Ukraine Archives

West Silently Watching Collapse of Ukraine – German Newspaper

August 22, 2015 By administrator

The situation in Ukraine is worsening, but the European Union is not taking any concrete steps to resolve it. According to journalist Christophe Schiltz from Die Welt, the West is silently watching the country descend into chaos.

The European Union seems to be helpless to resolve the crisis in the war-torn state. It mainly contents itself with blunt appeals to the warring parties or calls to strengthen the role of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) — an observing institution that has never played a substantial role in the Ukrainian conflict, the author wrote.

The Minsk Agreement negotiated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Hollande has so far brought no progress and the situation is unlikely to change in the future. European leaders tend to put their plans on paper, but do not implement them into practice, the journalist said.According to Schlitz, this weak strategy plays into the hands of Vladimir Putin, who is allegedly seeking to destabilize the country. The journalist suggests strengthening sanctions against Russia and providing Kiev with further assistance, for instance through weapons supplies and financial aid.

Schlitz argues that the EU underestimates the strategic importance of the Eastern Ukraine. According to him, Europeans should enhance their presence in the region to observe the situation and assist in the monitoring of borders and elections, helping Ukraine to get rid of its status as a European backyard.

Source: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150822/1026062971/west-collapse-ukraine.html#ixzz3jYiNSinA

Erdogan poppet Saakashvili accused of defending Turkish commercial interests in Ukraine

July 8, 2015 By administrator

A dismissed Ukrainian official has accused former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of defending the interests of a Turkish firm, the Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing Doğan News Agency.

Saakashvili, who is now serving as a new governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, slammed Denis Antonyuk, then president of Ukraine’s state-owned airline operator, during a meeting of the country’s aviation authority on June 26, accusing him of corruption.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had announced Antonyuk would be dismissed, in a move that would only be formalized with a cabinet motion on July 1.

Doğan News Agency reported on July 8 Antonyuk had fired back by filing a criminal complaint against Saakashvili.

Writing to Ukrainian Chief Prosecutor Victor Shokin, Antonyuk said the former Georgian president had no legal right to attend the aviation authority’s meeting. Furthermore, he argued, Saakashvili defended the rights of a Turkish firm and oligarch Igor Kolomoysky’s Ukrainian International Airlines (MAU).

The report did not mention the name of the Turkish company. Largely in the construction sector, Turkish companies have scores of major investments in Ukraine worth more than $2 billion.

Now Global Politicians, Ex. Georgian President Saakashvili now Ukraine’s Odesa Governor

June 5, 2015 By administrator

By RFE/RL,

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili shows off his identification card as the head of an advisory council in Kyiv in February

Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been appointed governor of Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region, a move that could exacerbate tensions between Kyiv and Moscow amid Ukraine’s shaky cease-fire with Russian-backed separatists.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made the announcement on May 30 at a televised event in the region’s capital city of Odesa alongside Saakashvili, calling the former Georgian president a “great friend of Ukraine.”

Interfax reports Poroshenko also signed a decree granting Saakashvili Ukrainian citizenship.

The announcement followed a recommendation by Poroshenko’s cabinet that Saakashvili lead the Odesa region.

Saakashvili was Georgia’s president during its brief 2008 war with Russia over the Moscow-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

Many Western officials see that conflict as a precursor to the Kremlin’s seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea territory in March 2014 and the ensuing war between Kyiv’s forces and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 6,100 people since April 2014.

The city of Odesa last year was the site of one of the deadliest civilian incidents since the conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine, with more than 30 pro-Russian activists dying after they reportedly sought refuge from a hostile crowd.

A city of 1 million people, Odesa lies less than 450 kilometers from Kyiv and hundreds of kilometers from the battle lines between central government forces and pro-Russian fighters who declared “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine.

Putin Critic

In April, Ukrainian authorities in Odesa said they detained more than 40 suspected members of a terror group who had allegedly planned a series of terrorist acts during celebrations marking the Orthodox Easter on April 12.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) also said in April it detained three people suspected of involvement in a series of bombings in Odesa, some of them targeting organizations with ties to soldiers fighting against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

A fierce and relentless critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saakashvili is loathed by officials in Moscow and regularly mocked on state-run Russian television.

“Saakashvili is Head of the Odesa Region,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter. “When the circus comes to town… Poor Ukraine.”

“Saakashvili — accused of numerous crimes against the Georgian people — gets appointed governor of Odesa,” senior Russian Foreign Ministry official Konstantin Dolgov wrote on Twitter. “This is deeply symbolic of Kyiv’s style of democracy.”

During nearly a decade in power following the 2003 Rose Revolution, Saakashvili introduced major reforms before leaving the ex-Soviet republic after his presidency ended in November 2013.

The government that came to power after beating his party in 2012 parliamentary elections has accused him of fraud, organization of an assault, and abuse of office — charges he denies.

Saakashvili has been serving as the head of Ukraine’s Consultative International Council of Reforms since February.

Poroshenko’s appointment of several foreigners to senior posts in the Ukrainian government has raised some eyebrows at home. He has called the moves an effort to find “innovative solutions in the government” due to the “extraordinary challenges facing Ukraine.”

With reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti

Armenian Genocide bill submitted to Ukraine parliament

April 3, 2015 By administrator

A draft law on recognizing the Armenian Genocide has been submitted to Ukraine’s chief lawmaking body, Verkhovna Rada.

The bill was proposed by Vitaly Barvinenko, a self-nominated lawmaker.
Since 1965, the Armenian massacres have been recognized as a crime of genocide under international law by the United Nations, Council of Europe, European Parliament and 21 states. Seven world countries have partially recognized it on the level of local government bodies.

Turkey and Azerbaijan officially deny the Armenian Genocide.

Ron Paul: McCain encouraged anti-government protesters in Ukraine last year:

February 23, 2015 By administrator

Former congressman Ron Paul

Former US congressman Ron Paul says Republican Senator John McCain should have stayed home instead of making several visits to Ukraine and encouraging protesters to oust the government.

“Senator John McCain made several visits to Kiev and even addressed the crowd to encourage them,” Paul wrote in an article published on his website on Sunday.

“What if John McCain had stayed home and worried about his constituents in Arizona instead of non-constituents 6,000 miles away,” he asked.

The former congressman shed light on the foreign intervention which brought Ukraine to “its current, seemingly hopeless situation,” comparing it with an imaginary situation in which Russian President Vladimir Putin “came to Washington to encourage protesters to overthrow the Obama administration.”

He further wrote if Ukraine was left to its own, with no foreign intervention, “the problem may well have solved itself in due time rather than escalated into a full-out civil war.”

However, the interventionists in the US and EU won out again, he wrote.

“As we soon found out from a leaked telephone call, the US ambassador in Kiev and Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, were making detailed plans for a new government in Kiev after the legal government was overthrown with their assistance,” Paul said.

The former presidential candidate said last year’s incidents that overthrew the legally-elected government of Ukraine “was not only supported by US and EU governments — much of it was actually planned by them.”

Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama said in an interview with CNN that Washington brokered a power transition deal in Ukraine.

“We had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine” since Putin “made this decision around Crimea and Ukraine,” Obama said.

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence pro-Moscow protests in mid-April 2014.

Violence escalated later in May after the two flashpoint regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation.

Pro-Russia forces say pushed Ukraine army out of Debaltseve

February 17, 2015 By administrator

Ukrainian servicemen relax on a road at Svitlodarsk, approaching Debaltseve on February 15, 2015. © AFP

Pro-Russia forces say they have pushed Ukraine’s army out of the eastern hotbed city of Debaltseve as a ceasefire deadline for the withdrawal of heavy weaponry draws closer.

Fighting raged on Tuesday in Debaltseve, with pro-Russia forces storming the government-held positions in the city. A statement later in the day on the self-proclaimed Donetsk News Agency claimed that pro-Russians have captured most parts of the city.

Pro-Russia forces and Kiev troops have been battling for weeks over Debaltseve, which connects Donetsk and Lugansk, strongholds of the pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine. The control over the city remains ambiguous under a truce deal signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on February 12 with the warring sides both claiming Debaltseve on their line.

Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko (pictured above), has accused the fighters of violating the ceasefire, saying that five government troops have been killed over the past 24 hours in attacks by the pro-Russians. Lysenko said the Kiev government’s decision to withdraw its heavy weaponry from the frontline would depend on the other side’s way of observing the Minsk deal.

According to the pact, which was agreed by leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, the two sides are expected to pull out their weapons later on Tuesday but on the condition that they stop fighting.

Both sides claim that the condition has yet to be fulfilled, putting the fragile truce deal at risk of unraveling.

Nearly 5,700 people have been killed and close to a million have been displaced since the armed conflict began in east Ukraine in April 2014.

Moscow: Putin Meeting with Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande

February 6, 2015 By administrator

The Kremlin is hosting a meeting between Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. Discuss ways to resolve the situation in the south-eastern Ukraine. Report kremlin.ru

Negotiations are taking place behind closed doors without the participation of members of delegations and experts.

Ukrainians invest in Air Armenia

December 22, 2014 By administrator

A Ukrainian investment fund announced the acquisition of 49% stake in the airline Air Armenia, pledging to help soon restart its commercial flights were suspended there two months.
Vladimir Bobylev, CEO of East Prospect Fund has committed to invest at least $ 30 million in the troubled carrier Air Armenia. He would consider replacing and increasing company aircraft in the coming months.
In late October, Air Armenia (…)

Russia, Ukraine Reach Tentative Agreement On Gas Deliveries

October 18, 2014 By administrator

Russia and Ukraine made a progress in reaching an agreement on the gas supplies row, reports Reuters.

European leaders, however, said Moscow has to significantly increase its efforts to support the ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine.

The deal aims at re-opening Russian gas supplies to Ukraine ahead of the cold winter months.

It came as something of a surprise following an initial round of talks in Milan described by Kremlin officials as “full of misunderstandings and disagreements”.

Later Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said a subsequent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of France and Germany had made some progress in resolving the issues.

“We have the first limited progress on the gas issue. We have agreed on the main parameters of the contract,” he said, adding that all sides remain committed to a ceasefire deal struck last month to stop the hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

He also said that he hoped all details to be further discussed before October 21, when delegations of Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission are due to meet in Brussels.

According to Putin, all parameters of the deal were already discussed and settled and urged the European countries to help Ukraine cover its gas debt to Russia, which was estimated at USD 4.5 B.

Ukraine and Rebel Representatives Agree to Cease-Fire

September 5, 2014 By administrator

Ukrainian government forces and the pro-Russian separatist rebels fighting them in eastern Ukraine will observe a cease-fire starting Friday, negotiators from all sides announced at a news conference in Minsk, Belarus.
However, the strength of the truce was immediately called into question by continued fighting around Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine.
Speaking from Minsk, negotiators representing the Ukrainian government, the separatists, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the cease-fire was due to come into force at 6 p.m. local time.

Source: NYT