Donetsk – praag.org

Ukraine military ‘to boost forces in the east’ as Mariupol airport falls to rebels

Kiev “sees no alternative” to the Minsk ceasefire accords, President Petro Poroshenko said. However, the Ukrainian military is building up troops in the east to conduct “an adequate response” to the militia advancement, the Defense Ministry stated.

The violence in eastern Ukraine escalated recently with the ceasefire deal penned in Minsk last year finally shattering. Ukraine last week attempted to launch a massive offensive operation against militia positions, but it ended in failure. Their opponents have since pressed forward and gained ground, advancing in the direction of the port city of Mariupol in the south of the Donetsk region.

Amid an apparent setback for the Ukrainian military, President Petro Poroshenko called for sticking to the Minsk accord.

“The Minsk agreement is a priority for us, we don’t see any alternative to it. We will not allow it to be undermined. Everything relies on it. Now we must implement it comprehensively and accurately,” the Ukrainian president said.

The ceasefire deal between Kiev and the militia forces, which was sponsored by the OSCE and Russia, was never fully implemented. It helped tone down the violence, but OSCE monitors reported regular violations committed by both sides of the conflict. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Republics accused Kiev’s troops of launching regular attacks on residential areas of Donetsk, Lugansk and other cities.

While the tension continued, Kiev angled for switching the peace negotiation from Minsk to another format – the so-called “Normandy format” – which would exclude the rebels and include several Western nations. Attempts for talks were virtually abandoned recently, with two key meetings canceled due to failure to agree on an agenda.

As Poroshenko demonstrates a willingness to talk directly to the rebels, his military are building up troops in the east of the country.

To respond adequately to the actions of the ‘terrorist’ groups, we are continuing to build up reserves in practically all sectors where combat action is being conducted,” Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Sunday.

The militia said they no longer trusted Poroshenko and his calls for peace after months of the ceasefire.

“Poroshenko is cynical beyond all limits. For us the Minsk process was a question of life for our civilians. For Kiev it was a cover [for preparing the offensive],” Denis Pushilin, a Donbass representative in Minsk, told Interfax.

“Why do they pretend in the US and Europe that they don’t see Kiev’s aggressive policies? It’s business for them in Washington, and we are being killed here,” he added.

The violence in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 5,000 lives, according to the latest UN count, and sent some 1.5 million refugees fleeing for their lives to Russia or other parts of Ukraine.

The episode in Mariupol on Saturday claimed 30 lives, when a barrage of rockets hit a residential area in the east of the port city. Kiev was quick to accuse the militia of launching the attack, which the latter denied.

The Donetsk Republic leader said that after “Kiev decided to shift the blame on us for its erroneous fire from Grad multiple rocket launchers at residential areas [in Mariupol],” he gave an order to suppress the positions of the Ukrainian military stationed east of the port city.

Zakharchenko added that the forces of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) have no plans of storming the city itself.

It remains unclear whether militia forces will be strong enough to take over Mariupol. Over the months of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian military has fortified its positions around the militia-held areas.

During a phone conversation on Sunday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, called for an immediate cessation of shelling in eastern Ukraine and for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Both Moscow and Washington confirmed their readiness to promote a peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian crisis, with Lavrov stressing that “actual results may only be achieved through direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, which Kiev is avoiding by all means, taking a clear course at the violent suppression of southeastern Ukraine.”

The Russian FM also urged the US to use its influence on the Ukrainian authorities in Kiev in order to persuade them to backtrack from the military scenario, they said.

In another phone call with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, Lavrov stressed the shelling of Donetsk and Mariupol should get an objective investigation, with the involvement of OSCE observers.

The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized “that if Ukrainian authorities had accepted the January 15 proposal made by the Russian president on an urgent withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the line, specified by the Minsk memorandum from September 19, 2014, the tragedies of Volnovakha, Donetsk and Mariupol could have been avoided.” – rt.com

Opera diva supports Ukrainian separatists

The Russian-Austrian opera soprano Anna Netrebko has given support to east Ukrainian separatists, posing with one of their top political leaders and holding up the flag of Novorossia, a self-declared amalgamation of territory that is seeking independence from Kiev.

Netrebko, who holds dual citizenship, was pictured with the flag during a press conference in St Petersburg over the weekend, where she announced she was donating 1m roubles (£12,000) to the Donetsk Opera Theatre.

“I have a lot of musician friends in Donetsk, we have been writing to each other a lot, and they told me the theatre was sacred for them, and the building had been partly damaged. I decided that I wanted to help as much as I can. I think it’s the right thing to do because art is art, and helps us get through all situations,” Netrebko said.

Donetsk is under the control of pro-Russia separatists, and much of the civilian population has fled after areas of the city were shelled by the Ukrainian army. Fighting in east Ukraine has killed more than 4,000 people since May.

The main opera house building has not suffered but a warehouse where costumes are kept was damaged by shelling. Although many of the singers and orchestra have left town, the theatre plans to put on operas and ballets this season.

Netrebko said she would visit Donetsk and sing at the opera theatre as soon as military hostilities in the region were over. Asked about her views on the conflict, she insisted she was apolitical. “This is politics and I have nothing to do with politics, I just want to support art,” she said.

However, minutes later she held up the Novorossia flag and handed over a cheque to Oleg Tsaryov, a former Ukrainian MP who is wanted by Kiev on charges of separatism. Tsaryov, who is on a list of individuals sanctioned by the EU for their role in events in east Ukraine, styles himself as the chairman of the parliament of Novorossia.

“Donetsk has not surrendered, just like Leningrad did not surrender [during the Nazi siege],” Tsaryov said. “This [donation] is important for us not just because it’s money, but because it is support for us.”

“I think it’s the right thing to do because art is art, and helps us get through all situations,” Netrebko said.

Netrebko, 43, is one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world, drawing full houses for her performances. She made her name at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, whose director, Valery Gergiev, is close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Some of Gergiev’s concerts in the west have been disrupted over his apparent support for the government line on issues such as gay rights.

Netrebko is due to perform in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in January, and will sing the role of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme at the Royal Opera House in London next summer.

German intel report on MH17 contradicts Western version

The German BND foreign intelligence agency’s new report on the Boeing crash in Ukraine in fact contradicts the Western version on the causes of the tragedy. On Monday this opinion was voiced by Alexey Pushkov, the head of the foreign-affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.

“The German intelligence report questions the main version which was accepted by the West and stated by a range of Western politicians and almost all mass media that Russia had handed over to militias the Buk missile systems that were used to shoot down the Malaysian Boeing,” Alexey Pushkov said.

“The German intelligence stated: The Boeing was downed by a Buk missile system ‘captured by militias.’ That means Russia was not involved. And the Buk could have been launched by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Pushkov said on Twitter.

This came after BND President Gerhard Schindler claimed his agency had found that Donbas militia was responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Boeing using a Buk missile system, though no evidence was unveiled.

Self-defence leader Andrej Purgin said on Sunday in response that pro-Russian groups could not have shot down MH17. According Purgin the Buk missile system is very complicated and self-defence forces do not have the knowledge to operate such a system.

He blamed the leadership in Kiev for the disaster. It is incomprehensible Purgin said, that the government had not closed the airspace over the conflict area.

“The new version means that Russia has no relation to the downed Boeing,” Pushkov stressed.

“If this was done by a Ukrainian missile, Russia has no relation at all to this tragic event,” Pushkov said.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the probe and coordinating the international team of investigators, said in its preliminary report published September 9 that “Flight MH17 with a Boeing 777-200 operated by Malaysia Airlines broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.

Meanwhile there will not be hearing about the plane crash of flight MH17 in the Netherlands because coalition parties are blocking it.

It appears the VVD and PvdA do not find it necessary to study satellite images showing the the downing of the plane.

On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on flight MH17 en route from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

The hearing could “hamper” the ongoing investigation by the Prosecution into the cause of the disaster, VVD MP Han ten Broeke told NU.nl.

The CDA and D66 insisted Sunday on a hearing after satellite images and various photographs were provided by German intelligence (BND).

Source: ItarTASS/nu.nl/ RIANovosti

Elderly die of starvation in Ukraine

Sixteen elderly people died from starvation in September in Donetsk. The people could not eat anything as they were afraid to go out of basements, where they were hiding from bombs, the head of Fair Aid Charity Fund, Doctor Elizaveta Glinka said.

“There are many elderly and lonely individuals, who experience terrible problems, living in cold apartments, basements and bomb shelters. The strong shortage of medicines and the lack of medical supervision require the creation of a hospice for those who need assistance. In September, 16 elderly people died from starvation in the center of the city of Donetsk. They were afraid to leave their shelters, so they could not make any food for themsevles,” she said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation.

“We [the Russians] are the nation that survived the war and its terrible consequences. We shared bread even with prisoners of war. I believe that we can not ignore the weak in this situation – the elderly and people with disabilities. We decided to support the creation of the hospice in Donetsk,” she said, RIA Novosti reports.

Elizaveta Glinka, known as Dr. Liza, has repeatedly visited the south-east of Ukraine with humanitarian missions to deliver medicines and medical instruments, as well as to evacuate sick children from the combat zone. In early August, Glinka brought nine seriously ill children from the east of Ukraine to Moscow. Later, she returned from Donetsk with three more children.

Source: Pravda

St. Andrew’s flag flies over Scotland and Donetsk

By Dmirti Minin.

That’s the way the history goes. The St. Andrew’s flag is flown in two places in Europe situated at great distance from each other. Scotland and Novorossia are struggling for their national identity under the same colors. The two peoples divided by different history and cultures are addressing the issue of independence. They are going different ways; a peaceful referendum is to take place in Scotland while Novorossia is going through the horrors of civil war. But they are united by the same goal and its symbol – the St. Andrew flag.

The New Testament states that Andrew the Apostle was born in the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. He was a fisherman by trade to become the first disciple to follow Jesus. The church history says Andrew preached in Scythia, along the Black Sea, including Crimea and the Dnieper River as far as Kiev and from there he traveled to Novgorod. Hence, he became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania and Russia. According to tradition, he founded the See of Byzantium (Constantinople) in AD 38. Since then Andrew was recognized as Russia’s patron saint. Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese.

The St. Andrew flag was the ensign of the Navy of the Russian Empire from 1712 to 1918. It was first hoisted in 1712 to be formally adopted as Navy Ensign in 1720. From 1692 to 1712 Peter I personally drew eight flags projects that have consistently been taken into the Navy. Here is the description of the flag’s final version by Peter I: «The flag is white, across it there is a blue St. Andrew’s cross, whom he baptized Russia». After the Russian Revolution, the Russian Navy Ensign was changed to be reintroduced in the Russian Navy in 1992, and is still used today. Novorossia made St. Andrew its flag in May 2014 adding some red field to it. It emphasized the important role of the Navy in adding these lands to Russia and the association with the Great Victory Banner. It also symbolizes the unity of Russian people. The current flag of the Federal State of Novorossia was adopted on August 13, 2014. It resembles the Romanov flag, the national flag of the Russian Empire from 1858 to 1883. Formally the St. Andrew flag now is a symbol of Novorossia’s self-defence forces. But the changes have not taken root. The people of Novorossia, civilians and fighters, maintain their allegiance to the St. Andrew’s flag.

First the Saint Andrew’s Cross or the Saltire, the flag of Scotland, also known as the national flag of the country. But then it was the white cross on a blue field. According to legend, Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, was crucified on an X-shaped cross at Patras (Patrae), in Achaea. According to legend, in 832 A.D. Óengus II led an army of Picts and Scots into battle against the Angles, led by Athelstan, near modern-day Athelstaneford, East Lothian. The legend states that whilst engaged in prayer on the eve of battle, Óengus vowed that if granted victory he would appoint Saint Andrew as the Patron Saint of Scotland; Andrew then appeared to Óengus that night in a dream and assured him of victory. On the morning of battle white clouds forming the shape of an X were said to have appeared in the sky. Óengus and his combined force, emboldened by this apparent divine intervention, took to the field and despite being inferior in terms of numbers were victorious. Having interpreted the cloud phenomenon as representing the crux decussata upon which Saint Andrew was crucified, Óengus honoured his pre-battle pledge and duly appointed Saint Andrew as the Patron Saint of Scotland. The white saltire set against a celestial blue background is said to have been adopted as the design of the flag of Scotland on the basis of this legend. The St. Andrew’s flag has been a symbol of opposing the aggressive Anglo-Saxon civilization in the lands stretching from the North Sea shore to the Black Sea region.

By signing the Acts of Union in 1707 Scotland ultimately lost its independence but preserved its soul. On September 18 an independence referendum is held and people may say «Yes». London makes a lot of promises to cozy up to Scottish voters. It goes to any length just to make them remain part of the United Kingdom. But even if the majority says ‘No» at the referendum, the time is on the side of those who advocate Scotland’s independence.

Saying «Yes» by the voters will inspire the people of Donetsk and Lugansk. They will welcome the outcome and ask – why should we be refused the rights that other peoples have, are we different, do our children cry in some other way?

When London agreed to the referendum, the idea of independence was supported by no more than 30%. The changes in public sentiments were neither expected, nor predicted. If it were different, perhaps the English would have done their best to prevent the event. What made influence the public opinion in such a short period of time? Has the drama of other European people making sacrifices for the ideas symbolized by the St. Andrew’s flag impacted their mindset? The link between the events in Scotland and Novorossia is only symbolic. Backed up by powerful Washington London is directly involved in activities aimed at quelling the expression of people’s free will in Novorossia. By doing so it kind of lets the Scots know that, if not the circumstances, they could be treated the same way. It only spurs the pro-independence feelings. Actually there is no difference between the happenings in Scotland and Novorossia from a legal point of view.

In fact, the only formal argument against the self-determination of Novorossia is that the referendum is held in agreement with London while the referendum in Novorossia took place without Kiev’s consent. The Spanish diplomacy tries to take advantage of this fact as the referendum on Catalonia’s independence is slated for November 9. The Spanish government never gave its agreement on organizing the event and never said it would recognize its results. In Madrid they say the Catalonian vote should be treated the same way as the plebiscites in Crimea and Novorossia with no recognition of referendum results to follow. But if Scotland votes for independence nothing will stop the Catalonians on the way to self-determination. The stubbornness of Madrid may lead to the repetition of the events in Ukraine. The attempt to substitute the rights of people with the rights of governments challenges the international law and may lead to new conflicts.

The energy of the collapse that hit the USSR and East Europe in the late 1980s – early 1990 was, to large extent, stimulated by London to backlash today. The West started to talk about the boomerang effect of re-Balkanization. Scotland is just a start. Wales and Northern Ireland may follow. It’s an irony of fate that Donetsk was founded by John James Hughes, a Welsh engineer and businessman. This is one more historic event linking Donetsk with Great Britain and its people.

The chain reaction is to move far beyond the UK’s borders. In Europe the leaders of political movements struggling for autonomy status or independence are closely watching the event. Perhaps Catalonia in Spain and Flandria in Belgium are next. The support of Western capitals for the Kiev repressions does not scare them; to the contrary it makes them more adamant on achieving the aspired goal. The logic is simple: the national issue should be tackled before they are treated the same way as in Ukraine.

The European Union will not avoid the crisis of identity. George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003) who is a Scot by origin, said, «A dangerous historic event might soon be upon us — with few people outside the U.K. even noticing». According to him, if the separatist government gets its way in a referendum planned for September 18, the 300-year-old union of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland — the United States’ oldest and closest ally — will be on the road to disintegration. The rest of the country will hold a referendum on the European Union membership. There is a great chance the advocates of leaving the Union will win as Scotland is largely pro-EU. The Eurosceptics will strengthen their position in all countries. The window of opportunity for the states striving for the European Union membership to save their feeble economies will probably be closed. And the Ukraine’s prospects for European integration, which are dim enough anyway, will vanish in the hays.

Kiev, militia agree on ceasefire

Kiev officials and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire, as the contact group met behind closed doors in Belarus.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed the ceasefire agreement on his Twitter account.

The truce agreement comes into force starting 6 pm local time (15:00 GMT).

The president has ordered to cease fire starting at the time stated in the protocol.

“I give the order to the chief of the General staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to cease fire, starting from 18.00 [local time] on September 5,” Poroshenko’s statement says.

Poroshenko then called on both the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the OSCE to provide international monitoring of compliance with the bilateral ceasefire.

“We must do everything possible and impossible to stop bloodshed and put an end to people’s suffering,” the president said in a statement posted on his official website.

Poroshenko expressed hope that both sides would comply with the ceasefire agreement.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic earlier confirmed the ceasefire agreement on its official Twitter account.

Both Donetsk and Lugansk have said they are ready to lay down arms starting from 15:00GMT.

Representatives of the rebel forces have said they will obey the ceasefire if Kiev follows suit.

“Most of the points of the protocol correspond with our demands,” Lugansk’s leader Igor Plotnitsky said.

“However, the ceasefire does not mean a shift from our course of breaking away from Ukraine. This is a compulsory measure,” he said.

The OSCE’s Heidi Tagliavini has welcomed the agreement saying “it is good news.”

She has revealed that the protocol consists of 12 points, and “the ceasefire is the chief one.”

The participants in the talks will prepare another document – a memorandum on settling the situation in Ukraine, a Donetsk representative said.

The two sides accompanied by representatives of Russia and the OSCE were meeting in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, in an attempt to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine.

In their recent phone call on September 3, the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, showed a willingness to find an agreement to resolve the months-long conflict in the southeastern Ukraine.

Following the conversation with his counterpart, President Putin laid out a seven-point plan that could help find a solution.

Source: RT

How can you tell whether Russia has invaded Ukraine?

By Dmirti Orlov.

Last Thursday the Ukrainian government, echoed by NATO spokesmen, declared that the the Russian military is now operating within Ukraine’s borders. Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t; what do you know? They said the same thing before, most recently on August 13, and then on August 17, each time with either no evidence or fake evidence. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

You be the judge. I put together this helpful list of top ten telltale signs that will allow you to determine whether indeed Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday, or whether Thursday’s announcement is yet another confabulation.

Because if Russia invaded on Thursday morning, this is what the situation on the ground would look like by Saturday afternoon.

1. Ukrainian artillery fell silent almost immediately. They are no longer shelling residential districts of Donetsk and Lugansk. This is because their locations had been pinpointed prior to the operation, and by Thursday afternoon they were completely wiped out using air attacks, artillery and ground-based rocket fire, as the first order of business. Local residents are overjoyed that their horrible ordeal is finally at an end.

2. The look of military activity on the ground in Donetsk and Lugansk has changed dramatically. Whereas before it involved small groups of resistance fighters, the Russians operate in battalions of 400 men and dozens of armored vehicles, followed by convoys of support vehicles (tanker trucks, communications, field kitchens, field hospitals and so on). The flow of vehicles in and out is non-stop, plainly visible on air reconnaissance and satellite photos. Add to that the relentless radio chatter, all in Russian, which anyone who wants to can intercept, and the operation becomes impossible to hide.

3. The Ukrainian military has promptly vanished. Soldiers and officers alike have taken off their uniforms, abandoned their weapons, and are doing their best to blend in with the locals. Nobody thought the odds of the Ukrainian army against the Russians were any good. Ukraine’s only military victory against Russia was at the battle of Konotop in 1659, but at the time Ukraine was allied with the mighty Khanate of Crimea, and, you may have noticed, Crimea is not on Ukraine’s side this time around.

4. There are Russian checkpoints everywhere. Local civilians are allowed through, but anyone associated with a government, foreign or domestic, is detained for questioning. A filtration system has been set up to return demobilized Ukrainian army draftees to their native regions, while the volunteers and the officers are shunted to pretrial detention centers, to determine whether they had ordered war crimes to be committed.

5. Most of Ukraine’s border crossings are by now under Russian control. Some have been reinforced with air defense and artillery systems and tank battalions, to dissuade NATO forces from attempting to stage an invasion. Civilians and humanitarian goods are allowed through. Businessmen are allowed through once they fill out the required forms (which are in Russian).

6. Russia has imposed a no-fly zone over all of Ukraine. All civilian flights have been cancelled. There is quite a crowd of US State Department staffers, CIA and Mossad agents, and Western NGO people stuck at Borispol airport in Kiev. Some are nervously calling everyone they know on their satellite phones. Western politicians are demanding that they be evacuated immediately, but Russian authorities want to hold onto them until their possible complicity in war crimes has been determined.

7. The usual Ukrainian talking heads, such as president Poroshenko, PM Yatsenyuk and others, are no longer available to be interviewed by Western media. Nobody quite knows where they are. There are rumors that they have already fled the country. Crowds have stormed their abandoned residences, and were amazed to discover that they were all outfitted with solid gold toilets. Nor are the Ukrainian oligarchs anywhere to be found, except for the warlord Igor Kolomoisky, who was found in his residence, abandoned by his henchmen, dead from a heart attack.

8. Some of the over 800,000 Ukrainian refugees are starting to stream back in from Russia. They were living in tent cities, many of them in the nearby Rostov region, but with the winter coming they are eager to get back home, now that the shelling is over. Along with them, construction crews, cement trucks and flatbeds stacked with pipe, cable and rebar are streaming in, to repair the damage from the shelling.

9. There is all sorts of intense diplomatic and military activity around the world, especially in Europe and the US. Military forces are on highest alert, diplomats are jetting around and holding conferences. President Obama just held a press conference to announce that “We don’t have a strategy on Ukraine yet.” His military advisers tell him that his usual strategy of “bomb a little and see what happens” is not likely to be helpful in this instance.

10. Kiev has surrendered. There are Russian tanks on the Maidan Square. Russian infantry is mopping up the remains of Ukraine’s National Guard. A curfew has been announced. The operation to take Kiev resembled “Shock and Awe” in Baghdad: a few loud bangs and then a whimper.

Armed with this list, you too should be able to determine whether or not Russia has invaded Ukraine last Thursday.

Source: http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-can-you-tell-whether-russia-has.html

Putin: Kiev should consider federal system

Russia will not interfere in the choice of a model for state development by Ukraine, president Vladimir Putin said, adding that he could not understand why the authorities in Kiev were opposing federalization of their country. “For some unclear reason, our Ukrainian partners feel so apprehensive of a federation but it’s their choice anyway and we won’t meddle with it by any means,” Putin said at a youth forum in central Russia.

On the face of it, he said he was confident of the importance of consolidating federalism in Russia. “It’s a very important and meaningful element of our state system because it enables us to take a much better account of our citizens’ interests, as well as ethnic, historical, religious, and cultural specificity regardless of where they live,” Putin said.

There is a big enough number of countries that have a federated state structure – Russia, the US, Brazil, Germany, and some others, he indicated.

According to the president, it is necessary to discuss what kind of rights Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics will have and the south-east of the Ukraine on the whole and after that to register everything in the form of laws.

“This is not happening and it is important to realize it and to force the Ukrainian authorities to start thorough negotiations, not only on technical issues, which are certainly of extreme importance, but on substantive (issues) as well,” Putin said.

“This is what must be discussed,” Putin said. “It is important to agree on the essence, but they refuse to agree on the essence and this is the problem.”

The West needs to realize that the Ukrainian authorities are unable to establish order in their country and to force Kiev to start substantial negotiations with the embattled south-eastern regions, Putin said on Friday.

Kiev shells clinic and school in Donetsk

At least 11 have been killed in shelling of the Donetsk city in the east of the country by Ukrainian troops, the city residents said on Thursday. Ten people were killed in a culture centre fire as a result of shell explosion. A repair worker of Ukraine’s DTEK energy holding was also killed in the shelling.

The city’s regional clinical hospital was grossly damaged by fire from the Grad multiple rocket launch system late on Wednesday. The number of casualties is being ascertained.

According to local residents, the flights of surveillance drones precede Ukrainian troops’ artillery strikes on social facilities. A day before the shelling they saw a drone hovering over the area.

The local residents fear that artillery fire from the airport area will again be aimed at a hospital.

Ukrainian aircraft have been flying over Donetsk since the early morning on Thursday. Eyewitnesses said a plane dropped a cargo for the Ukrainian security forces, blocked in the airport area and then was performing surveillance flights over the city.

The local residents expect new airstrikes on Thursday. They say the Ukrainian troops are targeting Orthodox Christian holidays, as Thursday is Assumption Day.

During the night, Ukrainian army’s shelling destroyed apartment houses in two city districts and a civil registry office. One shell hit a city school, destroying it beyond repair.

Source: Itar TASS

American military contractors arrive in Ukraine

A resident of Donetsk has posted a photo of soldiers on a social networking service site. The soldiers, outside a local military enlistment office, were armed with sub-machineguns and light-weight machineguns and spoke English. They wore the uniform that was obviously not Ukrainian.

The coordinator of the Self-Defence of Donbass united organization of the activists of Donetsk told reporters earlier that a plane with 200 foreign mercenaries had landed at Donetsk airport. According to him, the legionnaires speak neither Russian, nor Ukrainian.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on April 7th that Kiev is amassing Interior Ministry troops and Ukraine’s National Guards, as well as fighters of the ‘Right Sector’ illegal armed group, in the southeast of Ukraine, including in Donetsk. The Russian Foreign Ministry points out that it is especially concerned over the fact that taking part in the forthcoming operation are some 150 US experts from the Greystone private military organization, dressed in the uniform of the Sokol (Falcon) police task force.

The White House has refuted the report, insisting in its Tuesday’s statement with reference to a Greystone official that US mercenaries are not involved in suppressing unrest in the south-east of Ukraine, Interfax reports.

The Foreign Ministers of Russia, Ukraine, the US and the EU are due to meet for talks on Ukraine next week, according to the press service of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.

Peace initiatives do in no way prevent the US from beefing up its military presence off Ukraine’s coast. Another US naval ship, USS Donald Cook, has entered the Black Sea, according to Rossiya-24 TV channel.

According to The Daily Telegraph British newspaper, the objective of the ship, armed with an air defence system and Tomahawk cruise missiles is to show support for Kiev. Another US naval ship has been in the area since March this year.

Russia is not conducting any unusual or unplanned military activities on its territory in the area of the Ukrainian border, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“The US and Ukraine have no reasons for concerns. Russia has said many times that it is not conducting any unusual or unplanned activities significant in terms of military issues on its territory in the area of the Ukrainian border,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary posted on its website.

“The daily activities by the Russian troops on its national territory do not threaten the security of the US and other OSCE countries. The attempts to accuse Russia of beefing up its armed forces are groundless,” the ministry said.

Washington employs thousands private military contractors (PMCs). They’re mercenaries. They’re hired guns.

Peter Dale Scott once said they’re “authorized to commit violence in the the name of their employers.” They’re “predatory bandits.”

They’re “uncontrollable subordinates…representing…power (in) remote places.”

They operate extrajudicially. They’re unrestricted by US, international, or local governments’ laws. They’re free from civil or criminal accountability.

Under Article 47 of the 1977 Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions:

“A mercenary is any person who:

(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;

(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities:

(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of the Party;

(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;

(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and

(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.”

Washington substitutes them for Pentagon forces however. At multiples more in cost. Using them gives US authorities cover for whatever crimes they commit. Doing so avoids accountability.

They’re an integral part of America’s imperial agenda. Apparently they’re operating in Ukraine. Perhaps hundreds will increase to thousands.

Maybe in other Ukrainian cities. Maybe covertly in Crimea. If not now, maybe later. Expect East/West tensions to escalate. Expect the risk for open conflict to increase.

Source: Voice of Russia/ The Sleuth Journal