Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

#Euromaidan hero Yaroslav Seleznev with his new bionic hand. #HeroyamSlava!



Yaroslav was injured during the mass protests in Kyiv on 19 February 2014, when a stun grenade thrown by Berkut exploded on his chest tearing off his left hand and injuring his other hand, face, chest and stomach.

Diana Seleznova, Yaroslav's sister:
"Finally my brother Yaroslav Seleznev has an artificial arm B - bionic. I like to call it "the arm of Terminator" because of sounds it makes. This arm can perform a lot of movements and it looks awesome)).

[MortgageQueen]

On a slightly happier note. . .

Canadian surgeons reconstruct people wounded in Ukraine's revolution


Medical team on mission to help those injured in violent conflict






Canadian doctors in Ukraine 10:37

Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn hauls two large black cases onto a luggage cart at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. He unzips one of them to reveal an assortment of medical devices and surgeon's tools.
"Saws, drills, power equipment, surgical foam, titanium mesh," he says. "All the devices we need to put facial bones and fractured hands back together again."
A team of 25 Canadian surgeons, nurses and doctors volunteered for a 10-day mission to Ukraine to help mend the wounded from nearly a year of revolution and war. (Gary Hanney/Operation Rainbow)

​Antonyshyn, a plastic surgeon and head of the craniofacial program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and a team of 24 other surgeons, nurses and doctors volunteered for a 10-day mission this month to Ukraine. There, they helped mend the wounded from nearly a year of revolution and violent conflict.
Casualties, one as young as 16, were still wearing the scars of the fight to overthrow former president Viktor Yanukovich and then the war with pro-Russian separatists in the east.
"Can't wait," says Antonyshyn, the son of Ukranian immigrants to Canada.
The mission, which cost about $150,000, was financed by the Canada Ukraine Foundation, working with Operation Rainbow, a medical humanitarian group.

Dolly Khanna has no ties to Ukraine. She's a pre-op nurse from Vancouver and has volunteered before on humanitarian missions. But she's never been close to war. At Vancouver's airport, she struggled to keep her emotions in check.

'If we can we should help, there are teenage boys who have limbs blown off, it's not fair'- Dolly Khanna

"If we can, we should help," she says, barely holding back tears.
"I have teenagers here getting excited about prom and their pictures and there, there are teenage boys who have limbs blown off. It's not fair."
The Ukrainian patients have already had operations to keep them alive. Now they need another level of surgery to redress a deformity or improve their hand and arm function.
A year of revolution and conflict in Ukraine has overwhelmed medical resources. Kyiv's Military Hospital is one of the best facilities, strained with a revolving door of trauma cases that need high skilled reconstructive surgery.
'This boy is one of the main things that made me personally want to come to Ukraine,' says Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn of his desire to help Nazar Derzhylo. (Gary Hanney/Operation Rainbow)

​Nazar Derzhylo was 16 when he snuck out of his parents' house to go to Kyiv's Independence Square to help with the student revolution. He was assisting in a makeshift medical centre when a friend opened what he thought was medical supplies. It was explosives. Nazar was blown unconsious.
Nazar's father Ivan says it was the most terrible night of his life.

'I got a call from police. They said: "Your son's a terrorist, he's lost his hands and arms, he's not going to survive." '- Ivan Derzhyulo

"I got a call from police. They said: 'Your son's a terrorist, he's lost his hands and arms, he's not going to survive.' "
He did survive, and he didn't lose his limbs. He did lose an eye.
The Canadian team reconstructed his eye socket to prepare it for a prosthetic eye. Then they worked on his eyelid to better match his other eye and to give a teenager a better appearance.
"This boy is one of the main things that made me personally want to come to Ukraine," says Antonyshyn.
For every Canadian medical professional, there was a Ukranian counterpart sharing knowledge and expertise.
With the war in eastern Ukraine ongoing, doctors expect they'll need more skills like these.
The team assessed 60 cases and performed 37 operations in 10 days. The operating rooms bristled with a swarm of doctors. Nurses and staff sometimes moved between one patient and another in the same room.
The results are impressive: seven skull reconstructions, repairing jaws, lips, noses and eyelids, along with restoring hand and arm functions.
Nazar Derzhylo lost an eye in an explosion after he went to Independence Square in Kyiv to help with the student revolution. (Valeriy Fylypyshyn)

Dr. Tara Stewart, a plastic surgeon from Toronto, performed a midface reconstruction on 24-year-old Roman Betash, who was shot in the face by a sniper.
"He had a lot of scars and shrapnel still in his face," she says. "He basically fractured his entire midface."
Betash touched her at a level more deeply than a regular patient-physician relationship.
"It was my first case, very complicated, but I got to see the results immediately. The next day when I saw him, he gave me a big hug, he was so thankful. He said: 'Thank you, thank you so much, you guys really helped me.'

'I'm very thankful we live in such a great country, where we're not subjected to what they had to go through.'- Dr. Tara Stewart

"I'm very thankful we live in such a great country, where we're not subjected to what they had to go through."
For the medical team, the last day in Kyiv was moving.
They made a final check on their patients in recovery, leaving follow-up instructions.
The patients then gave them a large Ukraine flag they had signed and said their goodbyes.
Finally the team shed their surgical gowns and gloves and hopped aboard a bus for a tour of Kyiv's now-famous revolutionary landmarks, where many of their patients were wounded.
Operating nurse Stephen Makuch of Victoria stopped in Independence Square to reflect on the past 10 days.
"When we did our last case, we cleaned up our supplies, we came back to the theatres, I walked down the hall it was dark and quiet," he says, his voice catching. "It was mission accomplished, I guess. We had done our bit."
The team that left Canada to help mend a country had themselves been transformed. They came home with a sense this is not the end but a beginning of more Canada-Ukraine missions.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadian-surg...847053?cmp=rss

[Natalka]

Thanks, MQ, I hadn't seen that report. There are other posts about the Canadians and their trip on prior pages on this thread.
The team did amazing work!

[Natalka]

Russian Air Force Sends 14 Advanced Su-27 And Su-30 Warplanes
To Belbek Air Base In Crimea

Russia has moved more than a dozen advanced warplanes to Belbek, an air base on the outskirts of Crimea’s capital, Sevastopol, adding significant airpower in the Black Sea peninsula it took over earlier this year.

The move could be seen as further encircling of Ukraine by Russia with advanced armaments. It comes days after Russia sent its most advanced interceptor, the Mikoyan MiG-31, to an air base on its territory very close to Ukraine, from where the planes can easily control the airspace over east Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists are fighting a war with the government’s army.

Belbek was seized in March by Russian forces in a bloodless takeover after a brief siege. Before Russia annexed Crimea, the base housed a unit of MiG-29 fighters of the Ukrainian air force. According to one source, there may have been as many as 45 MiG-29s at Belbek, making it a sizable chunk of the Ukrainians’ air capabilities.

At least some of the Ukrainian MiGs based at Belbek were returned by Russia in pieces by land, according to several sources.

http://www.ibtimes.com/russian-air-f..._plusone_share

[Natalka]

Ukraine “forming new military ‘troika’ with Lithuania and Poland”

Having reluctantly concluded that it will not get the assistance it needs from NATO as a whole, the Ukrainian government is seeking to obtain it by developing military ties with Lithuania and Poland, a move both Vilnius and Warsaw appear receptive to, according to “Nezavisimaya gazeta.”


In an article in today’s issue, Tatyana Ivzhenko, the paper’s Kyiv correspondent, says that was one of the results of the just-completed meeting of Dalia Grybauskaite with her Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko and reflects ongoing discussions with Poland about military supplies as well.

The Ukrainian government is trying to meet Western demands for economic reform and fighting corruption, but it has little hope that the Western alliance will provide it with the tools it needs to combat Russian aggression in the east. Consequently, it must rely on itself and on those of its neighbors who share its concerns about Russian intentions.

“Ukraine, considering that the path to NATO will be very long is already seeking to create intermediate unions which will allow it to increase its defense capacity,” Zguryets says. “It is logical that Lithuania and Poland will become its allies” because “like Ukraine, they see Russia as a threat to their security.”

(Sergey Zgurets is a military affairs expert at the Kyiv Center for Research on the Military, Convergence and Disarmament)

http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/11/2...ia-and-poland/

[Natalka]

Canada's donation of non-lethal equipment to Ukraine

(The term non-lethal is used by all countries, means no weapons)

OTTAWA - Today, the Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C, M.P. for Niagara Falls and Minister of National Defence, announced that in response to a request from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Canada will provide further non-lethal military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The donated military gear will include equipment such as tactical communications systems, explosive ordinance disposal equipment, tactical medical kits and night vision goggles. National Defence will deliver winterized kits to expand the capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• The donation from National Defence, deemed surplus by the Canadian Armed Forces, includes approximately 30 000 coats, 30 000 pairs of pants, 70 000 pairs of Gore-Tex boots and 4 500 pairs of gloves.

• The first shipment will be transported via Royal Canadian Air Force CC177 Globemaster and is scheduled to arrive by the end of November. The remainder of the equipment will be transported by a separate sealift.

• This donation is in addition to the $5 million in non-lethal military equipment the Government of Canada has previously donated to the country and is expected to enhance capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• The CAF’s response in support of this request promotes security in Central and Eastern Europe, and demonstrates Canada's steadfast commitment to our allies in the region.

“Our Government is committed to supporting the Ukrainian people as they fight for democracy and the sovereignty of their country in the face of the Putin regime's military aggression. These contributions are a clear demonstration of our support for the people of Ukraine, and their pursuit of a secure and stable future.”

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do;...e=1&nid=909109

[Natalka]

On the first day of work, the newly-elected Verkhovna Rada formed the majority, elected speaker Volodymyr Hroysman and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk. President Poroshenko in centre.


Arseniy Yatsenyuk:

He stressed that 2014 was "very difficult" and "2015 won’t be less difficult". "And this also should be honestly told to the people. I rely solely on the support of people we have had during the year. On the efficiency of the new Government, the responsibility of the new Parliament, the interaction with the President," he said.

“We have no other choice than to move forward. By overcoming all the difficulties, overcoming all the obstacles, in a constant struggle. It is the battle both against an external aggressor, that is Russia, and an internal aggressor, that is corruption, irresponsibility, inefficiency. We will go further, keeping this in mind. And we will go through hardships to the stars - those in the European colours," promised Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

[Natalka]

"Night of remembrance, November 29-30": Today, Ukraine will commemorate the night when Yanukovych's riot police turned peaceful protests on Maidan bloody by beating students that were gathered in on Kyiv's central square under the pretext of clearing away protests to erect a Christmas tree and skating rink.

On the night of November 30, 2013 fighters Kiev riot police "Berkut" dispersed students who gathered on the Maidan, to protest against not signed the EU Association former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. This has caused mass protests that led to the change of power in Ukraine.

[Natalka]

[Natalka]

Volunteers from Lviv rebuild houses destroyed by terrorists near #Sloviansk under snow

[Natalka]

Russian airlines banned from flying in E Ukraine

Ukrainian officials have banned Russian airlines from flying in the eastern parts of the country which have been controlled by pro-Russian forces in the past few months.

"Flights are banned for Russian companies to [the eastern Ukrainian cities of] Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk for safety reasons," Denis Antoniuk, the head of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine, said on Saturday.

Antoniuk added that Ukrainian airline Dniproavia has also been affected by the open-ended ban.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11...lines-flights/

[Natalka]

#Lithuania|ns in Vilnius held ceremony 2 rename square in front of #Russiaembassy by name of #Euromaidan.





http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/11/3...of-euromaidan/


#Euromaidan Paris, le 30 novembre 2014

[Natalka]

Large, unauthorized convoy enters east Ukraine from Russia



KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Sunday that a convoy of 106 vehicles had entered its eastern territory from Russia without Kiev's permission and accused Moscow of once again using humanitarian aid shipments to send weapons and ammunition to separatist rebels.

"The lion's share of humanitarian supplies find their way to the rebels partly in the form of food, but mostly it is ammunition, equipment and other things for combat operations," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.

https://news.yahoo.com/large-unautho...134642916.html

[Natalka]

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, his wife and public activists prayed in St. Michael Cathedral on the "Night of Memory" - action dedicated to the anniversary of crackdown and severe beating of students on Maidan.

"I couldn't but come to St. Michael's Cathedral with my wife this morning. A year ago, when special units were beating and killing peaceful students on Maidan, this Temple became the first sanctuary for the injured. Consequently, it became one of the main centers and a symbol of the Revolution of Dignity. These events will remain in my heart forever," the President said after the prayer.

Famous Ukrainians from all over the world, clergy, foreign diplomats, cultural figures, journalists, civil activists and students who had been witnesses of that dreadful night have been delivering speeches on the stage the whole night. The action ended in the morning with the common prayer in St. Michael's Cathedral.

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/31669.html

[Natalka]

New battle rages at Donetsk airport


Ukraine says its troops are still holding Donetsk airport despite an intensive assault by pro-Russian rebels "backed by Russian special forces".
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said "heavy fighting" was raging at the airport's old terminal.

Ukrainian reports say the separatists began a fresh assault on Saturday. The airport, just outside the city, has been battered by shelling for months.

Mr Lysenko said the Ukrainian troops had inflicted "serious losses" on the rebels and were still controlling both the old and new terminals. They had come under heavy artillery, mortar and rocket fire, he said.
The rebels had been mounting attacks for three days running with the help of Russian special forces, officials said citing information from the field.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30275259