Tag: Ukrainian Separatists
NEWSLINK The New Yorker/Jack Hitt: “The Russian Tom Clancy Is on the Front Lines for Real [Fyodor Berezin]”
Russia and Ukraine Finally Break Up
(Bloomberg – thebloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – December 30, 2015) [Chart here bloombergview.com/articles/2015-12-30/russia-and-ukraine-finally-break-up] Russia and Ukraine have spent most of their post-Soviet history as Siamese twins, but for the last two years they’ve been undergoing political and economic separation surgery. It will probably be more or less complete in 2016, and though both twins are in for a grim period, […]
» Read moreUkraine’s media: a plea for pluralism
Ukraine’s media is caught between propaganda and counter-propaganda. We need to stop this black and white thinking. (opendemocracy.net – Igor Burdyga – December 29, 2015) Igor Burdyga began his career as a journalist with Interfax-Ukraine in 2007 before moving to Kommersant-Ukraine. Since the fall of 2013, he has worked as a special correspondent for Vesti.Reporter, reporting on EuroMaidan, the annexation […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Center for European Policy Analysis/Edward Lucas: “Lessons of 2015”
West mistaken – no plans to re-create Soviet Union – Putin on Ukraine
(Interfax – December 20, 2015) Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, 20 December: Russian President Vladimir Putin regrets that in the implementation of its policy with regard to Ukraine and the whole post-Soviet space, the West is guided by the erroneous notion that Moscow wants to restore the Soviet Union. “As for Ukraine and all the former Soviet Union, I am convinced that the position […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Reuters: “Putin: Russia Did Have People in Ukraine Doing ‘Certain Military Tasks'”
Reuters covers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s admission at a press conference that Russian personnel are present in conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, even while disputing whether that meant regular Russian troops were present. … Putin said … Russia did have personnel in eastern Ukraine who were carrying out certain military tasks but denied Moscow had deployed regular troops …. ‘We never said […]
» Read moreAfter Minsk, Another Munich has Now Taken Place in Moscow, Illarionov Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 17, 2015) Russian commentators across the political spectrum, from the most liberal to the most nationalistic, agree that Vladimir Putin achieved a significant victory for his policies in Syria and Ukraine in the course and as a result of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Moscow. One Moscow analyst […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK New York Times: “NATO Nations No Longer Question Need for Alliance”
NEWSLINK Kyiv Post: “In Crimea, Putin now seen as the lesser of two evils”
Ukrainian National Security, Defense Council head dismisses Russia’s accusations on Ukraine’s violation of Minsk agreements
KYIV. Dec 14 (Interfax) – Ukraine is fully implementing the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the situation in Donbas and Russia’s statements on their violation by the Ukrainian side are provocative, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said. “When Russian representatives in the United Nations say that Ukraine breaches the Minsk agreements, this is another […]
» Read moreInterfax: U.S. to never recognize ‘annexation’ of Crimea – Biden
KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax) – U.S. Vice-President Joseph Biden has reaffirmed the unwavering position of his country and said the United States will never recognize Crimea’s accession to Russia. The United States will never recognize attempts to ‘annex’ Crimea, Biden said in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday. [featured image is file photo]
» Read moreNEWSLINK DailyBeast/Nemtsova: “Putin Puts Heroic Female Pilot on Trial”
NEWSLINK Reuters: “Russia-annexed Crimea faces long road to power security”
Biden Tells Ukraine to … Do Nothing
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – December 8, 2015) Vice President Joe Biden’s visits to Ukraine always are keenly anticipated: He is considered the voice of the country’s Western backers, the senior statesman who can resolve conflicts within the country’s ruling elite and push it down the path of reform. This week, however, Biden apparently sent conflicting signals to […]
» Read moreInterfax: LPR reports on escalation near contact line
LUHANSK. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s government forces resumed daily shellings in the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), deputy chief of staff of the LPR people’s militia Igor Yashchenko said. “The situation in the zone of responsibility of the LPR people’s militia, along the line of contact, became [even] more escalated over the past three days. Kyiv’s […]
» Read moreCrimeans Putting On Brave Faces, But Frustration Mounting Over Blackout
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Pavel Novikov, Claire Bigg – November 25, 2015) As Russian authorities in Crimea scramble to restore power after a massive blackout over the weekend, residents are learning to live with thawing fridges, pitch-dark highways, and shuttered schools. The outage, caused by attacks that brought down power transmission towers in Ukraine’s Kherson region, near the isthmus linking […]
» Read moreInterfax: DPR intelligence exposes Ukraine’s military equipment movements near contact line – Basurin
DONETSK. Dec 2 (Interfax) – Artillery, armored vehicles and cars carrying Ukrainian forces appeared at the line of contacts, senior official of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Defense Ministry Eduard Basurin said. “Seven tanks, five 152-mm howitzers ‘Msta-B’ and six D-30 guns were seen near Zaitseve,” the Donetsk News Agency cited Basurin as saying. Eight BM-21 ‘Grad’ launch vehicles were […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Wall Street Journal: “Talks With Russia on EU-Ukraine Trade Deal Fail to Reach Compromise. Moscow makes new demands over bilateral accord set for Jan. 1”
The Wall Street Journal covers efforts by the EU and Ukraine to consult with Russia over an upcoming EU-Ukrainian trade deal. Russia laid out a long list of demands for amending a sweeping trade deal between Ukraine and the European Union a month before the pact is due to be fully implemented…. at a fresh round of discussions among the […]
» Read moreBanks Too Big to Sanction as War Wrecks Russia’s Ukraine Ties
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Volodymyr Verbyany, Jake Rudnitsky – November 30, 2015) Your enemy’s bank is your friend. Or so Ukraine wants to believe after giving Russian banks a pass more than a year and a half into a separatist insurgency it blames on the Kremlin. Banks including state-run lenders sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union have clung […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Washington Post: “On Ukraine’s front lines, U.S.-supplied equipment is falling apart”
The Washington Post reports on old, second-rate U.S. equipment being given to Ukraine. The United States has delivered more than $260 million in nonlethal military equipment to help the government of Ukraine in its fight against a Russian-backed insurgency, but some of the U.S.-supplied gear meant to protect and transport Ukrainian military forces is little more than junk. … for […]
» Read more‘Russia’s Future Not Connected with Ukraine or Syria,’ Inozemtsev Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, December 1, 2015) Russians have been so focused on events in Ukraine and now Syria that they have forgotten the most important thing: their future and that of their country is not connected with what is going on in those countries but what is taking place or not taking place in their […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH AFP: “With fighting easing, landmines still haunt east Ukraine”
AFP covers the impact of landmines in Ukraine. The seaside fishing town of Shyrokyne remains studded with landmines, a deadly legacy of the 19-month pro-Russian revolt in the EU’s backyard. Both Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels have refused to take on the task of fully clearing the war zone of one of the most unpredictable and devastating hazards to residents’ […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK The Economist: “Russia and the West. Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s widow on what went wrong.”
NEWSLINK Ukraine Today: “Ukrainian volunteer battalions train for ‘Russian takeover of Kyiv'”
Mariupol elections: will Donbas voters be represented in Ukrainian politics?
The Donbas is being airbrushed out of Ukrainian politics. This will only build another barrier to a united and democratic country. (opendemocracy.net – Vitalii Atanasov – November 26, 2015) Vitalii Atanasov is a freelance journalist, videographer and coordinator of media education projects at Kyiv’s Center for Social and Labor Research. He specialises in reporting on social inequalities, civil and labour […]
» Read moreUkraine is caught between war and reform
Two years on from the protests that ignited Maidan, Ukraine is suffering from a clash of agendas. (opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Minakov – November 27, 2015) Mikhail Minakov is Associate Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and President of the Foundation for Good Politics, Kyiv. He is also director of the Krytyka Institute, and editor-in-chief of the journal Ideology and Politics. Two years […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH International New York Times/Maxim Trudolyubov: “Putin’s Emergency Politics”
Writing in The International New York Times, Maxim Trudolyubov comments upon Russia’s relationship with Europe and the United States, and policies towards Syria and Ukraine, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in France. Much has changed for Vladimir Putin since the terror attacks in Paris. The trope that aggressions in Crimea and Ukraine show that he is more of a […]
» Read moreUkraine Bids for Attention With Crimea Blackout
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – November 23, 2015) Even if Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to end his country’s conflict with Ukraine so he could build an alliance with Western powers to beat Islamic State — and it’s not clear at all that he does — Ukrainians wouldn’t let him. In the last minutes of Nov. 21, someone […]
» Read moreInterfax: DPR prepares new draft amnesty law that will take into account conditions of prisoner exchange on both sides
DONETSK. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Darya Morozova, human rights ombudsman in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said that the law on amnesty adopted by Ukraine does not suit the conflict in Donbas and that the DPR is working on its own version. “The republic is not blackmailing anyone, but insists on the fulfillment of the sixth point of the Minsk […]
» Read moreKyiv Must Seek Collapse of Putin Regime, Not ‘Restoration of Ukraine’s Territorial Integrity at Any Price,’ Portnikov Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, November 20, 2015) Ukrainian commentator Vitaly Portnikov argues that the goal of the Ukrainian government should not be “the restoration of territorial integrity at any price but rather the undermining of the economy of the aggressor country and the collapse of Putin’s political regime” (rus.newsru.ua/columnists/19nov2015/voprossroka.html). Western media say that the EU and […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH Reuters: “EU’s Juncker dangles trade ties with Russia-led bloc to Putin”
Reuters covers European overtures to Russia to improve ties with a ceasefire in Ukraine. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, suggesting closer trade ties between the 28-nation EU and a Russian-led economic bloc once a ceasefire is implemented in Ukraine. … written after a G20 summit in Turkey … Russian aggression in Ukraine […]
» Read morePossible Russia-West Rapprochement Over Syria Stokes Fears In Europe’s East
(RFE/RL – Pete Baumgartner – November 19, 2015) France’s surprise embrace of Russia in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris has raised concerns across the former Soviet bloc that Moscow wants to leverage the fight against Islamic extremists in Syria to secure Western concessions over Ukraine. Just days after the massacres in the French capital killed 129 […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Kyiv Post: “Avakov: Terrorist attacks expected in Ukraine’s largest cities in ‘next few days'”
EU and Russia remain hostage to Ukrainian crisis as progress stalls
After modest progress made this fall on organizing elections in eastern Ukraine and the withdrawal of weaponry from the frontlines, talks on resolving the conflict in the Donbass region have again run into trouble, with the timeline for implementing the Minsk peace agreements to be extended into 2016. Where does this leave the peace process and is there a risk […]
» Read moreWinning the peace in Slovyansk
In eastern Ukraine, grievances are still strong following local elections. The city of Slovyansk, where the separatist campaign began last year, may not be lost, but it still hasn’t quite been won (opendemocracy.net – Dan Peleschuk – November 11, 2015) Dan Peleschuk is a journalist based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He has previously reported from Moscow and elsewhere in the former […]
» Read moreRUSSIA & UKRAINE – Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#220 :: Thursday AM 12 November 2015
[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: JRL 2015-#220 Thursday 12 November 2015 A project sponsored through the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs The contents do not necessarily represent the views of IERES or the George Washington University. JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on […]
» Read moreCongress Passes Bill Giving Lethal Aid To Ukraine
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – WASHINGTON – November 10, 2015) Congress has passed a defense policy bill that authorizes up to $50 million in lethal military aid for Ukraine and mandates a White House response if Russia is deemed to be violating a key arms control treaty. The White House said hours after the $607 billion bill was passed by the […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK New York Times/ Jon Hunt letter: “Beware Putin’s Russia”
NEWSLINK Carnegie Europe/Jan Techau: “Ukraine’s Fragile Status Quo”
NEWSLINK BBC: “EU resists Russian overtures on Ukraine”
UN refugee agency delivers aid to eastern Ukraine for first time in months
(United Nations – UN News Centre- un.org – November 9, 2015) [Reprinted with the permission of the United Nations.] The United Nations refugee agency has managed to deliver aid for the first time in over two months to areas of eastern Ukraine beyond Government control where two million people are in urgent need of assistance, reaching 12,000 people – a […]
» Read moreRussian Justice Ministry Accuses Memorial Of Calling For Regime Change
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – RFE/RL’s Russian Service – November 10, 2015) Russia’s Justice Ministry has accused the prominent nongovernmental organization Memorial of “undermining the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation” and of calling for “a change of political regime” in the country. The ministry sent the Memorial Human Rights Center notification of the accusations on November 9 […]
» Read moreUkraine: Europe’s forgotten refugees
While the world focuses on refugees arriving in Europe from warzones in the Middle East, the plight of those fleeing war in Ukraine has been forgotten. (opendemocracy.net – Sara Cincurova – November 20, 2015) Sara Cincurova is a freelance journalist focusing on human rights. She is a former family support worker and holds a Master’s degree from the Paris Descartes […]
» Read moreMoscow laying groundwork to annex Belarus, open second front against Ukraine next year
(Paul Goble – November 9, 2015) For Vladimir Putin, Viktor Kaspruk argues, “Ukraine is the key to a future Russia or more precisely a future Russian Empire,” and consequently, even if he has lowered the temperature in the Donbas in recent weeks, the Kremlin leader is likely to renew his attacks on Ukraine next year having first moved to annex […]
» Read moreTRANSCRIPT: Russian Propaganda: Ways and Means – Leon Aron Senate Testimony
Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation On “Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine and the Propaganda that Threatens Europe” Russian Propaganda: Ways and Means Leon Aron, Ph.D. Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies American Enterprise Institute November 3, 2015 The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) […]
» Read moreInterfax: Russia does not see Ukraine as enemy despite Kyiv’s new military doctrine – Russian Security Council
MOSCOW. Nov 5 (Interfax) – Russia does not see Ukraine as an adversary despite a new military doctrine approved by Kyiv. “For its part, Russia does not consider Ukraine an enemy,” Mikhail Popov, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, told reporters on Thursday. “While calling our country an enemy, the Ukrainian government continues buying from what it calls its […]
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