortars of 82mm and 120mm calibre and anti-tank guided missiles.

DPR defense ministry reported earlier that Ukrainian forces shelled Kominternovo at night firing at least 10 mines at the settlements.

Kominternovo was visited on Friday by delegations of representatives of OSCE led by Deputy Chief Monitor of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) Alexander Hug, of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) and of DPR defense ministry. The delegations registered evidence of ceasefire violations.

On Sunday, Donbas’s state-run gas company, Donbasgaz, restored gas supplies to Kominternovo in the buffer zone in south Donbass, which were interrupted after the shelling.

The local militia and representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) provided security for the workers.

"There, the distance between the damaged pipe and the Ukrainian checkpoint is only 700 metres," the local administration’s head said.

On Wednesday the Contact Group on settling the situation in south-east Ukraine agreed that it is necessary to observe the ceasefire regime in Donbas. "We fully support the proposal (of Russian envoy to the Contact Group) to make a new attempt to ensure full ceasefire observance on the occasion of the Old New Year," the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) envoy Martin Sajdik said. This is the seventh attempt since autumn 2014 to fully observe the ceasefire in Donbas.

Ceasefire is envisaged by the Minsk accords signed on 12 February 2015, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The Minsk accords also envisage weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbas, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.

The Ukrainian forces and the self-defence forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.

 

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Almost 70 pieces of heavy equipment reportedly redeployed to disengagement line in Donbas

http://tass.ru/en/world/850376

Ukrainian soldiers and Aidar volunteer battalion fighters have been noticed by militia intelligence

MOSCOW, January 18 /TASS/. The Ukrainian military have redeployed almost 70 pieces of heavy weapons and armored vehicles as well as hundreds of volunteer fighters to the disengagement line in Donbas, Eduard Basurin, a spokesperson for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told journalists at the Donetsk News Agency on Monday.

"The DPR intelligence continues noticing huge concentrations of the Ukrainian side’s vehicles and army personnel in the directions of Gorlovka, Donetsk and Mariupol," Basurin said.

According to him, six 52-mm Pion and Giatsint howitzers; 7 Grad Multiple Rocket Launch systems; 12 infantry fighting vehicles; up to 20 trucks with ammunition and personnel and up to 10 buses with the soldiers of the 54th separate mechanized brigade and two platoons of the Aidar battalion fighters have amassed in the Gorlovka direction. Two self-propelled artillery installations; four 122-mm D-30 howitzers; three tanks; three infantry fighting vehicles; three trucks with ammunition as well as an up to 150-men strong contingent have been noticed in the direction of Donetsk.

"In the Mariupol direction, the DPR intelligence has noticed 10 tanks; 7 self-propelled artillery installations; two 152-mm Giatsint-B howitzers; one BM-21 multiple rocket launcher systems; 12 infantry fighting vehicles; 31 trucks with manpower and ammunition. Besides, up to 200 soldiers and officers as well as two pontoon ferries for transporting weapons, units and hardware across river barriers have also been concentrated in the Mariupol direction," Basurin said.

 

[angelburst29]

An article on the Fort Russ website is claiming that parts of Ukraine are in the mists of a full blown Flu epidemic .

Flu Epidemic in Ukraine: A U.S Bioweapon of War
http://fortruss.blogspot.ru/2016/01/flu-epidemic-in-ukraine-us-bioweapon-of.html

15th January, 2016

[...] And here on the Internet appeared the information about the impending flu epidemic already in South Korea, and the Ukraine:
"Over three weeks in Odessa, 15 people died of flu and its consequences, in Vinnytsia region — 7, in the occupied Kramatorsk — 17. Kiev confirmed only two deaths from flu, but the situation in the capital is close to peak. The official number of cases in Ukraine in just one day, January 11, reached five thousand. Doctors say that the challenges have grown 2-3 fold. All the same symptoms: very high fever (above 39 degrees) and cough. Authorities say quarantine in schools and kindergartens can be setup in the near future".

Disappointing statistics were published and the Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Health Irina Sysoenko: "Today, the flu affected 5.7 per cent of the total population. Of these, 70 percent are children, pregnant women. The greatest number of cases are in Vinnytsia, Odessa, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Kyiv region. In comparison with last year the number of fatalities increased by 10 percent. In Odessa 28 patients died, in Vinnytsia – 25". The MP advised citizens not to self-medicate and named the reasons for the increased number of deaths: "Low level influenza vaccination, self-medicated people, as well as lack of primary health care, including the insufficient number of medicinal products at medical institutions".

"We haven't reached the epidemiological threshold. This is the usual peak for influenza season," – Ukrainian-Georgian Minister Kvitashvili said on January 12th. This reassurance does not prevent a comparison with the Ukrainian population of Poland during the same epidemiological period from October to early January when just five people died from the flu, the same as in Kyiv.

In Kiev from the 16th January, there will be a quarantine in educational institutions and health care, as well as restrictions on holding public events.

Vinnytsia, Odessa, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Kyiv region... In Russia the flu this year didn't come from the East and from the South-West, Ukraine...

In the summer of 2015 our activists sounded the alarm about a strange laboratory located in many cities of Ukraine, published on American money, and Americans, as you know, ain't no charity. Then what is being develops in these labs?

The alarm was caused by community members on the information about the level of data security labs have been assigned a level three (of the four, the fourth - the maximum). This suggests that these laboratories can produce bioweapons and their level of safety is equated to military installations.

For example, in Kharkov, just 800 metres from residential areas of the town of Merefa and 25 km from the Kharkov, despite the lack of permits, the American company Black & Veatch, which is among the contractors of the U.S. Department of Defense, undertook the construction of a biological laboratory that has the potential to develop biological weapons. Officially this is called "Central reference laboratory", according to information from local residents, Ukrainians do not work in the laboratory as overseas experts are imported. Also there are reports that if the laboratory were to open a "Depository" for storage of hazardous biological materials, including, for example, pathogenic strains of plague, anthrax and other diseases, they are of interest not only to biologists, but also the military.

Today this information is particularly disturbing. Not to mention a strange epidemic in Ukraine, which began with the coming to power "orange". Recall that in 2009, during the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a fellow member of A. Turchynov, the country was raised the hype around the flu, which was named "pork". And it is against public in Ukraine under President Viktor Yushchenko since 2005, in coordination with the US defense Department biological laboratories

Why the biological laboratory was created in Ukraine becomes clear only now, in light of the information that the United States is going to have a biological weapons attack in Syria. So, in this article the IEE expert Henry Kamens notes that American strategists have found a way out of the Syrian conflict, delegating their decision to the Turkish authorities, by organizing a "full-scale biological attack." According to the author, "The anthrax spores, which will presumably be used to attack, will be delivered to Syria from Georgia, where there are a large number of American laboratories conducting experiments not only on dangerous viruses, but also over the Georgian population".

But now the same lab is working in the territory of Ukraine, and it is a more secure foothold not only for the development of biological weapons, but also to conduct experiments on human beings. In the context of the civil war and general turmoil that has engulfed the country, as in troubled waters, it is very convenient to catch fish.

So, the Kharkov laboratory in Merefa is not the first and not the only but the biggest. Thus, during the fierce summer scandal of 2015 of the biological laboratory located in Kherson, it became known that the lab was built within the framework of the signed agreement under Yushchenko in 2005. The agreement was between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense on the cooperation in the field of prevention of proliferation of technology, pathogens and expertise that could be utilized in the development of biological weapons. This was reported in the official response of the state sanitary and epidemiological service of Ukraine on 6th November 2015.

Also it should be recalled that in 2010, on the basis of the Odessa anti-plague scientific research Institute named after Mechnikov (in the presence of the then Ambassador in Ukraine John Tefft) a similar biological center was opened, licensed for work with strains that are used in the creation of biological weapons.

Also parts of this project were built from scratch in the laboratories in Lviv, Vinnytsia, Uzhgorod, Kherson.

So what is behind Ukraine's looming epidemic of flu?

Is it not a recurring epidemic of the"swine flu" that broke out in 2009. As was so deftly described in the prophecy of A. Turchinov about the end of the world, is it a new round of tensions in the Ukrainian society by the method of "controlled chaos" with a new kind of biological weapons?

Meanwhile the statistics of the disease of influenza in Ukraine are underestimated tenfold to conceal the true state of affairs from the public, instead of implementing preventive measures.



Public shouldn’t panic over swine flu outbreak in Ukraine, says health minister
https://www.kyivpost.com/article/content/ukraine-politics/public-shouldnt-panic-over-swine-flu-outbreak-in-ukraine-says-health-minister-405788.html

Jan. 13, 2016 - The public shouldn’t panic over the recent outbreak of the deadly H1N1 swine flu outbreak in Ukraine, but take more precautions to protect their health, Ukrainian Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili said at a cabinet meeting on Jan. 13.

Earlier Ukrainian media reported that an outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu virus has killed more than 50 people in towns and cities across Ukraine.

“We haven’t exceeded the epidemic threshold, and every year January is the peak of the flu season,” Kvitashvili told ministers during the televised cabinet session.

He said most of those who had died had sought treatment too late - six or seven days after becoming ill. He said people suffering from a high temperature should immediately consult a doctor, and not attempt to self-medicate, as some common over-the-counter flu treatments would not be effective after 48 hours.

Writing on her page on Facebook on Jan. 12, Samopomich lawmaker Irina Sysoyenko, the deputy chairman of the health committee of the country’s parliament, said the areas worst affected by the flu included Kyiv city and oblast, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, and Odesa.

“As of today, 5.7 percent of the population is ill with the flu,” Sysoyenko wrote. “Of these, 70 percent are children and pregnant women.

“Compared to last year, the number of deaths (from flu) has increased by 10%. In Odesa, 28 people have died from flu, and 25 (have died) in Vinnytsya.”

She said Ukraine’s Health Ministry had determined that most of the deaths had occurred because people ill with the flu – mainly the dangerous H1N1 strain – had delayed seeking treatment, and that urgent work was required to educate the population on how to respond to the outbreak. Five of those who had died in Vinnytsya had been infected with a less dangerous Influenza B virus strain, she said, adding that the Health Ministry was investigating why these deaths had occurred.


Russian Health Ministry announces about flu epidemic
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/832441/

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Odessa Gov. Saakashvili Publishes Positions of Kiev Forces in Donbass

http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160119/1033350433/ukraine-odessa-region-forces-donbass.html

Mikheil Saakashvili, the Governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, published a video online showing a map with checkpoints and the positions of Kiev forces in the conflict-torn east of the country, local media reported Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to the Ukrainian TV channel TSN, Saakashvili filmed the video during his visit to the military operation zone in eastern Donbass. The footage demonstrates a secret observation post, a strategical map with commander's comments and faces of Ukrainian soldiers.

Saakashvili's actions have been labeled as sabotage by the Ukrainian media.

Kiev authorities launched a military operation against pro-independence militias in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region in April 2014. The confrontation has claimed over 9,000 lives so far, according to UN estimates.

Ukrainian military said about 47 shelling of its positions in the Donbas

http://www.interfax.ru/world/490238

Moscow. January 19. INTERFAX.RU - Ukrainian military control points in the Donets Basin during the day had been shot 47 times, the press center of the military operation to Facebook Tuesday morning.

According to the report, the situation in the zone of operations remains tense, fixed fire from mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and armored vehicles.

In Donetsk direction from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades were fired Ukrainian strongholds near Marinka, sand, Avdeevka and mines Butovka.

In Mariupol direction aggravated situation in Shirokino by Ukrainian military positions were being fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

 

[angelburst29]

An article on the Fort Russ website is claiming that parts of Ukraine are in the mists of a full blown Flu epidemic .

Flu Epidemic in Ukraine: A U.S Bioweapon of War
http://fortruss.blogspot.ru/2016/01/flu-epidemic-in-ukraine-us-bioweapon-of.html

Swine flu virus spreads across Russia
http://tass.ru/en/society/850555

The weekly flu and acute respiratory infection epidemics threshold has been exceeded in 13 Russia regions.

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Epidemics of acute respiratory infections and flu is spreading across Russia, with the bulk of cases being caused by A(H1N1) strain, popularly known as swine flu and fraught with serious complications, the chief of Russian consumer rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

"In early December, A(H1N1) strains accounted for four percent of the overall flu cases. The figure grew to seven percent after December 15 and to 24% by January 4. As of today, the occurrence of swine flu strains is 42%," Anna Popova, who is Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, told a news conference. According to Rospotrebnadzor statistics, the weekly flu and acute respiratory infection epidemics threshold has been exceeded in 13 Russia regions. "Threshold excess figure vary in a range from 11 to 135% It happens every year, so there is nothing untypical about it," she noted. The epidemics threshold among children under two has been exceeded in 17 Russian regions, among pre-schoolers - in 12 region, among schoolchildren - in eight regions, and among adults - in seven regions. Earlier, Popova told TASS this flu virus is responsible for swift development of serious complications. She said that certain groups of population were at particular high risk for life-threatening problems from swine flu, such as children under five, people older than 65, pregnant women, people having diabetes or other chronic diseases.

The flu epidemic is expected to peak in late January and February, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said.

 

[Ca.]

The Nation
U.S. Gives Green Light to Arming and Training Nazis in Ukraine
http://www.thenation.com/article/congress-has-removed-a-ban-on-funding-neo-nazis-from-its-year-end-spending-bill/
January 14, 2016

Under pressure from the Pentagon, Congress has stripped the spending bill of an amendment that prevented funds from falling into the hands of Ukrainian neo-fascist groups.

n mid-December 2015, Congress passed a 2,000-plus-page omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2016. Both parties were quick to declare victory after the passage of the $1.8 trillion package. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters “we feel good about the outcome, primarily because we got a compromise budget agreement that fought off a wide variety of ideological riders.” The office of House Speaker Paul J. Ryan touted the bill’s “64 billion for overseas contingency operations” for, among other things, assisting ”European countries facing Russian aggression.”

It would be safe to assume that one of the European countries which would stand to benefit from the omnibus measure—designed, in part, to combat “Russian aggression”—would be Ukraine, which has already, according to the White House, received $2 billion in loan guarantees and nearly $760 million in “security, programmatic, and technical assistance” since February 2014.

Yet some have expressed concern that some of this aid has made its way into the hands of neo-Nazi groups, such as the Azov Battalion. Last summer the Daily Beast published an interview by the journalists Will Cathcart and Joseph Epstein in which a member of the Azov battalion spoke about “his battalion’s experience with U.S. trainers and U.S. volunteers quite fondly, even mentioning U.S. volunteers engineers and medics that are still currently assisting them.”

And so, in July of last year, Congressmen John Conyers of Michigan and Ted Yoho of Florida drew up an amendment to the House Defense Appropriations bill (HR 2685) that “limits arms, training, and other assistance to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, the Azov Battalion.” It passed by a unanimous vote in the House.

And yet by the time November came around and the conference debate over the year-end appropriations bill was underway, the Conyers-Yoho measure appeared to be in jeopardy. And indeed it was. An official familiar with the debate told The Nation that the House Defense Appropriations Committee came under pressure from the Pentagon to remove the Conyers-Yoho amendment from the text of the bill.

The Pentagon’s objection to the Conyers-Yoho amendment rests on the claim that it is redundant because similar legislation—known as the Leahy law—already exists that would prevent the funding of Azov. This, as it turns out, is untrue. The Leahy law covers only those groups for which the “Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” Yet the State Department has never claimed to have such information about Azov, so funding to the group cannot be blocked by the Leahy law. The congressional source I spoke to pointed out that “even if Azov is already covered by Leahy, then no there was no need to strip it out of final bill.” Indeed, the Leahy law cannot block funding to groups, no matter how noxious their ideology, in the absence of “credible information” that they have committed human-rights violations. The Conyers-Yoho amendment was designed to remedy that shortcoming.

Considering the fact that the US Army has been training Ukrainian armed forces and national guard troops, the Conyers-Yoho amendment made a great deal of sense; blocking the avowedly neo-Nazi Azov battalion from receiving US assistance would further what President Obama often refers to as “our interests and values.”

That neo-Nazis (or neo-fascists, if you prefer) are a distinctly minority taste in Western Ukraine, is clear and is not in dispute. Of late, however, there have been troubling signs that they may become a force to be reckoned with. According to The Jerusalem Post, in Ukrainian municipal elections held last October, the neo-Nazi Svoboda party won 10 percent of the vote in Kiev and placed second in Lviv. The Svoboda party’s candidate actually won the mayoral election in the city of Konotop. Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in November that Azov operates a boot camp that exposes children to “the regiment’s far right-wing ideology.”

Whether White House spokesman Josh Earnest was referring, in part, to the Conyers-Yoho amendment as one of those “ideological riders” the administration fought to defeat is unclear. What is clear is that by stripping out the anti-neo-Nazi provision, Congress and the administration have paved the way for US funding to end up in the hands of the most noxious elements circulating within Ukraine today.

Stephen Cohen: Ukraine Situation More Dangerous than Middle East!
Published on Sep 2, 2015

https://youtu.be/RbvswyISpQ0

The Distortions of Truth

Senators Ted Cruz, Jack Reed on Ukraine Crisis
Published on Apr 30, 2014

https://youtu.be/t90MxSgIbfk

Joe Biden english speech in Ukraine's parliament in Kiev
Published on Dec 8, 2015

https://youtu.be/_x9mT9jfzvw

Viewer Discretion Advised
Great Documentary - War in Donbass: Circles of hell (2nd part)
Published on Jan 19, 2016

https://youtu.be/UZNIXkhaj9o