Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

[angelburst29]

According to the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic prosecutor general Grigory Tsevenko, two LPR lawmakers were killed amid the temporary ceasefire regime in war-torn Donbass.

Two Lugansk Republic Lawmakers Allegedly Killed in Donbass Amid Truce With Kiev
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201708281056854024-lpr-donbass-lawmakers-murder/

He added an investigation was underway, no further details have been disclosed.

"A high-profile murder of two persons who were deputies of the People's Council of the Lugansk People's Republic occurred in the Kamenobrodsky district of the city of Lugansk overnight from August 26 to August 27, 2017," Tsevenko said.

Earlier in the day the deputy commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Operational Command, Eduard Basurin, accused the Ukrainian armed forces of not observing the recently agreed upon "school" truce in the country's southeastern region of Donbass. One civilian has already been wounded amid the ceasefire.

At the same time, the Ukrainian side accused the Donbass militia of violating the truce 22 times over the same period.

On Wednesday, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine held a meeting in Minsk and agreed on a ceasefire in Donbass starting from August 25 in connection with the beginning of the new academic year in the region. The DPR and the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) confirmed that they were ready to observe the ceasefire.

Hackers said that in Ukraine there is a network of biological laboratories operating under the control of the US special services.

Confirmation On U.S. Secret Biological Chemical Labs In Ukraine, Possible UN Security Council Meeting Due To Outbreaks Of Strange Diseases ~ CyberBerkut
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/confirmation-us-secret-biological-chemical-labs-ukraine-possible-un-security-council-meeting

Hackers from the group “CyberBerkut” said that in Ukraine there is a network of biological laboratories operating under the control of the US special services. According to their information, since 2009, 15 such scientific centers have been created with the money of Washington, where work is supposedly being done to create and approbate biological weapons. This is evidenced by outbreaks of atypical diseases for Ukraine.

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Yury Shvytkin is sure that the information disclosed needs to be carefully checked.

“This information can not be ignored in any case. It is necessary to verify this information, as they can serve as an occasion for the proceedings in the UN Security Council. If they are confirmed, this proves the interaction of the United States with Ukraine in the development of biological weapons, which can be used against the civilian population of any country, “he explained in a conversation with SNSN.

The Ukrainian hacker group, CyberBerkut, has published materials of the investigation, in which a network of biological laboratories of American special services is discovered in Ukraine.

‘The CyberBerkut continues to monitor the secret activities of US special services and non-governmental organizations in Ukraine. Recently, in the Internet, there have been actively discussed outbreaks of diseases rare for our country. Many Ukrainians believe that the cause of their emergence is secret experiments with pathogenic microorganisms, conducted in American biological laboratories in different cities of the country,’ reports the CyberBerkut.

It is stated that since 2009, in the territory of Ukraine, 15 such objects have been created for American money. All of them were equipped allegedly ‘to reduce biological threats’.

However, since then, the hackers say, these threats have grown several times - in recent years, Ukraine has been shaken by epidemics of rare diseases.

It is stated that they could have been caused by leaks from the laboratories, but this is unlikely; on the contrary, the hackers believe that they have been caused by deliberate actions of Americans.

‘The infections were most likely deliberate and a part of the testing of combat viruses modifications in order to test and improve them,’ the hackers believe.

The Cyberberkut claims that the group has managed to disclose ‘the organizational structure of the military-biological activities of American special services in Ukraine’. In particular, the laboratories are officially under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, but since August 1, 2016, the department has been headed by ‘Ulyana Suprun, a US citizen and Maidan activist’.

‘In fact, the secret work with biological material is carried out under the auspices of the Pentagon,’ the authors state.

In the matter of coordination of secret biological experiments, Ukraine is represented by a number of non-governmental organizations, the hacker group noted. The Ukrainian Scientific and Technological Center (STCU) and the NGO International Institute for HIV, AIDS and Tuberculosis (IHATI) are mentioned. However, these institutions are called by the hackers ‘just looking Ukrainian’, in fact, they ‘are engaged in the distribution of American money and the financing of secret programs’.

This is also indicated by the fact that the IHATI, for example, is headed by Eliot Perlman, a former military doctor and a virus specialist who allegedly was sent to Ukraine by the US Intelligence Department of the US Defense ministry back in 1991.

Ukraine, according to the National Medical Chamber, is leading in Europe and the world in spreading socially dangerous and dangerous infections, such as HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C. The forms of tuberculosis, which are insensitive to drugs, are becoming more prevalent in the country. Also in recent years, an epidemic of measles has erupted, and last year, in Izmail, there was an outbreak of an unknown intestinal infection, etc.

Recall, earlier, “Cyberberkut” accused Ukraine of selling weapons banned in Russia, the group “Islamic State”.

 

[angelburst29]

A reporter of Russia's major TV channel has been abducted in Ukraine.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201708301056919170-reporters-russia-channel-abduted-ukraine/

Anna Kurbatova, a reporter with Russia’s Channel One, was kidnapped in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Wednesday, , the channel’s press service told Sputnik.

"We confirm [this information]," the channel said.

The Russian journalist is reportedly accused of "manipulating publicly important information and participation in anti-Ukrainian propaganda" when reporting from a military parade in Kiev, dedicated to Ukraine's Independence Day last week.

In its turn, Channel One said that Kurbatova may have been detained by Ukraine's Security Service.

The event comes just a day after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) expelled two Spanish journalists it accuses of having anti-Kiev bias.

Kiev has repeatedly limited the activities of foreign and even some local opposition media outlets in Ukraine. As an example, Kiev, in March 2015 issued a list of 115 Russian media outlets which could be denied or temporarily suspended accreditation by Ukrainian authorities as the outlets "posed threats" to Ukrainian state security. As the regulation came into force, a number of Russian journalists and television reporters were denied entry to Ukraine or deported to Russia.

Moreover, earlier this year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities. In particular, Ukraine has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian media outlets, as well as popular Russia-based social networks in a move criticized by major media freedom watchdogs and advocacy groups. The Kremlin said that the decision is another manifestation of an unfriendly and short-sighted policy against Russia.

In its aspiration to join NATO, Ukraine plans to keep defense expeditures of at least 5% of its GDP.

Ukraine to Keep Spending at Least 5% of GDP on Defense in 2018
https://sputniknews.com/military/201708301056915165-ukraine-defense-spending-level/

Ukraine intends to keep its 2018 defense spending on the level of at least 5 percent of its GDP, the defense budget will be approved in early September, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said Wednesday.

According to the council's press service, Turchynov said that the composition of the budget takes place accordingly to Ukraine's national security strategy "and will stand at no less than 5 percent of the gross domestic product."

The intention to declare Russia an "aggressor-state" is Kiev’s attempt to abandon responsibility for the war in the Donbass region, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Policy Analysis and Management Ruslan Bortnik said in an interview with TASS.

Kiev seeks accountability for Donbass war by calling Russia ‘aggressor’
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/kiev-seeks-accountability-donbass-war-calling-russia-aggressor

"From a political point of view, this decision contains an element of dodging responsibility for what happened in Donbass, and the share of the Ukrainian leadership’s guilt is very significant," he said commenting on the bill to reintegrate Donbass. "This is an attempt to pin all the blame on Russia, Donetsk and Lugansk."

According to Bortnik, by designating Russia as "an aggressor," President Pyotr Poroshenko is trying to flirt with Ukraine’s far right to chalk up extra political points in the run-up to the elections and at the negotiating table with international partners.

From a legal standpoint, the idea of those who drafted the bill is to boost Kiev’s legal stance for international courts. "This definition will block the way for Donbass residents to file lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), as it will make it possible for Ukraine to ignore these lawsuits and say that its sovereignty does not extend to the occupied territories," he explained. This sort of definition on the level of Ukrainian domestic legislation can also serve as Kiev’s additional argument at the UN international court against Russia, Bortnik said.

For his part, Ukrainian political scientist Andrey Zolotarev emphasized, when commenting on the bill, that recognizing Russia as an "aggressor-state" could mean the unilateral denunciation of the Minsk agreements. After the emergence of such provisions in its legislation one could say that the Minsk agreements are de facto denounced unilaterally," he noted. If Russia is recognized as an "aggressor-state," that means that Kiev "should quit the Minsk agreements," the expert added.

Russian officials have stated on numerous occasions that Moscow is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict and acts solely as a mediator to resolve the crisis. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed in June that southeastern Ukraine "is not occupied by Russia, Russia does not occupy any territories."

 

[Voyageur]

A reporter of Russia's major TV channel has been abducted in Ukraine.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201708301056919170-reporters-russia-channel-abduted-ukraine/

Anna Kurbatova, a reporter with Russia’s Channel One, was kidnapped in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Wednesday, , the channel’s press service told Sputnik.

"We confirm [this information]," the channel said.

The Russian journalist is reportedly accused of "manipulating publicly important information and participation in anti-Ukrainian propaganda" when reporting from a military parade in Kiev, dedicated to Ukraine's Independence Day last week.

In its turn, Channel One said that Kurbatova may have been detained by Ukraine's Security Service.

The event comes just a day after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) expelled two Spanish journalists it accuses of having anti-Kiev bias.

Kiev has repeatedly limited the activities of foreign and even some local opposition media outlets in Ukraine. As an example, Kiev, in March 2015 issued a list of 115 Russian media outlets which could be denied or temporarily suspended accreditation by Ukrainian authorities as the outlets "posed threats" to Ukrainian state security. As the regulation came into force, a number of Russian journalists and television reporters were denied entry to Ukraine or deported to Russia.

Moreover, earlier this year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities. In particular, Ukraine has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian media outlets, as well as popular Russia-based social networks in a move criticized by major media freedom watchdogs and advocacy groups. The Kremlin said that the decision is another manifestation of an unfriendly and short-sighted policy against Russia.

An update here finds Kiev Abducting, Deporting Russian Journalist 'Deliberate Provocation' - Moscow

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201708301056931300-ukraine-russia-journalist-deportation/

After the Security Service of Ukraine abducted and reported a Russian major TV channel reporter, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the move a deliberate provocation and called international organizations to react to the incident.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the abduction in Kiev and forcible deportation of Russian journalist Anna Kurbatova is a "deliberate provocation."

"The detention in Kiev on August 30 of Channel One journalist Anna Kurbatova and her forcible deportation to Russia is clearly not an accidental incident, but a deliberate provocation initiated by the Ukrainian law enforcement and national radicals," the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed hope that international human rights organizations and other bodies protecting journalists’ interests would react to the incident with Kurbatova.

"We are directing the attention of international human rights organizations and other agencies which are supposed to protect freedom and independence of the media to the continuing outrage in Ukraine. We hope for their reaction and practical steps with regard to the excesses of the Kiev authorities."

According to the statement, the Russian embassy in Kiev undertook all necessary measures to clarify the circumstances of the incident and to protect Kurbatova’s interests.

Earlier in the day, the Russian journalist was kidnapped in Kiev, later the Ukrainian Security Service said she will be forcibly deported from the country. She is reportedly accused of "manipulating publicly important information and participation in anti-Ukrainian propaganda" when reporting from a military parade in Kiev, dedicated to Ukraine's Independence Day last week.

Later in the day, the Ukrainian Security Service said that Kurbatova will be banned from entering to the country for three years over allegedly "harming Ukraine's national interests."

"Anna Kurbatova, who was forcibly expelled from Ukraine, has crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border, her entry into the territory of our state has been banned for three years," SBU spokeswoman Olena Gitlyanska said.

The Russian reporter's abduction and upcoming deportation comes just a day after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) expelled two Spanish journalists it accuses of having anti-Kiev bias.

Kiev has repeatedly limited the activities of foreign and even some local opposition media outlets in Ukraine. As an example, Kiev, in March 2015 issued a list of 115 Russian media outlets which could be denied or temporarily suspended accreditation by Ukrainian authorities as the outlets "posed threats" to Ukrainian state security. As the regulation came into force, a number of Russian journalists and television reporters were denied entry to Ukraine or deported to Russia.

Moreover, earlier this year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko approved the decision to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities. In particular, Ukraine has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian media outlets, as well as popular Russia-based social networks in a move criticized by major media freedom watchdogs and advocacy groups. The Kremlin said that the decision is another manifestation of an unfriendly and short-sighted policy against Russia.

 

[angelburst29]

The planned Russia-Belarus war games dubbed Zapad have prompted several Baltic states' and Poland's claims of the drills allegedly being a "threat" to their security with Ukraine being the latest state beating that war drums over the upcoming exercise.

Ukraine Steps Up Security on Border Ahead of Russia-Belarus Zapad-2017 War Games
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709041057077149-ukraine-zapad-drills-russia-belarus/

Ukraine has taken steps to enhance security along its border with Belarus due to the upcoming Russia-Belarus Zapad-2017 ("West-2017") military drills, a press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said on Monday.

"Since the beginning of September, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has enhanced security measures along all the border areas. This is due to the Russia-Belarus joint military exercise Zapad-2017, which will be held on September 14-20," the statement read.

According to Kiev's statement, the border guards will defend locations along the border against "possible provocative actions and military interventions," engaging the country's military, police forces, as well as the National Guard.

A number of NATO member states located in eastern Europe, including Poland and Lithuania, have already expressed their concerns over the upcoming Russia-Belarus exercises. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance does not see any imminent threat posed against any NATO member by the drills.

In their turn, senior Russian and Belarusian officials reiterated that the drills do not pose any threat to other states and are exclusively defensive in nature. Moreover, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko stated earlier that these exercises would be open for foreign observers.

The Defense Ministry of Belarus reported in August that observers from seven countries — Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Norway — were invited to the event.

When commenting on NATO states' reaction to the planned drills, the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier that increasing military presence of NATO in Eastern Europe went unnoticed amid groundless criticism of the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2017 military exercises.

Moscow has repeatedly criticized the increased presence of the alliance’s troops and military facilities near the Russian border. Moscow has said Russia had never planned and does not plan to attack any NATO member.

The joint military drills are scheduled for September 14-20. The exercises will stretch from the Kola Peninsula in Russia's far northwest all the way down to Belarus. About 12,700 servicemen (including 5,500 Russians), some 70 planes and helicopters, and up to 680 units of military equipment will be involved in the drills.

A goal by Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku helped Belgium qualified for next year's World Cup in Russia at the weekend. Ukraine also improved their chances of making it to the tournament, with victory over Turkey.

Awkward Guests? Ukraine Improve Chances of Making It to the World Cup in Russia
https://sputniknews.com/sport/201709041057067457-world-cup-qualifiers-ukraine/

In July Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko assured FIFA the Ukrainians would be well looked after if they made it to the World Cup.

"I can say that the Ukrainian national team will not have any problems in Russia if it qualifies. Their group is very tough. We wish them luck," said Mr. Mutko.

Russia is issuing special identity cards, which will be needed to enter stadiums and can be used to enter the country as normal visa requirements are being waived.

Head of Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak said on Saturday he was in favor of introducing a criminal responsibility and a legislative ban for Ukrainian lawmakers and public figures for their visits to Russia.

Ukrainian Security Service Head Wants to Ban MPs From Visiting Russia
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709021057031149-sbu-russia-lawmakers-ban/

The statement comes as Kiev's decision on biometric border control for foreigners starting in 2018 entered into force earlier in the day.

"I support the presidential initiative [of biometric control], I would go even further — I would introduce a legislative ban and criminal responsibility for visiting aggressor states by [Ukrainian] lawmakers, public figures," Hrytsak said, as quoted by the 112 Ukraine broadcaster.

The decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on biometric border control for foreigners was signed into law by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Friday.

cabinet and the country's Security Service (SBU) to take "comprehensive measures" to intensify control of the entry and exit of foreigners, including Russian citizens and include Russia into the list of "migration risk" countries.

In January 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the country's unicameral parliament, adopted a statement branding Russia an "aggressor state"
for alleged interference in Ukraine's internal affairs and being one of the sides of the conflict in Donbass without providing evidence. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly refuted the allegations, calling them absurd.

The German foreign minister said that Vladimir Putin's proposal to deploy peacekeeper in Donbass should be seized.

Gabriel Says Putin’s Proposal on UN Peacekeepers in Donbass Should Be Supported
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709051057103491-gabriel-putin-proposal-peacekeepers-donbass/

"Putin publicly offered what both of us [Gabriel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel] demanded from him for weeks and months and what he had previously rejected, namely a peacekeeping mission in the east of Ukraine to implement the ceasefire. If there really is a chance, one should take advantage of it. We need more, not less detente, this is our task," Gabriel said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that it would hold consultations on the issue with the mission of Ukraine in New York, but refused to accept the presence of Russians in the peacekeeping mission.

Ukraine received Georgia’s extradition request of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former governor of Ukraine’s Odessa Region and Georgia's ex-president.

Ukraine Justice Ministry Receives Georgia's Extradition Request for Saakashvili
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709051057095656-ukraine-georgia-governor-odessa/

"Ukraine has received a search, detention and extradition request for Mikheil Saakashvili, the request of Georgia’s main prosecutor’s office was addressed to the Ukrainian Justice Ministry and the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office," Petukhov told a briefing.

The 6,000-ton arch of the bridge currently being built across the Kerch Strait has been brought to the site and is ready for installment.

Six Thousand Ton Arch of Crimean Bridge Ready for Installation (VIDEO) 28.08.2017
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201708281056858946-kerch--crimean-bridge-arch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QkzuQN3xoc (1:04 min.)

The 227 meter-long and 27-meter-wide prefabricated steel arch will be installed on 35-meter-tall fairway pylons.

The barge with the bridge arch on board reached the site taking 90 minutes to cover the 4 kilometers separating the assembly site in Kerch from the Kerch-Yenikal Canal.

The Kerch Strait connects the Black and Azov seas, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea from the Taman peninsula.

The Strait is 3.1 kilometers (1.9 miles) to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) wide and up to 18 meters (59 feet) deep.

The freighter “Saint Alexy” has been the first ship to sail under the giant railway arch in the channel between Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region and Crimea as a 19km (12-mile) road-rail bridge takes shape, Crimean Bridge news center reported.

First Ship Sails Under Crimea Railway Bridge Arch
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201708301056912798-crimea-bridge-arch/

“We’ve been watching this construction from day one. This is a mindboggling effort that will go down in history, the ship’s Captain, Yury Silayev said.

The “Saint Alexy” was en route from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

On Tuesday, the builders of the Crimean Bridge mounted the 6,000-ton steel arch on 35-meter-tall fairway pylons. The giant, 227-meter-long and 45-meter-tall, steel arch will take another three weeks to fully install.

After a 5,000-ton road arch has been brought in and also installed, there will be two fairway arches rising above the water of the Kerch Strait that separates Russia’s southern Krasnodar region from the Crimean peninsula.

The bridge will not impede shipping, as it will stand 35 meters above the water.

Road traffic along the Crimea Bridge, the longest in Russia, is scheduled to commence in December.

 

[Voyageur]

Regarding Crimea, the Ukraine Pres's website had this to say yesterday:

_http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/mayemo-stvoriti-umovi-shob-krim-stav-nepidjomnim-tyagarem-dl-43094

President: We must create conditions for Crimea to become an unbearable burden for Russia

In the course of the annual Address to the Verkhovna Rada, President Petro Poroshenko emphasized that the political and diplomatic path in the return of the occupied Ukrainian territories is the priority.

“Can we take Crimea away from Russia by force? Realistically – no. Will it go away voluntarily? Unfortunately, no. But we can create conditions when Crimea will become an unbearable burden for Moscow,” the Head of State noted.

The President noted that the Ukrainian authorities use instruments of international law, sanctions, international tribunals and arbitrations, various international platforms and monitoring mechanisms - ranging from the UN to UNESCO. “Bringing the Russian Federation to the international legal responsibility, unfortunately, is a long-term process, but I believe it is effective. We will force Russia to hold legal responsibility for its actions on the territory of Ukraine. The first hearings at the International Court of Justice have shown that the cases are extremely difficult and complex. Ukraine is a pioneer. There has never been such practice before, but we have started it. Russia will be brought to accountability. We are on the right track,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized. He reminded that the UN Court has already ordered Russia to terminate human right violations in Crimea and the policy of racial discrimination on the peninsula having recorded this fact. { }

Regarding the liberation of the occupied territories of Donbas, the President noted that the enemy gained a foothold in megalopolises with a large urban population. “Ukrainian citizens live there. We cannot and will not liquidate our citizens cold-bloodedly like the Russian leadership did in Chechnya. I even cannot recall the other cases of such a rigid "pacification",” Petro Poroshenko said. { }

The President emphasized that the Ukrainian military potential must be compared with the entire Russian potential, not only that in the occupied territories. He noted that the army of Russia is one of the strongest in the world. Its military budget since 2000 has exceeded that of Ukraine 16-20 times and the Russian army is 5 times bigger than that of Ukraine.

“The return of the conflict to the hot phase will cross out all the reforms and the restoration of the living standards of Ukrainians as the society is tired of war,” the Head of State said. According to the President, sociological surveys indicate that 11% of Ukrainians want to give up any attempts to return the occupied territories, cut them off and give to the enemy waiting for their return in the future. 14% want to freeze the conflict and isolate the territories. 13% want military offensive. Almost 60% support political-diplomatic path of returning the occupied territories.

The President informs that the bill on peculiarities of the state policy on the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions will soon be completed. “It will be published soon and submitted for discussion in Ukraine and among our partners. You will have the final word, dear people’s deputies. I am confident that you will have an opportunity to hold comprehensive discussions,” Petro Poroshenko said.

Quite the peep talk.

 

[angelburst29]

Regarding Crimea, the Ukraine Pres's website had this to say yesterday:

_http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/mayemo-stvoriti-umovi-shob-krim-stav-nepidjomnim-tyagarem-dl-43094

President: We must create conditions for Crimea to become an unbearable burden for Russia

In the course of the annual Address to the Verkhovna Rada, President Petro Poroshenko emphasized that the political and diplomatic path in the return of the occupied Ukrainian territories is the priority.

“Can we take Crimea away from Russia by force? Realistically – no. Will it go away voluntarily? Unfortunately, no. But we can create conditions when Crimea will become an unbearable burden for Moscow,” the Head of State noted.

The President noted that the Ukrainian authorities use instruments of international law, sanctions, international tribunals and arbitrations, various international platforms and monitoring mechanisms - ranging from the UN to UNESCO. “Bringing the Russian Federation to the international legal responsibility, unfortunately, is a long-term process, but I believe it is effective. We will force Russia to hold legal responsibility for its actions on the territory of Ukraine. The first hearings at the International Court of Justice have shown that the cases are extremely difficult and complex. Ukraine is a pioneer. There has never been such practice before, but we have started it. Russia will be brought to accountability. We are on the right track,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized. He reminded that the UN Court has already ordered Russia to terminate human right violations in Crimea and the policy of racial discrimination on the peninsula having recorded this fact. { }

Regarding the liberation of the occupied territories of Donbas, the President noted that the enemy gained a foothold in megalopolises with a large urban population. “Ukrainian citizens live there. We cannot and will not liquidate our citizens cold-bloodedly like the Russian leadership did in Chechnya. I even cannot recall the other cases of such a rigid "pacification",” Petro Poroshenko said. { }

Quite the peep talk.

Birds of the same feather - Poroshenko should be put on the same train - as Saakashvili - with a one way ticket to the Hague to stand trial? Maybe,
ex-president Yanukovich needs to join them?

Mikheil Saakashvili, a misfortunate politician of Georgian origin who has been recently seeking to restore his Ukrainian citizenship, was ordered to leave a train heading from Poland to Ukraine.

You Shall Not Pass! Ex-Odessa Governor Stopped From Entering Ukraine on Train
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709101057264868-saakashvili-train-ukraine/

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and former governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, was asked to leave a train headed to the Ukrainian capital Kiev via Lviv, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Sunday.

"There is an individual in our train who has no right to enter Ukraine's territory. The train will not move until the individual leaves the train," it was announced in the carriages via loudspeakers in the Polish city of Przemysl.

Before boarding the train, the politician told reporters at the station he was going to return to Ukraine to restore his rights as a Ukrainian citizen.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship by President Petro Poroshenko in July on the pretext of violating the country's law. The former Georgian leader was in the United States at the time when Poroshenko made his decision and said he would file to appeal the decision of the Ukrainian President in court.

The Ukrainian Border Service said it will not allow the ex-governor to enter Ukraine if he attempts to cross the border. Despite that, Saakashvili vowed to return to the country along with thousands of supporters.

The former Georgian president was appointed the Odessa Region's governor in May 2015 and stripped of Georgian citizenship upon receiving his Ukrainian passport. He resigned in November 2016, accusing Ukrainian officials of a lack of interest in the fight against corruption.

The former Georgian president turned Ukrainian governor, Mikheil Saakashvili, has vowed to organize a coup in Kiev.

Disgruntled Saakashvili Vows to Topple Ukrainian Gov't After Losing Citizenship
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201707281055947897-saakashvili-vows-topple-ukraine-govt/

The former Georgian president turned Ukrainian governor, Mikheil Saakashvili, has vowed to organize a coup in Kiev after it stripped him of Ukrainian citizenship, in an interview aired Thursday.

Ukraine's State Migration Service said Wednesday President Petro Poroshenko had issued a decree rescinding the citizenship of the Georgian-born politician, while he was reportedly on a US trip. Saakashvili, who lost his Georgian passport in 2015, promised to fight back.

"I run a very powerful organization in Ukraine. It is comprised of 100,000 activists, it has major headquarters in 26 regions, a promising young team, business people… These people will still be there, together we are planning to topple Ukrainian authorities," he told a Georgian broadcaster, Rustavi 2.

Saakashvili, who has called himself "more of a Ukrainian" than anyone in the Ukrainian parliament, faces extradition to Georgia if he ventures back to Kiev. He is wanted in Tbilisi for several alleged felonies, including the embezzlement of $5 million in state funds, accusations that he denies.

Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has been charged with the takeover of power in 2010, the country’s Prosecutor-General Yuri Lutsenko wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s ex-president Yanukovich charged with takeover of power in 2010
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/ukraines-ex-president-yanukovich-charged-takeover-power-2010

"Given the collected evidence, we report on a suspicion in line with Article 109.1 of Ukraine’s Criminal Court that ex-president Yanukovich and former justice minister (Alexander) Lavrinovich seized power jointly with other persons," Lutsenko said.

The Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the constitutional coup in 2010, which "led to the takeover of state power by broadening the powers of Ukraine’s president in an unconstitutional way by limiting the roles and powers of the parliament and the government," he said.

According to the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Turkey's Bayraktar tank landing ship arrived Sunday in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.

Turkish Tank Landing Ship Arrives in Ukrainian Port of Odessa
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709101057266760-ukraine-turkey-tank-landing-ship/

"On September 10, the Bayraktar, a Turkish Navy tank landing ship with Turkish Naval Academy cadets on board, arrived in the port of Odessa for a friendly visit," the Ukrainian Navy wrote on Facebook.

During the visit, Turkish officials are expected to meet with the command of the Ukrainian Naval Forces. In addition, a number of events, including excursions, are set to take place..

The visit to Odessa was organized in the framework of the training program for the Turkish cadets which is taking place on September 5-25.
Bayraktar is expected to stay in Odessa until Tuesday and then visit some other Black Sea ports.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that there is still a long way to go to establish sustainable peace in Ukraine's Donbass region despite all efforts made by Ukrainian diplomats to settle the issue by political and diplomatic means.

Situation in Donbass far From Sustainable Peace – Ukrainian President
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709091057253183-poroshenko-donbass-peace/

Regardless of the great efforts that the country’s leadership and our Ukrainian diplomats are making to solve the issue of the liberation of the Ukrainian territory by political and diplomatic means, the situation, unfortunately, is still very far from sustainable peace. In these difficult circumstances we particularly appreciate and support Armed Forces and National Guard of Ukraine," Poroshenko told the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

The Ukrainian president noted that the peace in Donbass could only be achieved by diplomatic and political means, but with the strong army at the same time.

The Ukrainian Junta command transferred four transport Mi-8 helicopters and an An-30 reconnaissance aircraft to the Donbass, according to the deputy commander of the operational command of the Democratic People's Republic of Donetsk, Col. Eduard Basurin.

Ukraine Junta Pushing For War, Four Mi-8 Transport Helicopters And A An-30 Reconnaissance Aircraft Spotted In Donbass, Landing In Kramatorsk Airfield
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/ukraine-junta-pushing-war-four-mi-8-transport-helicopters-and-30-reconnaissance-aircraft

**** "The Battles of 2014, during which most of the aircraft and helicopters of the Nazi Ukraine Units (APU) were destroyed, were not taught well by the Kiev Regime leadership. It is once again trying to intimidate the defenders and civilians of the Donbass with the imaginary power of their aviation, "added Basurin. ******

"The Ukrainian Junta command is transferring to the so-called ATO zone additional forces of the Air Force. Four K-8 transport helicopters and an An-30 reconnaissance aircraft arrived at the Kramatorsk airfield, "he said.

In this connection, Col. Basurin called on the Kiev Regime to comply with the Minsk agreements and refrain from any provocative actions that could lead to an escalation of the conflict in the region.

According to paragraph 7 of the Minsk Memorandum of September 19, 2014, the use of combat aircraft and UAVs is prohibited along the line of contact of the parties in the zone where weapons are not used for a width of at least 30 km, except for the UAV of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

According to open sources, the An-30 is an airborne surveillance and aerial survey aircraft, which was produced in the 70s of the XX century. On June 6, 2014, one of these vehicles was shot down by the DPR Army near Slavyansk.

 

[angelburst29]

Former Georgian President and ex-Governor of Ukraine's Odessa Region Mikheil Saakashvili has forced his entry to Ukraine, helped by a crowd of his supporters, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine spokesman Oleh Slobodyan said on Sunday.

WATCH: Saakashvili Breaks Through Ukrainian Border With Help of Supporters
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709101057271145-saakashvili-enters-ukraine/

Slobodyan said Saakashvili "illegally crossed the border" as he and his supporters did not pass through security checks.

"The crowd… broke through the Shegini checkpoint… in fact, one could say, invaded the territory of Poland, took Mikheil Saakashvili, started a fight with the border guards and dragged Saakashvili into the territory of Ukraine," Slobodyan told the UNIAN news agency.

Earlier in the day, Saakashvili, stripped of the Ukrainian citizenship in July, boarded a train heading from Poland to Ukraine. However, he was asked to get off the train while still in Poland. After that, he said he would enter the country by car.

Adherents of Mihail Saakashvili broke into fence of the police at the checkpoint Shegini at the border with Poland, and the ex-president of Georgia entered the territory of Ukraine.

Adherents of Saakashvili helped him to break into Ukraine (Video)
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/adherents-saakashvili-helped-him-break-ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Av-AQ0eX4 (3:54 min.)

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday commented on the situation around former Georgian President and ex-governor of the Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili, who has illegally entered Ukraine, saying it is not worth of monitoring.

'Political Clownery': Kremlin on Ex-Georgian President's Odyssey in Ukraine
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201709111057292524-kremlin-saakashvili-ukraine/

Peskov told reporters the Kremlin believes that what is happening in Ukraine with Saakashvili is not a serious issue, adding that Moscow is busy with monitoring events that matter.

"It is rather a topic of curious issues and ones related closer to the category of political clownery," Peskov said when asked whether Moscow was following Saakashvili's movements.

The Kiev Regime began mass inspections in the rank and file of the armed forces of Ukraine Junta in order to identify servicemen who disagree with the political course of the authorities. This was announced today by the high command of the DPR People's Army, Col. Eduard Basurin.

Insubordination Within The Rank And File Of The Ukraine Junta Military, Soldiers And Officers Dismissed Not Following The Nazi Political Course
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/insubordination-within-rank-and-file-ukraine-junta-military-soldiers-and-officers-dismissed-not

"The case against Deputy Commander of the Ukraine Junta Army General Pyotr Nikitenko, who was not afraid to publicly express the opinion of the general mass of Ukrainian servicemen, led to mass inspections in the ranks of the Ukraine Junta Armed Forces," he said. - In the units and units of the Ukrainian Junta Armed Forces, the Security Service conducted inspections that include surveys and questionnaires to identify officers whose opinions are in conflict with Kiev's political course. "

He specified that the military servicemen, who had raised suspicion, were recalled to the rear or dismissed from the Junta armed forces of Ukraine. Similar measures have already been applied to a number of officers and members of the 59th motorized infantry brigade, 72 and 92 mechanized brigades.

"This shows that the Ukrainian leadership is afraid of pressure from its own security forces and is afraid of disobedience on their part," summed up Basurin.

We add that on September 8, the media reported that the General Staff of the Ukrainian Junta Armed Forces recalled Major-General Pyotr Nikitenko from the war zone. This was due to the fact that Nikitenko "called Ukrainian volunteers looters" and "recognized the greatness of Russia.

 

[angelburst29]

Ukrainian military beat up NATO servicemen for rape of civilians September 18 , 2017
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/09/ukrainian-military-beat-up-nato.html

The Kiev military in the occupied territory of the LPR has beaten up several Lithuanian instructors who raped two underage resident civilains of the village of Teploe. This was reported by the official representative of the People's Militia of the People's Republic of Lugansk, Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Marochko.

"We have information that a conflict is brewing in the zone of the so-called Anti-Terrorist Zone between servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and NATO instructors. In the village of Teploe, Stanichno-Lugansky district, investigators of the military prosecutor's office are investigating the beatings of Lithuanian servicemen, by one of the divisions of the 14th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces" Marachko said.

Marochko explained that the reason for the beating was "not only the boorish and arrogant behavior of foreign citizens in Ukraine, both with respect to military personnel and the local population, but also the connivance of local law enforcement agencies to crimes."

"On September 12, two minors from the village of Teploe were raped by three Lithuanians on the territory of the school. At the local police station, where the victims appealed to, they refused to accept the application and were strongly advised to close their mouths. This fact angered the local residents, which pushed individual servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to 'lynch' the rapists. As a result of the beatings, three of them were taken to the regional hospital of Kharkiv with multiple fractures and bruises," said the official representative of the defense department of the Republic.

"This fact clearly demonstrates the true essence of foreign aid to the criminal Kiev regime in bringing "order" to the Donbass through the genocide of its local population," Marachko said.

American weapons will help Ukraine recapture the Donbass. Such a statement was made by President Petro Poroshenko during a speech at the US Military Academy "West Point" on Monday in New York.

Poroshenko: American weapons will help Ukraine capture Donbass
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/09/poroshenko-american-weapons-will-help.html

"First of all, US weapons can help us free the Donbass and return Ukrainian territories" - said the head of the Ukrainian state. Poroshenko expressed regret that the issue of providing Ukraine with lethal weapons still remains controversial and unresolved. Also, the president of Ukraine refuted the statements that American weapons can not help resolve the situation in Ukraine.

"They also use arguments that the provision of weapons to us by the Americans will contribute to the further escalation of the conflict, but this is absolutely untrue. Why not take this positive decision and save more lives of Ukrainians?" -stressed the Ukrainian president.

The OSCE and human rights organizations should conduct an emergency meeting immediately in response to the Kiev Junta's practice of using combat UAVs and take measures against military and political command of the Ukraine Junta , according to DPR People's Army Col. Eduard Basurin ~

The Poroshenko Regime Using Lethal Combat Drones (UAV's), The "Sokol" Which Is Banned By The Minsk Agreements
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/poroshenko-regime-using-lethal-combat-drones-uavs-sokol-which-banned-minsk-agreements

“Ukrainian media sources praise the new Sokol combat drone, which is a lethal weapon and banned in Donbass under the Minsk Agreements. Besides, this UAV claimed to be developed by Ukrainian scientists is actually of Polish origin.”

Basurin emphasized that the employment of such arms aggravates the situation and urged the OSCE SMM and human rights organizations to pay attention to the fact and to apply restrictions agains Ukrainian authorities and military command.

According to the Article 7 of the Minsk Memorandum dated 19 September 2014, the use of combat aircrafts and UAVs is banned along the contact line in the 30km-wide zone of ceasefire, with the only exception made for the OSCE SMM drones.

AFU shelled car of ambulance in the night from 17 to 18 September that arrived to the Petrovskiy district that was shelled and a civil man got wounded.

Kiev armed forces purposefully target doctors in Donbass (Video)
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/kiev-armed-forces-purposefully-target-doctors-donbass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0bZHNsyP30 (2:30 min.)

When we arrived, we were told that the mortar shelled landed.

We saw wounded, we took he and departed, and the shelling was restarted, shells landed everywhere.

It happens all the time in the village Trudovskie. We are forbidden to go there, but how? Civilians are wounded often, doctor of an ambulance said.

Eurobonds of Ukraine, which were successfully posted on Monday by the president of the country Petro Poroshenko, "are interesting only to speculators, as the country is in fact in a state of default" said Konstantin Vyshkovsky, director of the department of debt policy of the Russian Federation Ministry of Finance.

Ukraine is on the verge of default, despite Eurobonds
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/09/ukraine-is-on-verge-of-default-despite.html

"Ukraine is formally in a state of default, such instruments are of interest only for investors pursuing sufficiently speculative strategies." - said Vyshkovsky on the air of the channel "Russia 1". Ukraine has successfully completed the placement of Eurobonds for 3 billion dollars, as stated by the President of the country Petro Poroshenko on the eve of his visit to New York.

Ukraine for the first time in three years entered the markets of sovereign borrowing.

 

[angelburst29]

In Ochakov, Ukraine, in direct proximity to Crimea, the construction of an American naval base has kicked off. This was announced on the official site of the US Navy on August 7th, 2017. Earlier, on July 19th, the US Navy announced new cooperation efforts between its elite troops and their Ukrainian counterparts.

US building naval base in Ochakov, Ukraine – Will Russia respond? Aug. 18, 2017
http://continent-russia.com/us-building-naval-base-ochakov-ukraine-will-russia-respond/

Ochakov, a port city on the Black Sea, was wrested from the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th century by Generalissimo Suvorov’s troops. Ochakov is the birthplace (or one of the birthplaces) of the USSR’s marine spetsnaz, and in 1968 the island of Berezan became the new stationing point of the 17th Naval Infantry Brigade transferred from Sevastopol. Following the collapse of the USSR, the 73rd Marine Special Operations Center of the Ukrainian Navy was established there followed by the 7th Naval Infantry Brigade consisting of underwater mining, underwater de-mining, reconnaissance and saboteur, and special communications units. This is a rough equivalent to the American Navy Seals.

Back in Soviet times, the Ochakov naval intelligence training center constituted a unique base and drew top-class experts into its ranks. Even over the several decades of Ukrainian independence, the remnants of this former gem were not liquidated, although Ukrainian naval commandos did decline drastically in professional skill compared to their Soviet naval predecessors.

In other words, Ochakov has not been chosen as a US Navy base in Ukraine by accident. Ukraine’s naval forces are in a state close to clinical death, with a single detachment of marine special forces being one of the few combat-ready units of the Ukrainian Navy left, a fact thanks exclusively to the heritage – training methods, equipment, and people – which Ukraine inherited from the Soviet Union.

The construction of a US Navy base in Ochakov is not something unexpected. Since 2015, and perhaps even earlier, the Americans have held military instruction programs for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National guard. At the Yavoriv training grounds in the Lvov region. 290 American commandos are known to be training Ukrainian National Guard soldiers.

According to military observers in Ukraine, there are three polygons (training grounds) at which American instructors are training Ukrainian soldiers for the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone in Donbass. In particular, my sources associated with the 128th Mountain Infantry Brigade (Mukachevo, Transcarpathian region) have posited that mountain shooters are constantly being trained in Transcarpathia. Moreover, American instructors are training not only UAF unit personnel, but also some Nazi groups, in particular Right Sector.

On the one hand, US Congressmen have demanded that American military aid not be distributed to Nazi battalions such as Azov and others. On the other hand, American commandos are secretly training Ukrainian Nazis in at least once place – Transcarpathia.

While the American military has long since established training programs for Ukrainian troops in Western Ukraine, their current “cooperation” is reaching a qualitatively new level with the establishment of permanent American military bases on Ukrainian territory.

On June 21st, the head of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, Andrey Parubiy, gave an interview on the program “Freedom of Speech” on ICTV in which he claimed that US military bases would soon be built across Ukraine as part of NATO-Ukraine cooperation. Let us recall that Andrey Parubiy is one of the founders and the chairman of the Social-National Party of Ukraine (which Oleg Tyagnibok’s Svoboda later grew out of), which openly professes the ideology of “social nationalism”, or the Ukrainian version of the ideology of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party. It is with such a “partner” that the US is developing military cooperation.

The Constitution of Ukraine, however, stipulates the country’s non-aligned status. The NATO Charter also forbids accepting countries which have territorial conflicts with their neighbors. Moreover, any induction of Ukraine into NATO would pose too many big problems for both the alliance and Ukraine itself. For example, Ukraine would be compelled to adopt NATO arms standards, and NATO would become responsible for “defending Ukraine from Russia” if we take NATO and Ukrainian rhetoric, and the realities of the New Cold War, to their logical conclusion. Russia, meanwhile, would not stand idly by and watch Ukraine be adopted into the aggressively anti-Russian NATO bloc.

Thus, the American political leadership and military command have chosen the path of least resistance. Yet the creation of a network of American military bases on the territory of Ukraine is nothing other than a form of military occupation. Meanwhile, Ukraine itself will not even get the carrot of European Union membership, all the while receiving the stick of US-NATO boots on its soil.

In 1989, the incompetent Soviet leadership headed by Gorbachev and Shevardnadze claimed to have received verbal assurances from Western leaders that NATO would not expand eastwards. Since then, NATO has overtaken not only all the countries of Eastern Europe, but three former Soviet republics as well. In this context, the creation of the first “official” US military base in Ukraine is the next phase of NATO’s offensive to the East. There can be no doubt that Ochakov will be followed by other land and naval bases in both Ukraine and Georgia.

On this note, it is worth recalling that the American geopolitical tradition has christened this specific strategy the “anaconda”, which envisions suffocating Russia to death by bringing military bases up to its borders, a tactic which renders even the use of nuclear weapons hopeless.

In my opinion, the construction of the US Navy base in Ochakov will finally rid Russia’s leadership of any last illusions as to the possibility of reaching an agreement with Trump. Judging by the facts – and not the pre-election declarations of who is now the 44th President of the United States of America – an even more stringently anti-Russian line is being pursued than under Trump’s Democratic predecessor. Russia has no other option but to harshly respond to these anti-Russian steps which threaten the country’s national security.

I can only guess as to the reciprocal steps which Moscow may opt for in this situation. Some options have already been voiced by military experts and political analysts.

For example, one such retaliatory step could be recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the borders prescribed in their constitutions, 60% of which are currently under Ukrainian occupation. As a response to America’s legal and illegal arms supplies to Ukraine, Russia should legally and openly supply Russian weapons to the DPR and LPR’s armies.

The next move would be for the Donbass republics. To this day they have bit their tongues and, under strong pressure from Moscow, complied with the provisions of the Minsk Agreements while Ukraine has defiantly violated them. With the opening of the floodgates of American arms deliveries to Ukraine (secret channels have been flowing since spring of 2014), both the warring sides will opt to abandon the Minsk Agreements, after which the Donbass republics’ armies will go on an offensive campaign aiming to liberate at least all of Donbass that remains under Ukrainian occupation. We can assume that once that starts and once the UAF starts to rout, anti-Nazi, and indeed anti-Ukrainian uprisings will spread like wildfire across the historical lands of Novorossiya. And then the idea of Malorossiya will be imbued with some sense of objective reality.

This is but one of the possible steps Russia could take in one of the conflict’s theaters, and it can take other forms as well. In any case, an answer can, will and must follow.

 

[Voyageur]

In Ochakov, Ukraine, in direct proximity to Crimea, the construction of an American naval base has kicked off. This was announced on the official site of the US Navy on August 7th, 2017. Earlier, on July 19th, the US Navy announced new cooperation efforts between its elite troops and their Ukrainian counterparts.

US building naval base in Ochakov, Ukraine – Will Russia respond? Aug. 18, 2017
http://continent-russia.com/us-building-naval-base-ochakov-ukraine-will-russia-respond/

[...]

Interesting article, and just adjacent to Crimea under Moldavia. As the article said, NATO/U.S. boots on the ground with Ukraine getting the stick.

I see that Porkyshenko has been in Canada, maybe still is. Here is the press release from Ottawa:

_http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/09/19/ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-visit-canada

During their meeting, Prime Minister Trudeau and President Poroshenko will discuss how to strengthen the already robust security and people-to-people connections between Canada and Ukraine. Prime Minister Trudeau will also reiterate Canada’s ongoing support for the people of Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its reform efforts.

Our two countries have a long history of friendship, common values, and shared ambitions for the future of our people. Canada is committed to the continued deepening of our relations with Ukraine, including through the opportunities created by the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.

Quick Facts

• Prime Minister Trudeau last met with President Poroshenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, in July 2016.
• Since 2015, the Canadian Armed Forces have trained more than 4,800 members of the Ukrainian armed forces as part of Operation UNIFIER, Canada’s military training mission in Ukraine.
• The coming into force of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement on August 1, 2017, represents a notable milestone in the countries’ bilateral relationship, and will generate commercial benefits for Canadian and Ukrainian businesses alike.
• Canada-Ukraine bilateral merchandise trade increased 14 per cent in 2015 and 34 per cent in 2016. In that same year, Canada’s merchandise exports to Ukraine totalled $265.2 million and merchandise imports totalled $107.4 million.
• Canada and Ukraine have enjoyed close bilateral relations since Canada became the first Western nation to recognize Ukraine’s independence on December 2, 1991.
• Canada and Ukraine’s people-to-people ties are strengthened by the almost 1.3 million-strong Ukrainian-Canadian community.
• Since January 2014, Canada has committed more than $700 million in multi-faceted support to Ukraine, encompassing a broad range of financial, development, stabilization and security, non-lethal military and humanitarian assistance.
  

On the UN front:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-poroshenko-ukraine-peacekeeping-1.4303831

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed support for a potential United Nations peacekeeping mission in war-torn Ukraine on Friday, but stopped short of committing Canadian troops.

Articles like this usual add in a qualifier, and Trudeau did not disappoint:

The prime minister said a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine could help to end the violence there and ensure "people are able to live their lives in peace and security in a way that upholds the principles of international law that, quite frankly, Russia violated with its illegitimate actions."

Trudeau made the remarks following a meeting in Toronto with Poroshenko, who indicated he would like to see a Canadian presence should the notion become reality.
[...]
Earlier this month, Ukraine submitted a draft proposal to the UN for a peacekeeping mission in the eastern part of the country, something Poroshenko's been calling for, in the Donbas region of the country, since 2015.
[...]
Russia introduced its own UN draft resolution for peacekeeping in Ukraine that would be restricted to monitoring the front line between Russian-backed separatist forces and the Ukrainian military. {articles often slip in the "Russian backed" words for emphasis}
[...]
On Friday, Poroshenko said the only plan that makes sense is for a UN Security Council approved peacekeeping mission that would police the entire occupied territories to ensure that no Russian troops, weapons or ammunition crossed the border into Ukraine.
[...]
Selling arms to Ukraine

Trudeau was also asked if he had considered taking Ukraine off the list of countries Canadian military contractors are not allowed to sell weapons to.

"Absolutely we are very much looking at the AFCCL — the Automatic Firearms Country Control List — mechanism as something we are moving forward on," Trudeau said. "There's a process and a series of criteria that have to be reached but it is something we are working on."

Canada has provided non-lethal military equipment to the country for some time, shipping equipment such as mobile field hospitals, explosive disposal equipment and night vision goggles.

Earlier this year, Canada and Ukraine signed a defence co-operation agreement, which increases mutual co-operation in the areas of defence policy, education, defence research and development.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said at the time that the agreement was the first step to Ukraine being taken off the firearms control list.

Trudeau stopped short of saying when that would happen, but reiterated his support for the country as it continues to struggle with the aggression of its neighbour.

"We continue to stand with Ukraine against the illegal illegitimate incursion of Russia into Ukrainian territorial sovereignty and their attempts to destabilize Ukraine economically and many other ways," Trudeau said.

In a recent article by John Helmer, the focus was on Ukrainian Vodka; he actually did not bring up his love for Chrystia Freeland ;) or George Soros, instead he discusses John Vellinga and his "Ukrainian brew" Zirka.

Helmer says:

http://johnhelmer.net/atlantic-council-of-new-york-toasts-canadian-prime-minister-trudeau-with-ukrainian-vodka-boosted-by-the-canadian-and-us-governments-but-is-that-the-pravy-sektor-banner-flying-on-the-bottle/

ATLANTIC COUNCIL OF NEW YORK TOASTS CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER TRUDEAU WITH UKRAINIAN VODKA BOOSTED BY THE CANADIAN AND US GOVERNMENTS – BUT IS THAT THE PRAVY SEKTOR BANNER FLYING ON THE BOTTLE?

It’s also a brew for which Trudeau’s predecessor as prime minister, Stephen Harper, helped to modernize a distillery in the Ukraine, plus zero import duties on reaching the Canadian border, plus endorsement from the US-financed, Kiev-based investment fund Horizon Capital, created with State Department money by Natalie Jaresko, US diplomat turned Ukrainian finance minister turned US official again, and her protégé, a Ukrainian-Canadian named Lenna Koszarny.
[...]
Zirkova vodka and Multiculture Bevco received their start-up investment from Koszarny of Horizon Capital; that is according to this report. For the story of US and Canadian government funding for west Ukrainian businesses, read the Horizon Capital story under Jaresko here. For Koszarny’s role, with Harper’s contribution of $400 million in Canadian government funds, click to open.

Vellinga says Horizon Capital did not invest in his company because it can only invest in companies in the Ukraine, and is not allowed to invest in alcohol production. He also denies the Zirkova colours are those of Pravy Sektor. “They are the traditional colours – black earth, red roots – which you will find on Ukrainian embroidery.”

Nice to know, aside from supporting the Kiev fascist military and opening up new arms sales through changing the "Control list" status, that our tax dollars are funding Zirkova vodka, which makes the Ukrainian Canadian Associations very happy.

That's the Canadian news.

 

[angelburst29]

Interesting article, and just adjacent to Crimea under Moldavia. As the article said, NATO/U.S. boots on the ground with Ukraine getting the stick.

I see that Porkyshenko has been in Canada, maybe still is. Here is the press release from Ottawa:

_http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2017/09/19/ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-visit-canada

At a side meeting at the U.N., Trump denied Poroshenko lethal weapons but the U.S. Senate has already voted to give Ukraine "500 million dollars" for the 2018 defense Budget. I don't understand the mentality behind Poroshenko asking for lethal weapons from any Country - considering NATO has the "keys to the candy store" and has been supplying Ukraine with what they need - to advance NATO's plans? Poroshenko is probably after Trudeau for a cash loan?

Canada’s Seeks to Unlock Lethal Arms Exports to Ukraine – Reports
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709231057631334-canada-trudeau-lethal-arms-ukraine/

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he was moving forward on adding Ukraine to the list of countries allowed to receive supplies of lethal weapons, according to local reports.

The Ukrainian government has been looking to NATO countries for both lethal and non-lethal aid since it engaged in 2014 in a fight with rebels in the southeast, who seek independence from Kiev.

Asked if Ukraine would be added to Canada’s Automatic Firearms Country Control List, Trudeau said, "Absolutely… There's a process and a series of criteria that have to be reached but it is something we're working on," according to the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Senate of the USA approved the project of defense budget of Ukraine for 2018, according to which 500 million dollars are to be given to Ukraine in sphere of defense.
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/poroshenko-states-usa-give-lethal-armament-ukraine

A source told Sputnik that the Donetsk People's Republic minister of Revenue and Duties was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.

DPR Minister Wounded in Assassination Attempt in Donetsk - Source (Video)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709231057632579-dpr-minister-wounds-assassination-attempt/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-97jtrMb54 (1:04 min.)

The Minister of Revenue and Duties of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Timofeev was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in Donetsk, a source in the DPR's security forces told Sputnik on Saturday.

"There have been two explosions, an assassination on the DPR Minister of Revenue and Duties Timofeev has been attempted. He has been critically wounded," the source said.

The DPR Ministry of Revenue and Duties confirmed the assassination attempt.

"The minister is fine. His car was blown up, he was provided with medical assistance," the ministry's representative told Sputnik.

The republic's official website also reported about the accident, saying that a total of eight people were injured in the incident.

In late August, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko said that a bomb had been found near his home earlier in the week. Earlier in August, there was an assassination attempt on the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, Igor Plotnitsky. A road bomb exploded near Plotnitsky's car and he sustained non-lethal injuries. Plotnitsky has accused the Ukrainian government of being behind the attack.

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Stepan Poltorak, has filed a report on his resignation, as reported by ex-deputy of Ukraine, Vladimir Oleinik.

To avoid war crimes, Ukraine's Minister of Defense resigns
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/09/to-avoid-war-crimes-ukraines-minister.html

"According to our information, last week Poltorak presented Poroshenko with a statement of his resignation. Why? Because the military is being forced to prepare for war. General Nikitenko showed his holes too," Oleynik said, referring to when Major General of the Ukrainian forces, Peter Nikitenko, called nationalists "marauders" in the Donbass.

According to Oleynik, the problem stems from a legal provision for the Ukrainian army.

"You can not use the armed forces to attack within your own country, the armed forces are only for protection. The military understand this: Poroshenko will flee, and they will be responsible for grave crimes against their own people. The war is not a solution, but an extension of Poroshenko's tenure in power," the politician said.

 

[angelburst29]

INTELLIGENCE REPORT/VIDEO FROM THE HIGH COMMAND DPR PEOPLE'S ARMY COL. BASURIN ON THE UKRAINE JUNTA FRONT ! KIEV ARMY IN TATTERS AS COUP LEADER POROSHENKO GOES OUT BEGGING FOR MONEY FROM NATO STATES!

Coup Leader Of Ukraine Poroshenko Begging For Handout's From NATO States Because Of Low Morale And Theft Of Military Budget Within The Kiev Junta Military
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/coup-leader-ukraine-poroshenko-begging-handouts-nato-states-because-low-morale-and-theft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHhAOU-t-E (2:14 min.)

Despite financial injections of Western partners into the military budget of Ukraine, Poroshenko continues to travel around the NATO countries with an outstretched hand. Meanwhile, the AFU continue plunging into corruption and fabricating financial reports.

According to the information available to us, the AFU units located in the so-called 'ATO' zone received a large batch of BRDM-2 vehicles allegedly undergone a deep modernization, involving the installation of modern communication systems, but, however, did not solve the problem of the need for major overhaul of old machines.

Accustomed to Poroshenko's tales about the 'strongest' army in Europe, Prosecutor General Lutsenko was greatly surprised to visit the position of the 128 separate mountain infantry brigade. On the engineering equipment of the brigade's positions, billions of hryvnias were allocated, in fact, it turned out to be a cheap imitation of hastily built fortifications. In shock from what he saw, Lutsenko instructed to conduct an investigation into the theft of budget funds allocated for the construction of the second line of defense.

The command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is ready to do anything to hide the facts of the state budget embezzlement, and continue to feed on the ongoing war.

In the of the Novoyanisol locality, controlled by Ukraine with the aim of concealing the shortage of ammunition on the eve of the expected verification, a stock of rocket and artillery weapons that provided ammunition to the units of the 59 separate mechanized infantry brigade and the 28 separate mechanized brigade was deliberately set on fire. The fact of deliberate arson is also confirmed by the absence of casualties, as all the personnel were evacuated beforehand. And such cases occur every day, at all levels, from the soldier to the commander of the so-called 'ATO' zone. The war will not cease until the command and the personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ease to perceive it as a profitable business.

During the past twenty-four hours, Nazi Ukraine Forces have fired over 40 artillery and mortar shells around the outskirts of Donetsk and the southern villages of the Republic according to deputy commander of the operational command of the Democratic People's Republic of Donetsk, Col. Eduard Basurin.

Over The Weekend The Nazi Ukraine Junta Fired Over 40 Rounds Of Artillery On Civilian Areas Of Donetsk, Also Small Arms Were Used To Target Civilian's In Sakhanka
http://nrt24.ru/en/news/over-weekend-nazi-ukraine-junta-fired-over-40-rounds-artillery-civilian-areas-donetsk-also

"In Donetsk direction, the enemy used artillery, mortars, armored personnel carriers, various types of grenade launchers and small arms. Three artillery shells with the caliber of 122 mm, two mortars with the caliber of 120 mm and 15 with a caliber of 82 mm were launched in the adjacent districts of 10 settlements", "he said.

Basurin added incoming from Mariupol direction, the Nazi Ukraine Armed Forces fired 23 mortars in the village of Sosnovskoye, the area of ​​Sakhanka village was bombarded with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms were used targeting civilians !

Earlier today it was reported that according to the DPR command, the Nazi Ukrainian security forces violated the ceasefire regime 16 times during the day.

 

[angelburst29]

There have been no immediate reports about possible victims.

Ammunition depot explodes in Ukraine's Donetsk region — police Friday September 22, 2017
http://tass.com/world/967129

A series of explosions rocked an arms depot near the Ukrainian settlement of Maloyanisol in the Donetsk region, 36 kilometers from Mariupol, the press service of the regional police's chief department reports.

"Several blasts at the depots located in a field, came at about 16:20 local time (coincides with the Moscow time). A fire broke out practically right after the explosions," regional police reports.

The site has been cordoned off by law enforcement officers, while emergency services are dealing with the aftermath of the blasts, it said. Regional police authorities left for the site. "The territory is cordoned off to prevent people from getting into a fire trap," police reports.

There have been no immediate reports about possible victims. Depots belong to a local military unit. Earlier, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the fire had broken out at an ammunition depot of a military unit in the Donetsk region. It said military were being evacuated. According to the Defense Ministry,
the fire spread to the military unit’s compound from nearby agricultural land.

Ukraine’s authorities earlier reported confiscation and return to Ukraine’s budget of $1.4bln that, according to Ukraine’s court, belonged to Yanukovich and his entourage.

Court’s decision to confiscate $200 mln from Yanukovich entourage comes into force
http://tass.com/world/967122

The court’s ruling to confiscate $200 mln of bank assets from former Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich’s entourage has come into force, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yury Lutsenko said on Friday.

"The decision of Cherkassy’s Sosnovsky District Court on one more asset forfeiture of bank assets in the amount of $200mln belonging to Yanukovich’s mafia has come into effect," he wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine’s authorities earlier reported confiscation and return to Ukraine’s budget of $1.4bln that, according to Ukraine’s court, belonged to Yanukovich and his entourage.

Lutsenko announced on Wednesday confiscation of $200mln from the former president’s entourage, having stressed that "investigation into the members of Yanukovich’s organized criminal group has been completed and is passing into court proceedings."

Lawyer for the ex-president Vitaly Serdyuk said in response that Yanukovich’s defense is currently working on commencement of action on the ban to spread misleading information. The statement on confiscation of $ 200mln is "a new fake after released information on confiscation of 1.5bln hryvnias," he said.

Serdyuk stressed that, according to official responses from European financial institutes and case files that currently concern Yanukovich, "no money was seized, confiscated or mentioned save that on Oschadbank’s accounts." "The issue concerns 28mln hryvnias that were seized back in 2014 and is money from its official account. This is all money that was seized," the lawyer said.

 

[angelburst29]

Ukrainian president says he believes Justin Trudeau is open to sending peacekeepers to his country.

Exclusive - Ukraine asks Canada for access to satellite images to monitor Russian, rebel troop movements Mon. Sept. 25, 2017 (Short video)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-canada-satellite-access-1.4306406

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pressed the Trudeau government to restart a program supplying the Ukrainian military with satellite imagery to monitor Russian and separatist rebel troop movements, and says it is "extremely important" for Canada to be part of a potential UN peacekeeping mission in the war-torn country.

In an exclusive interview with CBC's Rosemary Barton, Poroshenko said he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to provide his country with sophisticated imagery of the Ukraine-Russia border from a Canadian satellite.

"Because that can effectively help us implement the Minsk agreement, to have evidence that Russia moved their tanks, artillery systems, multi-rocket launch systems," Poroshenko said.

It's not the first time Poroshenko has made a direct appeal to a Canadian prime minister for satellite data. He convinced the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper to provide RADARSAT-2 images for one year, beginning in March 2015, according to documents obtained by CBC News under Access to Information.

The $9.5-million initiative was not renewed in the spring of 2016 by the new Liberal government, which cited the cost and "limitations of the licence requirements" as reasons for ending the program, said the documents.

The images were carefully limited to cover the "internationally recognized territory of Ukraine" only and "any area or point outside this geographic zone" was not allowed to be shared.

That is significant because it blinded the Ukrainians to potential Russian troop movements on the other side of the border.

In the fall of last year, Canadian officials made it clear to their Ukrainian counterparts the decision to suspend the sharing of information would not be reviewed. "I have no doubt that we will solve this question," Poroshenko said, following his meeting with Trudeau last Friday.

Canadian peacekeepers 'extremely important' - The Ukrainian president said Canada should be involved in the mission to help end a conflict in the embattled eastern European country between government troops and Russia-backed separatists.

Poroshenko called it "extremely important, because Canada has a unique experience," noting Canada's historic role in developing the UN's peacekeeping function.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Russian-backed separatist fighters subsequently took up arms against Ukrainian government forces in the east of the country. The conflict — now in its fourth year — has killed more than 10,000 people, injured 24,000 and forced 1.6 million to leave their homes, according to the UN.

Canada has already trained more than 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers to fight Moscow-backed rebels, and Ottawa has given the country $16 million in non-lethal equipment such as helmets, bulletproof vests and winter clothing. But there is growing push for Ottawa to commit peacekeeping troops in war-torn Ukraine.

Last year, Trudeau promised to deliver 600 soldiers and 150 police officers to UN-mandated peace support operations. The federal government has not yet committed to any specific mission.

"I have a feeling he's absolutely open," Poroshenko said of Trudeau's views about sending Canadian peacekeepers to his country. "I'm fully satisfied with our discussion with Prime Minister Trudeau."

'Absolutely impossible' to have Russian peacekeepers - Earlier this month, Ukraine submitted a draft proposal to the UN for peacekeepers to cover the entire conflict zone and the border with Russia it does not control. Ukraine's plan would also ban any Russian nationals from taking part in a peacekeeping mission, an idea Moscow has denounced.

"This is absolutely impossible that Russia can be a part of the peacekeeping mission, because Russia is on the side of the conflict," Poroshenko said. "Russia is an aggressor. We don't have discussions."

Kiev and Western countries accuse Russia of providing military backing to the insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies any direct role in the conflict.

Russia, meanwhile, made its own suggestions earlier this month for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to eastern Ukraine — the first major Kremlin proposal to resolve the three-year conflict. That proposal is aimed at protecting ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The observers are there to monitor implementation of the Minsk Protocol aimed at ending the war, which has been largely unsuccessful.

"Of course, the Russian proposal is unacceptable," Poroshenko said of the Russian peacekeeping plan, "because Russia wants to use the peacekeepers as kind of the bodyguard for the observers of the special monitoring mission of the OSCE, which is absolutely against the statute."

'Military crime' - Sending a UN peacekeeping force requires the approval of the UN Security Council. Russia is one of five permanent members of the council and can veto any resolutions assigning peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine.

If that happens, Poroshenko said he would bring the issue before the United Nation's highest court.

"If Russia would be the only nation who would be against peacekeeping it will be very difficult to explain," Poroshenko said. "This is occupied territory, occupied by Russian troops, and in that situation it would be a recognition of the occupation by Russia.

"With that situation we will go to the International Court of Justice and Russia will be responsible for the military crime."

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday subjected to severe criticism the Ukranian educational law, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Kremlin Spokesman Criticizes Some Provisions of Ukraine Education Law
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201709261057710933-ukraine-law-education-kremlin/

The law on education, signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, causes concern among a number of Ukraine's neighboring countries, in particular Russia, since the Kremlin does not consider certain provisions of the law successful and modern, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

"We have seen, we know that many provisions of this law provoke a very strong reaction from a number of Ukraine's neighbors… Of course, [we] also have concerns. We do not consider a number of provisions of this law to be modern and successful," Peskov told reporters when asked about the Kremlin's reaction to the document and whether there were concerns about how it could affect the rights of minorities in Ukraine.

According to the new legislation, the representatives of national minorities' children will study subjects in their mother tongue at kindergartens and schools, while studying the state language at the same time. The children will take lessons in the Ukrainian language from the fifth grade with an opportunity to study their mother tongue as a separate subject. The education will be carried out only in the Ukrainian language from 2020. At the same time, the legislation stipulates the teaching of one or two disciplines in the languages of the EU countries.

On Monday, Poroshenko signed a law on education, which caused heated discussions because of the provision on the language of teaching aiming to enhance the role of the Ukrainian language in the educational process. Along with Russia, Hungarian and Romanian governments have criticized the law, saying that it violated Ukrainian Constitution, Ukraine's international obligations and the rights of national minorities in Ukraine.

 

[Voyageur]

Ukrainian president says he believes Justin Trudeau is open to sending peacekeepers to his country.

Exclusive - Ukraine asks Canada for access to satellite images to monitor Russian, rebel troop movements Mon. Sept. 25, 2017 (Short video)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-canada-satellite-access-1.4306406

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has pressed the Trudeau government to restart a program supplying the Ukrainian military with satellite imagery to monitor Russian and separatist rebel troop movements, and says it is "extremely important" for Canada to be part of a potential UN peacekeeping mission in the war-torn country.

In an exclusive interview with CBC's Rosemary Barton, Poroshenko said he urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to provide his country with sophisticated imagery of the Ukraine-Russia border from a Canadian satellite.

"Because that can effectively help us implement the Minsk agreement, to have evidence that Russia moved their tanks, artillery systems, multi-rocket launch systems," Poroshenko said.

It's not the first time Poroshenko has made a direct appeal to a Canadian prime minister for satellite data. He convinced the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper to provide RADARSAT-2 images for one year, beginning in March 2015, according to documents obtained by CBC News under Access to Information.

The $9.5-million initiative was not renewed in the spring of 2016 by the new Liberal government, which cited the cost and "limitations of the licence requirements" as reasons for ending the program, said the documents.

The images were carefully limited to cover the "internationally recognized territory of Ukraine" only and "any area or point outside this geographic zone" was not allowed to be shared.

That is significant because it blinded the Ukrainians to potential Russian troop movements on the other side of the border.

In the fall of last year, Canadian officials made it clear to their Ukrainian counterparts the decision to suspend the sharing of information would not be reviewed. "I have no doubt that we will solve this question," Poroshenko said, following his meeting with Trudeau last Friday.

Canadian peacekeepers 'extremely important' - The Ukrainian president said Canada should be involved in the mission to help end a conflict in the embattled eastern European country between government troops and Russia-backed separatists.

Poroshenko called it "extremely important, because Canada has a unique experience," noting Canada's historic role in developing the UN's peacekeeping function.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Russian-backed separatist fighters subsequently took up arms against Ukrainian government forces in the east of the country. The conflict — now in its fourth year — has killed more than 10,000 people, injured 24,000 and forced 1.6 million to leave their homes, according to the UN.

Canada has already trained more than 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers to fight Moscow-backed rebels, and Ottawa has given the country $16 million in non-lethal equipment such as helmets, bulletproof vests and winter clothing. But there is growing push for Ottawa to commit peacekeeping troops in war-torn Ukraine.

Last year, Trudeau promised to deliver 600 soldiers and 150 police officers to UN-mandated peace support operations. The federal government has not yet committed to any specific mission.

"I have a feeling he's absolutely open," Poroshenko said of Trudeau's views about sending Canadian peacekeepers to his country. "I'm fully satisfied with our discussion with Prime Minister Trudeau."

'Absolutely impossible' to have Russian peacekeepers - Earlier this month, Ukraine submitted a draft proposal to the UN for peacekeepers to cover the entire conflict zone and the border with Russia it does not control. Ukraine's plan would also ban any Russian nationals from taking part in a peacekeeping mission, an idea Moscow has denounced.

"This is absolutely impossible that Russia can be a part of the peacekeeping mission, because Russia is on the side of the conflict," Poroshenko said. "Russia is an aggressor. We don't have discussions."

Kiev and Western countries accuse Russia of providing military backing to the insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies any direct role in the conflict.

Russia, meanwhile, made its own suggestions earlier this month for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to eastern Ukraine — the first major Kremlin proposal to resolve the three-year conflict. That proposal is aimed at protecting ceasefire monitors from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The observers are there to monitor implementation of the Minsk Protocol aimed at ending the war, which has been largely unsuccessful.

"Of course, the Russian proposal is unacceptable," Poroshenko said of the Russian peacekeeping plan, "because Russia wants to use the peacekeepers as kind of the bodyguard for the observers of the special monitoring mission of the OSCE, which is absolutely against the statute."

'Military crime' - Sending a UN peacekeeping force requires the approval of the UN Security Council. Russia is one of five permanent members of the council and can veto any resolutions assigning peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine.

If that happens, Poroshenko said he would bring the issue before the United Nation's highest court.

"If Russia would be the only nation who would be against peacekeeping it will be very difficult to explain," Poroshenko said. "This is occupied territory, occupied by Russian troops, and in that situation it would be a recognition of the occupation by Russia.

"With that situation we will go to the International Court of Justice and Russia will be responsible for the military crime."

As painful as it is, here we have Poroshenko's brief fireside chat with Canada's PM; you can see Freeland' red dress just out of camera, and she knows a thing or two about the Ukraine, always at the ready to advise. Given Freeland's background, I'm trying to decide if she is a CISIS spy or a deeper CIA spy given her grandad likely came in through the Paperclip program. I mean, how did she end up being the Foreign Minister, displacing other career educated diplomats in the process without pressure being applied? Pure conjecture though, a digression, and maybe she is who she says she is, whatever that is.

http://<iframe width="854" height="...TI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For the video portion of the above angelburst29 link, the CBC's Rosemary Barton interview (CBC's youtube channel), see below - note the questions asked, the mannerisms and the fluff about the IMF etc. (just to add a few tough words by Barton) and how Poroshenko envisions the UN plan, of course, logically, not the Putin plan, no.

So, Chelsea Manning is denied entry to Canada and the Canadian's roll out the red carpet for Poroshenko and negotiate new military toys for his friends - just great. Must be from the NATO rule book of the grand-game, by invitation only.

http://<iframe width="854" height="...hQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I don't know, it is all like some perpendicular reality TV show until you realize it's the same bloody show as it has always been. I guess, now the difference is that the script writers are just so really bad that it all becomes so apparent and no one seems to care.

Some one I know, a teacher at that, said to me the other day "Actually the Russians did hack the election" - I'm thinking of saying say's who, yet what's the point, they may find out soon enough on their own when faced with reality.