Ukraine news/Archive/2017-09

30 Sep. Poroshenko signed a document on the concept of state management in conditions of emergency, prepared by the national defense council. Andrey Babitskiy wonders why now; submits that currently Rada has 2 days to approve presidential order establishing a special rule, those 2 days may be unavailable in case of a next Maidan.

DPR. A man, resident of Trudovskoe, was wounded by Ukrainian shelling of Trudovskaya pit mine. He was a guard at the mine, and was closing doors at the time.

Basurin sitrep: 36 ceasefire violations, with artillery, tank, mortar fire (numbers provided), 3 houses were damaged, 1 civilian and 1 soldier wounded

29 Sep. DPR ombudsman: in the past week, 2 people (all soldiers) were killed, 5 people(3 soldiers and 2 civilian women) were wounded.

28 Sep. According to reports (Rusvesna);(earlier, sled.net.ua), it is alleged that a company linked with Rada deputy from Poroshenko block arranged for itself to serve as intermediary loading US coal (end of July, 2017 news) on trains at Ukrainian ports. While 'Yuzhnyi' port was arranged to not compete to provide such services, with costs estimated to be as high as 10% on top of the price. (Something like that, if true, would be business as usual in either Ukraine or Russia, but perhaps below standard for a Western democracy. The coal price itself was above the market even with Russia and Donbass excluded).

27 Sep. Nadezhda Savchenko linked (on-going) weapons munition explosions near Vinnitsa with weapons illegal trade and subsequent cover-up (zik.ua +video).

23 Sep. Assassination attempt on DPR minister of taxation and revenues Alexander Timofeev ("Tashkent") in Donetsk, said to be by a mine explosion near his car. It is said that Timofeev 'is doing fine'. Initial reports suggested that a number of passer-byes were wounded. A Donetsk-native blogger offers his account (anti-personnel mine against heavily armed car? "Tashkent" apparently was not hurt. Offers critical opinions on overall state of affairs)

22 Sep. DPR ombudsman: in the past week, no killing reported, 7 people (2 soldiers, 1 civilian woman, 4 civilian men) were wounded.

21 Sep. Poroshenko meets Trump, on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York. Ukrainian sources present the meeting as American support of Poroshenko alternative plan to place peacekeepers mostly on Russia/LDPR border, while Russian proposal places them mostly on the separation line. Official White House transcript is rather less definite, here.

19 Sep. Patrick Lancaster visits Zaroshenskoe, interviews a local man who tells him that neither opolchenie nor UAF were based in the village itself back in July 2014, but there was an Ukrainian position few km away on a by-pass road. They stayed in the area for a few more weeks, until Ilovaysk battle events when they were pushed out. Lancaster goes in that direction, finds a possible dig-out, apparently with small firearms casings and what looks like a trench entrance, reports on all that on youtube suggesting this may be Ukrainian position indeed (a user comments that this may be a silo pit; those are probably smaller and are not supposed to have trenches and casings). This report goes along the lines of supporting the early Russian MoD and subsequent Almaz-Antey version of events in MH17 shoot-down, placing Buk position/launch site near Zaroshenskoe.

16 Sep. 112.ua: massive fire at a summer camp for children, some jumped from windows to escape fire. There were 42 children in the camp, 3 of them perished. Video of fire rescue included.

112.ua: (special US representative in Ukraine) Kurt Volker: even if Russia will fulfil Minsk agreements, the sanctions will not be lifted because of the Crimea. Also: Russian idea on UN peacekeepers are 'interesting' but 'I believe that details of what was proposed are most likely to further divide Ukraine and not solve the problem' (112.ua ); (rferl.org). Pushkov: 'Volker needs not to criticize Russia's ideas, but to think about how to ensure peace and convince Kyiv to carry out Minsk-2. Otherwise, his mission will end ingloriously' (Interfax.ru)

Saakashvilli : We decided to join the initiative of civil activists and gather in Kyiv on October 17 with three demands: the creation of anti-corruption courts, the abolition of parliamentary immunity, the adoption of a new electoral law. And the rest of the requirements we will collect throughout Ukraine until the 17th.

15 Sep. DPR Ombudsman: In the past week, 5 soldiers were killed, 5 people (3 soldiers and 2 civilian men) were wounded.

10 Sep. Mikhail Saakashvili returns to Ukraine by calling his supporters and the media to the border with Poland and then have them "carry" him over it, literally breaking through a police cordon.

7 Sep. Deteriorated security situation is reported prior to Minsk format meeting. 2 DPR soldiers were killed by Ukrainian sniper fire.

Peskov: ''Kiev should first discuss UN peacekeepers deployment with L/DPR. Russia is not a side of the conflict''.

5 Sep. Putin proposed to send UN peacekeepers to Donbass, and Russia introduced a UN resolution to do so. Ukraine expressed 'an interest to immediately discuss the resolution', however there are crucial differences in the approaches. Ukraine wants to place peacekeepers on the Russian border with the republics, Russia wants them on the separation line.

Ukraine experiments with replacing traditional, teacher-led Soviet-based school system, with Western-inspired one, no homework, grades pressure or classroom desks, to ANNA news horror. Finland-based, suggests TSN.ua

1 Sep. DPR ombudsman: In the past week (a supposed ceasefire) 3 DPR soldiers were killed, 1 civilian man was wounded. DPR MOD: 186 ceasefire violations by Ukraine in the past week, 642 artillery, tank and mortar shells fired, one house damaged or destroyed. (Rus.), (Eng).