Protests in Ukraine escalate

[bluerose]

Thanks Natalka for giving us all this information. I am loss for words at this crisis and the others also. We may very well be on the brink of WWIII.

[Natalka]

an aw.... moment

No man is left behind because Ukrainians have what Russian soldiers lack, heart and compassion.

[Natalka]

Ukraine 'close to point of no return'


Ukraine's president has said his country is "close to a point of no return - full scale-war".
Petro Poroshenko was speaking in Brussels, where he said a meeting of EU leaders had agreed to prepare more sanctions against Russia.

Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine was a victim of "military aggression and terror".

He said: "I think that we are very close to the point of no return. Point of no return is full-scale war.
"Any offensive action which would be undertaken [by Russia]... would be a point of no return. And that's why we undertake enormous efforts to stop that."

Mr Poroshenko said that new EU sanctions against Russia would be prepared and would be implemented depending on the success of a proposed peace plan.

He said: "Based on my proposals, which were supported by the majority of the member states, there are possible sanctions that would be implemented."

He said he hoped to publish a draft of his peace plan next week.
Mr Poroshenko also said that he would discuss the possibility of a ceasefire at a meeting in Belarus on Monday of the Contact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28997946

[Natalka]

Troops are also reportedly trying to evacuate Ilovaisk in the Donetsk region. It has been surrounded by rebels.
Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko told the Russian News Service radio station a new offensive was being planned to create a corridor between Donetsk and Luhansk.
In south-eastern Ukraine, people have been leaving the port city of Mariupol, after advancing rebels captured Novoazovsk to the east.
Western and Ukrainian officials say this offensive has been substantially helped by Russian regular troops, opening a new front. Russia denies the accusation.


Ukrainian military vehicles evacuate from Starobesheve

The humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian soldiers to leave Ilovaisk was shelled by Russian artillery. The corridor was agreed to by the DPR, after the public call from Putin for this corridor to allow Ukrainian forces to withdraw.

ZN.UA reported that as a result of the shelling close to 100 of Ukrainian from the 40th, 39th and 28th battalions and the 51th Volyn brigade from the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed (estimated casualty figures quoted here have not yet been confirmed by any other sources — editor). Information about shelling of the corridor was confirmed by journalist Nazar Voznuk on 112 Ukraine TV channel.

The Ukrainian soldiers were given the choice to leave safely or be killed. Arrangements were made for them to leave. Then they were killed while following the agreed, the guaranteed, "safe" route.

http://burkonews.info/ukrainian-army...-safe-passage/

[Anna Michele]

Unbelievable

[Natalka]

Mariupol residents form human chain against Russian aggression

31.08.14

More than a thousand residents of the port city of Mariupol joined arms on Saturday in a human chain at a checkpoint outside the city in the direction of Novoazovsk. The number of people is likely to have been larger with a local Internet publication 0629 reporting at 16.00 that more and more people were arriving.
Later Gregory Zhygalov tweeted a photo, reporting “thousands of unarmed people at checkpoint, 30 km away from Russian tanks”.




The placard reads "Putin is the destruction of Russia"

Those who came brought Ukrainian flags, ribbons, etc. and many wore clothing with traditional Ukrainian embroidery.
They formed a human chain to try to stop the tanks and to express their protest against any military incursion into their city
“We are for peace, they said. We want to live in Ukraine. We don’t want war”. They also went up to the Ukrainian soldiers guarding the city and chanted “Thank you!” and clapped.
The organizers explained that the demonstration was not only about uniting residents of Mariupol, but also an attempt to make people in Russia want to save the lives of their husbands, sons and brothers.

Mariupol is a strategic city on the Azov Sea with a population of close to half a million. It is now a crucial focal point after forces believed to be Russian were able to swiftly seize the town of Novoazovsk 20 kilometres away.

http://khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1409435917

[Natalka]

Britain to spearhead 10,000-strong Nato rapid reaction force with mission to halt Putin's 'Tsarist expansionism'

31 August 2014

Britain is to spearhead a new Nato rapid-reaction force amid warnings that Vladimir Putin is virtually ‘at war against Europe’ and planning ‘Tsarist expansionism’.

EU leaders were scrambling last night to bolster sanctions which have so far failed abysmally to halt the Russian president’s determination – in Western eyes – to bully Ukraine into remaining in his orbit.

Leaders of countries sharing borders with Russia led the way in demanding tougher action against what they see as blatant aggression on their doorstep.

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite bluntly called for the West to wake up, and appeared to urge Nato to give significant military aid to Kiev.
‘Russia is at war against Ukraine and that is a country which wants to be part of Europe. Russia is practically at war against Europe,’ she said.

She lambasted previous sanctions as ‘a big mistake’ because they were ‘too general’.

Lithuania is one of at least six states believed to have signed up to a new British-led Nato rapid-reaction force, the formation of which is expected to be announced this week by David Cameron as Wales hosts the most important Alliance gathering since the end of the Cold War.

Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Norway and the Netherlands will also join the 10,000-troop bid to deter Putin from what the West sees as an attempt to redraw the frontiers of Europe.

A key concern is that he intends to use his military might to impose a new ‘statelet’ within Ukraine called Novorossiya – or New Russia. What remains of Ukraine could be left with no coastline if the plan goes through.

A diplomat said: ‘Putin is obsessed with Novorossiya, territory won for the Romanovs by Catherine the Great. He wants it back.

Putin’s use of the Tsarist name of Novorossiya is sending shudders through Europe.

While it includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions – at the epicentre of the current unrest – it also includes such major cities as Kharkiv, Kherson and Odessa.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ansionism.html

[Natalka]

Putin calls for talks on east Ukraine 'statehood'; rebels fire on ship

MOSCOW/MARIUPOL Ukraine (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Sunday for immediate talks on the "statehood" of southern and eastern Ukraine, although his spokesman said this did not mean Moscow now endorsed rebel calls for independence for territory they have seized.
The Kremlin leader's remarks, two days after a public appearance in which he compared the Kiev government with Nazis and warned the West not to "mess with us", came as Europe and the United States prepared possible further sanctions to halt what they say is direct Russian military involvement in the war in Ukraine.


Germany aired suspicions that Moscow might be trying to create a land corridor to supply Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in March, while the four-month conflict moved onto the sea for the first time on Sunday. The separatists said they had fired on a Ukrainian vessel in the Azov Sea using land-based artillery, and a military spokesman in Kiev said a rescue operation was under way.
Ukrainian troops and local residents were reinforcing the port of Mariupol on Sunday, the next big city in the path of pro-Russian fighters who pushed back government forces along the Azov Sea this past week in an offensive on a new front.


Putin's use of the word "statehood" was interpreted in Western media as implying backing for the rebel demand of independence, something Moscow has so far stopped short of publicly endorsing.
However, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was no new endorsement from Moscow for rebel independence. Asked if "New Russia", a term pro-Moscow rebels use for their territory, should still be part of Ukraine, Peskov said: "Of course."
"Only Ukraine can reach an agreement with New Russia, taking into account the interests of New Russia, and this is the only way to reach a political settlement."
Rebels have rallied behind the term "New Russia" since Putin first used it in a public appearance in April. Putin called it a tsarist-era term for land that now forms southern and eastern Ukraine. Ukrainians consider the term deeply offensive and say it reveals Moscow's imperial designs on their territory.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/moscow-kie...104353135.html

[Natalka]

Moscow protesters against war in Ukraine were arrested. They planned on lighting 2249 candles, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine according to a UN report published last week, but the police were faster









http://www.novayagazeta.ru/photos/65058.html

[Natalka]

White House Washington, DC right now.



Right now, #Mykolayiv: #Ukraine state symbol- trident - from candles in memoriam of killed in #Donbas

[Natalka]

National Security Update Aug. 31

Yesterday nine Russian paratroopers were exchanged for 63 soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine at the checkpoint in Kharkiv region, reported Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson of Information and Analytical Center of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

Andriy Lysenko said that in the last 24 hours four Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 34 got wounded.

According to NSDC representative, the Ukrainian military engaged the terrorists and the Russian military 33 times in the vicinity of the following ​settlements: Stanytsia Luhanska, Heorhiivka, Krasnaya Polyana, Andriivka, Lutugino, Kruglyk, Uspenka, Berezove, Vergunsky Rozyizd, Fedorivka, Zempliane, Maryinka, Adrianopil, Makarovo, Fashchiivka as well as near “Luhansk” airport. The spokesperson for the National Security and Defense Council said that the ATO forces destroyed two tanks, an “Urahan” [‘Hurricane’] installation, six Grad systems and more than 100 terrorist militants.

Colonel Lysenko said that the shelling of ATO positions continues from the territory of Russia. Thus the position of Ukrainian military near the village Horodyshche was fired upon with anti-tank guided missiles. In addition, the Ukrainian-Russian borderline in Luhansk region, and the bridge over the Kamyshnaya river near the village of Nizhnebaranovka (Bilovodsky district), as well as the positions of the ATO forces in the village of Makarovo (Stanychno-Luhansk region) suffered from the shelling which originated from the territory of the Russian Federation. The NSDC representative emphasized that yesterday Ukraine recorded four Russian drones close to the village of Rosa Luxemburg (Donetsk region) and near the village of Yuhanovka (Luhansk region).

Lysenko cited numerous facts of destruction of Donbas infrastructure by the terrorists. He particularly pointed toward the evidence of shelling of Lutugin scientific and industrial roller mill, and the downing of the bridge over the Kalmius river near the village of Granite, Telmanovsky district. On a separate note, Lysenko reported that the Ukrainian forces found and disabled 163 units of ammunition and explosives.

http://uacrisis.org/rnbo-47/

[Natalka]

Mariupol, Sep 1, 2014. Back to school. Russian tanks are 20 miles away from this school.

[Natalka]

Ukraine withdraws from Luhansk airport after 'Russian tank column' attack

01 Sep 2014

Kiev forces retreated from Luhansk airport after battling a "Russian armed forces" tank column on Monday, Kiev said, in what Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko described as the latest stage of Moscow's "direct and open aggression".



The battle came ahead of a key meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Minsk, the Belarus capital, later on Monday.



"In the Luhansk direction, Ukrainian forces have received an order and have pulled back from the airport," Ukraine army spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters. He said seven Ukrainian service personnel had been killed in the past 24 hours.



Ukraine's defence minister Valeriy Geletey said that Russian units are moving into other towns in the region, including the largest city of the region Donetsk.



"The information that Russian troops are there has been confirmed," he said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ace-talks.html

----

Poroshenko, speaking at a military academy in Kiev, said Russia's direct involvement in Kiev's war against the separatists in eastern Ukraine had tipped the balance on the battlefield and was the main reason for recent setbacks.


"Direct and open aggression has been launched against Ukraine from a neighbouring state. This has changed the situation in the zone of conflict in a radical way," he said.


There would be changes in the military top brass because of the events of last week, Poroshenko added, referring to the military reverses.

Separatists, who Kiev says were backed by a Russian armoured column, took the town of Novoazovsk in the southeast last week and are now threatening the strategic port city of Mariupol 40 km (25 miles) to the west.
Their seizure of part of the coastline provided them with a vantage point from which to shell a coastguard patrol boat in the Sea of Azov on Sunday, sinking it - the first action at sea in the conflict.
Two members of the crew are missing while eight were rescued and are being treated for burns and other injuries.
Lysenko said the cutter was hit by a missile fired from Bezimenne on the coast, starting a fire. The boat went down later, he said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0GW1ZH20140901

[gryphon]

This is a scary situation.


With Crimea being occupied this situation worries me

[Natalka]

Yatseniuk: “Russia and Vladimir Putin are waging a war”

The following is a statement by the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatseniuk:

It is time to call things by their right names: Russia and Vladimir Putin are waging a war. The Russian regime is responsible for the war in Europe, for killing our people, for stealing Crimea, for tormenting millions of Ukrainians. And all for his wish to restore the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union had fallen. And anyone who attempts to restore any empire, will fall with the same disgrace as his predecessors did.

I am sure that we will deal with these challenges. First of all we need to count on our own strength. Self-organization of the whole Ukrainian nation. Struggle at every place, wherever one may be. And help the frontline.

When it comes to the military leadership, we need radical changes in it. I support the President’s position on this.

I would like to thank once again our soldiers who did not abandon their fellows, who did not surrender, who got out of the encirclement, and who are ready to fight again for our country.

http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/09/0...-waging-a-war/