Civil War in Ukraine: Western Empire vs Russia

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Donbass. Silent war
02.07.2019

The war in the Donbass has lasted for more than five years, daily taking the lives of both the defenders of the Republics and the civilian population.

Despite the Minsk agreements, the armed conflict continues in a format of limited military actions with direct support (Direct Support) of the USA in the field of armament, logistics and training.

When shooting this film, we did not set the task to show the sharp plots of war. We represent people who are defending the interests of Russia today, who continue to hold their far lines, no matter how hard it may be.

We remember in vain the forgotten saying of Leon Trotsky: "You may not be interested in the war, but then the war will interest you."

Empty promises - Zelensky allowed a special status for the Russian language in the Donbass
09.07.2019 16:53 Влад Николаев 3-5 minute Read
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President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky made a special status for the Russian language in the Donbas. He stated this in an interview with journalists after the Ukraine-EU summit.

“I think that when we stop the war, people in Donetsk should be allowed to speak the language they want,” said Zelensky. According to him, in Ukraine there are generally no problems with the use of the Russian language.

“It’s just that there was an information war that one cannot speak in Russian. I am the president here, and I speak with you as I want, ”Zelensky added, adding that if a corresponding request is received from the residents of the region, he does not see“ a big problem in discussing this. ”

The head of state also spoke about the economic blockade and the end of the war in the Donbas.

“The issue with the economic blockade, I don’t want to somehow misunderstand me here, you know that all this is possible. We are talking about this in Minsk. Everything is possible, everything can be opened in the near future, but please, then return to us illegally “nationalized” our enterprises, which are now in the temporarily occupied territories, ”Zelensky emphasized. With regard to the timing of the end of the war, he expressed the hope that it will stop within a year.

“We suggested that“ Minsk ”should continue, and that we should resolve the issue of a cease-fire, and we would like for us to stop this war soon. I want to hope that in a year we will no longer have this war, ”concluded Zelensky.

In Ukraine, there are constantly calls to ban everything that is somehow connected with Russia or the Russian language. Much has already been done in this direction. The Law on Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and signed by Peter Poroshenko at the end of his term, obliges the total use of the Ukrainian language in the public space with the exception of the language of private communication and the language of religious rites.

There are no exceptions to the new law for the Donbass. Before the parliamentary elections, no changes to the discriminatory law are precisely foreseen, and whether a new coalition wants to revise it at all is a huge question. In addition, it is highly doubtful that residents of the DPR-LPR, who already have the state status of the Russian language, will want to reduce it only to the status of a regional one for returning to the control of Kiev.

It should also be noted that the very statement of the question of the return to Ukraine of nationalized enterprises indicates the protection of the interests of the oligarchy by Zelensky.

“They will not return to Ukraine or the people of Ukraine. Return will be specific Akhmetov, Novinsky, Taruta, Kolomoisky and others. And in this sense, this “us” looks very sandpaper. Well, yes. It turns out that the blockade, i.e. infringement

interests of the very population of Donbass, for which Zelensky promised to fight, in fact, protect the interests of the great Ukrainian oligarchs, ”believes Odessa journalist Yuri Tkachev.

But Zelensky’s main problem is that he flirts with the nationalist minority to the detriment of the interests of the majority of citizens, so his words about the Russian language and the end of the war look only a set of empty promises that are not supported by real deeds.

9 Jul, 16:36
The Russian foreign minister urged the European partners to realize that "it is in their best interests to ensure maximum transparency of these processes, primarily on the OSCE forum"
HIGH TATRAS /Slovakia/, July 9. /TASS/. Russia is hoping that the United States engaging neutral European countries in NATO military exercises, playing out a scenario of an attack on a NATO member, will not lead to further destabilization, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told an informal gathering of the OSCE’s heads of diplomatic agencies on Tuesday.

"We are carefully watching the boosting of the OSCE’s coordination with NATO, including the Americans drawing neutral states in drills, which are scripted to train the evoking of the fifth article of the Washington Treaty," he said. "I believe that this is not a very positive development. I hope it will not lead to further destabilization."

Lavrov urged the European partners to realize that "it is in their best interests to ensure maximum transparency of these processes [of boosting of the OSCE’s coordination with NATO], primarily on the OSCE forum."

In accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, an attack on a state, signatory to the Treaty, is considered as an act of aggression against all the NATO members.

 
Ukraine's president says ready to meet Russia's Putin in Minsk
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a news conference after meeting European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium, June 5, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo

Ukraine's new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Monday he was ready to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Minsk for talks that he said should also involve Germany, Britain, the United States and France.

Top EU officials visit Kiev, pledge more aid for war-torn east Ukraine
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Kiev, Ukraine, July 8, 2019. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

European Union leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker pledged support and financial assistance to conflict-riven Ukraine during a visit to Kiev on Monday while urging Russia to do more to bring peace to the Donbass region.

Rock star seeks to upstage comedian president in Ukraine vote
Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Ukrainian musician and frontman of a popular rock band Okean Elzy and head of political party Voice, attends a pre-election rally and a concert in Lviv, Ukraine June 18, 2019. REUTERS/Pavlo Palamarchuk

Standing on stage in a black t-shirt, Ukrainian rock star Sviatoslav Vakarchuk turns to his massed ranks of fans and asks if they are fed up about how their country is run.
 
Here is Helmer's take on some of the wedges being used against Zelenskiy - it looks to me like Svoboda; who are running very low in the polls are dependent on the Galicians as one can read, and the Galicians are well represented in Canada with their number one cheerleader, yet there is more going on that has changed in the last two months:

By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with


The US State Department, the Republican Party Institute and Igor Kolomoisky can’t all be wrong about what the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian voters is thinking – that there is a civil war in the Ukraine which cannot be won by US arms, money, and putsches in Kiev.

The question to be decided on polling day, July 21, for the new Verkhovna Rada (parliament) is: which side in the war, the eastern Ukraine including Odessa, or the Galicians around Lviv in the west, will win power?

The answer already appeared in a May poll by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and in the most recent June and July voter surveys by the local Ukrainian pollster Rating. A coalition of parties whose support is strongest in eastern Ukraine will control parliament and will back the new President, Volodymyr Zelensky (lead image, left), to negotiate terms with the breakaway governments of Donetsk and Lugansk (collectively, the Donbass), and with Moscow. On these polls, the Galician parties of western Ukraine will have no national party representation in parliament, no ministers nor high-ranking officials, and just a handful of constituency seats in Lviv, Brody and Ternopil.

Last week, the Galicians held their election rally in Toronto, where their faction is headed by Chrystia Freeland (lead image, right), Canada’s foreign minister, with financing from the State Department through USAID, and from Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel oligarch, supported by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, a lobby group representing west Ukrainian refugees from the German Army’s defeat in 1945. Freeland, a Galician by origin, and Kurt Volker, a German by origin and the State Department’s Special Representative for Ukraine, gave the proceedings, entitled the Ukraine Reform Conference, an official government appearance. So did appearances and speeches by President Zelensky and a handful of Baltic state politicians.

But Toronto votes don’t count. If the domestic Ukrainian vote follows the current Ukrainian and US polls, then Freeland’s Galicians will be forced to retreat, just as her grandfather Michael Chomiak fled with the German Army as it was driven out of Ukraine and Poland by the Red Army. Chomiak ended up in Alberta, Canada. Freeland too. After July 21, the last retreat for the Galicians is Canada.

“Democracy is alive and kicking in Ukraine”, tweeted Freeland’s ministry at the start of the Ukraine Reform Conference between July 2 and 4. According to conference publications, its expenses were paid by USAID’s Ukraine Invest Fund; by Ukraine House Toronto, which is paid for the Canadian, US and European Union governments; and by Pinchuk, who is the long-time financier of the Clinton Foundation and US think-tanks supporting the putsch of February 2014, including Brookings and the Atlantic Council.

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Partners identified for the programme of the Ukraine Reform Conference identified by Ukraine House Toronto:
https://events.myconferencesuite.com/Ukraine Invest is a holding into which USAID has been pumping money through an entity called Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) and a fund called Horizon Capital. These employed Natalie Jaresko, the American appointed by President Petro Poroshenko as the Ukrainian finance minister in December 2014. Jaresko and her American and Canadian associates have enriched themselves in these investment promotion schemes; for the details, click to read.

In a speech to the Toronto audience, Freeland declared: “Canada stands right next to the Ukrainian people and supports all the efforts they are investing to ensure they have a sovereign, secure future.” “This conference gives us a unique opportunity to once again support Ukraine’s reforms and Ukraine’s path to European integration. Ukrainians have shown full devotion to sovereignty, democracy and reforms

The polls show the kicking Ukrainian democracy is about to display is aimed at the US and Canadian intervention which started the civil war in 2014. Exactly what is meant by civil war was spelled out by Igor Kolomoisky, the steel and banking oligarch who backed Zelensky’s presidential run and is now financing the election campaign of Zelensky’s party Sluha Narodu (“Servant of the People”). It is now the runaway front-runner.

In May Kolomoisky gave the Ukrainian site Bihus.info an interview in which he called the conflict in the east a civil war. Coming from a figure who was outspoken in his anti-Russian sentiment at the start of the war, who financed several units of irregulars to fight in the Donbass, and who was Poroshenko’s governor of Dniepropetrovsk from March 2014 to March 2015, Kolomoisky’s acknowledgement was extraordinary. Just as extraordinary, Kolomoisky dismissed the Maidan events in Kiev which started the war against Russia.

The interview video clip in Ukrainian has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/Ukrainian transcripts in English spell the regional combination of Lugansk and Donetsk, currently separate but allied breakaway governments, as the Donbas (Донба́с in Ukrainian). The standard English spelling is from the Russian Donbass (Донба́сс).

“Maidan was no good, a revolution is always no good,” Kolomoisky declared. “Because [it is] eventually minus 13 million people, minus Crimea, minus Donbas. [Ex-president of Ukraine Viktor] Yanukovych, Russia and the revolution are of course [to blame]. Mutual hatred, internal civil conflict, internal civil war. Thank God it has not spread to the whole territory, but it has a hot phase in Donbas and a cold phase in the rest of the country.”

“Civil war [is when] Ukrainians [are] against Ukrainians, Russia supports one side of the Ukrainians. If it hadn’t, it would have ended a long time ago. The Ukrainians would have made it up with each other. [But] it was Russia that instigated and masterminded the conflict. [This is the case] on the one hand, but on the other hand, not everything was all right either,” he added.

There has been no direct response by either Freeland or Volker to Kolomoisky’s declaration. Instead, they have attempted to drive a wedge between Kolomoisky and Zelensky, threatening US Government action against Kolomoisky which was not contemplated until Zelensky took power in Kiev in April. “I know that Zelensky came to the post on a powerful anti-corruption platform,” Senator Robert Menendez told Volker told at a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on June 18. Menendez added: “But there are warnings concerning his ties to certain Ukrainian oligarchs… in particular Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who is suspected of embezzling funds from the bank he was a co-owner of.”

Volker answered: “We think that he [Zelenksy] deserves a chance. We support the principles of reform, the overcoming of the domination of oligarchs, such as Kolomoyskyi, in the political system. We hope that he will be able to be independent and to deliver on his promises.” Then came Volker’s threat: “We intend both to assist him [Zelensky] and to hold him accountable if this doesn’t happen.” For “principles of reform” in Volker’s language, read Zelensky must follow US orders.

Volker repeated the warning to Zelensky at the Toronto conference last week. “Investors do not have that confidence right now. Some terrible things are holding the Ukrainian economy back because it keeps foreign investment away.” “That being said, the United States is confident that Zelenskiy is up to the task of speeding up reform in Ukraine.”

In Toronto, Volker’s tweets were explicit – there is no civil war in the east of Ukraine; there is a Russian invasion and occupation:

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Source: https://twitter.com/
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Source: https://twitter.com/

For details of the pressure the US is attempting to impose on Kolomoisky, read this.
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Ukrainian oligarchs and the four leading parties in the election, left to right: Igor Kolomoisky backing Zelensky’s party, Sluha Narodu; Victor Pinchuk backing European Solidarity (BPP Solidarnist, Petro Poroshenko ); Serhiy Taruta (Batkivshchyna); and Dmitry Firtash (Opposition Platform, Yury Boiko and Alexander Vilkul). Not pictured in this lineup is Rinat Akhmetov whose money is reportedly going to the Radical Party of Oleg Liashko and the Opposition Platform. For more on who is behind and paying for whom, read this.

With just two weeks to go, Ukrainian voters say their choice will be Zelensky’s Sluha Narodu by a large margin from the Opposition Platform (Yury Boiko and Vadim Rabinovych); BPP Solidarnist (“European Solidarity”, Poroshenko); and Batkivshchyna (“Fatherland”, the party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko).

The Svoboda (“Freedom”) party is the extreme right organization representing the Galicians; it is polling just 3% countrywide, too little to reach the threshold for seats in the proportional party-list contest.

This is how the latest survey by the International Republican Institute (IRI) of Washington reports the party preferences for voters who told pollsters they were likely to vote.
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Source: https://www.iri.org/ – page 30.

When voter choice is compared for the top four parties polling above the representational threshold, the IRI survey confirms the split between the eastern and southern (Odessa) voters and those in the west of the country. Svoboda, by contrast, is down to 1% in the East; 4% in the West.

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Source: https://www.iri.org/ – page 31.

The IRI says its Ukrainian voter survey was carried out by the Rating Sociological Group of Kiev between May 10 and 21. The questions were designed by the US Government and paid for by USAID in partnership with IRI, which is also financed by the State Department. The nationwide voter sample was 2,400. They were contacted for face-to-face interviews at respondents’ homes. More than a third of those contacted refused to open their door or let the interviewers in. Just 64.2% gave answers. The missing third in the poll is likely to be concealing their support for Svoboda in the west, Sluha Narodu in the east.
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IRI’s partnership disclosure: : https://www.iri.org/

Ukrainian polls make the civil war split even clearer. Here, for example, are the party preference results for a Rating group survey which was conducted between May 29 and June 3.

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CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE
Source: http://euromaidanpress.com/

Rating’s next survey, gathered between June 6 and 9 and reported on June 12, showed that the momentum was going Zelensky’s (and Kolomoisky’s) way. Sluha Narodnu had increased its lead to 47.5%; Opposition Platform to 10.4%; Poroshenko’s party to 7.9%; and Holos, a creation of a pop singer, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, running on an anti-corruption, against-them-all platform, was at 6.5%. Tymoshenko and Taruta were losing national support, just as they had during the presidential campaign.

Rating’s latest survey of voters was taken between June 29 and July 3. It shows Sluha Narodu dropping back to 42.3%, though Zelensky’s party remains well ahead of all of its rivals. Opposition Platform continues to gain at 13.4%, while Poroshenko is stuck at about 8%. Holos is also gaining to 7.2%, though its momentum has slowed. Tymoshenko and Taruta are managing to pull their votes above the election threshold to 7. 2%. Svoboda is down, nationally, to 2.3%. Zelensky and his campaign managers have said publicly they will be able to command a majority of the new parliament, if not outright then in coalition with Opposition Platform and Holos.

There is a noticeable difference between the US Government polling, which was planned in March and April, and the June-July polling by the Rating group. This is the rise of Holos (“Voice”) led by Vakarchuk. His pitch to young Ukrainian voters is taking a leaf out of the Kolomoisky-Zelensky playbook during the presidential campaign. Vakarchuk is also the favourite of the US media and of the pro-American Ukrainian media.

If Volker and Freeland have been encouraging Vakarchuk to run against Zelensky, their move was a late one, after the IRI poll revealed how strongly Zelensky’s party was polling. IRI did not include Vakarchuk or Holos in its questionnaires. Voter support of individual politicians is also clearly divided between the east and west of the country, with Kolomoisky retaining sizeable voter support himself in the south (Odessa).

It is evident that the split between young and old voters, on which Vakarchuk has been hoping to capitalize, is much less influential than the east-west split.

continued...
 
...continued from above:
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Source: https://www.iri.org/ – page 63.

The IRI poll also made clear what the dominant issue is for voters across the country — more than two-thirds want to end the civil war.

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Source: https://www.iri.org/-- page 33.

The message from Ukrainian democracy, “alive and kicking” according to Freeland in Toronto, is that ending the civil war is far more important to most Ukrainians right now than ending the oligarchs’ role in Ukrainian politics – on condition the oligarchs also back an end to the war. If the pre-election poll results materialize on July 21, there will be minimal support in the new Verkhovna Rada for the US-Canadian war. That is, unless Freeland and Volker can rig the vote on July 21; intimidate Zelensky; and remove Kolomoisky.
 
Ukraine president kicks official out of meeting over criminal record
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy holds a news conference after meeting European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels, Belgium, June 5, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had a regional official expelled from a meeting broadcast live on television on Wednesday because of a past criminal record.

“Get out of here, rogue! Are you not hearing me correctly?” he told Yaroslav Hodunok, to applause from other officials present at the otherwise routine meeting.

The official threatened legal action against Zelenskiy, telling a newspaper the 2002 case against him was wrong.

Zelenskiy was meeting officials from the Kiev region to discuss projects including a new city hospital yet to be built.

Hodunok, local council secretary and member of the Fatherland party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, said there were problems with financing.

Zelenskiy said Hodunok talked a lot but did nothing, then read from his phone what he said was his criminal record for robbery and violence.

“Tell me whether it is true or not ... a secretary of Boryspil city council was previously convicted of ... robbery, combined with causing serious bodily injuries. Yaroslav Mikolayovych, is that you?”, he asked, using Hodunok’s first name and patronymic. “I don’t like gangsters”, he said after his bodyguards led Hodunok out of the hall.

The previously little-known official told reporters afterwards he would take the president to court.

He told Ukrainska Pravda newspaper the 2002 case against him had been falsified. The paper published a photocopy of a court ruling in which Hodunok received a conditional sentence.

Zelenskiy ran for president despite having no previous political experience. He became famous playing the TV comedy role of a schoolteacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a pupil films his foul-mouthed tirade against corrupt politicians and posts the video online.

His presidential campaign exploited parallels with that fictional narrative, portraying him as an everyman who would stand up to a crooked political class.

Published on Jul 10, 2019 (1:34 min.)


Kyiv to install 600 more video surveillance cameras in 2019
Cameras will be installed in public places / Photo from kyivcity.gov.ua

Cameras will be installed in public places / Photo from kyivcity.gov.ua

"Kyiv's integrated video surveillance system will expand by at least 600 cameras this year," Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Dmytro Davtyan said.

New cameras will be installed in public spaces, near places of interest and in park zones.

Currently, about 7,000 modern video surveillance cameras are used in Kyiv.

"Cameras of the municipal video surveillance system have been installed in all districts of Kyiv: on bridges, streets and highways, areas of social and cultural facilities, all entrances and exits from the city," Davtyan said. "One of the latest sites where cameras have been installed is a pedestrian-bicycle bridge. There are 10 video cameras installed there, two of them are robotic (they have a wide field view and a face recognition feature)."

According to him, Kyiv's integrated video surveillance system is used for security purposes. The wide functionality of the cameras allows law-enforcement agencies to identify people even when only secondary identification features are available. They are also used to control traffic on the road, determining the speed and direction of traffic.

Zelensky sees no problem with special status of Russian language in Donbas (Video)
Photo from UNIAN

Photo from UNIAN

The president said a person can speak any language in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he sees no problem as for the special status of the Russian language in Donbas and local residents should be given an opportunity to speak and fill out documents in Russian.

"If Donetsk residents have any special request that it is important to them so that they could fill out documents in Russian, for example, I don't see any problem," Zelensky told journalist Yuriy Doshchatov during a walk after the Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv on July 8.

"There was such an informational war [alleging] that it is impossible to speak Russian. I think you understand that you can speak [any language] you want... I am president, I am talking to you [in any language] I want, right?" Zelensky said, switching from Ukrainian to Russian.


Ukraine's SBI summons Poroshenko for questioning
REUTERS

The SBI has not yet reported either the time when the interrogation starts or the case in which the ex-president is summoned.

"I can only confirm that Poroshenko has been summoned for July 17," SBI press secretary Anzhelika Ivanova said.

The SBI has not yet reported either the time when the interrogation starts or the case in which the ex-president is summoned for investigative actions. "Now I can't tell you other details," Ivanova said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on May 21, SBI investigators at the request of former deputy head of the Viktor Yanukovych Presidential Administration Andriy Portnov opened criminal proceedings on the fact of possible treason and actions aimed at seizing state power by former President Poroshenko and other officials in November 2018.

Zelensky wants lustration law to be extended to Poroshenko, officials during his presidency
Photo from UNIAN

Photo from UNIAN
"We are accused that we want to repeal lustration. [I want] everyone to understand that we are not going to repeal lustration, we propose it should be stepped up," Zelensky said in a video message posted on Facebook.

According to the president, his team has drafted a bill to expand the provisions of the lustration law.

"I propose expanding the list of posts subject to lustration with the following: the president of Ukraine, all Ukrainian lawmakers, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, members of the government, the prosecutor general, the chairman of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine, heads of the Antimonopoly Committee and the State Property Fund, heads of the State Fiscal Service and the customs, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, top managers of defense enterprises occupying positions from February 23, 2014 until May 19, 2019. This bill is only a public assessment of their activities," he said.

Zelensky expressed confidence the actions of all these people would receive a "fair legal assessment" in the future.
 
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Russia's Putin, Ukraine's Zelenskiy discuss settlement of conflict in Ukraine: TASS
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he meets with his Bolivian counterpart at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia July 11, 2019. Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's new leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the return of prisoners during a telephone conversation on Thursday, the Kremlin said.

July 11, 2019 - The two leaders also discussed the possibility of continuing contacts on the issue in the ‘Normandy’ format, which involves the participation of France and Germany in the talks to end the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev’s forces.

Russia's Putin, Ukraine's Zelenskiy discuss ending conflict in eastern Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy held their first telephone conversation on Thursday and discussed settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the return of prisoners, the Kremlin said.

Zelenskiy, a former comic actor with no previous political experience, won Ukraine’s presidential election in April and he has declared the settlement of the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Kiev’s forces one of his priorities.

The Kremlin said the phone call between Putin and Zelenskiy had been initiated by the Ukrainian side.

The two men discussed the possibility of continuing contacts on the issue in the ‘Normandy’ format, which involves the participation of France and Germany, the Kremlin statement said.

Zelenskiy said on Sunday he planned to continue European-backed talks with Russia on a so-far largely unimplemented peace deal and would try to free Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia. These include 24 Ukrainian sailors, among others.

Party of Ukraine's new president leads parliamentary vote race
FILE PHOTO: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy walks on the stage at an IT conference in Kiev, Ukraine May 23, 2019. The sign on a screen reads Let's create the future of Ukraine together! REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

A party set up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who took office in May, is the most popular political movement in the country, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday ahead of a snap parliamentary election on July 21.

Ukraine ex-president Poroshenko summoned for questioning
FILE PHOTO: Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

Detectives from Ukraine's state investigation bureau have summoned former president Petro Poroshenko for questioning, the bureau said on Thursday.
 
Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday they were investigating an attack on a Kiev television station owned by an opposition election candidate, which caused damage but injured no one.

Ukraine investigates grenade attack on Kiev TV station
Damage is seen on the facade of the building of Ukrainian 112 TV channel in Kiev, Ukraine July 13, 2019.  REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Damage is seen on the façade of the building of Ukrainian 112 TV Channel in Kiev, Ukraine July 13, 2019. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

An unknown assailant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the 112 TV channel building in western Kiev at 0340 a.m. (0040 GMT), police said in a statement, adding the incident was being investigated as “an act of terrorism”.

“Policemen are looking for the attacker...There were no injured,” the statement said.

112 TV aired footage of the damaged front building banner, a broken window and crumbling plaster inside.

Former supporters of pro-Moscow ex-president Viktor Yanukovich, who oppose Ukraine’s integration with the West, often appear as speakers on 112 TV. Yanukovich fled to Russia in 2014 following street protests against his rule.

Taras Kozak, a member of the Russia-friendly Opposition Platform party, owns a 99% stake in the TV station. Kozak is registered as a candidate in Ukraine’s July 21 parliamentary election.

Managers at the TV channel said earlier its journalists had previously received threats via social media from Ukrainian nationalists.


Kyiv office of 112 Ukraine TV channel attacked from grenade launcher
Zelensky pardons Kremlin's political prisoner Lytvinov
Photo from the National Police

Photo from the National Police

The police said there were no injuries but classified the attack as a terrorist act.

Two unidentified men opened fire from a grenade launcher on a building that houses the Kyiv office of 112 Ukraine TV channel overnight July 13.

Photo from the National Police

Photo from the National Police

The incident occurred on 21G Dehtiarivska Street in Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district. Neighbors heard an explosion at around 03:40 local time, the National Police's press service reported.

Investigating teams, K9 units, explosive ordnance disposal teams, and patrol crews immediately arrived at the scene, where they saw the damaged office building's exterior and discovered a spent tube used to fire a rocket-propelled grenade. Now, the scene is cordoned off.

Noteworthy, Ukrainian blogger Anton Hodza believes this was a planned provocation aimed at disrupting the peaceful protest to be held on Sunday.

As was earlier reported, activists announced a peaceful rally outside the building of 112 Ukraine TV channel against the planned screening of Revealing Ukraine by Oliver Stone. The film features Viktor Medvedchuk (Vladimir Putin's closest political ally in Ukraine) who comments on events in the country.


Zelensky visits administrative border with Russian-occupied Crimea
President Zelensky demands resignation of SFS Acting Head (Photo, video)
president.gov.ua

president.gov.ua

The president instructed the local authorities to complete the infrastructure development of the checkpoints by December 20, 2019.

This was the first visit of the head of state to the administrative border since 2014, the presidential press service said on Saturday, July 13.

Zelensky inspected the infrastructure of the checkpoint and the conditions in which people cross the administrative border. The president spoke with the citizens who were heading to the occupied Crimea and residents of the neighboring districts.

At the meeting on the implementation of the project on the infrastructure development of the Chonhar and Kalanchak checkpoints, the newly appointed head of the Kherson Regional Administration (RSA), Yuriy Husyev, said that people from the temporarily occupied territory should feel that Europe begins with the Kherson region. This should be manifested through the quality of services and attention for people on the part of officials and civil servants.

Zelensky stressed that the final stage of the project – establishment of service centers with bus terminals and administrative centers – had to be completed by December 20, 2019.
 
Oliver Stone Wants to End the War in Donbass With New Upcoming Documentary Film!
Published on Jul 13, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
Donbass. Operational tape of military events 16.07.2019
Александра Донцова 8-11 minute Read Mutable Videos / Snip:
Operational information from the fronts of the DPR and the LPR, military reports from the Armed Forces of New Russia, ATO news, photos and video footage of military journalists from the hot spots of Donbass, current interviews with the leaders of New Russia.

19:10 Ukrainian security forces fired at Lenin
The representative of the DPR in the JCCC and in the negotiation process said the APU fighters tonight fired at Leninskoe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
18:00 Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the LPR Vladislav Daney
“The deputy head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Vadim Pristayko, at a meeting in Paris on July 12 promised the assistant to the President of Russia, Vladislav Surkov, that Ukraine would coordinate with the LC in the Contact Group a project of a bridge in the Stanitsa Luganskaya area and the principles of its further operation.

Pristaiko agreed that one-sided repair actions are unacceptable and can be interpreted by the other side as the seizure of the “gray zone” and the breakdown of the withdrawal of forces.

In case the bridge can be reached, the dismantling of the military fortifications from the Ukrainian and Lugansk sides from the contact line will be immediately ensured.

We hope Pristayko will fulfill his promise and set up the Ukrainian delegation to reach a compromise. ”

Vladislav Daneit, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the LPR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
17:10 Crimes of the Supreme Court of Ukraine against the population of Donbass from June 5 to July 15, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
6:40 Wrong. The soldiers of the APU destroyed the position of their colleagues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
The Ukrainian military in the Donbass accidentally destroyed the positions of their colleagues, trying to use a new type of weapon. This was announced by the official representative of the operational command of the Donetsk People's Republic, Daniel Bezsonov.
According to him, last week, servicemen from the 35th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine used UR-77 demining installations twice in residential areas of Dokuchaevsk. Only due to their unprofessionalism they managed to do without civilian casualties.
Bezsonov explained that the security forces launched a projectile without the brake cable necessary for the correct operation of the ammunition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_bdtO0SI0
 
Oliver Stone Wants to End the War in Donbass With New Upcoming Documentary Film!

Putin tells US filmmaker about agreements with Obama on Ukraine
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© Alexei Druzhinin/TASS

MOSCOW/KIEV, July 10. /TASS/. The United States have failed to fulfill some of agreements on Ukraine reached during a phone conversation between the leaders of Russia and the United States in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US filmmaker Oliver Stone in the Revealing Ukraine documentary.

In the documentary, presented during the Taormina film festival on July 6, Stone asks Putin to comment on his phone conversation with then US President Barack Obama, which took place against the background of the 2014 mass rallies in Kiev, known as Maidan.

"As you know, Obama is not a president anymore, but there are still some things that we [do not comment]," Putin said. "Anyway, I can only say that the agreements reached during this phone conversation, were not fulfilled by the US side."

"I will confine myself to saying that and I will not elaborate," Putin added.

New documentary
The Revealing Ukraine documentary was first revealed on July 6 at the Taormina Film Festival. It will premiere on Russia's Rossiya-1 TV channel on July 19. It was made by Oliver Stone (executive producer and interviewer) and Igor Lopatenok (director). The film looks into the consequences of the Maidan events and features, among other officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
 
Indefinite truce in Donbass - a true breakthrough or another promise that won't be kept?

TV Zvezda
G-tr.:
The contact group announced an indefinite truce in the Donbass
Christina Volkova
22:26 07/17/2019
It is specified that it was a question of a complete rejection of offensive actions, reconnaissance and sabotage operations, as well as the non-use of any kind of fire.
The contact group announced an indefinite truce in the Donbass

The contact group to resolve the situation in the south-east of Ukraine agreed on an indefinite truce in the Donbass.

The parties also stressed “the importance of adopting and complying with relevant cease-fire orders, which will be made public statements by the high command of the parties”.

According to the special representative of the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Martin Saidik, the truce will begin on the day of the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, July 21 at 00:01. In this case, the truce will be "comprehensive, stable and indefinite." ...

According to the plenipotentiary representative of Russia in the contact group Boris Gryzlov, during the negotiations in Minsk the parties to the conflict in the Donbas also agreed to repair the bridge in the village of Luganskaya and use it for peaceful purposes in the future. According to Gryzlov, the meeting was "one of the most productive."

Earlier, the ombudsperson of the DPR, Daria Morozova, said that the republics of Donbass had offered Ukraine to urgently exchange [POW's] according to the “all for all” formula. According to her, the Ukrainian side asked for six weeks to prepare the list, after which the date of the exchange will be set.

The exchange offer is confirmed by Ria Novosti:
and on the official DNR website
G-tr.:
DNR and LNR offered Kiev to urgently exchange "all for all"
Yesterday, 19:41

Self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics offered Kiev to accelerate the exchange of prisoners, the DPR Ombudsman Daria Morozova told RIA Novosti.

"Today, the republics have made an offer to urgently make an exchange withheld according to the formula" all for all ", said Morozova.

In response, the Ukrainian side requested up to six weeks for final preparation of the list, after which the contact group on Donbass will set the date for the exchange.

Morozova added that in the territory controlled by Kiev there are 101 people requested by Donetsk, in the territory of the DPR - 50 people wanted by Kiev.

According to her, for the "procedural cleaning" of these people DNI need about a month.
The Ombudsman noted that the clarification of the list is necessary in order to avoid mistakes of the past exchange between the parties to the conflict in Donbass, when people convicted under criminal clauses were offered from the Ukrainian side.
“We do not agree to any gradual exchanges,” the ombudsman added, recalling the negative experience of the last exchange, when the subsequent stages were frozen for a year and a half.

Donetsk News Agency about the ceasefire:
Nikonorova reports breakthrough in talks over indefinite and stable ceasefire
July 17, 2019 21:24

Donetsk, Jul 17 – DAN. The DPR and Russia have reached a breakthrough in the coordination of an indefinite and stable ceasefire in Donbass with the obligation to commit to control and reinforcement measures, the DPR Foreign Ministry said.

“A breakthrough was wanted in terms of coordination of additional measures to control and reinforce the ceasefire that will be incorporated into the joint statement of sides on the announcement of an indefinite and stable ceasefire. Thanks to the persistence and efforts of the Republics and the mediators of the talks – the OSCE and Russia – we managed to force Ukraine to agree to all the necessary and effective measures,” the Foreign Ministry said citing Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova.

She emphasized that the DPR has always been focused on civilians security and calm.
 
Ukrainian troops have tested the latest batch of BTR-3DA armored personnel carriers (APCs) delivered from the defense industry.

In a statement, Ukrainian defense conglomerate Ukroboronprom announced that the Ukrainian armed forces’ 95th Air Assault Brigade was carrying out testing of the vehicles. The statement said, “The 95th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has used BTR-3DAs from the state-owned enterprise Kyiv Armored Plant, part of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, during tactical exercises.”

UkrInform reported that the vehicles were approved after the testing was completed.

To date, Ukraine’s security services have received hundreds of the armored vehicles from Kyiv Armored Plant. The statement said, “BTR-3DAs are mass-produced at Kyiv Armored Plant and are supplied to the Ukrainian army on a regular basis. Several hundred BTR-3s were supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard, and other security agencies of Ukraine, and they received approval from fighters at the front line.”

BTR-3DAs, based on an 8×8 chassis, utilize the Shturm-M combat turret, which has a 30mm cannon capable of firing 330 rounds per minute. It also uses a 7.62mm machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher. The APC can also fire Baryer anti-tank missiles out to 5 kilometers.




 
Russia's Putin extends passport offer to Ukraine citizens
Russia's President Vladimir Putin places a candle as he visits the Transfiguration of the Saviour Cathedral at the Valaam Monastery in the Republic of Karelia, Russia July 17, 2019. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order on Wednesday further expanding the number of Ukrainian citizens who can apply for fast-track Russian passports.

Ukraine's Russian-speaking president gives glimmer of hope to war-torn east
A member of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service gives a sign to people to stop as they approach a checkpoint at the contact line between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian troops in Mayorsk, Ukraine July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

In one of his first acts as Ukrainian president, comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelenskiy held out a symbolic olive branch to people in Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking Donbass region, by switching from Ukrainian to Russian.
 
There is much undressing of the Joint Investigation Team of the MH17 event in New MH17 Doc Reveals Evidence Tampering, Dutch Cover-up of Forged Recordings, Hidden Ukrainian Radar Records -- Sott.net which has a great video:
From the above article there is:
In an unusual decision to speak in the new documentary, Najib's successor Prime Minister Mahathir announced: "They never allowed us to be involved from the very beginning. This is unfair and unusual. So we can see they are not really looking at the causes of the crash and who was responsible. But already they have decided it must be Russia. So we cannot accept that kind of attitude. We are interested in the rule of law, in justice for everyone irrespective of who is involved. We have to know who actually fired the missile, and only then can we accept the report as the complete truth."

On July 18, in the first Malaysian Government press conference after the shoot-down, Najib announced agreements he had already reached by telephone with Obama and Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian President. " 'Obama and I agreed that the investigation will not be hidden and the international teams have to be given access to the crash scene.' [Najib] said the Ukrainian president ‎has pledged that there would be a full, thorough and independent investigation and Malaysian officials would be invited to take part. 'He also confirmed that his government will negotiate with rebels in the east of the country in order to establish a humanitarian corridor to the crash site,' said Najib. He also said that no one should remove any debris or the black box from the scene. The Government of Malaysia is dispatching a special flight to Kiev, carrying a Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team, as well as a medical team. But we must - and we will - find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone can be left unturned."
The details of the retrieval of the black boxes from MH17
The operation carried out by the Malaysians is unbelieveable; that they had to do it that way and show their bravery to go around the Ukraine Government and its handlers to get to their plane and the black boxes of their plane speaks VOLUMES.
The new film reveals in an interview with Colonel Mohamad Sakri, the head of the Malaysian team, what happened next. Sakri's evidence, filmed in his office at Putrajaya, is the first to be reported by the press outside Malaysia in five years. A year ago, Sakri gave a partial account of his mission to a Malaysian newspaper.

"I talked to my prime minister [Najib]," Colonel Sakri says. "He directed me to go to the crash site immediately." At the time Sakri was a senior security official at the Disaster Management Division of the Prime Minister's Department. Sakri says that after arriving in Kiev, Poroshenko's officials blocked the Malaysians. "We were not allowed to go there...so I took a small team to leave Kiev going to Donetsk secretly." There Sakri toured the crash site, and met with officials of the Donetsk separatist administration headed by Alexander Borodai.

With eleven men, including two medical specialists, a signalman, and Malaysian Army commandos, Sakri had raced to the site ahead of an armed convoy of Australian, Dutch and Ukrainian government men. The latter were blocked by Donetsk separatist units. The Australian state press agency ABC reported their military convoy, prodded from Kiev by the appearance of Australian and Dutch foreign ministers Julie Bishop and Frans Timmermans, had been forced to abandon their mission. That was after Colonel Sakri had taken custody of the MH17 black boxes in a handover ceremony filmed at Borodai's office in Donetsk on July 22.
The people in Donetsk were, helpful, open and sincere, was that because they had something to hide? And did the Ukraine try to hide and obstruct because they were sincere and had nothing to hide. The last is contradictory and so conclusion should be the opposite unless the people in Donetsk and Kiev had agreed to play these roles, which is unlikely.

Sakri goes on to say he was asked by the OSCE's special monitoring mission for Ukraine to hand over the black boxes; he refused. He was then met by agents of the FBI (Min 6:56). "They approached me to show them the black box. I said no." He also reports that in Kiev the Ukrainian Government tried "forcing me to leave the black boxes with them. We said no. We cannot. We cannot allow."

Permission for Colonel Sakri to speak to the press has been authorized by his superiors at the prime ministry in Putrajaya, and his disclosures agreed with them in advance.
Met "by agents of the FBI", as if the UA was part of their jurisdiction?

Forensic analysis of the Kiev captured telephone recordings
Subsequent releases from the Kiev government to substantiate the allegation of Russian involvement in the shoot-down have included telephone tape recordings. These were presented last month by the JIT as their evidence for indictment of four Russians; for details, read this.

Van der Werff and Yerlashova contracted with OG IT Forensic Services, a Malaysian firm specializing in forensic analysis of audio, video and digital materials for court proceedings, to examine the telephone tapes. The Kuala Lumpur firm has been endorsed by the Malaysian Bar. The full 143-page technical report can be read here.
It is worth taking a look at the technical report. They have asked a very qualified person/company to look at it. It puts the SBU to shame and the Dutch, Australian and the Belgian Governments.

The findings reported by Akash Rosen and illustrated on camera are that the telephone recordings have been cut, edited and fabricated. The source of the tapes, according to the JIT press conference on June 19 by Dutch police officer Paulissen, head of the National Criminal Investigation Service of The Netherlands, was the Ukrainian SBU. Similar findings of tape fabrication and evidence tampering are reported on camera in the van der Werff film by a German analyst, Norman Ritter.
And the people from the Governments of the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium are so underfunded that they could not do such an analysis - even for the sake the victims. They put themselves to shame.

Volkov explained that on July 17 there were three radar units at Chuguev on "full alert" because "fighter jets were taking off from there;" Chuguev is 200 kilometres northwest of the crash site. He disputed that the repairs to one unit meant none of the three was operating. Ukrainian radar records of the location and time of the MH17 attack were made and kept, Volkov said. "There [they] have it. In Ukraine they have it."
The Malaysian colonel and the Malaysian Government got the black boxes first, it was their plane, their pilots, their airline and these crooks from US affiliated vassals like the Ukraine, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia just took it over and made a "Joint Investigation Team", but there was no Team, no Investigation and it wasn't really Joint, at least not for the first six month until the Malaysians finally got on board, but as we now understand - outvoted, silenced and ignored. In the meantime the MH17 scandal has cost so much in forced trade sanctions and many more lives than those who originally died have been messed up. A special thanks goes to the Governments of the Netherlands and the Ukraine. Or should one ask which other Governments or power groups have the power to force the Government of the Netherlands to follow along, and I don't really think it is the Ukraine, but we could mention other actors one more notorious than the other(s). On the other hand, perhaps we own Malaysia, a country of more than 32 million people, the credit for removing the reasons for an armed intervention which some of the psychos had planned in the wake of the crash:

Foreign Minister Bishop, in Kiev on July 24, claimed she was negotiating with the Ukrainians for the Australian team in the country to carry arms. "I don't envisage that we will ever resort to [arms]," she told her state news agency, "but it is a contingency planning, and you would be reckless not to include it in this kind of agreement. But I stress our mission is unarmed because it is [a] humanitarian mission."
[Under a picture]
In Kiev on July 24, 2014, left to right: Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop; Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. The NATO intervention plan was still under discussion, but the black boxes were already under Malaysian control.

By the time she spoke to her state radio, Bishop was concealing that the plan for armed intervention, including 3,000 Australian troops, had been called off. She was also concealing that the black boxes were already in Colonel Sakri's possession.
If Australia was to send 3000! armed soldiers "to retrieve black boxes", we can be sure there were other countries that had been invited too and with many more soldiers. To give an idea: The Wiki Military history of Australia - Wikipedia has:
Australian forces later joined British and American forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The initial contribution was also a modest one, consisting of just 2,058 personnel—codenamed Operation Falconer.
So they initially sent 2100 to Iraq and had planned 3000 for Ukraine? Thanks to Malaysia and the sane administration in Donetsk that did not happen, but the people in Donetsk were nervous:
Col. Sakri says on film the Donetsk leaders expressed surprise at the delay of the Malaysians in arriving at the crash site to recover the black boxes. “Why are you so late”, [Borodai] said…I think [that was] very funny.”
One can understand why Col. Sakri thought it was funny; he and his team had raced to get on the spot and won against many odds and more powerful players, but every hour waiting with the black boxes in their care must have been enough to make strong men nervous among those in Donetsk knowing the stakes.
 
Ukraine president on course for unprecedented majority after election win
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at his party's headquarters after a parliamentary election in Kiev, Ukraine July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy looked set on Monday to become Ukraine's first leader since the fall of communism to command a single party majority in parliament, in what would be an unprecedented mandate to deliver promised reforms.

Ukraine president's party leads in parliament election: exit poll
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena stand in front of ballot boxes at a polling station during a parliamentary election in Kiev, Ukraine July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's party led Ukraine's snap parliamentary election on Sunday with 43.9% of votes, an exit poll showed.

Ukraine president's party declares winning majority in parliament
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts at his party's headquarters after a parliamentary election in Kiev, Ukraine July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Servant of the People, the party of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, could win a majority in the new parliament, a senior party official said on Monday.

Ukraine president's party believes it won 13 out of 13 constituencies in Kiev
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts next to a screen showing results of exit polls after a parliamentary election at his party's headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine July 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's party has probably won all 13 constituencies in Kiev in Sunday's snap parliamentary election, party leader Dmytro Razumkov told reporters.

Ukraine president wants to discuss coalition with Voice party
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday said he wants to invite the Voice party, headed by rock star Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, for talks about forming a governing coalition in parliament.

Servant of the People leads in Verkhovna Rada election with 95% of protocols processed
1226544.jpg
© EPA-EFE/MYKOLA TYS

KIEV, July 23, 2019 - The Servant of the People party, which supports the president, is leading at the snap election to Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada with 43.13% of votes, according to the data of the Ukrainian Central Election Commission after processing 95.01% of the protocols.

Four more parties will enter the parliament. The Opposition Platform — For Life is supported by 13.06% of voters; Batkivshchina, led by former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, gained 8.18%; European Solidarity, led by former President Pyotr Poroshenko, won 8.12% of votes, and Golos (Voice) party led by musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk got 5.84%.

The early election to Verkhovna Rada was held in Ukraine on July 21. Voter turnout was 49.84% — the lowest in the history of parliamentary election in Ukraine. Out of 29 million people on the voting lists more than 14.7 million did not appear at the polls.

Poroshenko’s party losing ground after Ukrainian parliamentary election
Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko © AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

KIEV, July 23, 2019 - The European Solidarity party led by former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko is losing ground in the wake of the snap parliamentary election in the country. According to Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC), it ranks fourth after 93% of ballots were counted.

The former Ukrainian leader’s political force has garnered 8.13% of votes, while the Batkivschina party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko got 8.18%.

At the same time, President Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party has consolidated its position having garnered 43.13% of votes. It is followed by Opposition Platform - for Life with 13.05%, while singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk’s Golos (Voice) got 5.85%.

Press review: What Zelensky party's win means for Donbass and tensions rise around Iran
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky EPA-EFE/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky © EPA-EFE/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

Media: Ukraine’s presidential party set to form new government on its own

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) should start to implement the Minsk Agreements following the Servant of the People party’s parliamentary election win, Head of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev told Izvestia. The presidential party will have the opportunity to form a new government on its own, giving the Ukrainian leader a free hand and freedom of maneuver.

Ukrainian political scientist Vladimir Fesenko, cited by Vedomosti, said that the outcome of the vote in single-mandate constituencies was the major sensation of the election, which was the result of Zelensky’s activities in July. Having achieved such a success, the Servant of the People party doesn’t need to set up a coalition, which is unprecedented in the history of independent Ukraine.

The landslide victory of Zelensky’s party stems from voter attitudes, as Ukrainians are tired of the previous authorities, Center for Current Politics Director Alexei Chesnakov said. According to him, "Zelensky dominated the media landscape during both the presidential and the parliamentary election campaigns." "Others lagged behind, unable to present any initiatives that could overshadow his agenda," the expert noted.

Kosachev explained to Izvestia that since the Ukrainian leader could rely on his own party without taking other factions into account, there were good prospects for resolving the situation in Donbass. "We used to hear Poroshenko say that he wasn’t able to push the laws stipulated by the Minsk Agreements through the fragmented parliament that was out of his control. Now, the situation is significantly changing," the Russian senator pointed out.

According to Moscow State Institute of International Relations Associate Professor Kirill Koktysh, Zelensky is truly interested in resolving the conflict and may now push for the implementation of the Agreements. As far as relations with Russia are concerned, Zelensky will probably opt to restore economic ties without improving political relations, said Russian Institute for Strategic Studies expert Vladimir Yevseyev.

Zelensky party’s election success to help him in talks with Donbass, says Russian senator
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky © Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

MOSCOW, July 22, 2019 - A big win for Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of People party in Sunday’s parliamentary election gives hope for progress in talks on achieving peace in the south-east of Ukraine, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Vladimir Dzhabarov told Rossiya-24 TV channel on Monday.

"After a landslide victory in the presidential election and effectively confident victory of his party in the election to Verkhovna Rada, [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky has all reasons for solving the tasks that he had promised to solve during his election campaign," Dzhabarov said.

"There is hope that something positive will be done, that first of all, military actions will be stopped in the south-east [of Ukraine] and a process to implement the Minsk Agreements will be launched," he added.

The Russian lawmaker explained that after the victory of the Servant of People Party, Zelensky will be no longer to "blame" failures in the negotiating process on conflicts with the parliament or the Ukrainian military command. According to Dzhabarov, at the moment the president and his party can and must engage in the resolution of the crisis.

Dzhabarov believes that the main task for Zelensky at the moment is to launch direct negotiations with representatives from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics without any mediators. "If he really wants to be the president of the whole country, he must make this step," he added.


Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of People party garnered 42.85% of votes in the snap parliamentary election in the country after 80.61% of ballots were counted, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC) reported.

Ukrainians support Zelensky's party because they want Donbass war to end — OSCE chair
Slovakia's Foreign Minister and OSCE Chair Miroslav Lajcak EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Slovakia's Foreign Minister and OSCE Chair Miroslav Lajcak © EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

PRAGUE, July 22, 2019 - Ukrainians supported President Vladimir Zelensky's Servant of People party at the snap parliamentary election because they hope for the end of a combat in Donbass, Slovak Foreign Minister and current chair at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Miroslav Lajcak said on Monday.

"The results of the parliamentary elections confirmed strong support for President Zelensky," Lajcak said. "It is clear that people in Ukraine are tired of war and that Zelensky won because he pledged in his campaign to end this war," he added.

Lajcak, who previously met with Zelensky in the capacity of the OSCE chair, said that the Ukrainian president demonstrates a serious approach to the soonest resolution of the conflict in Donbass and to stabilizing the situation in Ukraine as a whole.
 
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