Ukraine Archives

Russia-Ukraine skirmishes: Storm warning on the Black Sea

November 30, 2018 by administrator

Russian and Ukrainian naval forces have clashed in the Black Sea. Though the region lies on NATO’s weak southeastern flank, the alliance is unlikely to intervene in an area where Russian and Western interests collide.

The Black Sea is not exactly know for its turbulent waters, nor for being a geopolitical flash point. This, however, changed quite dramatically in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine — though the peninsula had originally been gifted to Ukraine by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954. In the meantime, it has developed into a key area of Russian interests on the NATO’s southeasternmost flank.

Russia is now heavily militarizing Crimea and the Black Sea. Some 28,000 Russian soldiers are stationed on the peninsula. Russia has practically doubled its military budget over the past ten years. And Ukraine’s tiny naval fleet, based along the coast of the Sea of Azov, is under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thumb. Already back in 2008, the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs warned that Russia was systematically increasing its military presence in the Black Sea region.

Russia’s new submarines and frigates, equipped with long-range Kalibr cruise missiles, pose a serious threat to nearby NATO states, and especially to Bulgaria and Romania.

Black Sea: Falling under Russian dominance?

In Cold War times, Bulgaria — then a staunch ally of the Soviet Union — and Romania were members of the Warsaw Pact military alliance. Today, however, a new geopolitical situation presents itself, as both Bulgaria and Romania have switched sides and joined NATO. Their Black Sea coasts, meanwhile, are NATO’s long-ignored weak spot.

Romania has long warned not to allow Russia to militarily dominate the Black Sea. As such, Bucharest has emphatically urged the deployment of NATO forces in the region, including that of a multinational naval fleet.

Sofia, in turn, rejected calls to deploy NATO forces in the region — after all, Bulgaria still maintains close cultural ties to Russia. This makes Bulgaria NATO’s weakest link. Which is compounded by the fact that Sofia relies on Soviet-era military equipment. And Russia knows the various weaknesses of the Soviet air defense systems very well. Yet Donald’s Trump’s insistence that NATO states increase their military spending has not fallen on deaf ears. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced in summer 2018 that the country would invest some $2 billion (€2.28) to modernize its armed forces.

Turkstream

Turkey and Russia pursue shared economic interests with regard to the Black Sea, much to the irritation of NATO and the EU. Last week, Putin and Erdogan agreed that the Turkstream gas pipeline will become operational in late 2019; it will direct gas straight through the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine. Which means Ukraine will lose out on a sizable chunk of gas transit fees. This, too, is another indication that Russia’s economic stranglehold over Ukraine is only increasing.

However, the new pipeline could befit Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia, as gas would be channeled from Turkey onward towards central Europe as of 2020, though talks are still ongoing. But this fact, too, does not bode well for the security of NATO’s southeastern flank.

Breaking News: Explosion at ammunitions depot prompts evacuations in Ukraine

October 8, 2018 by administrator

An evacuation is underway near the city of Chernigov in northern Ukraine after powerful blasts rocked a local munitions depot. ‘Restrictive measures’ have been introduced in the entire region, the Ukrainian military said.

The first reports of explosions at the arsenal in the town of Ichnia came in the depths of the night, at 3.30 am, the Ukraine’s General Staff reported. The scale of the explosion and the territory it has affected is unclear at the moment. An emergency response headquarters has been set up.

Locals have been posting images of the night sky lit up by the apparent explosions.

Saakashvili supporters free him from van: I will die for Ukraine VIDEO

December 5, 2017 by administrator

Supporters of former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili released him from a vehicle of Ukrainian special service by breaking the back door.

After being released, Saakashvili addressed his supporters saying he “will die for Ukraine”. He called to gather on Maidan to liberate the country from “Poroshenko and his gang”.

“There are millions of us, we are strong, we are very strong. Let’s take to the streets, Poroshenko’s regime will be over,” he said.

Prominent Ukrainian author seized in Belarus, ordered to leave

February 12, 2017 by administrator

A noted Ukrainian poet and novelist says he was seized by security agents in the middle of the night while visiting the capital of Belarus and ordered to leave the country, The Associated Press reports.

In a posting on a social media website, Serhiy Zhadan said Saturday, February 11 that police confronted him in his hotel room in Minsk about 2 a.m.

“Nothing was explained … I had to spend the night in a cell,” he wrote. He said he was later informed by the country’s security agency, the KGB, that he was not allowed to be in Belarus because Russia in 2015 banned him for alleged participation in terrorist activities.

Belarus and Russia share a visa regime.

Zhadan’s work, which critics have compared to that of William Burroughs and Beat writers, criticizes post-Soviet society.

Several days ago, Belarus extradited Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin to Azerbaijan as he had visited Nagorno Karabakh and written posts critical of Azerbaijani authorities.

Lapshin, 40, divides his time between Israel and a few other places. He was arrested on December 15 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, at the request of Azeri authorities who demanded his extradition. The arrest was made one day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

Lapshin was arrested following his visits to Karabakh as well as due to critical posts in his Russian-language blog against Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Azerbaijani dictator and Ukraine dictator ban imports from Nagorno-Karabakh and Donbas

February 7, 2017 by administrator

Ukraine and Azerbaijan have decided not to allow goods made on the territories that are not under control of Baku and Kiev to enter their territories without permits from official authorities, Ukrainian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Oleksandr Mischenko has told Interfax-Azerbaijan.
“During the visit of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to Baku the heads of the two states instructed chiefs of customs agencies of Ukraine and Azerbaijan to meet and discuss the issue of passing goods coming from occupied territories of the two countries. Heads of customs agencies met and drew up a mechanism, according to which goods from these territories can be supplied only if they are licenses by central authorities – Kyiv and Baku,” Mischenko said.
The diplomat said that goods made in Nagorno-Karabakh could cross the Ukrainian border only if Baku gives a permit. The similar scheme is applied by Azerbaijan to goods arriving from Donbas.
“For example, let’s take a label on sparkling wine. If it says Ukraine, Artiomovsk factory (Donbas) this is good. If it says Novorossiya or something like this, of course, Azerbaijan would not take it. The similar approach applies to goods from Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
“The rules took effect at once when the presidents issued the orders. We do not need to sign any international agreements here. The document was signed by the heads of customs agencies,” the ambassador said.

Ukraine: President Poroshenko’s offshore connection in Germany

May 23, 2016 by administrator

Panama City: Poroshenko was one of the people implicated in the ‘Panama papers’ revelations

Resentment is growing in Ukraine about the offshore holdings of the president and his confidantes. A DW investigation sheds new light on the relationship between Poroschenko and shell companies in Germany.

A starch factory seems an odd addition to an Eastern European oligarch’s portfolio. Yet in the case of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, starch is an important ingredient for his chocolate empire; so important that Poroshenko’s group of companies does not buy the ingredient but produces it in their own factories, which include two in Ukraine and one in eastern Germany, according to a DW investigation.

Poroshenko and shell companies

Speculation about Poroshenko as a possible investor in the factory in Germany dates back to 2011, the date it was purchased. With the “Panama Papers” revelations, the complexity of the investments held by Poroshenko and those close to him has become clear: the politician has coordinated the business of his well-known confectionery manufacturing company “Roshen” via offshore holdings. Critics say this was to avoid taxation, but Poroshenko denies those allegations, saying that these offshore companies were created in order to allow them to be managed in escrow for as long as he is president.

An investigation by Deutsche Welle has shown, however, that the use of shell companies in tax havens is not unusual for Poroshenko. One example of that can be found in the starch factory in the city of Elsterau in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. With revenues of around six million euros and nearly 100 employees, it is just a side project in the larger business empire the Ukrainian president has built.

Goal: stay anonymous

The firm in Elsterau belongs to a limited liability company called “Interstarch GmbH,” which, as DW discovered, is run by Poroshenko’s firm “Interstarch Ukraine.” According to commercial registration records, the German company is formally registered to a corporation in Cyprus, which itself is controlled by a corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands. This web conceals the real ownership and could be used for tax advantages.

A request made by DW to the office of the Ukrainian president for clarification about his relationship to these offshore companies has gone answered. His business adviser has said that the network of companies does not belong to Poroshenko, but instead legally belongs to a man named Sergei Zaitsev, who, according to the adviser is an “independent businessman” and business partner of Poroshenko.

But an inspection of commercial registries in Cyprus and the Netherlands tell a different story. Zaitsev is not only the deputy director general at Poroshenko’s Roshen company but is also the CEO of the shell companies which are said to be handling Roshen in escrow. The “Panama Papers” have thus revealed the Ukrainian president to be the person legally charged with this web of firms that can be traced back to the British Virgin Islands. That is also where the company Euro Business Investments Ltd is registered – a company, which – via Cyprus – is controlled by the German firm Interstarch GmbH.

No registration requirements but tax savings

The British Virgin Islands are one of the most important tax havens in the world, according to Tax Justice Network. There is no public registry of companies and they do not cooperate with foreign tax offices. Is this how Poroshenko’s firms have been organized offshore?

Legally, the Ukrainian president is required to detail any earnings openly. Poroshenko has said that since he took office, he has not had any overseas income. And he couldn’t have, as his old friend Zaitsev is in reality the owner of the factory in Germany via the firm in Cyprus. What remains unclear, however, is who claims ownership at the end of the chain of firms in the British Virgin Islands?

In addition to the anonymity that a shell company offers, these holdings come with the added advantage of reduced taxes. The sale price for the German factory was 35 million euros, which the company Interstarch GmbH received in the form of a loan from its Cypriot parent company, Camarin Limited. The Ukrainian investors had essentially lent themselves the money, and it seems they did so at a high interest rate, according to the annual balance sheet. Since 2011, nearly two million euros in interest have been paid out to the Cypriot firm annually.

Such interest payments are not taxed due to a double-taxation agreement between Germany and Cyprus, a legitimate method for saving on taxes according to financial expert Hans-Lothar Merten.

“The interest payments can be claimed here as an expense which reduces profits in Germany. Then the profits that flow further through to Cyprus and the Caribbean are tax-free,” said the expert. In his best-selling book, “Steueroasen” (Tax Havens), Merten writes about such loopholes. Large German companies also take advantage of such opportunities, said the publicist and banker.

More millions said to flow

Year after year, Interstarch has piled new debt onto its Cypriot parent company. By the end of 2014, that amounted to 44 million euros. Yet during a visit by Hartmut Möllring, the economics minister of Saxony-Anhalt, the head of management at Interstarch announced a further investment in the company totalling 25 million euros.

The company complained in their annual report that prices for starch are too low and prices for wheat too high. That resulted in a loss in 2014 amounting to nearly six million euros. But, at the same time, the production capacity there will be expanded over the next five years. The Ukrainian investors are apparently loaning themselves money in Germany, for which more interest payments will be made that will need to flow into the accounts of the offshore firms. The German tax authorities with therefore come away empty-handed: without profits there are also no corporate taxes.

EUROVISION Jamala who won Eurovision 2016 Ukraine confides his Armenian by his mother

May 16, 2016 by administrator

The Ukrainian Jamala -from his real name Sousanna Jamaldinova-, Tatar origin by his father who won with “1944” Eurovision and Armenian by his mother replied after winning the questions of our Armenian colleagues. According to the Armenian newspaper “Jam 168” (168 hours), the Ukrainian song was directed against Russia and especially against the Soviet Union with Stalin had exiled during the Second World War the Crimean Tatars to Asia Central. While at the Eurovision media focused by the dispute between Ukraine and Russia have ignored the Armenian origin of Jamala by his mother, Jamala says his mother is Armenian and Christian, his Muslim father and Tatar. She said that her home religion is not a taboo subject, but chose Islam … “The idea to write and sing” 1944 “comes from my childhood with you back -large-Nazilkhan mother who was a survivor of the events and told me a lot, “said Jamala, recounting the plight of some 10 000 displaced Tatars to Central Asia.” Nobody remembers them! “She says.

About his Armenian roots, Jamala says “parents of my mother are of Nagorno-Karabakh where my grandparents were forced to emigrate to Central Asia. My grandfather was then 5 years old and his family was exiled in a gulag in Kyrgyzstan. The mother of my grandfather was close to my beloved composer Aram Khachatryan. In my youth one of my important meetings was with the Armenian composer Guenady Astsatourian who enjoyed a good reputation in the Crimea. He taught me the basics of jazz (…) I became member of the family, I went with them to the Armenian parties … I also had the chance to know Djivan Gasparyan I admire . Just a few months I sang with legendary composer Michel Legrand. My close friend, Armen Kostantian is the duduk player of my song “1944”. It two years ago I gave a concert in Yerevan. When the plane landed in Armenia, I felt at once that I was home. I went to Echmiadzin, the pagan temple of Garni, Keghart, Dzargatsor with its view of the plain of Ararat, Lake Sevan with Sevanavank … I want to make me a lot again in Armenia. “Krikor Amirzayan

Ukraine fighter admits combating on Azeris’ side in Karabakh war

March 10, 2016 by administrator

Mama Tanya, a member of volunteer battalions fighting alongside Ukraine’s army said in one of The Guardian’s recent projects that the war in Ukraine isn’t the first one she has participated in, the other being the Nagorno Karabakh war, the news agency reports.

In the 1990s she was living with her husband in Azerbaijan and served as a medic during the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Her experience and committed nationalism has drawn her into the war in eastern Ukraine, where her task is to administer first aid and pull wounded soldiers out of battlefields during special operations.

The volunteer battalions are known for being fearless on the battlefield. They also have a reputation for fierce nationalism and far-right views. One of these units is the assault battalion Aidar, based in the town of Shchastya, whose members have been accused of human rights abuses by Amnesty International. What is less known is that the volunteers include several women among their ranks – some working as medics and support staff but others in active combat roles.

400th anniversary of the first Armenian printed book in Ukraine

January 15, 2016 by administrator

According to historian David Davdyan responsible questions of history and culture within the Union of Armenians of Ukraine, 2016 is an important date for the Armenian community of Ukraine. This year will mark the 400th anniversary of the first Armenian book printed in Ukraine. “It is no coincidence that in 1616 in Lvov some Hovhannes Karamatentsi created an Armenian printing which became the fourth edition of Armenian center after Venice, Constantinople and Rome. This year we celebrate the 400th anniversary of Armenian book printed in Ukraine, this first book of Armenians of Ukraine was entitled “David and Saghmos”. This demonstrates the presence of the ancient Armenian community in Ukraine. The Armenian printing Lvov is also proof that the Armenian community was highly developed and had a very high cultural level, “said David Davdyan. The Union of Armenians of Ukraine wants to make this year a series of exhibition on the first printed Armenian books in Ukraine. Note that the Armenian community of Ukraine is now estimated at over 400 000 members.

Krikor Amirzayan

ISIL Militant Admits to Buying Arms in Ukraine, Sending to Syria Via Turkey

November 20, 2015 by administrator

Kuwaiti security forces have uncovered an international cell that supplied the Islamic State terrorist group with Chinese-made weapons purchased in Ukraine, funds and new recruits, US media reported on Friday.

Six members of the group were arrested but four others are still at large, AP reported, citing Interior Ministry officials in Kuwait City.

The leader of the group, 45-year-old Lebanese national Osama Khayat, was detained first and disclosed information about the rest of the members during interrogation, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the information provided by Khayat, the cell was involved in making arms deals on behalf of the Islamic State leaders in Syria, including buying FN-6 portable air defense systems and other weaponry, which were shipped to ISIL in Syria through Turkey.

During questioning, Khayat also admitted to transferring money to Turkish bank accounts as well as spreading ISIL propaganda online to get new recruits.

Besides the Lebanese mastermind, Kuwaiti authorities arrested three Syrians, an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti and said four others — two Syrians and two Australians of Lebanese origin — were outside the country.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied that it had sold Chinese-made FN6 portable air defense systems to the Islamic State.

“We cannot sell or resell or make any deals concerning weapons. We are not a business entity and we do not have such weapons,” spokeswoman Viktoria Kushnir told RIA Novosti.