Marathon Ukraine talks end with peace deal [Archive]

mick silver

12th February 2015, 06:01 AM

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Guns will fall silent, heavy weapons will pull back from the front, and Ukraine will trade a broad autonomy for the east for control of the Russian border by the end of the year under a peace deal hammered out Thursday in all-night negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany
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The deal was full of potential pitfalls, however, that could derail its implementation. In announcing the plan, Russia and Ukraine disagreed over what exactly they had agreed to in marathon 16-hour talks, including the status of a key town under rebel siege.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the agreement envisages a cease-fire that will be effective starting from the start of the day Sunday (2200 GMT or 5 p.m. EST Saturday) as well as a special status for the rebel regions, provisions on border controls and humanitarian issues.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said there was no agreement on any autonomy or federalization for eastern Ukraine, a longtime demand of Russia that wants it to maintain leverage over its neighbor and prevent it from ever joining NATO.
The deal, however, requires the Ukrainian parliament to give wide powers to the eastern regions as a condition for restoring Ukraine's full control over the border — a provision that would be certain to trigger heated political debate in Ukraine.
The agreement is a complex compromise that allows both Russia and Ukraine to claim victory, but it's full of potential pitfalls that may derail its implementation. Uncertainty remained even regarding the declared cease-fire, as Putin admitted that he and Poroshenko disagreed on assessing the situation in a key flashpoint, the government-held town of Debaltseve.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/french-president-francois-hollande-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-photo-103133700.html)French President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hug each other after …

"We now have a glimmer of hope," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who brokered the talks in the Belarusian capital together with French President Francois Hollande. "But the concrete steps of course have to be taken, and we will still face major obstacles. But on balance I can say that we have achieved gives significantly more hope than if we had achieved nothing. So one can say that this initiative was worth it."
More than 5,300 people have died since April in the fighting, which continued to rage Thursday even as the four leaders were engaged in talks.
The deal envisages a buffer zone to be created by pulling back the heavy artillery and rocket systems from 50 to 140 kilometers (31 to 87 miles) away from the frontline depending on their caliber. The withdrawal should begin no later than a second day after the cease-fire becomes effective and be completed within two weeks.
In a win for Ukraine, the rebel regions, which held their own elections last fall that Ukraine and the West declared a sham, are obliged to hold a new local vote under the Ukrainian law.
But in a key concession to Russia, the deal says the restoration of Ukrainian control over the border with Russia in rebel-controlled areas could be completed only by the end of 2015 on condition that Ukraine conducts a constitutional reform granting wide powers to the eastern regions, including the right to form their own police force and trade freely with Russia.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/french-president-francois-hollande-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-photo-102906219.html)French President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hug each other after …

Speaking to reporters after the exhausting talks, Putin said "it was not the best night in my life, but the morning, I think, is good because we have managed to agree on the main things despite all the difficulties of the negotiations."
Hollande said he and Merkel are committed to helping verify the cease-fire process in Ukraine, hailing the deal as a "relief to Europe."
A previous cease-fire agreed in September fell apart as Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels both tried to gain more ground.
"We came to an agreement, an agreement on a cease-fire and on a global political settlement of the Ukrainian conflict," Hollande said. "That global settlement will include all issues, from the cease-fire to the control of the border, to decentralization, and, of course, the pullback of heavy weapons and resuming economic relations."
Poroshenko stressed that the agreement contains "a clear commitment to withdraw all foreign troops, all mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine," a reference to the soldiers and weapons that Ukraine and the West say Russia has sent into eastern Ukraine to back the rebels. Moscow has denied the accusations, saying Russians in eastern Ukraine were volunteers, but the sheer number of sophisticated heavy weapons in rebels' possession belies the denial.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-gestures-speaks-media-peace-photo-100658345.html)Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gestures as he speaks to the media after the peace talks in Min …

Merkel said that, at the end, Putin exerted pressure on the separatists to get them to agree to the cease-fire.
"I have no illusions, we have no illusions — a great, great deal of work is still necessary. But there is a real chance to make things better," she said.
The French-German diplomatic dash came as President Barack Obama considered rising calls at home for sending U.S. lethal aid to Ukraine, a move that the European leaders fear would only widen hostilities.
The urgency felt by all sides appeared to be underlined by the extraordinary length and discomfort of the talks, which began Wednesday evening in the Belarusian capital and continued uninterrupted through the night as crowds of reporters waited anxiously in a marble-floored, chandeliered convention hall in Minsk. One was whisked away by doctors to be treated for exhaustion, according to the Interfax news agency.
While the four leaders hailed the agreement, it became immediately clear that Russia and Ukraine continued to disagree on how to end fighting around Debaltseve, a key transport hub between the two main rebel-controlled eastern cities.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-president-vladimir-putin-foreground-russian-foreign-minister-photo-100442410.html)Russian President Vladimir Putin, foreground, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, enter a ha …

Putin said that the rebels consider the Ukrainian forces surrounded and expect them to surrender, while Ukraine says its troops have not been blocked.
The Russian leader said that the peace deal also determines a division line from which heavy weapons will be pulled back.
The line of division and other key provisions were contained in a document endorsed by rebel chiefs and the representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. That agreement was endorsed by the four leaders, who issued a separate declaration.
"We were presented with various unacceptable conditions of withdrawal and surrender," Poroshenko said. "We did not agree to any ultimatums and stated firmly that the cease-fire that is announced is unconditional."
Rebel leaders lauded the agreement and said they're willing to give Kiev another chance. "(We) give this chance to Ukraine to change its constitution, to change its attitude," rebel leaders in Luhansk Igor Plotnitsky said on Russian television.
Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said he will lay the blame on Kiev if the cease-fire collapses and that there "will be no meetings and no new agreements."
__
Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Peter Leonard in Donetsk, Ukraine, Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

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mick silver

12th February 2015, 06:05 AM

http://www.thedailybell.com/images/library/worldpolice.jpg

EE_

12th February 2015, 06:39 AM

Glad that crisis is over. Now the stock market can get rolling again.

singular_me

12th February 2015, 11:03 AM

over ???
-----------------
Ukrainian crisis: Ceasefire agreed as Russia launches military exercises across 12 regions
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukrainian-crisis-ceasefire-agreed-as-russia-launches-military-exercises-across-12-regions-10040405.html

Hatha Sunahara

13th February 2015, 12:22 AM

Poroshenko was motivated to accept whatever terms he could get from the separatists. They had some 5000-8000 of his soldiers trapped in a pocket just outside of Debaltsevo. The only way out for them was to eiter surrender (big defeat for Poroshenko) or they would be starved or slaughtered by the DPR and LPR armies. That wouldn't look good for Poroshenko's career as a government official. He is officially in charge of Ukraine's army, but he has no control over the private armies assembled by other oligarchs, or the ones assembled by the 'Right Sector' (nazis) that are funded and trained by Nato. I have information that Neither Zakharchenko (head of DPR) or Plotnitsky (head of LPR) signed the agreement--and they were the ones who needed to sign the agreement or it wasn't an agreement. Why would they sign it? THey had the upper hand over the Kiev Junta militarily. They had declared their independence from Kiev Their civilians were being bombarded by heavy artillery and rockets. The Ukraine army had lost just about every engagement they had with the rebels, and Poroshenko would have a lot of 'splaining' to do if he lost 8000 men in a single battle. His army had no morale left, and his people were questioning the wisdom of killing their fellow countrymen for his political will. Something tells me that this 'peace' agreement won't last very long. Maybe it was set up to fail--a grand chess move by Putin. The Junta gets everything they want, and they don't keep their side of the bargain, so the peace fails. Putin then backs the separatists with all of RUssia's strength. The US would be wise to stay out of this because the only real options available to the US is a full blown nuclear war with Russia. The idiots that run our government will then put us in the same place that the idiots who run the kiev government are in. There will be no winners in a nuclear war with Russia--just losers all around. Is it obvious to anyone else that somebody in Ukraine, or those who are supporting the Ukraine junta needs to know when it is time to quit and cut their losses.

Hatha

Glass

13th February 2015, 12:38 AM

there will be a cacophony about the "appeasement".

Dogman

13th February 2015, 12:58 AM

It wont be over until the fat lady sings, the rebels (Russians) probably will be a take a bite at a time in territory from the Ukraine side until Russia is satisfied, which probably will be never until Putin reclaims all the territory lost when the soviet union fell apart. He wants the empire back.

Georgia is a good model of what probably will happen. cease fire, take a bite, cease fire, take a bite, etc,etc. Then move on to another breakaway state/country.

The fat lady hasn't even began to warm up for her set on stage.

Hatha Sunahara

13th February 2015, 02:06 AM

Putin knows that it won't be long before Ukraine's economy will collapse. Jim Willie says the Ukrainians didn't plant any crops this year, and when the harvest comes around, there will be a huge political crisis. That will likely toss out the junta, and Ukraine will split into at least two separate countries because there will be nothing to stop the secession of the Donbass people. I think it's great that their military flag looks like the flag of the US confederacy minus stars. Dixie on the Black Sea.

Even the IMF acknowledges that Ukraine will go belly up financially real soon. Here: http://qz.com/343660/ukraine-is-heading-for-a-total-economic-collapse/ All Putin has to do is wait for it to happen. The Donbass Russian Speakers have to defend themselves from the Junta aggression until the junta disappears.

Hatha

singular_me

13th February 2015, 05:04 AM

so called peace talk...

---------------------------

Ukrainians Who Oppose Mobilization Are Now Considered Criminals
http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/02/11/3370

Five years for ‘denying Russian aggression’: Ukraine may criminalize anti-war speech
http://rt.com/news/231555-ukraine-bill-agression-denial/

mick silver

13th February 2015, 05:06 AM

Fighting rages in run-up to Ukraine ceasefirehttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk 13 minutes ago

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Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride on armoured personnel carriers (APC) near Debaltseve, eastern …

By Richard Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk
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KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine and Russian-backed rebel fought fiercely for control of a strategic railway junction on Friday despite a new peace deal brokered by Germany and France.
A ceasefire is due to come into effect from Sunday under the agreement, which also envisages a withdrawal of the heavy weaponry responsible for many of the more than 5,000 casualties in the conflict that broke out almost a year ago.
Both sides accused each other of killing civilians. Two people were killed and six wounded when a shell hit a packed cafe in the Kiev-controlled town of Shchastya near rebel-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, a local official said, adding that other shells had struck elsewhere in the town.
"The town's heating system is broken, power lines are damaged as well as the water supply ... So this is how a comprehensive ceasefire is prepared for," the head of the Kiev-controlled administration, Hennadiy Moskal, said online.
The rebels accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and the town of Horlivka, where they said on their website that three children had been killed.
They gave no details, and it was not immediately possible to verify any of the reports, which followed threats of further sanctions on Moscow from the United States and Europe if the rebels seize more territory.
The deal, sealed in person by the leaders of Germany and France on Friday after more than 16 hours of intense, overnight talks in Minsk, capital of Belarus, with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, was soon overshadowed by the clashes on the ground in rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
"This night was not a calm one," the Ukrainian military said on Friday. "The enemy shelled positions of the 'anti-terrorist operation' forces with the same intensity as before."
A Ukrainian military spokesman said eight soldiers had been killed and 34 wounded in the past 24 hours.
Fighting had been particularly intense around Debaltseve, a railway junction linking the two main rebel areas, where separatists had used rockets and artillery to attack government forces holding the town, the statement said.
DISAGREEMENTS
Away from the battlefield, disagreements surfaced over whether a rebel amnesty or the release of a Ukrainian pilot detained by Russia were part of the ceasefire deal.
Western diplomats said the European Union would go ahead on Monday with a new round of sanctions against 19 Ukrainian separatists and Russians, despite the ceasefire.
NATO and the United States said the fighting ran counter to the spirit, if not the letter of the agreement and U.S. officials said further sanctions were still on the table.
At an EU summit in Brussels, the leaders of Germany, France and the European Council also said new sanctions were possible.
On Friday, the Kremlin said the four leaders remained in touch over the Ukraine crisis, and that he expected a phone conversation in the coming days, RIA news agency reported.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Moscow expected all points of the deal to be implemented, but that Russia had not promised to free detained Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko. Savchenko's case would be decided by a Russian court, he said.
Ukraine, for its part, said it had not agreed to an amnesty for all rebels, drawing an angry response from the separatists.
Sanctions by the EU and United States have piled intense economic pressure on Russia's economy, which has also been hit by a collapse in oil prices.
Russia's economy minister said he hoped sanctions would be lifted soon.
VAST "BUFFER ZONE"
On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the agreement with Russia on Ukraine as a good start but said undertakings must now be respected.
Ukraine reported a new, mass influx of Russian armor into rebel-held eastern Ukraine as the agreement was being finalised.
The deal calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line when and if the ceasefire has taken hold, and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy.
The rebels have advanced far past an earlier ceasefire deal, agreed in September, and the new agreement appears to envisage them pulling their guns back around 75 km, to take them back behind it, while Ukrainian guns would move 25 km back.
This would leave a buffer zone some 50 km wide, a challenge for the monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are expected to patrol it.
It also appears to take yet more territory outside Kiev's control.
The White House, under pressure from Congress to provide arms to the stretched Ukrainian military, said the deal was "potentially significant" but urged Russia to withdraw soldiers and equipment, and give Ukraine back control over its border.
Russia denies arming the rebels and sending troops to fight alongside them, despite what Ukraine and its Western allies say is overwhelming evidence.
(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice, Gabriela Baczynska and Alexander Winning; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Peter Millership and Giles Elgood)

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Horn

13th February 2015, 09:57 AM

Putin knows that it won't be long before Ukraine's economy will collapse.

Hatha

They do alot of programming software over there in Ukraine, dont be too suprised that if the ukraine army gets routed too heavily and there are transgressions by rebels. That it doesn't all turn out to be a head fake made by ukraine to draw them out.

The day Obama gives the word to use weapons they will already be there.

mick silver

13th February 2015, 12:48 PM

Europe warns Russia over Ukraine dealhttp://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2013-08-26/d19448d6-6aaa-4359-a768-eadacf5fbca9_afp-gif_new.gif (http://www.afp.com/) By Charles Onians with Danny Kemp in Brussels 12 hours ago

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Kiev (AFP) - European powers warned Russia it risked fresh sanctions if a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the 10-month war between Ukraine troops and pro-Moscow rebels was not implemented.
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The agreement to end the nearly year-long conflict, which has killed thousands and ratcheted East-West tensions to highs not seen since the Cold War, was reached early Thursday after marathon talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk between the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of stoking the war in ex-Soviet Ukraine by pouring arms and troops to help the pro-Russian rebels fighting Kiev government troops in Ukraine's industrial east. Moscow denies the charges.
Speaking late Thursday after a European Union summit in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia that the bloc, which has already slapped Moscow with sanctions over the crisis, was not ruling out further measures if the truce failed.
"If it works well we would be very happy to go with the agreement. If there are difficulties we wouldn't rule out other sanctions," she said.
French President Francois Hollande, who along with Merkel attended the 17-hour talks in Minsk that also included Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, agreed.
If the ceasefire deal was not respected, "we would return to a process... of sanctions that would be in addition to those already in place."
Hollande also said that the conditions were not yet right for France to resume with the delivery of two Mistral warships to Russia, a 1.2-billion-euro sale that Paris was forced to suspend over the Ukraine crisis.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-president-vladimir-putin-centre-shakes-hands-ukrainian-photo-095041170.html)Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) shakes hands with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshen …

Under the deal reached in Minsk, a ceasefire is to take effect at midnight Kiev time on Sunday (2200 GMT on Saturday) and heavy weapons are to be withdrawn from the frontlines of the conflict, which has killed at least 5,300 people and driven a million people from their homes since erupting in April 2014.
Poroshenko described the 17-hour talks as "very difficult" and said he expected the implementation of the deal would not be easy.
- Escalating violence -
Brussels first imposed targeted sanctions on individuals after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 but adopted tougher economic measures after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in July.
European Council President Donald Tusk said Poroshenko had given EU leaders a "sobering assessment" of the deal, and said the 28-member bloc was ready "to take the necessary steps" to keep up the pressure on Russia.
"Our trust in the goodwill of President Putin is limited, this is why we have to maintain our decision on sanctions," he told a press conference.
The United States, which has said it could supply Ukraine with weapons if the conflict continues, cautiously welcomed the peace accord, but emphasised the work yet to be done in making it stick.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/man-walks-past-damaged-police-station-donetsk-february-photo-071433829.html)A man walks past a damaged police station in Donetsk, on February 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov …

"The true test of today's accord will be in its full and unambiguous implementation," the White House said, including "restoration of Ukrainian control over its border with Russia."
The Ukrainian government accused Russia of deploying another 50 tanks across the border during the talks in Minsk, with fighting expected to continue around disputed railway hub Debaltseve, which rebels claim to have surrounded.
The roadmap was signed by Russian and Ukrainian envoys, separatist leaders and European mediators from the OSCE.
A previous truce signed in Minsk last September quickly collapsed.
- Money and guns -
Beset by war and corruption, Ukraine's pro-Western government is struggling to enact legal and economic reforms that would help steer the former Soviet republic out of Russia's sphere of influence and into Western institutions.
The Kiev government got a major boost Thursday with the announcement by IMF chief Christine Lagarde of a new financial rescue plan worth $17.5 billion.
In total, Ukraine will receive $40 billion (35 billion euros) in assistance over four years coupled with bilateral loans from other sources, Lagarde said, helping to stabilise Kiev's finances after 10 months of conflict in the east.
The World Bank for its part announced it was prepared to provide up to $2 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine this year.
The new Minsk agreement is broadly similar to the first one, except that the new heavy weapons-free zone will be 50 to 70 kilometres (31-43 miles) wide, depending on the range of the weapon, double the width of the buffer zone agreed in September.
Kiev will also begin retaking control over the approximately 400-kilometre (250 mile) stretch of Russia's border with rebel-held Ukraine, but only after local elections are held.
The border is entirely under Russian and pro-Russian rebel control and is used, according to Kiev, as a conduit for separatist supplies. The Kremlin denies this but has opposed Ukraine being allowed to regain control of the frontier.
While heavy weapons must be withdrawn, troops and rebels can remain where they are, handing rebels de facto control of the roughly 500 square kilometres of territory they've gained in recent weeks.
Separatist-held territories will be granted a degree of autonomy to be established through talks, and the right to decide which language they use.

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Horn

13th February 2015, 12:52 PM

Ceasefire scheduled for Sunday, only 24 hours left to get all your killin done...

gunDriller

13th February 2015, 01:07 PM

is this Silver bullish ?

if Apple ends up building i-whatevers in a Ukraine factory, that would be Silver bullish.

Hatha Sunahara

14th February 2015, 10:29 AM

I have been wondering why Merkel and Hollande are taking such a big role in brokering a cease fire in Ukraine. Is it possible that the 'Ukrainian troops" trapped in Debaltsevo are mercenaries who are French and German Nationals? And what does Putin get from a cease-fire? Here's a video that suggests some possible answers to these questions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IcwOYEasuE

Hatha

Glass

18th February 2015, 06:44 AM

So the peace deal is over. The West says that the "rebels" have attacked Ukraine Forces in Debaltseve which is some land link between the 2 break away regions. So that probably means the Ukraine forces attacked or something else was going on. So we read:

(Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told Kiev to let its soldiers surrender to pro-Russian rebels, who spurned a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and fought their way on Tuesday into the town of Debaltseve, encircling thousands of government troops.

A peace deal reached at all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk last week had all but unravelled, with both sides failing to begin pulling back heavy guns as required after the rebels refused to halt their advance.
Putin, whom Western countries accuse of directing the rebel assault with Russian soldiers and weapons, said Kiev should allow its soldiers to surrender to the advancing rebels.

"I hope that the responsible figures in the Ukrainian leadership will not hinder soldiers in the Ukrainian army from putting down their weapons," Putin said.

"If they aren’t capable of taking that decision themselves and giving that order, then (I hope) that they won’t prosecute people who want to save their lives and the lives of others.”

He added that he hoped the rebels would allow the Ukrainians to return to their families, once they had surrendered the town.

"SURRENDER TALKS"
"Eighty percent of Debaltseve is already ours," said Eduard Basurin, a rebel leader. "A clean-up of the town is under way."
He later said negotiations were under way for 5,000 Ukrainian troops to surrender. "Hundreds" had been captured and would eventually be released to their families. Ukraine denied that the number of captives was that high.

Reuters link (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0LL0OM20150218)

Zero Hedge link (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-18/frontrunning-february-18)

Sounds like some ones forces were massing under the cover of cease fire. Got caught maybe they did?

mick silver

18th February 2015, 10:58 AM

Ukrainian forces quit besieged town after rebel assaulthttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Gleb Garanich and Anton Zverev 15 minutes ago

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/96FRzrK8evXRdnCGec_wOg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE4OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-02-18T124305Z_1_LYNXMPEB1H0FH_RTROPTP_2_UKRAINE-CRISIS-DEBALTSEVE-TROOPS.JPG (http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-forces-start-quit-besieged-town-094521407.html#) . View photo

Ukrainian servicemen ride on a tank as they leave an area around Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine near Artemivsk, …

By Gleb Garanich and Anton Zverev
Related Stories

Putin tells Kiev to let troops surrender as Ukraine ceasefire unravels (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-truce-fades-sides-refuse-withdraw-big-guns-093040143.html) Reuters
Battle rages for town where Ukraine rebels reject ceasefire (http://news.yahoo.com/battle-rages-town-where-ukraine-rebels-reject-ceasefire-125913126.html) Reuters
Ukraine troops pull out of besieged flashpoint town (http://news.yahoo.com/ukrainian-troops-withdraw-key-town-battle-rages-official-085153425.html) AFP
'Glimmer of hope' for Ukraine after new ceasefire deal (http://news.yahoo.com/hopes-agreement-ukraine-peace-talks-source-says-064203606.html) Reuters
US blames Russian forces, rebels for Ukraine ceasefire 'violation' (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-admits-troops-surrounded-flashpoint-town-171724632.html) AFP

ARTEMIVSK/BULAVYNE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine pulled thousands of troops out of an encircled town on Wednesday after a massive assault by pro-Russian rebels, who ignored a new ceasefire to seize the strategic railway junction.
The fall of the besieged town of Debaltseve was one of the worst defeats of the war for Ukraine's troops, unable to stop an advance by Moscow-backed rebels fighting for territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia".
Twenty-two Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the town in the past few days, the Ukrainian military high command said, with more than 150 wounded.
President Petro Poroshenko, who flew to the front-lines, nevertheless tried to cast the battle in a positive light, saying that by holding out as long as they had, Ukraine's troops had exposed "the true face of the bandits and separatists who are supported by Russia".
The Ukrainian troops had held out for three days beyond the start of a Europe-brokered ceasefire, forcing the rebels to disavow the truce to advance on the town.
Eighty percent of the troops had withdrawn from the town by morning, Poroshenko said, and the rest were leaving in what he described as a planned and orderly withdrawal. He said the force withdrawing numbered more than 2,000 men.
A commander of one of the main pro-government volunteer battalions who fought alongside regular Ukrainian forces said "a lot of bodies" had been left behind. The wounded were being taken to Artemivsk about 30 km (18 miles) north of Debaltseve in government-controlled territory.
The rebels described the battle as a victory and said they let the Ukrainian troops leave only after they were defeated.
"There were no attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through. The surrounded Ukrainian forces were completely demoralized. They lost their direction. They began shooting at residential areas of Debaltseve," a senior rebel commander, Eduard Basurin, told journalists.
The rebels say the ceasefire, negotiated by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France at a summit in Minsk, Belarus, last week, never applied to Debaltseve, which links the two rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Poroshenko and the West say the rebel assault was reinforced by Russian tanks, artillery and soldiers, and that Moscow was behind the decision to disavow the truce and advance. Russia denies supporting the rebels.
PUTIN TELLS KIEV TO SURRENDER
Putin showed no sign of backing down over Ukraine on Tuesday evening when he told Kiev's pro-Western leaders to let their soldiers surrender in Deabltseve to avoid more bloodshed.
Hours later, the Ukrainian withdrawal was under way. A Reuters witness saw weary Ukrainian troops, their faces blackened, some in columns, some in cars, arriving in Artemivsk, about 30 km (20 miles) north of Debaltseve.
A Reuters correspondent near Debaltseve saw black smoke rising over the town and heard loud blasts hours after the withdrawal began.
"One hundred and sixty-seven wounded have been taken to Artemivsk. They did not pick up a lot of bodies. I don't know the total figure," Semen Semenchenko, who heads the Donbass paramilitary battalion, said on Facebook. The rebels said 153 Ukrainian soldiers had given themselves up.
The refusal of the rebels even to pay lip service to halting the advance at Debaltseve puts Western countries in a bind. They need to decide whether to take more steps to punish Russia for violating the ceasefire, or place more emphasis on restoring the truce now that the contested town has fallen.
"The actions by the Russia-backed separatists in Debaltseve are a clear violation of the ceasefire," European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in Brussels.
"The EU stands ready to take appropriate action in case the fighting and other negative developments in violation of the Minsk agreements continue," she said, an apparent threat of further economic sanctions.
A German government spokesman said the Minsk agreement had been damaged but it made sense to try to implement it.
Canada imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct in Ukraine on Tuesday, a move Moscow said would fuel further tension and prevent the implementation of the ceasefire.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: "The refusal of the separatists to respect the ceasefire threatens the agreement." Britain said Europe should at least extend its sanctions against Moscow if the ceasefire broke down.
For Poroshenko, the retreat may have saved the lives of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers. Before taking a plane out of Kiev to visit the front-line, he said Ukrainian forces had "really socked it" to the rebels.
"We were able to show to the whole world the real face of the bandit-separatists who are supported by Russia, which was a guarantor and direct participant in the Minsk negotiations," he said.
But another military defeat, coming as Ukraine approaches the first anniversary of the overthrow of the Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich, may be difficult to stomach for a population weary of a long conflict.
Russia has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, and Western countries believe Putin's goal is to establish a "frozen conflict" in eastern Ukraine, gaining permanent leverage over a country of 45 million people seeking integration with Europe.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra Prentice and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Polina Devitt in Moscow; Writing by Elizabeth Piper and Richard Balmforth; Editing by Peter Graff)

Politics & Government
Unrest, Conflicts & War
Debaltseve
Ukraine

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slvrbugjim

18th February 2015, 03:32 PM

The above story is a Kosher version of what is really happening
This is not an "Evacuation" It is a surrender

GAME OVER IN DELBATSEVE FOR A QUARTER OF THE UKRAINIAN ARMY

http://davi-luciano.myblog.it/2015/02/16/game-over-delbatseve-for-quarter-of-the-ukrainian-army/
Luc MICHEL/ In Brief/ Avec Interfax – AFP – PCN-SPO/ 2015 02 15/ http://davi-luciano.myblog.it/wp-content/uploads/sites/275859/2015/02/LM.NET-EN-BREF-debaltsevo-game-over-2015-02-15-ENGL.jpg (http://davi-luciano.myblog.it/wp-content/uploads/sites/275859/2015/02/LM.NET-EN-BREF-debaltsevo-game-over-2015-02-15-ENGL.jpg) “Ukraine rebels warn Kiev over truce around battleground town” - AFP. Donetsk Republic on Saturday warned that “any attempts by Kiev forces to move out of the battleground town Debaltseve after the start of a ceasefire would be considered an aggression”. Fierce fighting raged around Debaltseve on Saturday in the hours before the 2200 GMT start of a truce intended to be a first step in a peace plan to end 10 months of conflict. Kiev desesperatly denies DNR claims that thousands of government troops have been trapped in the town. But the game is really over for a quarter of the Ukrainian Army, with huge quantities of materials, including tanks, armored vehicles and heavy artillery! Donetsk leader President of DNR Alexander Zakharchenko on this Saturday warned that “any attempt by Ukraine to move its troops out of Debaltseve after the ceasefire would be seen as a violation of the truce”. “These attempts will be stopped by us and the enemy will be destroyed,” Zakharchenko said. “Ukraine and the West accused Russia of piling in heavy weapons to spearhead the frantic separatist onslaught for the vital position. The threat highlights the fragility of the looming truce, and could be used by the separatists to justify a return to fighting”, said AFP. KREMLIN CONFIRM THAT THE DNR POSITION IS CORRECT FOLLOWING THE MINSK AGREEMENTS ... Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov echoed the rebel warning. “Ukrainian army units that are surrounded even after the start of the ceasefire will naturally try to break out and thus break the truce regime,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Interfax. “There is a potential for such a danger.” Luc MICHEL

NATO servicemen tried to break away from Debaltsevo pocket in Donbass
Elena Muromova (https://www.facebook.com/elena.muromova.9)
7 trucks with NATO mercinaries made an attempt to get out of Debaltsevo cauldron yesterday. This attempt was supported by the Ukrainian army and voluntary nazi units. However, only 4 trucks were able to unite with the Ukro-army detachments to the west of Debaltsevo. The other 3 trucks were destroyed by the army of Novorossiya and the surviving mercinaries had to return to the cauldron. The attempt was organised to conceal the fact that there are NATO soldiers in Ukraine-a specical bother of Porky and his army afraid of evidence. According to inoСМИ.ru, only Jackson detachment were able to get out. This American detachment was sent to Debaltsevo in July. Debaltsevo is an important railway junction which the Novorossian army have been trying hard to capture since August 2014. They report about 1000 or so mercinaries still left in the cauldron. The aim is not to let them out as the special American detachment Delta and Polish private company "ASBS Othago" which have taken part in military action in Ukraine have shown extreme cruelty. Let them stay there for ever.

So Americans were in this with Polish and Belgum as well in this attempted escape

In these two videos click on cc to turn on captions the click settings then where it says cc Russian click translate change to english you will see some troops from Belgium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvXjLrX0lJs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SzAfBVzfMY

mick silver

18th February 2015, 06:36 PM

people get your kids ready for the new world war all it going to take is the right spark , all this is about more control and I think putin done giving before long he may start taking a lot more then we see . we have some bat ass crazy leaders in this world

Glass

18th February 2015, 07:24 PM

Hatha Sunahara

18th February 2015, 07:29 PM

This is a propaganda war as much as it is a military war. It appears that the Novorossiyans are winning it both on the propaganda and the military fronts. They would have to be horribly inept not to take advantage of the lack of legitimacy the Kiev regime has. It appears also that the military forces of the Kiev government are inferior to the militaries of the Novorossiyans. The large problem for Westerners is the western media--which spews out propaganda that favors the illegitimate Ukraine Junta. I get my news from Russian media like RT, Sputnik, Russia Insider, The Saker, Tass, Pravda, and anything else that is not part of the Western mass media.

I have a large admiration for the East Ukraine Russian Speaking Rebels. I see them the same way I regard the American Patriots of the Revolutionary War in 1776. They declared their independence from a corrupt, dishonest and repressive regime they regard as illegitimate. They are defending their homes and families, and fighting for their right to self-determination. We call these motives "American values and ideals', but they no longer exist in America which is ruled by corporations and big banks. We should pay attention to these Novorossiyan rebels because they will be the model for how to defeat oppressive governments.

Hatha

slvrbugjim

18th February 2015, 07:41 PM

[eng subs] DPR DM briefing 18/2 "We support the
unquestionable implementation of Minsk agreements"
18.02.2015 - DPR starts withdrawing heavy armament from
the calm sections of the frontline, however fight continue in
Debaltsevo,NAF troops aren't attacking, but holding the
"cauldron" closed. DPR considers that situation at Debaltesvo
by no means can be used as an excuse to violate the Minsk
agreements. NAF offer UAF troops at Debaltesvo to
surrender and return home.

<span class="text_exposed_show">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq12vRqlv_w

Our good Graham uploaded new Videos in the moment >
lot of new Vids here > youtube.com/user/gwplondon/videos (http://youtube.com/user/gwplondon/videos)
if a video 18+ blocked change url > to > nsfwyoutube.com/ (http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnsfwyoutube.com%2F&h=_AQEiwrLX&enc=AZOFPvZ4wUuAsG5QycdbOaEdqYPJngbHLhkg5t9-IuhKDIqOJM3ArHg5ki5LqFlGLlOekuPCtIWYec8IkieLR5SQ92 BNTEVSua33xwATz6wlwiEJn2yZx7sjWpt09svM26GYhrXcVbXc m-wpJ0a4G6Lx&s=1)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPsVPWbncSw#t=41

Debaltsevo Photos + They catched there a Maidan Sniper >
here > twitter.com/teleherzog/status/568204982379540482 (http://twitter.com/teleherzog/status/568204982379540482)

Horn

18th February 2015, 08:04 PM

Where's the blonde ringer, he is doing nothing for me...

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7334&stc=1

More Natalja please!

slvrbugjim

18th February 2015, 08:05 PM

It seems to me that the bolshi's thought they would get immediate backing from NATO or the US when they toppled the government. Problem is, you always have to achieve some goals before they will step in and back you. As far as I can tell the only goal they achieved so far was to steal away the countries gold. Other than that they haven't gotten far. Sure they will have privatised some infrastructure already but can they hold it?

Very uncertain. The patriots or separatists or rebels have had some stunning victories that can be claimed comes down to either: poor strategy by Ukraine army, fantastic patriotism by the separatists or Lack of belief by the Ukraine armed forces. Their hearts and minds are not in this fight against their brothers so they are not really putting up a fight. Preferring to surrender and go home..... although going home could be deadly if the Bolshis have already established their death squads and it seems they may have given the rounding up of men videos we have seen.

I think this is actually a remarkable situation and worthy of watching closely. The country could turn against the coup orchestrators. The main thing to take away from this is that the bolshis and neo cons are not really as smart or capable as they think they are.

This is worth watching because we created it, the US went in knowing and wanting a civil war to poke Putin in the eye, so that maybe the State Department will get a low level war started with Putin and Walahhh the Dollar is safe for another 6 months.

These people are fighting for their lives and the lives of their families, the Keiv fighters just want to go home. Problem is that many civilians lives are being impacted by a really crazy US policy here that is totally nuttts. This war affects my family directly so I am watching but the problem is that my own wife from Ukraine, here in the USA for now 10 years believes the propaganda no matter what I show her, that is how deep the deception is here. This really is MORE a propaganda war than a conventional war without question.

slvrbugjim

18th February 2015, 08:14 PM

Where's the blonde ringer, he is doing nothing for me...

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7334&stc=1

More Natalja please!

My wife is much better looking that her :D

Horn

18th February 2015, 08:25 PM

Germany says new security strategy will respond to Russia

BERLIN Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:46am EST

Reuters) - Germany (http://bit.ly/1svR8Um) will overhaul its security strategy in coming years in response to Russian attempts to use "power politics and military force" to assert its interests, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

Germany, which 70 years after World War Two is seeking to assume a more assertive global role, has been at the center of efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraineand led a push within Europe to impose sanctions against Moscow.

"Russia's actions in Ukraine fundamentally change the security architecture in Europe," said von der Leyen as she opened a debate on a new security strategy to be outlined in a "white book" to be published next year.

It will detail the main principles underlying German policy for the years ahead.

Germany's new policy must take account of the Kremlin's attempt "to establish geo-strategic power politics and military force as a form of asserting their interests", said von der Leyen.

"The Kremlin's new policy began long before the crisis in Ukraine and will occupy us for a very very long time to come," she added.
The new strategy would mean the German army would in future focus not only on missions far afield, for example in Afghanistan, but also become more involved in strengthening NATO's defenses. Germany is already helping to boost NATO's presence in eastern Europe.

The new principles, which will supersede a white book from 2006, will also take account of other developments such as the rise of the militant Islamic State group, the Arab Spring, focus on climate change and cyber attacks, said von der Leyen.

In a further sign of how Germany is responding to the way President Vladimir Putin is steering Russia (http://bit.ly/1stXoqj), Germany's foreign ministry is investing millions of euros in a new institute devoted to the study of post-Soviet states.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/17/us-germany-security-idUSKBN0LL1BK20150217

Jewboo

18th February 2015, 08:41 PM

slvrbugjim

18th February 2015, 09:36 PM

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_MrngqkXg70/UqSxmcmZQOI/AAAAAAAACQ4/k0xTZbGYMng/s1600/yulya-timoshenko.jpg
"EXHIBIT A"

I agree totally. The Vineyard Of The Saker (http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2013/12/short-update-on-events-in-ukraine-and.html) nailed it for months while Brian Williams read us the lies nightly. Putin said that East Ukrainian "miners and tractor drivers" just beat the Ukrainian Junta military because they were protecting their homes and families.

:)

Thanks for this you made me smile for the first time in days thank you

Hatha Sunahara

18th February 2015, 11:26 PM

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_MrngqkXg70/UqSxmcmZQOI/AAAAAAAACQ4/k0xTZbGYMng/s1600/yulya-timoshenko.jpg
"EXHIBIT A"

I agree totally. The Vineyard Of The Saker (http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2013/12/short-update-on-events-in-ukraine-and.html) nailed it for months while Brian Williams read us the lies nightly. Putin said that East Ukrainian "miners and tractor drivers" just beat the Ukrainian Junta military because they were protecting their homes and families.

:)

This woman is quoted as having said that she though they should kill all the Russian Speakers in Ukraine. Yulia Tymoshenko. And now they are hard at work actually trying to do it, although failing miserably. The Russian speakers are handing them their asses on a platter.

Hatha

Hatha Sunahara

18th February 2015, 11:31 PM

The only reason this war in Ukraine is happening is because of our neocons. Here's a Karl Swartz piece that rips the neocons new a**holes:

http://rense.com/general96/timetoregime.html

Still Time For Regime Change Of The Neocons

By Karl W. B. Schwarz
2-17-15

If you missed my last article on this subject, you might want to read it and this one. This is the link to the article that came out last week:
http://rense.com/general96/timetoregime.html
I have been asked more than 1,000 times over the almost 9 years I have lived in Europe this one question:
“How long is it going to take the American people to wake up and realize that they are being lied to 24 hours a day? What is going on in this world is not what they are showing on US TV.”
My standard answer is ‘when they learn to turn off the TV and think for themselves’ but I for one am not holding my breath that America is going to wake up any time soon. I have said on radio and have written many times that “America is 306 million opinions and not a single damned business plan in sight”.
Just as I was writing this I saw this cartoon and it sums up so very well the US population in general when it comes to the American deficit on ‘thinking on their own’.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m6e465edb.jpg

CNN recently got called out on the mat by DC for labeling the Ukraine junta military as “Pro-US Troops”. The reason they were called out for this screw up is DC does not want the rest of the world even thinking that the troops killing now over 5,600 civilians in the Donbas region are ‘Pro-US’ but that is exactly what they are. The US spent years and $5.1 billion of your taxpayer dollars to implement an illegal regime change to install a Russia-hating Neo-Nazi Fascist Regime.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_mddb1c6a.png

Americans are going to have to have one of those ‘come to Jesus meetings’ when it comes out that the snipers sent to kill protestors and the police were sent by factions in the USA, EU and NATO that wanted this regime change and picking a fight with Russia. That is murder in the USA and it is also murder in Kiev Ukraine.
Read on and I will explain to you why because I was in Washington DC and inside the RNC when this ‘Colossal Brain Fart’ was invented.
Americans are going to have the proverbial ‘fertilizer hits the ventilator’ right in their face when it comes out that those same factions were behind the shooting down of Malaysia Air MH-17 and neither Russia nor the Donbas people had anything to do with it.
Why would anyone shoot down a commercial airliner?
To blame it on Russia and fit neatly into the Neocon’s agenda towards Russia.
Then in December 2014, US Senator James Inhofe, a certain Neocon and war hawk mouthpiece for the Neocons and the US War Industry, goes before the US Senate and presents photos he claimed were straight from Donbas Ukraine and evidence of the typical DC and Kiev rhetoric “RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE”.
It was then and still is A DAMNED LIE PUT FORTH BY WASHINGTON DC!!!
Please, America, WAKE UP!!!
When USA*backed and NATO-backed Georgia attacked the separatists region of South Ossetia in August 2008 the US pulled out this “Russia Aggression gig” and it blew up in the face of George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice.
This was the last article I wrote on the subject of the August 2008 fiasco after EU told Bush and Rice they were not going to pick a fight with Russia on the basis if DC lies.
http://www.rense.com/general83/plots.htm
Consider the date of that article August 16, 2008 and what you have seen over most of the past year regarding Ukraine.
The people of South Ossetia voted in 1991 to stay aligned with Russia, not with the ‘new Georgia’ that that USA and NATO have tried to promote to NATO status on the border of Russia. They are trying to do the same maneuver on Ukraine right now.
I reported on this matter many times in August and September 2008 to the point the EU even contacted me and asked to know how I was so sure that “August 2008 Georgia-South Ossetia WAS NOT RUSSIAN AGGRESSION”.
It was a decisive counterstrike that was started by the USA, NATO and Georgia. Both Germany providing illegal arms and Ukraine providing troops and armor were in the Georgia * South Ossetia flare up, too. Russia flattened Georgia in mere days and there were dead US mercenaries and Ukrainian troops, too.
The Neocon mantra of ‘mightiest military in the world’ does not hold a candle to Russia since the USA could not win in Afghanistan in 13 years and 11 in Iraq.
The photo on the left below is from the Russia move to stop the senseless killing and genocide of people in South Ossetia in 2008 just because they have no desire to be aligned with either EU or USA. Exactly like the Donbas region of Ukraine, these South Ossetia people are Russian speaking and Russian passport holders, i.e. citizens of Russia.
Then, when trying to push the USA Neocon plan, Senator James Inhofe uses the same photo in December 2014 to convince the Senate and America of ‘the Russia Invasion of Ukraine’.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m73bd0b08.jpg
By the way, there are no ‘Caucasus Mountains’ in the Donbas region, is a very flat agricultural area.
Folks, either Senator Inhofe is a complete moron or this is just more DC lies and attempts to sell the idiotic US Neocon business plan. That Americans and the US media are too lazy to research and too stupid to know the difference between the truth and a lie is a major problem in America.
How in Hell did the Neocons get us into this colossal screw up on US foreign policy?
Read on and I will tell you, because I was inside of the RNC when this ‘Biblical Scale Brain Fart’ was born.
The USSR disbanded in September 1991, about the same time Bill Clinton announced he was running for President and George H W Bush had crashed the US economy with his idiotic policies.
I will deal with the GHWB matter of creating the first Gulf War later because it will have witnesses telling exactly what they were ordered to do to start that war with Saddam Hussein and Iraq in 1991.
When Clinton did get elected on the simple motto “It’s the Economy, Stupid” to frame what the GHWB problem was as brain-dead domestic policy, just like his son, the RNC decided to set up a ‘counter policy group’ and named it the National Policy Forum.
Since I am from Little Rock, Arkansas, turned down two blank-check offers to run against Clinton for Governor, but did figure out how to beat him with the Truth, I was asked to be a key part of the National Policy Forum, known as ‘NPF’. We moved from Little Rock to Reston Virginia, and my office was in DC for seven years.
The first director of NPF was Michael Baroody, a nice enough guy but too aloof from the rank and file to have been a long-term player. His exit from NPF was back into the lobbying business.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_7cc5d981.png

He resigned because then RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, infamous lobbyist in DC lining the just right pockets, was funding NPF with foreign money to keep it quiet. RNC was flush with cash so none of us could understand why he was so intent on foreign money for what was a US domestic policy matter to counter Clinton policies.
If RNC and the State of Mississippi ever had a Fat Boy Boss Hog, former Governor Haley Barbour is that Fat Boy Boss Hog Lobbyist.

Well, as it turned out the NPF was not about countering Clinton policies at all. That was a ‘front’ for what the real agenda was.
The DNC filed a lawsuit with the Federal Elections Commission (‘FEC’) and prevailed in court. However, while that lawsuit was stuck in the typical US District Court snail process, Baroody left and Barbour replaced him with this well-known Neocon Idiot, John Bolton.

Please pay close attention because your future and the future of America is riding on what you are about to read and what you do about it.
What the NPF was doing was trying to devise a strategy to replace the ‘USSR boogeyman’ with the ‘Islamic terrorist boogeyman’. After the fall of the USSR in September 1991 the US Defense Department and the military-industrial complex could no longer justify their huge budgets without an enemy.
The USSR was gone so they thought they needed to come up with another enemy to justify that ‘largest in the world US defense budget’.
If you did not grasp the preceding two paragraphs read them again appreciating that the time frame was from 1993 to 1996 when I walked out on June 6, 1996 on the RNC in complete disgust.
With USSR gone they decided to go after Islam, terrorism, Global War against 1 billion people, most of which presented no threat to the USA whatsoever.
They held land that had lots of oil and natural gas, and even arch War Criminal Neocon Dick Cheney even remarked once that the US had no control over the fact that ‘God seems to have put most of the oil and natural gas in Islamic nations’. You can look that up, he said it in a speech.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m2d2313e9.jpg

Of course, prior to Bush-Cheney 2000, Richard Cheney was part of PNAC, too.
Think about that because America has gone from about $1 trillion in debt to over $18 trillion in debt due to this idiotic, moronic change in US policy merely to justify war spending.
I am a conservative and have no problems with legitimate defense spending to defend America, but what evolved was offensive firepower and pursuit of global hegemony and empire at the expense of the American people.
After NPF had to be disbanded because DNC / FEC prevailed in court, Bolton went underground and then resurfaces as part of PNAC, Project for a New American Century. In hand was their delusional manifesto about US military supremacy worldwide as ‘the world’s only Superpower’.
The PNAC bunch started off at NPF but had to be disbanded due to the lawsuit DNC filed and FEC pursued.
Then after their ‘Islamic terrorist boogeyman’ gig blew up in their face with two lost wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, trillions of US dollars blown on nothing but death, mayhem and an idiotic and delusional plan, Libya now a failed state, Syria not backing up one inch, and they have failed in Ukraine, too, these Neocons went out and tried to re-brand themselves as the FPI, or Foreign Policy Initiative.
http://www.foreignpolicyi.org/
Of course, Bush had to reward Bolton for his fine work in setting the stage to destroy America so he appointed him as US ambassador to the UN during most of the Bush 2 administration.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m15b969b7.jpg

Some of the PNAC people gravitated over the FPI and are now board members and still stirring the pot for more US interventions and more war.
On the board is Robert Kagan, always a proponent for whatever is best for Israel and that has to be best for America.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m2b70599c.jpg

His wife is Victoria Nuland of the US State Department and one of the architects of the illegal regime change in Kiev that has now led to the total fiasco in Ukraine.
http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m5e249f44.jpg

Then we have William Kristol, arch Neocon and mouthpiece for the American Empire. However, his ideas have now bankrupted America and ruined the image and public relations of America almost globally.

http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m4a067b5a.jpg

Also on the board is Dan Senor, one of the behind the scenes players but nonetheless idiotic in his pursuit of the Global American Empire that is killing America. Here we have a journalist that was the chief spokesperson for the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority that turned out to be a complete joke and a total disaster.
http://www.rense.com/general96/Still%20Time%20for%20Regime%20Change%20of%20the%20 Neocons_html_m4c17c6.jpg

Also on the board of four people is former US Defense Department person Eric Edelman. He also loves to push the NATO agenda and moving east towards Russia.

These people are always out pushing their global hegemony, global Empire America, global interventionism without regard to the cost to the American taxpayers and the American people called upon to go fight their war proposals. Even when their brain farts turn into disasters as they have in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, they are still working on Ukraine and dreaming up ways to lie about the ‘failures’ being ‘US successes’.
If I were President of the United States I would have them all declared ‘a clear and present danger to America’ and force them to go serve in the wars they propose. As for clear thinkers and war planners they suck.
America needs to force them out and keep right on down the list until every Neocon is purged from US politics, media and discussion of what is best for America.

Hatha

Glass

19th February 2015, 12:10 AM

Hatha

Do you have a link to the quoted version of the article? It appears to be better illustrated than the Rense linked version of the article.

thx

Horn

19th February 2015, 08:19 AM

Yeah sure that's how i protect my home and family in a borrowed T-tank, loaded with fuel and fire for maximum range.

Jewboo

19th February 2015, 09:25 AM

This woman is quoted as having said that she though they should kill all the Russian Speakers in Ukraine. Yulia Tymoshenko. And now they are hard at work actually trying to do it, although failing miserably. The Russian speakers are handing them their asses on a platter.

Hatha

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_MrngqkXg70/UqSxmcmZQOI/AAAAAAAACQ4/k0xTZbGYMng/s1600/yulya-timoshenko.jpg

Exactly. She recently lamented that Ukraine has no nukes to drop on the Russian-speaking Eastern Ukrainians. Meanwhile...our own jew-controlled media keeps posting this photo of her being some kind of peaceful earth mother.

https://i0.wp.com/smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/166v.gif Brian Williams: Peace-loving Yulia Tymoshenko today urged NATO to carpet-bomb Donbas with flowers

Tymoshenko – “8 million Ukraine Russians must be killed with nuclear weapons” (http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/03/24/tymoshenko-8-million-ukraine-russians-must-be-killed-with-nuclear-weapons/)

” I am ready to grab a machinegun and shoot that motherfucker [Putin] in the head.”

” I would have found a way to kill those assholes. I hope I will be able to get all of my connections involved.”

” And I will use all of my means to make the entire world rise up, so there wouldn’t even be a scorched field left in Russia.”

On a question of what to do with the 8 million Russians left inside the Ukraine she says, “They must be killed with nuclear weapons.”

Hatha Sunahara

19th February 2015, 09:46 AM

Hatha

Do you have a link to the quoted version of the article? It appears to be better illustrated than the Rense linked version of the article.

thx

THis one? http://rense.com/general96/stilltime.html

Hatha

mick silver

19th February 2015, 10:13 AM

Ukraine forces and EU diplomacy take heavy blow as rebels seize key town
A newly forged cease-fire all but collapsed as government troops withdrew from the transit hub of Debaltseve in what appears to be another implicit victory for Russia's Vladimir Putin.http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/p/csm_logo_115.jpg (http://www.csmonitor.com/) By Robert Marquand 2 hours ago

The humbling pullout of Ukrainian troops from the strategic town of Debaltseve, with potentially heavy loss of life and equipment for Kiev (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Kiev), puts the latest phase of European cease-fire diplomacy into serious question, even as Western nations remain divided over how and whether to more robustly arm Ukraine (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Ukraine).
Related Stories

Debaltseve under rebel control, Cossack fighters celebrate (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-withdrawal-besieged-town-90-percent-complete-083353993.html) Associated Press
Battle for Debaltseve threatens fragile cease-fire in Ukraine (http://news.yahoo.com/battle-debaltseve-threatens-fragile-cease-fire-ukraine-141029270.html) Christian Science Monitor
Moscow Talks Fail to Clinch Ukraine Peace Deal (http://online.wsj.com/articles/hollande-merkel-aim-for-peace-deal-in-moscow-1423211775?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp) The Wall Street Journal
Marathon talks produce Ukraine peace deal; cease-fire Sunday (http://news.yahoo.com/leaders-minsk-crucial-ukraine-peace-talks-051912803.html) Associated Press
Putin’s Latest Victory (http://www.wsj.com/articles/putins-latest-victory-1423786470?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp) The Wall Street Journal

The battlefield success appears to give another implicit victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Vladimir+Putin), while handing a potentially direct military and political loss to Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, who must now explain ongoing chaos and loss in the eastern part of his country despite an apparent diplomatic agreement.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Poroshenko called for UN peacekeepers to deploy immediately. Meanwhile today, French and German leaders spoke by telephone with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Russia), the Associated Press reports from Paris, about the “cease-fire that has been faltering (http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine-abroad/associated-press-french-german-leaders-try-to-save-faltering-ukraine-truce-381207.html).” Agence France-Presse added a statement out of the talks that, "The breaches in the ceasefire seen in recent days were denounced (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11422222/Europe-leaders-denounce-Ukraine-ceasefire-violation.html)."
Recommended: How much do you know about Ukraine? Take our quiz! (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/1202/How-much-do-you-know-about-Ukraine-Take-our-quiz)
The sudden withdrawal of government troops from Debaltseve, which is situated on a key rail line and whose capture ties together two main rebel-held territories, continues nearly a month of defeat and retreat by Kiev in its eastern region, and a further collapse of the Minsk (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Minsk) Agreement negotiated last fall.
The now-broken cease-fire negotiated by French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel adds to a string of ineffectual responses, analysts say. The new effort was agreed to last Thursday, but not implemented until Sunday. It was demolished two days later as what reporters describe as rebel Cossack forces overwhelmed Ukrainian troops, many of whom retreated on foot, through cornfields.
A mounting number of reports, in fact, suggest that no cessation of fighting on any front in eastern Ukraine this week actually took place, according to The New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/world/europe/leaders-speak-by-telephone-to-try-to-impose-ukraine-cease-fire.html?_r=0)
Ukrainian officials claim that 80 percent of their troops, or about 2,500 soldiers, made it out of the contested city. Rebels say they have captured more than 500 soldiers.
AP reporters witnessed Cossack forces gathering in the heart of Debaltseve:

Rebel fighters, many of them Cossacks, roamed the streets of Debaltseve on Thursday, a day after Ukrainian forces began withdrawing from the besieged town. The mood was celebratory, with fighters laughing, hugging each other and posing for photos.
...
Nikolai Kozitsyn, a Russian Cossack leader who has been a prominent warlord in separatist eastern Ukraine, was seen driving around in a Humvee-like vehicle that had been captured from Ukrainian troops.
Rebel leaders backed by Moscow (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/topic/Moscow) today denied that the taking of Debaltseve was a cease-fire violation, saying that the city had already been surrounded by rebel forces before the cease-fire went into effect, and was thus fair game. Mr. Putin on a visit to Hungary Wednesday appeared to back the position of rebels.
Analysts point out that Putin is in the enviable position of not having to consult allies, security organizations, political polls, or other constituencies in supplementing his territorial seizures that date to the de facto annexation of the Crimean Peninsula a year ago. Putin has not concerned himself with the problems of his economy in order to achieve his larger aims.
At the same time, the Western nations that Putin has consistently thumbed his nose at appear to want to solve the crisis with a set of no-risk or little risk options of sanctions and prohibitions.
The question now is what the rebels do with their new-found gains. As Russian expert Mark Galeotti of New York University noted in The New York Times:

"The real question is whether now that they have Debaltseve, the rebels and Russia are willing to sit back and let the conflict freeze, or whether they continue their town-by-town push while still proclaiming their support for the cease-fire,” Professor Galeotti said. Referring to two other contested areas of eastern Ukraine, he said, “They could head for Avdiivka, or redouble their efforts on Mariupol, but I suspect Moscow will want now to settle back, at least for a while, and let Western attention wander.”
The Economist this week wasted little time (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21643189-ukraine-suffers-it-time-recognise-gravity-russian-threatand-counter?vh=094f55549b812e9a44e60563d91265b92ff2f6e d&ts=1424341773) quibbling over possible cross-cultural misunderstandings about the crisis in Ukraine and its challenge, placing the onus on Putin. The British publication says Putin cares little about sanctions or his free-falling currency, since the view from Moscow is that Putin is winning a larger game of dividing and mocking the West.

Look at the world from his perspective, and Mr Putin is winning. For all his enemies’ machinations, he remains the Kremlin’s undisputed master. He has a throttlehold on Ukraine, a grip this week’s brittle agreement in Minsk has not eased. Domesticating Ukraine through his routine tactics of threats and bribery was his first preference, but the invasion has had side benefits. It has demonstrated the costs of insubordination to Russians; and, since he thinks Ukraine’s government is merely a puppet of the West (the supposed will of its people being, to his ultracynical mind, merely a cover for Western intrigues), the conflict has usefully shown who is boss in Russia’s backyard. Best of all, it has sown discord among Mr Putin’s adversaries: among Europeans, and between them and America.
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How much do you know about Ukraine? Take our quiz! (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2013/1202/How-much-do-you-know-about-Ukraine-Take-our-quiz/Population)
Putin takes 'Russia still has friends' tour to Hungary (+video) (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0217/Putin-takes-Russia-still-has-friends-tour-to-Hungary-video)
Focus (http://www.csmonitor.com/csmlists/special/focus) Putin's pals: Who is helping steer the Kremlin now? (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0215/Putin-s-pals-Who-is-helping-steer-the-Kremlin-now)
Google Earth data suggests Russia shelled Ukraine, say researchers (http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/2015/0217/Google-Earth-data-suggests-Russia-shelled-Ukraine-say-researchers)
Kiev, rebels sign cease-fire, but Ukraine's path to peace remains steep (+video) (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0212/Kiev-rebels-sign-cease-fire-but-Ukraine-s-path-to-peace-remains-steep-video)

Read this story at csmonitor.com (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2015/0219/Ukraine-forces-and-EU-diplomacy-take-heavy-blow-as-rebels-seize-key-town)
Become a part of the Monitor community

Hatha Sunahara

19th February 2015, 11:07 AM

Here are a few more links that will give you a clearer picture of what happened at Minsk II ceasefire agreement :

http://russia-insider.com/en/opinion/2015/02/18/3599

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsi5uqYQZFU

http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/02/17/3595

Here's a ton of links:

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics

The soldiers that were trapped in the Debaltsevo cauldron were almost one quarter of Ukraine's army. Putin used his influence with the rebels to let them out of the cauldron because if they didn't, Poroshenko would go down politically, and be replaced with something worse. 'Keep in mind that everything you hear or see in the western media about Ukraine is a lie. You can get a better sense of the truth from Russian news sources and a few bloggers.

Hatha

slvrbugjim

20th February 2015, 11:00 AM

Defender of the Fatherland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iypMGQs490

Grishanov (https://www.youtube.com/user/Grishanov)'s channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZsIYjSBTwFLu_rT_G1HbNA

Debaltseve (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-withdrawal-besieged-town-90-percent-complete-083353993.html) Aftermath video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfx2T6OOHI8&feature=youtu.be

slvrbugjim

20th February 2015, 11:37 AM

Fear and Loathing in Debaltsevo" report by Steshin & Kots

What was left behind after the surrender

http://youtu.be/ktyMOAz1b68

Hatha Sunahara

22nd February 2015, 08:31 PM

Here's more background on how we got to where we are in Ukrain-a clear headed view of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68RErgHOzN8

Sometimes you have to destroy democracy to save it(hah!)

There is some information in this video about where the resources are in Ukraine.

Hatha

Horn

23rd February 2015, 12:25 AM

Ukraine: Overview of population displacement (as of 12 December 2014)

http://reliefweb.int/map/ukraine/ukraine-overview-population-displacement-12-december-2014

Horn

23rd February 2015, 12:41 AM

Ukraine truce rocked by Kharkiv blast

Two people were killed and about a dozen injured when a bomb exploded in Ukraine’s second-largest city at a march on to mark the first anniversary of the ousting of president Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s interior ministry said.

The ministry said Sunday’s blast in the government-held eastern city of Kharkiv was due to an “unknown explosive device” and was being considered a terrorist act. A police officer was one of the dead, it said.

Markian Lubkivskyi, an aide to the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service, said four suspects had been arrested.

“They are Ukrainian citizens, who underwent instruction and received weapons in the Russian Federation, in Belgorod,” he told Ukraine’s 112 Television. Belgorod is a Russian city just across the border from Kharkiv.

Moscow did not immediately respond to the accusations. It has long denied aiding its militant sympathisers in Ukraine (http://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine).

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/22/ukraine-and-pro-russia-rebels-swap-dozens-of-prisoners

Glass

23rd February 2015, 01:38 AM

so the humanitarian expedition was a spying exercise? Only the Separatists are shooting. Obviously it must be them that is breaking the truce.

and 4 Ukrainians who got actual weapons from Russia? Nails and some kind of explosive? Pretty rudimentary stuff for a country like Russia. Sounds almost like a improvised kind of device. Some people are experts in making those, thats for sure.

Horn

23rd February 2015, 01:55 PM

Everything is setting up nicely to make E.U. U.S. to appear as innocent bystanders to covert Russian aggression.

Putin will hardly be able to deny involvement in any case. Due to his "not being involved".

mick silver

23rd February 2015, 02:32 PM

This is Putin's objective in Ukraine: Expert
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take control of Ukraine along the border down to Crimea, and it's beginning to look like that may happen, retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs told CNBC on Monday.
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Britain says Russia's Putin acting like "tyrant" over Ukraine (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/britain-says-russias-putin-acting-110612153.html) Reuters
More sanctions possible if Ukraine ceasefire fails-Merkel (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-sanctions-possible-ukraine-ceasefire-220708917.html) Reuters
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"He'll effectively have total control over that area along the Black Sea, which will make Ukraine a land-locked country," the Medal of Honor recipient and MSNBC military analyst said in an interview with " Power Lunch (http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838342?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cinline%7Cstory %7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=102447998)."
That will give Putin (http://www.cnbc.com/id/10000510?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cinline%7Cstory %7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=102447998) control over the Russian speakers in the area and will give him a warm-water port in the Black Sea, Jacobs pointed out.
Despite a cease-fire agreement last week, new attacks have continued in Ukraine. That led Ukraine to delay a promised pullback of heavy weapons from the front line Monday.
Read More Kiev says cannot withdraw weapons as attacks persist (http://www.cnbc.com/id/102445452?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cinline%7Cstor y%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=102447998)

Meanwhile, the United States doesn't seem willing to do what it takes to put a stop to Putin, Jacobs said.
"We don't even have support among the Europeans for economic means to really squeeze Putin," he noted.
Jacobs said that's because Europe does not want to break any economic connection with the country.
"They've thrown in the towel already. They're not on our side and we're not going to do anything to irritate Western Europeans, quite frankly."
The European Union (http://www.cnbc.com/id/10000049?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cinline%7Cstory %7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=102447998) is Russia's biggest trading partner. Russian imports from the EU accounted for 123.2 billion euros ($139.6 billion) in 2012, according to the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union.
Read More Some Russian-European ties are growing closer (http://www.cnbc.com/id/102441753?__source=yahoo%7Cfinance%7Cinline%7Cstor y%7Cstory&par=yahoo&doc=102447998)

Last week, the EU announced a new list of sanctions against pro-Russian separatists, Russian military leaders and politicians but experts have voiced doubt about how the measures will impact Russia's economy.
-CNBC's Dina Gusovsky and the As

mick silver

23rd February 2015, 02:35 PM

Ukraine Summit Is Unsuccessful; U.S. Contemplates Next Steps
(Bloomberg) -- European and Russian leaders failed on Saturday to reach an agreement on ending the carnage in Ukraine in more than five hours of talks as U.S. officials debated new steps to pressure Russia, including military deployments in countries like Poland and the Baltic states.
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The talks, held by Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, took place at the Kremlin in a high-stakes effort to stave off a deeper confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Little of substance emerged and Merkel and Hollande left Moscow, although talks are to continue by phone over the weekend. The German leader is due to address the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
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Hanging over the negotiations is the prospect of deeper sanctions on Russia, an economic collapse in Ukraine and the risk that the conflict descends into a proxy war.
In Washington, U.S. officials said that in addition to possible steps that have surfaced previously -- more economic aid to Ukraine, non-lethal military aid and defensive weapons -- there is a discussion of adding air, missile defense, ground combat and intelligence deployments in eastern Europe and possibly Scandinavia.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss deliberations inside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said the debate parallels the one about weapons to Ukraine: would such moves help deter Russia or prompt Putin to escalate threats and military maneuvers?
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In Moscow early Saturday, Russian officials sought to put a positive spin on the inconclusive talks, suggesting that they could still produce an accord.
“Based on proposals from Merkel and Hollande, the work will continue to prepare a joint document for implementation of the Minsk agreements,” a Putin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov said, referring to the peace deal reached in the Belorussian capital Minsk, which has collapsed amid an upsurge in fighting. In a jointly agreed statement he said the three leaders would talk by phone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday.
Pro-Russian rebels have gained ground against Ukrainian government forces in the worst fighting in five months that’s driving the country closer to economic collapse. The conflict has killed more than 5,350 people since April, according to the United Nations.

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Waging War Ukraine, the U.S., the European Union and NATO say Russia is supporting eastern separatists with hardware, cash and troops, accusations the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. Russia says Ukraine is waging war on its own citizens and discriminates against Russian speakers, a majority in Donetsk and Luhansk.
“I’m very skeptical,” Joerg Forbrig, a senior program director at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, said by phone. “There have been so many rounds of agreements at Minsk and Geneva and each was followed by a military offensive.”
Pessimism prevailed on all sides ahead of the meeting. Merkel saw little chance of getting Putin to change his mind; officials in the Obama administration said there’s little anyone can do to stop the rebels from seizing more territory; and in Moscow, policy makers are increasingly coming to the view that the war-torn Donetsk and Luhansk regions will eventually secede from Ukraine.
The fact that the three leaders agreed to continue talking offers a glimmer of hope, Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, said by phone from Munich. “It may be a good signal that they’re not giving out any details,” he added.
‘Putin’s Terms’ Yet Putin’s demands may be unacceptable for Ukraine and its allies, Nikolai Zlobin, of the Washington-based World Security Institute, said by phone. “They can stop fighting but it will only be on Putin’s terms,” he said.
While Merkel has rejected arming the Ukrainian army and President Barack Obama is skeptical, some officials and diplomats in Washington are openly discussing the idea.
“The least we can do is provide them with defensive weapons,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said in an interview at the Munich Security Conference. “My belief is providing defensive weapons to the Ukrainians is the best way to keep this thing from escalating.”
Arming Ukraine The U.K. and German defense ministers, echoing statements this week by White House spokesman Peter Earnest, warned that sending arms to Ukraine could inflame the conflict.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen ruled out such shipments, saying that doing so would trigger a “potentially unlimited” flow of weapons to separatists and provoke a more direct military conflict with Russia. She said the U.S. and Europe should instead focus on the “very sharp sword” of economic sanctions and continue diplomacy.
U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon also rejected arming the Kiev government. “No, we are not supplying lethal equipment to Ukraine,” Fallon said in a Reuters interview. “We think that would escalate the conflict.”
Heavy fighting has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes, with some 600,000 Ukrainians having sought refuge in neighboring countries since last February, the United Nations’ refugee agency said in a report today. While authorities are evacuating civilians from the Donetsk region, many are still trapped by the fighting, including in basements and buildings under constant bombardment, the agency said.
Russian Control U.S. officials in Washington doubt Putin will back down in the face of increased U.S. and European economic or military pressure, and are increasingly convinced that he won’t settle for less than de facto Russian control of the entire Donbass region.
Two U.S. officials said Putin’s new plan may be to make areas around Donetsk and Luhansk self-governing Russian vassal states, in effect moving Russia’s border with Ukraine some 100 miles farther west. That in turn, they said, could set the stage for two possible next rebel and Russian moves: linking Donetsk and Mariupol on the Sea of Azov -- a key city between Russia proper and Crimea and the scene of recent rebel attacks.
The standoff over Ukraine and its ambitions for closer NATO ties are fueling the worst confrontation between Russia and the U.S. and Europe since the Cold War.
“The failure of this mission will bring the whole situation closer to a very dangerous crossroads,” Lukyanov said. “One direction away from this crossroads will lead to the armament of Ukrainian armed forces by the U.S., which would bring the whole conflict to a much higher level of escalation.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Arkhipov in Moscow at iarkhipov@bloomberg.net; Henry Meyer in Munich at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; John Walcott in Washington at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ethan Bronner at ebronner@bloomberg.net; Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net; Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Stanley James
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mick silver

24th February 2015, 01:02 PM

Four Russian Drones Violate Ukrainian Airspace in One DayBy Damien Sharkov (http://www.newsweek.com/authors/damien-sharkov) 2/24/15 at 12:45 PM
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The most recent incursions are not the first time that the Ukrainian military have accused Russia of sending drones into their airspace. Carlo Allegri/REUTERS

Filed Under: World (http://www.newsweek.com/world), Drones (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/drones), Ukraine (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine), Russia (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia)
Four Russian drones have crossed into Ukraine’s airspace over the last day, while a total of 13 were detected near Ukrainian territory by the country’s defense forces, according to a military spokesperson.

Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s armed forces currently stationed in separatist-occupied areas in eastern Donetsk and Luhansk, told Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda (http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2015/02/24/7059606/) four unmanned aircraft had “violated” Ukrainian airspace after crossing over from the Russian territory during the last day, while another nine had been spotted flying nearby.
“According to the latest recording from the OSCE mission, the drone which was used to monitor whether the conditions of the Minsk agreement would be met in the Donetsk airport area was constantly being muffled,” Lysenko also claimed.
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“This tells us that the enemy uses measures of radioelectric warfare to prevent the work of observers. Once again this goes to show that the pro-Russian militias ignore international regulations and the Minsk agreement,” Lysenko added
Lysenko did not elaborate on the exact kind of drones that were spotted and did not discuss whether they were eventually intercepted by Ukraine.
This is not the first time that Ukrainian authorities have reported sightings of Russian drones over its territory. Last month Sergey Halushko, spokesman for the Ukrainian air force, asserted that similar aircraft had been used for surveillance purposes before.
“The Russian troops used drones over the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, primarily for reconnaissance,” he said.
“The armed forces of Ukraine have repeatedly shot them down and showed them to international community as evidence of the fact of Russian aggression against Ukraine,” he added.
Ukraine’s security services have frequently reported that they’ve detected Russian surveillance drones since the summer (http://www.segodnya.ua/politics/pnews/rossiyskie-bespilotniki-za-sutki-5-raz-zaletali-na-territoriyu-ukrainy-snbo-543529.html), while Russia has made no secret of its interest in incorporating unmanned aircraft in their armed forces. Last November Russia announced that they were going to build a drone base, 420 miles off the Alaskan coast.

mick silver

24th February 2015, 01:03 PM

Will Europe Collude With Putin in Ukraine’s Defeat?By Judy Dempsey (http://www.newsweek.com/user/16946) 2/24/15 at 12:29 PM
http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/headline/public/2015/02/24/ukraine_0.jpg?itok=q2pe8g4s Opinion

Military trucks from the Ukrainian armed forces transport tanks on the road near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, February 24, 2015. Pro-Russia separatists said on Tuesday they began withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline in east Ukraine under a ceasefire deal, but the Ukrainian military, which says it won't pull back until fighting stops, reported further shelling. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Filed Under: Opinion (http://www.newsweek.com/opinion), Ukraine Conflict (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine-conflict), European Union (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/european-union), Vladimir Putin (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/vladimir-putin), Petro Poroshenko (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/petro-poroshenko)
European leaders and the European Union face a stark choice. They can either fully commit to helping complete Ukraine’s revolution or collude with Russia into making Ukraine (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59118) a failed state.
A year since tens of thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in Kiev and ousted then president Viktor Yanukovych from power, Ukraine and Eastern Europe remain highly vulnerable, to put it mildly.

Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine is surely enough for European governments to unequivocally make the choice in favor of supporting Kiev.
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That will demand sustained political and economic assistance for Ukraine’s government and, particularly, for the Euromaidan movement, which is playing a fundamental role in pushing for accountability, transparency and reforms.
This immensely important civil society movement is creating a new kind of politics that runs counter to everything Ukraine’s oligarchs (and Russia (http://carnegieeurope.eu/2014/12/09/eu-must-prepare-for-cold-peace-with-russia/hw8b)) want. The group needs all the support it can get from European governments and from the EU. This is about building new Ukrainian state institutions. It is about making Ukraine a modern, democratic country.
Helping complete Ukraine’s transition will demand staying power. Any transformation of post-Communist societies takes time. That is especially true in Ukraine, whose state institutions were so degraded by Yanukovych that Ukraine was becoming a failed state.
If, instead, Europe opts to collude with Russia—and allows Moscow to assume that the West has only a halfhearted commitment to Ukraine (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59005)—then European leaders will have to live with the consequences. They will have to live with a new Iron Curtain of their own making.
The result, over time, will be unpredictable instability in the region and the undermining of Europe’s security. Furthermore, the EU’s credibility and willingness to defend its values and the principles of a Europe free and united will be reduced to naught.
Between the two choices, there is no middle way—even though several European leaders believe they can straddle the two.
The leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary cling to the idea that they can still do business with Russia. It’s as if Russia’s aggression against Ukraine were an aberration that had no impact on Eastern Europe or on the EU’s own security (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59025). Indeed, these leaders seem to believe they are immune from Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine. That is an illusion.
It is also dangerous, as Eduard Hellvig (http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/romanian-spy-chief-warns-threat-eu-hungary-312302), the incoming chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence service and a conservative member of the European Parliament, wrote recently. Hellvig believes those EU countries that pander to Russian President Vladimir Putin are damaging the interests of the EU and NATO. For example, he argued that Hungary “tends to be a threat to European architecture, a Trojan horse increasingly under the influence of Moscow.”
Hellvig, who was appointed foreign intelligence chief by Klaus Iohannis (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=57265), who against all the odds was elected Romania’s president in November 2014, also lambasted other EU governments.
The EU cannot afford the “misbehaving of the British or Greek type” or the “double play in the style of Sofia, Rome or Nicosia,” he wrote, referring to these countries’ ambiguous attitudes toward Russia. Those positions were even more worrying now that countries such as Poland, Estonia, Latvia (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=57726), Lithuania and Romania were “the main targets of the Russian imperialism,” Hellvig added.
Hellvig’s warnings coincide with similar views expressed over the past few weeks by the British defense secretary (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31528981) and senior NATO commanders. They all have the same message: Russia is a threat to European security.
Yet what they omit from their analysis is how Russia’s aggression has made the security of Europe’s Eastern neighbors more vulnerable than ever. Poland, Sweden, Lithuania and now Romania are acutely aware of the region’s weak political and security structures, which struggle to withstand Russian pressure.
Over the past few years, these governments have been providing economic, financial and political assistance to Eastern Europe. Such support is aimed at strengthening state institutions on all levels, combating corruption and fostering civil society movements. It is also about explaining to the political elites why the countries of Eastern Europe need to transform.
The somber rallies (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31575384) held on February 22 in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities to mark the anniversary of Yanukovych’s ouster showed the high cost but also the determination of the Euromaidan movement to make Ukraine’s transformation. Europe must help complete that transition and not allow the building of a new Iron Curtain.
Judy Dempsey (http://carnegieeurope.eu/experts/?fa=693) is a nonresident senior associate at

mick silver

24th February 2015, 01:05 PM

Ukrainian Separatists Take Two Towns in Push on Key PortBy Damien Sharkov (http://www.newsweek.com/authors/damien-sharkov) 2/24/15 at 11:39 AM
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Fighters with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army walk by a destroyed Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier at a check point on the road from the town of Vuhlehirsk to Debaltseve, February 20, 2015. Baz Ratner/ REUTERS

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Filed Under: World (http://www.newsweek.com/world), Ukraine Conflict (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine-conflict), Mariupol (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/mariupol), Russian separatists (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/russian-separatists)
The pro-Russian separatist group calling itself the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) announced fresh gains towards the key Ukrainian port city of Mariupol today, as government forces reported the rebels were indeed preparing to move in on the city.

A spokesman for DNR told Russian news agency RIA Novosti (http://ria.ru/world/20150224/1049282872.html) that the separatists had today taken two towns situated inside the mutually agreed buffer zone, bringing them closer to the northern extremities of the port city of Mariupol, which is the second largest city in the Donetsk region.
“Yesterday evening we liberated Pishtevik and Pavlopol near Mariupol. The national guard was unable to affirm their control there,” the spokesman said.
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However, reports of these towns being taken have not been verified by pro-Kiev forces on the ground. Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda (http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2015/02/24/7059574/) spoke to the press secretary of the local volunteer battalion Sector M who said: “These points are situated in the buffer zone, they are not under our control and we do not have anyone stationed there. The militants can simply go there.”
Prior to the Minsk agreement two weeks ago, Pavlopol had been under the control of Kiev forces but according to the Sector M spokesman the territory was lumped into the buffer zone as part of the agreement and government forces have since pulled out.
According to the official Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ato.news/posts/955115301165943) feed of Ukraine’s military operations in eastern Ukraine fighting is intensifying in the vicinity of Mariupol as the town of Shirokino, east of the city came under heavy fire in the early hours of the morning.
In a press briefing (http://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2015/02/24/7059597/) this afternoon Andriy Lysenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s operations, said that shelling had decreased during the night, but confirmed that separatists were redeploying troops and equipment towards Mariupol.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (http://mvs.gov.ua/mvs/control/main/uk/publish/article/1369322) said that a rebel arms cache had been discovered in the city, including 10kg of explosives, other arms and uniforms resembling those of the Ukrainian police.
According to Lilia Shevtsova, Kremlinologist and Eurasia expert at Moscow’s Carnegie Endowment for Peace, the “the second Minsk accord is unravelling”.
“We don't have the confirmed information from the ground. But the separatists’ attack on Mariupol will mean that ‘Minsk-2’ does not exist.”
“The political arrangement favored by Putin under which Ukraine agrees to incorporate the separatists enclaves as independent entities, in exchange for truce has been doubtful from the very beginning,” Shevtsova says.
“Debaltsevo has been the first open blow to the accord and today's Paris meeting of the four ministers of foreign affairs has failed to reach any mutual agreement which is a bad sign,” she says referring to today’s meeting between the ministers from Russia and Ukraine, mediated by their French and German counterparts in the French capital.
“After Debaltseve everything is possible,” she adds.
Steven Pifer, former US ambassador to Ukraine believes, should fighting flare up around Mariupol, it may prove to be even more brutal than the fight for Debaltseve which threatened the stability of the agreement in its few days.
“Mariupol is much larger than Debaltseve. A fight in that city would prove far more bruising and bloody than the battle for Debaltseve,” he says.
According to Pifer, a pro-Russian attack on Mariupol may both end the current truce agreement and hamper the chances for future peace deals.
“The attack by separatist and Russian forces on Debaltseve, in violation of the ceasefire, put the Minsk-2 agreement in jeopardy. If they now attack Mariupol, Minsk-2 is dead.”
“If Minsk-2 collapses, it becomes very hard to see how one gets to a Minsk-3 agreement,” he says.
The Donetsk rebels have made no secret of their desire to gain control of Mariupol. Last month (http://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-separatists-press-offensive-interfax-301461) DNR leader Alexander Zaharchenko said his rebels aimed to take “Mariupol, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk”.
Radoslaw Sikorski, speaker of Poland’s house of representatives told Newsweek Polska (http://polska.newsweek.pl/radoslaw-sikorski-o-ukrainie-w-tomasz-lis-na-zywo-,artykuly,357754,1.html) today today that if the rebels were to take Mariupol it would mean “the death of the current ceasefire agreement”.

mick silver

24th February 2015, 01:06 PM

Britain to Help Train Ukrainian Army to Counter Russian ThreatBy Reuters (http://www.newsweek.com/authors/reuters) 2/24/15 at 2:10 PM
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Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (2nd R) walks with members of the British army in 2011. Jeff J Mitchell/Pool/. REUTERS/

Filed Under: World (http://www.newsweek.com/world), UK (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/uk), Ukraine (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine)
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday Britain would deploy military personnel to Ukraine in the next month to help train the Ukrainian army, warning thatMoscow would move to destabilize other countries if left unchallenged.

"Over the course of the next month we're going to be deploying British service personnel to provide advice and a range of training, to tactical intelligence to logistics, to medical care," Cameron told a committee of lawmakers in parliament.
"We'll also be developing an infantry training program with Ukraine to improve the durability of their forces."

mick silver

24th February 2015, 01:07 PM

Europe Throws Ukraine Under the BusBy Judy Dempsey (http://www.newsweek.com/user/16946) 2/23/15 at 2:57 PM
http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/headline/public/2015/02/23/ukraine.jpg?itok=GjHx1nuQ Opinion

Fighters with the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army sit on top of mobile artillery units in the town of Debaltseve February 22, 2015. Baz Ratner/Reuters

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Filed Under: Opinion (http://www.newsweek.com/opinion), Ukraine Conflict (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/ukraine-conflict), Pro-Russian Rebels (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/pro-russian-rebels), Vladimir Putin (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/vladimir-putin), European Union (http://www.newsweek.com/topic/european-union)
The battle for Debaltseve is over. On February 18, Petro Poroshenko (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59004), the Ukrainian president, ordered his troops to withdraw from the city in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
The soldiers hadn’t a chance of winning. They were easily outnumbered by pro-Russian forces, whom Moscow has supported throughout the conflict. As the Ukrainian soldiers made their way out of the bombed city, the ceasefire accord (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/12/ukraine-crisis-reports-emerge-of-agreement-in-minsk-talks) reached in Minsk on February 12 was in tatters.

Repeated calls by Angela Merkel (http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59050), the German chancellor, to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to implement the ceasefire have gone nowhere. Diplomacy has failed. What is more, Europeans have not grasped the implications of Ukraine losing its territorial integrity.
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European leaders can wring their hands. They can threaten to ratchet up the sanctions they have imposed against Russia. But the damage has been done ever since March 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea. Through its weak response to Russian aggression, the E.U. has discarded the rules of the post–Cold War era.
Even the 1975 Helsinki Final Act (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/helsinki), in which Western and Communist bloc leaders pledged to respect the inviolability of borders, has been torn up. Europe is entering a new and dangerous era for which it is completely unprepared.
When it comes to facing real threats on their Eastern borders—meaning from Russia—European leaders still cling to the idea of soft power. Yet at the same time, several governments have joined the U.S.-led coalition to fight the terrorist threat coming from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Ursula von der Leyen (https://www.securityconference.de/fileadmin/MSC_/2015/Freitag/150206-2015_Rede_vdL_MSC_Englisch-1_Kopie_.pdf), the German defense minister, who is overseeing a new white paper (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/17/us-germany-security-idUSKBN0LL1BK20150217) that refers to Russia as a threat, tried to explain the difference in approach between Russian aggression and jihadism. Speaking at the February 6–8 Munich Security Conference, von der Leyen said diplomacy could not work with the Islamic State because there was no one with whom to negotiate. Therefore, force was a viable option. That, she said, was not the case with Russia: there, the West had a negotiating partner.
Not any more, it seems. The failure of the latest ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine shows the futility of talking to the Russian president.
Some European leaders would beg to differ. The fulsome ways in which some leaders deal with Putin are shameful. They make a mockery of European unity and the appalling suffering of civilians in eastern Ukraine.
Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, who feted Putin on February 18 (http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/23622), is willing to make his country even more dependent on Russian energy by agreeing to Russian loans to build a new nuclear reactor (http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/hungarian-parliament-set-to-classify-paks-ii-project-for-15-years/) near the central Hungarian town of Paks. That dependence carries a high price in the form of political interference. So far, Orbán has backed E.U. sanctions against Russia and NATO’s new reassurance role in Eastern and Central Europe. But that continuing support cannot be taken for granted.
Other European leaders, who seem to forget that a war is being waged on the E.U.’s borders, have no qualms either in dealing with Putin. Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, is scheduled to visit Moscow on February 25. For many years, Cyprus has been providing Russian oligarchs with a safe haven for their riches.
Alexis Tsipras (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/greece-s-tsipras-and-putin-pledge-cooperation/515482.html), the newly elected prime minister of Greece, has nonchalantly implied that he could turn to Russia for financial assistance if his talks with E.U. finance ministers over amending the terms of Greece’s bailout program fail. And don’t forget Miloš Zeman, the president of the Czech Republic, who is known for his pro-Russian stance. With leaders like these, it’s a wonder that the E.U. ever managed to push through its sanctions.
But there is a wider issue at stake: the Europeans’ unwillingness to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity has set a precedent. Some would say that Russia tested the E.U.’s resolve in 2008 after its short invasion of Georgia. Then, the response by the E.U. and by the West in general was weak.
And as Russia over the past year began chiseling away at parts of eastern Ukraine, in November 2014 the Kremlin signed a security pact (http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-abkhazia-nato-european-union-united-states-/26708819.html) with the self-declared republic of Abkhazia, which Russia prized away from Georgia during the 2008 war.
With the fall of Debaltseve (http://www.newsweek.com/debaltseve-rubble-pro-russian-rebels-take-control-308477), Poroshenko had no option but to call on the United Nations and the E.U. to send peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31527414). Whatever the response to that request, the record of peacekeepers is to consolidate facts on the ground, not to undo them. That could suit Putin.
Poroshenko’s call also confirms how the E.U. and the United States failed to give the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) sufficient personnel and support to monitor either the September 2014 Minsk Protocol (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29162903) or the February 2015 ceasefire agreement. Pro-Russian separatists have done everything possible to hinder the OSCE monitors.
That aside, Europeans’ unwillingness to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity is due to more than the reluctance of most E.U. governments to provide Ukraine with weapons. Apart from the endless arguments over whether sending arms would encourage Putin to escalate or de-escalate the war, this unwillingness also stems from the fact that most European governments do not believe Ukraine’s territorial integrity matters that much to their own security.
For most Europeans, the war in Ukraine—unlike the Islamic State—does not pose a threat to their way of life and their values. Yet the war has already called into question Europe’s values and the principle of inviolable borders. What European leader would deny that?

Horn

24th February 2015, 01:49 PM

You know its a completly rigged game when the U.K. sends troops.

Horn

24th February 2015, 07:58 PM

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/81135000/gif/_81135261_ukraine_ceasefire_lines_20.02.2015_624_v 2.gif

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31610026

mick silver

25th February 2015, 11:51 AM

Ukraine under pressure from currency fall, gas supply threathttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Natalia Zinets and Anton Zverev 49 minutes ago

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WochitUkraine Truce Appears to Take Hold; Currency Trading Banned
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Ukraine Truce Appears to Take Hold; Currency Trading Banned

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KIEV/MAKIYVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukraine came under increasing economic pressure from a collapsing currency and a threat to its gas supplies from the Kremlin on Wednesday, just as a long-awaited ceasefire took hold in the east.
As the truce appeared to be coming into force, the Ukrainian army reported no combat fatalities in the past 24 hours, but the news did nothing to halt a currency slump that forced the central bank to ban most trading before intervening to prop up the hryvnia.
In rebel-held eastern Ukraine, pro-Russian separatists were withdrawing heavy guns from the front. Kiev said it was too early to do likewise, but its acknowledgement that most of the front was quiet suggested it too could implement a truce that had appeared stillborn when the rebels launched a major offensive last week.
The cautious good news from the front has come amid dire economic consequences for a country teetering on bankruptcy.
With the hryvnia currency in free fall as investors flee, the central bank called a halt by banning nearly all commercial currency trading until the end of the week.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukraine-launches-first-major-offensive-against-the-pro-russia-forces-slideshow/)Self-propelled howitzers of the Ukrainian armed forces are seen near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, Feb …

It later jumped into the market to buy dollars, reversing a free-fall in the hryvnia that it called "irrational".
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said the ban was bad for the economy. He had learned about it on the Internet and would demand an explanation from central bank chief Valeria Gontareva.
Gontareva said there was no fundamental reason for the panic in the currency market.
At the day's end the central bank announced it had bought $80 million at an official rate of 28.046 to the dollar, close to the rate at the start of the week and 12.8 percent higher than the close after a plunge on Tuesday.
Exchange kiosks in Kiev were selling limited amounts of dollars for 39 hryvnias, around 20 percent worse than rates advertised in the windows of commercial banks where dollars were not available.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/local-resident-walks-along-street-settlement-velyka-novosilka-photo-105421807.html)A local resident walks along a street, with a member of the Ukrainian armed forces seen in the foreg …

A construction worker exchanging dollars at a kiosk in a grocery shop in return for a bag filled with thousands of hryvnia, laughed and told shoppers: "Soon we will have to walk around with suitcases for cash, like in the 1990s."
The hryvnia has lost at least half its value so far this year after halving over the course of 2014.
In a potential new blow, President Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would halt gas supplies to Ukraine, for the fourth time in a decade, if Moscow did not receive advance payment.
That could disrupt flows to Europe, which receives around a third of its gas from Russia, with 40 percent shipped via Ukraine. However, Russia cut off gas to Ukraine for six months last year without affecting Europe.
Criticising Ukraine for cutting off gas to eastern regions under the control of the pro-Russian separatists, Putin said: "Imagine these people will be left without gas in winter. Not only that there is famine ... It smells of genocide."
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/girl-walks-across-square-settlement-velyka-novosilka-photo-105421379.html)A girl walks across a square, with a member of the Ukrainian armed forces seen in the background, in …

"We hope ... that gas supplies will not be interrupted. But this does not depend only on us, it depends on the financial discipline of our Ukrainian partners," Putin said.
REBEL ADVANCE
News that no Ukrainian troops had died at the front was by far the most unambiguous signal yet that the French- and German-brokered truce is now holding.
The rebels had initially spurned the ceasefire, insisting it did not apply to their main target, the town of Debaltseve, which they stormed last week.
Kiev has since accused the separatists of reinforcing for a possible further assault deeper into territory the Kremlin calls "New Russia". But for now, the fighters appear determined to be seen to implement the agreement.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-servicemen-check-engine-military-truck-during-stop-photo-105421621.html)Ukrainian servicemen check the engine of their military truck during a stop on the roadside in Donet …

Reuters journalists, operating independently in rebel-held territory, saw columns of howitzers driven away from the front in several locations on Wednesday after initial moves on Tuesday.
A column of 24 self-propelled howitzers headed away from the front through the city of Makiyvka adjacent to the main rebel stronghold, Donetsk. Another five were spotted driving away from the front near Yenakiyve, further north.
The rebels have promised that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe will soon be able to verify that they have removed all heavy guns.
The OSCE says it cannot yet verify the withdrawal because the sides have not provided data on how many guns were in place before the truce. The European security body reported some shelling and shooting at various locations, including near Shyrokyne, a coastal town where Kiev has also reported fighting.
The Kiev military nevertheless said the number of ceasefire violations had "significantly decreased" for a second straight night. No shooting was recorded at all in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol areas, it said. Overall, rebels had fired shells and mortars 15 times and opened fire four times with light weapons during the 24-hour period.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said: "For now there is still no order on the withdrawal of weapons, as the fighters have not yet fulfilled the first point of the Minsk agreement, to cease fire."
Kiev fears the rebels, backed by Russian troops, may now be planning to capture Mariupol, a port of 500,000 people. Moscow denies aiding its sympathisers in east Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said additional sanctions against Russia were "teed up" should events in eastern Ukraine require a significant response.
Britain ruled out deploying combat troops to Ukraine, a day after it said it was sending 75 military trainers to help the Ukrainian army. Poland said it intended to send military instructors to train Ukrainian soldiers.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Peter Graff in Kiev; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Giles Elgood)

Politics & Government
Ukraine
eastern Ukraine

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mick silver

25th February 2015, 11:55 AM

Putin tells Kiev to let troops surrender as Ukraine ceasefire unravelshttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Anton Zverev and Vladimir Soldatkin February 17, 2015 4:33 PM

Reuters VideosFew signs of peace in Debaltseve
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Few signs of peace in Debaltseve

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(https://screen.yahoo.com/around-the-globe)

By Anton Zverev and Vladimir Soldatkin
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NIKISHINE, Ukraine/BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told Kiev to let its soldiers surrender to pro-Russian rebels, who spurned a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and fought their way on Tuesday into the town of Debaltseve, encircling thousands of government troops.
A peace deal reached at all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk last week had all but unravelled, with both sides failing to begin pulling back heavy guns as required after the rebels refused to halt their advance.
Putin, whom Western countries accuse of directing the rebel assault with Russian soldiers and weapons, said Kiev should allow its soldiers to surrender to the advancing rebels.
"I hope that the responsible figures in the Ukrainian leadership will not hinder soldiers in the Ukrainian army from putting down their weapons," Putin said.
"If they aren’t capable of taking that decision themselves and giving that order, then (I hope) that they won’t prosecute people who want to save their lives and the lives of others.”
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-armed-forces-ride-multiple-rocket-launcher-system-photo-093040854.html)Ukrainian armed forces ride on a multiple rocket launcher system near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine Fe …

He added that he hoped the rebels would allow the Ukrainians to return to their families, once they had surrendered the town.
Reuters journalists near the snowbound frontline said artillery rounds were rocking Debaltseve every five seconds and black smoke was rising skywards as Grad rockets pounded the town.
The rebels say the ceasefire announced last week does not apply at all to the main battle front at Debaltseve, a railway hub in a pocket between the two main rebel-held areas.
"SURRENDER TALKS"
"Eighty percent of Debaltseve is already ours," said Eduard Basurin, a rebel leader. "A clean-up of the town is under way."
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ukrainian-armed-forces-position-near-debaltseve-photo-093040915.html)Ukrainian armed forces take their position near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine February 16, 2015. REUT …

He later said negotiations were under way for 5,000 Ukrainian troops to surrender. "Hundreds" had been captured and would eventually be released to their families. Ukraine denied that the number of captives was that high.
Despite Putin's public call for a surrender, Russia sponsored a resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council that called on all sides to implement the truce agreement, expressing "grave concern" at the violence.
Putin was visiting Hungary on Tuesday, his first bilateral trip to an EU country since last July, when Moscow was left isolated after a Malaysian airliner was shot down over rebel-held territory with what Western countries say was a Russian-supplied missile.
Hopes that the deal reached last Thursday would end a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people were always low after a rebel advance in January ended an earlier truce.
But Western countries appeared surprised that the rebels had refused even to pay lip service to the ceasefire at Debaltseve.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/members-separatist-self-proclaimed-donetsk-peoples-republic-army-photo-124056269.html)Members of the separatist self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic army collect parts of a dest …

Russia has already annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and Western countries believe Putin's goal is to establish a "frozen conflict" in eastern Ukraine, gaining permanent leverage over a country of 45 million people seeking integration with Europe.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the rebel assault on the town a cynical attack on the Minsk agreement.
U.S. "GRAVELY CONCERNED"
Kiev's military denied that the town, which had a peacetime population of 25,000 but is now a bombed-out wasteland, had fallen, but acknowledged losing some of it.
Kiev and NATO say the rebel assault on Debaltseve is being reinforced by Russian tanks, artillery and soldiers. Moscow denies that it has sent its forces to participate in the battle for a region that Putin has dubbed "New Russia".
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/members-ukrainian-armed-forces-ride-military-vehicle-near-photo-130311561.html)Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride on a military vehicle near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine Fe …

Washington said it was "gravely concerned" by the fighting and was monitoring reports of a new column of Russian military equipment heading to the area.
The United States has been considering sending weapons to aid Kiev, although the State Department said on Tuesday getting into a proxy war with Russia was not in the interests of Ukraine or the world. Putin said he believed foreign weapons were already being supplied to Kiev.
EU foreign policy chief Francesca Mogherini said Tuesday's battles were "not encouraging" but added: "As long as there is a signed deal to which the parties still refer as something that needs to be implemented, I will not say that there is a failure."
The fighting meant both sides had spurned Tuesday's deadline to being withdrawing heavy guns from the frontline. Kiev says it cannot pull back as long as the rebels continue their advance.
Military trucks and tanks came and went in the largely destroyed village of Nikishine as the rebels pounded nearby Debaltseve with rockets, heavy artillery and mortar bombs.
"We'll take Debaltseve. It will all be ours. Our homeland will remain our homeland," said a rebel tank operator who gave his name only as Bass, his nom de guerre.
Observers from the OSCE security group, delegated to monitor the ceasefire under last week's agreement, have been kept out of Debaltseve by the rebels.
"We do not have the right (to stop fighting for Debaltseve). It's even a moral thing. It's internal territory," said Denis Pushilin, a senior separatist figure. The goal would be "destroying the enemy's fighting positions".
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra Prentice and Richard Balmforth in Kiev, Polina Devitt in Moscow and Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Politics & Government
Unrest, Conflicts & War
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eastern Ukraine
Debaltseve

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mick silver

25th February 2015, 11:57 AM

US says still no compliance with Ukraine ceasefirehttp://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2013-08-26/d19448d6-6aaa-4359-a768-eadacf5fbca9_afp-gif_new.gif (http://www.afp.com/) By Marc Burleigh with Jo Biddle in Washington 19 minutes ago

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Kiev (AFP) - The United States said Wednesday that Russia and separatist rebels were still not complying with a ceasefire in Ukraine, despite a lull in the killing.
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"To date, neither Russia nor the forces it is supporting have come close to complying with their commitments," Secretary of State John Kerry told US lawmakers, renewing warnings that Moscow would face further sanctions.
A day earlier, Kerry had said the Russians were persisting in "lies... to my face" about their activities in Ukraine. The US dismisses Moscow's denials about giving military backing to the separatists in east Ukraine.
Russia has in turn warned it could cut off gas supplies to Ukraine within days -- and, by extension, to parts of the European Union.
The geopolitical tensions between the old Cold War foes overshadowed a lull in fighting that produced the first day without fatalities since the ceasefire came into effect on February 15.
"Over the past day, one soldier was wounded but there were no dead," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev. The rebels also reported no deaths on their side.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/us-secretary-state-john-kerry-speaks-during-hearing-photo-183633219.html)US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on F …

There was still no confirmation, though, from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of a pull-back of heavy weapons from the frontline -- the other key plank of the truce.
Rebels insisted they were withdrawing artillery, rocket launchers and tanks from some areas, and journalists saw a column of howitzer guns being driven along a road near the separatist stronghold of Donetsk.
But the OSCE mission in Ukraine said the warring sides had not provided the information needed to determine what, if any, arms withdrawals have occurred.
Kiev says it will not carry out an arms pull-back until a full and "comprehensive" ceasefire is observed and has accused Russia of continuing to send military hardware in to bolster the rebels.
- Exasperation with Russia -
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/pro-russian-rebels-move-heavy-artillery-close-eastern-photo-115033292.html)Pro-Russian rebels move heavy-artillery from close to the eastern Ukrainian town of Starobecheve, on …

The West has thrown its hopes of finding a negotiated solution to the 10-month conflict fully behind the truce, which last week won unanimous backing from the UN Security Council.
But continued breaches by rebel forces -- especially their assault on Debaltseve, a strategic transport hub, and attacks on Ukrainian army positions near the port city of Mariupol -- have exasperated the EU and US.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his country is sending up to 75 soldiers to Ukraine on a "training mission", with some leaving for Kiev this week. He said they would not be sent to the conflict zone.
Cameron urged the EU to look at wide-ranging sanctions on Russia's economy, which is already toppling into recession because of a drop in oil prices.
Russia, though, is flexing its muscles in readiness for any additional sanctions.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/key-industrial-hub-mariupol-become-latest-hotspot-conflict-photo-115033212.html)The key industrial hub of Mariupol has become the latest hotspot in the conflict in east Ukraine, st …

Its state-run gas giant Gazprom has warned it could cut off supplies to Ukraine, amid a dispute over payment.
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Ukraine had paid only enough "for three or four days' gas supplies. Unless there is a prepayment, Gazprom... will terminate the supply," according to the Interfax news agency.
Much of the gas that flows through Ukraine goes on to supply the EU market.
Putin, in televised comments, also claimed Ukraine had cut off gas supplies to separatist-held territories in the east in what "smacks of genocide."
- Russian drill -
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The instability is torpedoing Ukraine's fragile economy. The country's central bank on Wednesday increased currency controls in a bid to stop a free-fall of its money, the hryvnia.
Also of concern to EU neighbours was a Russian military drill launched near the borders with Estonia and Latvia.
Some 1,500 Russian paratroopers were to descend from the skies en masse in an exercise to capture and destroy an enemy's airfield, defence ministry spokeswoman Irina Kruglova told AFP. She said the drill was to continue into Saturday.
Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, Russia has staged a series of wargames that have alarmed its post-Soviet neighbours and the West.
Lithuania said on Tuesday it would return to limited conscription later this year because of "the current geopolitical environment".

Glass

25th February 2015, 03:45 PM

A day earlier, Kerry had said the Russians were persisting in "lies... to my face" about their activities in Ukraine. The US dismisses Moscow's denials about giving military backing to the separatists in east Ukraine.

It really is remarkable how these guys can accuse the other side of the things they are the ones doing.

mick silver

26th February 2015, 07:31 AM

Insight: West's offer to rebuild Ukraine faces reality check By Robin Emmott and Anna Yukhananov
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[$$] Ukraine Accuses Russia of Sending More Weapons to Separatists (http://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-accuses-russia-of-sending-more-weapons-to-separatists-1424436775?ru=yahoo?mod=yahoo_itp) The Wall Street Journal

BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Western powers are preparing what they say may be their most potent weapon against Moscow's interference in Ukraine - a multi billion dollar aid package to rebuild a near-bankrupt state and realize the European dream cherished by many Ukrainians.
There is just one problem: foreign governments and international financing institutions are not willing to pour money into a dysfunctional state. Only this week the businessman brought in by the new authorities to clean up the tax service was himself suspended pending a corruption inquiry.
Donors say the former Soviet republic, crippled by war and corruption, is unable or unwilling even to identify how many roads, power plants and schools its 45 million people need, let alone meet new European standards for farms and factories.
"There's strong resistance because many people in various ways benefited from the old, inefficient and largely corrupt system," said Kalman Mizsei, the head of the EU's advisory mission to Ukraine.
Ukraine is one of the world's most corrupt places, ranking as 142 out of 175 in Transparency International's corruption perception index. By some estimates, the shadow economy accounts for up to 60 percent of economic output.
In a telling remark as he suspended tax chief Ihor Bilous on Tuesday, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk complained that while the agency's honesty improved after the Maidan protests ousted the old regime it had gone back to working "like it always did".
Despite the zeal of President Petro Poroshenko and his new, U.S.-born finance minister, stabilizing the economy with the help of the International Monetary Fund is only the start.
Beyond the finance ministry, where not only IMF but German, Canadian and Polish experts help manage debt and the budget, neglected government departments have few computers or staff with language skills to communicate with foreign advisers.
"The public administration needed to run a state is simply not there," said one Western donor consultant working in Kiev, who described mid-level bureaucrats responsible for implementing projects as "ineffective, demotivated and underpaid".
Another EU consultant described how he tried in December to help a Ukrainian official establish how many state-funded schools there were in the country. They never reached an answer.
The situation also risks being exacerbated by donors such as the European Union, Norway and Canada who, wary of money being misspent, insist on being seen as 'investors' seeking a comprehensive 'roadmap' from Kiev before a donors conference can be held in April.
"We have to avoid a bottomless pit. We want to have a precise plan," said European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is responsible for the EU's neighborhood policy. "I can't rely on announcements that something will happen by 2015, 2016."
Asked by Reuters about overcoming corruption and modernizing the bureaucracy, Ukraine's Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko said Kiev needed more time: "It's something that starts at the top and has to permeate," she said. "It's a longer-term challenge."
A $65 BILLION OFFER?
Offers of assistance reflect the West's determination to pull Ukraine out of Russia's sphere of influence and bring it into the fold of European nations, encouraged by protesters who toppled the pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich a year ago.
How much money is available is not crystal clear. For budget support, Ukraine has agreed a $17.5 billion program with the IMF, plus up to $7 billion from the European Union, the United States and the World Bank. Ukraine also expects $15 billion to come through debt restructuring.
Ukraine has received pledges of loans and loan guarantees from the likes of the European Union, Switzerland, Japan and Canada of some $10 billion. A donor conference in Kiev could raise another $15 billion, the EU's Hahn has estimated - though it is far from clear when donors might be ready to made pledges.
That figure cited by Hahn would give a total of $64.5 billion in aid, making it one of the world's largest international assistance programs in recent years.
Aid efforts are also linked to preparing Ukraine for a trade agreement with the European Union, a deal that lies at the center of the stand-off with Russia because Moscow wanted Kiev to join its Eurasian customs union.
Under that agreement, Ukraine will have to lift its standards to sell its poultry, dairy and meat products to EU consumers. The 500 million euros that the deal would save Ukraine in cuts to EU import duties depend on those reforms.
But without some kind of breakthrough on how to spend the money, officials say privately that the donor aid is wishful thinking because development banks need projects to be proposed to them, as well as to attract bids from companies for the work.
Investors have so far mostly come into Ukraine on only the safest, private-sector projects, or municipal projects backed by a city's budget.
"Ukraine needs to reform its judiciary. Companies dread going to court in Ukraine," said an official at a development bank. "The chances of them losing a case is 99 percent because the judiciary is in the pocket of whoever is in power."
According to a new study by insurer Willis Group Holdings and consultancy Oxford Analytica, firms are likely to lose more money in Ukraine over a 10-year period than in Venezuela. It is only a slightly safer bet than North Korea.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, writing by Robin Emmott; editing by Janet McBride)

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mick silver

26th February 2015, 07:34 AM

who going to give the usa money to rebuild we are also bankrupt ..... .a multi billion dollar aid package to rebuild a near-bankrupt state and realize the European dream cherished by many Ukrainians

Horn

26th February 2015, 07:50 AM

who going to give the usa money to rebuild we are also bankrupt ....

China will purchase, and build it.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/china-s-foreign-exchange-reserves-china-s-foreign-reserves_chartbuilder-1.png?w=640

mick silver

27th February 2015, 04:51 AM

Is Chaos a Goal in Ukraine?
http://www.thedailybell.com/images/library/ukrainemap1.jpgRussia's Khodorkovsky: Putin is a 'naked king' facing economic ruin ... Former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said on Thursday Vladimir Putin was a "naked king" presiding over an economy that will weaken further, eventually provoking a battle between rival clans in Moscow. – Reuters
Dominant Social Theme: Putin is finished and so is Russia.
Free-Market Analysis: The pressure on Putin and Russia keeps rising. But one needs to ask whether the end-game from a Western point of view is realistic or another gambit likely to fail.
The West has been successful in removing Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, but it has not been so successful in Syria, or not yet anyway. And the predictions of Putin's demise may be exaggerated as well. Not according to Khodorkovsky, though.
"Putin with bare chest isn't a mighty leader: He is a naked king," Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man who was arrested in 2003 after falling foul of Putin only to be released in 2013, told an audience in London.
Khodorkovsky, who once controlled Russia's biggest oil company, YUKOS, said the Russian economy would weaken further and that eventually its weakness would provoke a battle between the powerful clans which dominate Russia.
In a message which is likely to anger the 62-year-old Kremlin chief, the former tycoon also called on the West to build ties with opposition groups in expectation of an end to the Putin era.
"Tomorrow when the regime changes you will have to build a relationship and you will have very little time," Khodorkovsky, 51, told an event organized by Chatham House (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/28446/) policy thinktank.
This is surely a suggestion that the West ought to aggressively tamper with Russia's internal affairs. Were someone to say something similar about Obama and the US, a strong reaction would be expected.
But the programmatic and promotional assault on Russia continues. Putin is regularly cast as an authoritarian (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2606/) ruler and even as a dictator. He is blamed for the Ukraine conflict even though there is ample evidence that the West had a lot to do with the destabilization.
Most recently, there were reports from UniversityPost regarding a University of Copenhagen scientist who developed "in his spare time," a new method of analyzing the trajectory of artillery systems. He claimed his analysis showed that Russia had been shelling Ukraine territory.
Yet this has proven controversial. The researcher was assisted by the "Bellingcat investigation team," a facility that has been branded as a CIA (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/2401/) affiliated facility.
There were also suggestions that "distortion" was generated when converting Digital Globe satellite imagery to Google Earth. Bellingcat has reportedly dismissed the distortion as insignificant. The "war of words" continues.
Most recently came reports that Britain was sending troops into the Ukraine. Here from the Guardian:
Britain was pulled closer towards a renewed cold war with Russia when David Cameron announced UK military trainers are to be deployed to help Ukraine forces stave off further Russian backed incursions into its sovereign territory.
The decision – announced on Tuesday but under consideration by the UK national security council since before Christmas – represents the first deployment of British troops to the country since the near civil war in eastern Ukraine began more than a year ago.
Downing Street said the deployment was not just a practical bilateral response to a request for support, but a signal to the Russians that Britain will not countenance further large scale annexations of towns in Ukraine.
Step by step, incrementally, this "Russia versus the US" promotion seems to build. The Reuters article quotes Khodorkovsky as saying, "Putin doesn't need Donbass (east Ukraine). He wants to determine the fate of the world at talks with a U.S. President."
This is plainly accusing Putin of megalomania. It is forceful rhetoric that leaves little room for misunderstanding. It is another situation, in our view, of directed history (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/28330/). A little bit at a time, the situation worsens and military options draw closer. NATO (http://www.thedailybell.com/definitions/params/id/1854/) and the West seem determined to generate a confrontation directly with Russia.
Such a confrontation could destabilize Western economies and cause significant sociopolitical tensions not just with Russia but China as well. Certainly a significant stock market reversal would not be surprising in such a context.
Conclusion: These are obvious conclusions but they do not seem to be retarding Western resolve. Is this somehow the goal?
- See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36117/Is-Chaos-a-Goal-in-Ukraine/#sthash.Xr3BKOsh.dpuf

mick silver

27th February 2015, 05:06 AM

Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia's security concerns over Ukrainehttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) 3 hours ago

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GmbK9fP1FABsMlVCYqFeAg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIxMjtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-02-27T084850Z_1_LYNXMPEB1Q09U_RTROPTP_2_UKRAINE-CRISIS.JPG (http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-diplomat-tells-west-consider-russias-security-concerns-065234775.html#) . View photo

A convoy of Ukrainian armed forces including armoured personnel carriers, military vehicles and cannons …

BEIJING (Reuters) - Western powers should take into consideration Russia's legitimate security concerns over Ukraine, a top Chinese diplomat has said in an unusually frank and open display of support for Moscow's position in the crisis.
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Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, was quoted by state news agency Xinhua late on Thursday as blaming competition between Russia and the West for the Ukraine crisis, urging Western powers to "abandon the zero-sum mentality" with Russia.
He said the "nature and root cause" of the crisis was the "game" between Russia and Western powers, including the United States and the European Union.
He said external intervention by different powers accelerated the crisis and warned that Moscow would feel it was being treated unfairly if the West did not change its approach.
"The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration," Qu was quoted as saying.
His comments were an unusually public show of understanding from China for the Russian position. China and Russia see eye-to-eye on many international diplomatic issues but Beijing has generally not been so willing to back Russia over Ukraine.
China has also been cautious not to be drawn into the struggle between Russia and the West over Ukraine's future, not wanting to alienate a key ally.
It has said it would like to continue to develop "friendly cooperation" with Ukraine, and respects the ex-Soviet state's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Qu's comments coincide with talks between the United States and its European allies over harsher sanctions against Moscow.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western powers of trying to dominate and impose their ideology on the rest of world. The United States and European delegations slammed Moscow for supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Qu said Washington's involvement in Ukraine could "become a distraction in its foreign policy".
"The United States is unwilling to see its presence in any part of the world being weakened, but the fact is its resources are limited, and it will be to some extent hard work to sustain its influence in external affairs, " Qu was quoted as saying.
Ukraine's military accused Russia last week of sending more tanks and troops towards the rebel-held town of Novoazovsk, expanding their presence on what it fears could be the next battlefront.
(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Paul Tait)

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mick silver

27th February 2015, 05:08 AM

Russia's Lavrov accuses West of trying to dominate worldhttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) By Louis Charbonneau February 23, 2015 1:52 PM

By Louis Charbonneau
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused Western powers of trying to dominate and impose their ideology on the rest of world, while the United States and European delegations slammed Moscow for supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Lavrov was speaking at a special meeting of the U.N. Security Council organized by China, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation body this month, on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.
Without accusing specific countries, Lavrov complained about what he said was rampant violation of key principles of the U.N. Charter, specifically the "independence and sovereign equality of states, the non-interference in their internal affairs." He cited Western interventions in Syria, Libya and Iraq.
"All of this is a result of attempts to dominate global affairs, to rule over all, everywhere," Lavrov said.
"For those not wishing to play ball, there are various methods, including regime change, including the open support for the unconstitutional state coup in Ukraine a year ago," he said.
Russia's top diplomat also complained about unilateral sanctions not approved by the Security Council, such as those imposed on Moscow by the United States and Europe over its actions in Ukraine. Russia denies Western allegations that it is supporting and directing Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also highlighted the importance of "non-interference in internal affairs and respect for territorial integrity."
He complained about moves by some countries that "attempt to overturn and whitewash past crimes of aggression," ostensibly a swipe at Japan, whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to recast his country's World War Two history in a less apologetic tone.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Antanas Linkevicius responded sharply to Lavrov's complaints.
"From eastern Ukraine to Moldova's Transnistria, to Georgia's Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, a pattern exists of Russia's interference in the sovereign affairs of neighboring states," he said. "For a year now, Ukraine has been under attack by Russian commandos and mercenaries."
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power suggested Moscow's call for greater respect for nations' sovereignty and territorial integrity was hypocritical.
"Russia today is training, arming, supporting and fighting alongside separatists who have brutally seized Ukrainian territory, a blatant violation of the U.N. Charter and an assault on its neighbor's sovereignty," she said.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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mick silver

27th February 2015, 05:11 AM

Russia and US spar over global crises at UN meeting

http://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/) By EDITH M. LEDERER February 23, 2015 4:08 PM

Wochit

Russia's Lavrov Accuses West of Trying to Dominate World

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Russia's Lavrov Accuses West of Trying to Dominate World

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov implicitly accused the United States on Monday of violating U.N. principles by bombing Syria, occupying Iraq "under false pretenses" and manipulating a Security Council mandate to destroy and create chaos in Libya.
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U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power implicitly criticized Russia for blocking Security Council action against the Syrian government and accused Moscow of training, arming and fighting alongside separatists who have seized Ukrainian territory.
They traded accusations during a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council to assess the operation of the United Nations as it nears its 70th anniversary. The meeting was organized by China and was the first-ever chaired by a Chinese foreign minister.
Lavrov was clearly pointing at the United States without naming it when he singled out the current bombing of Syria, where the U.S. is targeting extremists from the Islamic State group, the U.S. occupation of Iraq starting in 2003, and the NATO-led uprising in Libya in 2011 strongly backed by the Obama administration.
"This is a result of attempts to dominate global affairs, to rule over all, everywhere, to use military force unilaterally to push one's own progress, one's own interests," Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also implicitly accused the U.S. of using "unsavory methods" such as mass pressure on sovereign states to promote Washington's agenda, and promoting regime change including "open support for the unconstitutional state coup in Ukraine a year ago." And he implicitly accused the U.S. of trying to turn the Security Council into a body which would "rubber stamp" its decisions.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/united-states-ambassador-united-nations-samantha-power-listens-photo-234617678.html)United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power listens during a meeting of the Securi …

"Unilateral actions of force" in recent months, he said, "have plunged the Middle East and northern Africa into instability and chaos, and to a large extent have created a breeding ground with which extremists thrive."
Power, pointing clearly at Russia — a close ally of Syria which has blocked council action aimed at pressuring President Bashar Assad to end the four-year conflict — decried the escalating death toll and the Syrian government siege tactics that have taken "a devastating toll on civilians, the people the U.N. Charter is supposed to protect."
She accused Russia of violating the Charter, which demands that all 193 member states respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations, by its support for separatists in Ukraine which has cost some 5,700 lives and displaced more than 1.7 million Ukrainians.
Instead of locking up political opponents in Syria and elsewhere, "or making ridiculous allegations in pointing fingers at foreign powers," Power said governments should respect human rights and freedoms which are the foundation for peace, security and prosperity.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius accused Moscow of trying to redraw Europe's borders by violence and force.
"What we are seeing in Europe today ... is Russia's military might being used in violation of the sovereign rights of states, and in pursuit of a neo-imperial ambition which has no place in the 21st century," he said.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said "antiquated thinking, such as the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, should have long been thrown into the trash bin of history."
He called for greater international cooperation, greater democracy and the rule of law.
"No country in the world is entitled to impose its own will on others or to topple the legitimate government of other countries," Wang said.

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Horn

27th February 2015, 09:07 AM

Washington's agenda, and promoting regime change including "open support for the unconstitutional state coup in Ukraine a year ago."

He must be referring to the Ukrainian or Russian Constitution,

cause there's nothing in the U.S. constitution that prohibits a coup de tat.

mick silver

27th February 2015, 11:07 AM

Deaths shake Ukraine truce; Poroshenko wary of Russian threat
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KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine on Friday reported the first deaths in three days in east Ukraine and President Petro Poroshenko said Russia would pose a "military threat" even if a ceasefire holds.
Government troops fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east began towing artillery away from the front line on Thursday, a sign the truce meant to begin on Feb. 15 could at last be taking effect.
But Kiev's military later announced the deaths of three servicemen in the past 24 hours, following two days with none.
"Even under the most optimistic scenario ... the military threat from the east would unfortunately remain," Poroshenko said in a televised speech, in a clear reference to Russia.
Kiev and Western governments have accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to support the separatists in east Ukraine, despite a peace deal agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Feb. 12. Moscow has denied this.
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(http://news.yahoo.com/photos/member-special-monitoring-mission-organization-security-cooperation-osce-photo-151614128.html)A member of Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) to Uk …

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed news that the two sides were pulling back heavy artillery. But he accused the West of pushing Kiev toward confrontation with Moscow.
"There is no objective precondition for calling this all a second Cold War. On the other hand, the hardening line that we see in some Western capitals goes beyond what we saw during the Cold War," Lavrov told a gathering at the Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy.
The situation in the conflict zone was "relatively calm" overnight, Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoly Stelmakh said, although he reported isolated attacks by rebels on Ukrainian troop positions.
Ukraine continued to withdraw its weapons on Friday, but the army will remain on high alert, Defence Ministry spokesman Serhiy Galushko said in a televised briefing.
"Sufficient troops and resources remain along the front line in case the terrorists and the forces supporting them violate the ceasefire," he said.
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The rebels, who committed to the truce only after seizing a strategic town in a humiliating defeat for Kiev, have been pulling back heavy weapons since Tuesday.
VERIFICATION
Alexander Hug, deputy head of the European rights and security group OSCE, said OSCE monitors in eastern Ukraine needed more access to check the combatants were fulfilling their promises to withdraw weapons.
"What we need to know is where those weapons were originally, along which routes they will be moved, and most importantly where they will be stationed or stored now, so we can be sure that they really have been withdrawn," he told Reuters.
"Our job is not to just observe but also to verify. That is a key difference."
Kiev says it fears the rebels could be regrouping and preparing to attack Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Capturing the port city would help open up a corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine last year following the overthrow of a Moscow-leaning president in Kiev.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a convoy of GRAD missile systems and other equipment had been tracked leaving rebel-held Donetsk in the direction of Mariupol.
Moscow has in turn raised doubts about Kiev's commitment to the ceasefire and asked whether the United States and the European Union, which have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, really want the Feb. 12 peace deal to succeed.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Sabine Siebold; Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Thomas Grove; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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slvrbugjim

27th February 2015, 10:52 PM

Татьяна Новикова (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001485020353&fref=nf)
4 hrs

SALE OF UKRAINE TO US HAS STARTED. The first lot - the Port near Odessa
This week marked the beginning of the direct phase raider attacks on economic asset of Ukraine. Americans bought port near Odessa, in Ilyichyovsk. «Siguler Guff & Company», became a new shareholder of equity fund , its share - 50%.
Now the main assets representing any interest in Ukraine for the West, are part of the chemical and engineering industries, land, railways, ports and energy sector. Ports are very important for the US because through them all over the world, Americans control the flow of goods. Control of key ports - geostrategy struggle for economic supremacy against the China . Thus, the United States controls the Suez and Panama canals, which can go through the goods from China to Europe. Control over Illichevsk - attempts to restore control over the Chinese "Silk Route" by land to Europe.
Reminder, that in the period of Euromaidan crises year ago Yanukovych signed a contract with China for the construction of a deepwater port in the Crimea, and after that, for some reason, in the Kiev situation deteriorated sharply and protests entered the stage of hostilities.
In Ukraine there are two major ports, intended for export steel products and large engineering: this notably Ilyichyovsk and ... Mariupol. Control over Mariupol by Kiev seems temporary, and only a naive person would not understand it. Consequently, the purchase of the port Ilichёvske- control over the remaining Ukrainian exports of mechanical engineering, steel industry, as well as for coal supplies to Ukraine, on which the work of Ukrainian thermal power plants depends on.
That's how Ukrainian state interests surrenders through government Raiders Yatsenyuk - Yaresko . The logic of events in Ukraine is simple: foreign Raiders found a common language with local Raiders. The devaluation of the Hryvnia is very beneficial to local Raiders accumulated substantial amounts of dollar and euro. They start buying on the cheap, several times lower than the market value of the remaining assets. Yatsenyuk and foreign ministers will ensure the legality of the last phase of the privatization and sale of the country, after which Ukraine will become a total ownership of several major oligarchic groups with fully economically enslaved people who, by the way, will think that they "recieved a freedom"
However, we wrote about this far in advance, immediately after the appointment of foreign emissaries Yaresko, Ambromavichusa and Kvitashvili a team of Georgians in the government of the victorious Euromaidan. The scheme of the country sales and total destruction of the state system is clearly described by us, read on.
The state "Ukraine", as a system and apparatus will be eliminated completely within a half year- one year. If in the 90s we were talking about privatization of enterprises, but now we are talking about state disinfusion of entire industries and spheres of life.
If this plans will realize, in the form Ukraine will be still on the map, but by the fact - is not.
By the way, a similar process has already passed in Libya, where now there are four regional associations, warring among themselves .
Source: http://dnr-news.com/ (http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdnr-news.com%2F&h=MAQGOQ5Wb&enc=AZPdahwn6xt5Z3XoD-9lUDquxg2EFbuEh4xlKKRTciiTtANLd0XUHA8q0sA1F8atbDn_ kUI_a2Urls2E5GuRELPt51O4BDdLQO5xi6M66RrbV2DsxTWhoc eR3RVz3psiAXMlCNedUfOeDKgAdgtgyD1G&s=1)…/15580-rasprodazha-ukrainy-ssha-nachal…

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(http://dnr-news.com/stati/15580-rasprodazha-ukrainy-ssha-nachalas-pervyy-lot-port-pod-odessoy.html)
Распродажа Украины США началась. Первый лот – порт под Одессой (http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdnr-news.com%2Fstati%2F15580-rasprodazha-ukrainy-ssha-nachalas-pervyy-lot-port-pod-odessoy.html&h=ZAQEkPqjr&s=1)
Уходящая неделя ознаменовалась началом непосредственного этапа рейдерского захвата остатков экономического актива Украины. Американцы...
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mick silver

28th February 2015, 08:24 AM

Is putin going to let this happen ........... I dont think so ...........

mick silver

1st March 2015, 08:51 AM

Ukraine military says rebels using truce to regrouphttp://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/d/0c/d0c3eb8ca18907492a4b337b5cec5193.jpeg (http://www.reuters.com/) 2 hours ago

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/wWaPNCQvXcsPJWfJxnjCiA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIxOTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-03-01T130637Z_1007000001_LYNXMPEB200MU_RTROPTP_2_CNEW S-US-UKRAINE-CRISIS-MILITARY.JPG (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-military-says-rebels-using-truce-regroup-130637092.html#)  View photos

Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride on an armoured personnel carrier near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, …

KIEV(Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Sunday a ceasefire had been fully observed in eastern separatist territories overnight, but warned that pro-Russian rebels were using the truce to regroup for new attacks on government positions.
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Rebel commander says Ukraine separatists to begin withdrawing heavy weapons on Sunday (http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-commander-says-ukraine-separatists-begin-withdrawing-heavy-082951420.html) Reuters
Kiev says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist (http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-military-says-cannot-withdraw-heavy-weapons-attacks-081709642.html) Reuters
Ukraine, rebels start pulling back heavy weapons in the east (http://news.yahoo.com/russian-fm-ukraines-demand-full-cease-fire-ridiculous-080930612.html) Associated Press
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A drop in violence and moves by both sides to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line had raised hopes a shaky two-week-old ceasefire could hold.
"In order to mislead OSCE representatives, the rebels are moving military equipment from the front line ... and bringing it back at night," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
"There are signs the enemy is preparing for further offensives," he said, naming as major targets government-held Mariupol, a strategic port city, and Artemivsk, north of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
While there was no shelling in the night, rebels shelled government troop positions 34 times on Saturday, wounding eight Ukrainian soldiers, Lysenko said.
On the other side, rebels said Ukrainian forces had fired mortar rounds and rockets in the Donetsk area 26 times in the past 24 hours, according to separatist DAN press service.
Senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin said on Sunday separatists continued the process of withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line under the eye of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, DAN reported.
The OSCE, which is monitoring the implementation of the peace deal, said on Saturday it had monitored the pull back of rebel equipment in parts of the Donetsk region and would check daily to see if the weapons remained in the areas they had been pulled back to.
It said it had also observed the withdrawal of two convoys in Luhansk region, but separatists had "prohibited the special monitoring mission from following either of these convoys to their end-points."
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Unrest, Conflicts & War
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mick silver

17th March 2015, 12:01 PM

Russia rules out handing back Crimea, expands war games
By Timothy Heritage and Darya Korsunskaya
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NATO naval drills start in Black Sea after one-day delay (http://news.yahoo.com/nato-naval-drills-start-black-sea-one-day-112157171.html) Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia ruled out handing Crimea back to Ukraine on Tuesday and a Defense Ministry official said nuclear-capable long-range bombers were being sent to the Black Sea peninsula as part of war games.
The huge military exercises, in which the Northern Fleet was put on full alert on Monday and will range from the Arctic to the Black Sea, appear to be a show of force and defiance on the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea.
Russia's parliament approved the annexation on March 21 last year after Russian forces took control of the peninsula, which is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and residents backed joining the Russian Federation in a referendum.
Dismissing a U.S. pledge to keep economic sanctions in place on Russia over the annexation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Crimea is a region of the Russian Federation and of course the subject of our regions is not up for discussion."
Russia announced the start of military drills on Monday involving more than 45,000 troops as well as war planes and submarines.
Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Defense Ministry official as saying on Tuesday the exercises would include the deployment of Tu-22M3 bombers in Crimea.
The official also said long-range Iskander ballistic missiles were being sent to the Kaliningrad exclave bordering NATO members Lithuania and Poland for the war games, which also involve the Baltic Fleet and the Southern Military District.
The military exercises - after President Vladimir Putin's first public appearance since March 5 - are the latest sign of Russia flexing its muscles since the start of the crisis in Ukraine, where Russia backs separatists fighting Kiev's forces.
NATO CONCERN
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, said in January that Crimea, Kaliningrad and the Arctic would be priority areas this year as the military strengthens its combat capabilities.
NATO's top military commander, General Philip Breedlove, has said Russia's "militarization" of Crimea could be used to exert control over the Black Sea.
Any military build-up on NATO's doorstep in Kaliningrad is also a concern for the Western alliance, while the Arctic's mineral riches and energy reserves ensure that territory there is contested by several nations.
Russian forces seized control of Crimea after the overthrow of a Ukrainian president backed by Moscow, a move described by Russian officials as a coup which threatened the safety of Crimea's mainly Russian-speaking population.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday Washington would keep economic sanctions in place on Russia as long as Crimea remains under Russian rule.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the 28-nation bloc would also stick to its policy of not recognizing the annexation and pursuing sanctions.
(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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mick silver

17th March 2015, 12:03 PM

Putin: Russia prepared raising nuclear readiness over Crimeahttp://l.yimg.com/os/152/2012/04/21/image001-png_162613.png (http://www.ap.org/) By JIM HEINTZ March 15, 2015 12:27 PM

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/HSkbuxmj7kj7DmCvvQnJNQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTM3NztpbD1wbGFuZTtweG 9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz02NzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/319707df70d4910b700f6a706700796f.jpg (http://news.yahoo.com/putin-russia-helped-yanukovych-flee-ukraine-125040411.html#)
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ADDS THAT RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCIES REPORTED THAT THE MEETING WAS HELD AT AN EARLIER DATE In this image supplied by the Presidential Press Service Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the regional leader of Karelia in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 . The Kremlin’s press service attempted to dispel the rumors about Putin's health Wednesday by issuing a photo of a meeting between Putin and the regional governor of Karelia. However, local news agencies had reported on the meeting as early as March 5. Russian news agency RBC cited an anonymous source in the Karelian governor’s office as saying that the meeting had actually taken place March 4. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia was ready to bring its nuclear weapons into a state of alert during last year's tensions over the Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of Ukraine's president, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks aired on Sunday.
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Putin also expanded on a previous admission that the well-armed forces in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukrainian military facilities in Crimea were Russian soldiers.
Putin's comments, in a documentary being shown on state TV, highlight the extent to which alarm spread in Russia in the weeks following Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's ouster in February 2014 after months of street protests that turned increasingly violent.
The documentary comes as speculation swirls about Putin's 10-day absence from public view. On Monday, he will meet with the president of Kyrgyzstan in an event covered by the news media, which would be his first appearance before journalists since March 5.
After Yanukovych fled Kiev, eventually surfacing in Russia, separatist sentiment soared in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula dominated by ethnic Russians.
Russian forces took control of Ukrainian military facilities on the peninsula and a referendum on secession was hastily called. The referendum, which was widely denounced in the West as illegitimate, reportedly brought overwhelming support for secession. Russia annexed Crimea on March 19, 2014.
In the documentary, which marks a year since the referendum, Putin says of the nuclear preparedness, "We were ready to do this ... (Crimea) is our historical territory. Russian people live there. They were in danger. We cannot abandon them."
The comments were reported on the state broadcaster's website after its transmission in the Russian Far East and before it appeared on the air in Moscow.
Putin said his plans for a Crimean operation started after Yanukovych fled.
"We never thought about severing Crimea from Ukraine until the moment that these events began, the government overthrow," he said, repeating Russia's contention that Yanukovych was the victim of a coup.
He said he called for a "closed opinion poll" of sentiments among Crimeans about whether to remain in Ukraine. He didn't give details as to how this survey was conducted, but said "it became clear that 75 percent of the general population desired to join Russia."
Russia initially denied that the unmarked forces who took control in Crimea were Russian, but Putin later admitted they were. In the Sunday documentary, he said he ordered the defense ministry to deploy military intelligence special forces, marines and paratroopers "under the cover of strengthening the protection of our military facilities."
Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based in Crimea; it retained the bases after the collapse of the Soviet Union under an agreement with Ukraine.
Putin claimed in the documentary that the number of Russian forces in Crimea never exceeded the 20,000 authorized under the agreement on basing the Black Sea Fleet there.
Putin also said Russian forces helped Yanukovych escape to Russia.
After fleeing the capital Kiev, Yanukovych made one appearance in Kharkov, then disappeared for several days. Reports at the time said he and his security entourage went on a desperate journey through the eastern parts of the country and down to Crimea, looking for safety. Putin's retelling appeared to confirm those reports.
He said Russian security forces had tried to keep contact with Yanukovych as he moved through Ukraine and eventually "we brought him to Russian territory."

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