Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

Just a sample FB posting on another site - wondering why the bus attack doesn't hit the international news - Actually the death toll is 12 (one woman died in the hospital), and 17 are wounded.

"It is a real tragedy for Ukraine today. I don't understand how THIS is not terrorism; how THIS is not important enough for world news agencies... We should stop terrorism by any means!"

"12 people died due to terrorist attack in France.
12 people died due to terrorist attack in Ukraine, today.
Men and women.
I want to hear world's outcry.
I want to know that we are all equal under God.
I want to hear ‪#‎JeSuisVolnovakha‬"

"12 people were killed by terrorists in ‪#‎Volnovakha‬ with the help of BM-21 Grad (a truck with a multiple rocket launcher). Stand shoulder by shoulder with ‪#‎Ukrainians‬ who have been suffering from the pro-russian terrorism for months like Ukrainians stood with the French after the slaughter of the Charlie Hebdo journalists.
‪#‎JeSuisVolnovakha"

[Natalka]

Militants resume attack on Donetsk airport


Russian-backed militants launched a fresh assault on Donetsk airport on Friday, with some Ukrainian soldiers reported to have been wounded in the fighting



Russian-backed terrorists do not even hide their methods to use volume explosions to kill defenders of Donetsk airport. Terrorists would like level to the ground all buildings of airport and bury under the debris all defenders of airport. Terrorists use for this purpose UR-77 mine clearing vehicle "Meteorit" or in army slang "Dragon"

[gryphon]

Putin wants the soviet empire back....it wasn't a union of countries, it was a Russian empire under a different name. Make no mistake of that

[Natalka]

Yup, that's all Putin wants - a reinstatement of its former 'glory' for his legacy.

[gryphon]

And he will go to dangerous lengths to do it. He is a scary man

[Natalka]

Thousands of Ukrainians at Kyiv peace rally remember
Volnovakha bus rocket attack victims


Ukrainians march through capital in solidarity with the 13 killed during attack on Ukrainian checkpoint. The killings happened on Jan. 13, when Kremlin-backed separatists fired a Grad missile launcher that hit a passenger bus near a Ukrainian-controlled checkpoint close to Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast. Besides the 13 people killed, another 16 were wounded.












Kyiv residents on Sunday gathered in the capital's Independence Square to pray for peace and the victims of a conflict raging in the country's east.


Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, President Petro Poroshenko and First Lady Maryna Poroshenko hold posters "Je suis Volnovakha" (I am Volnovakha) during a prayer service on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.





In all, up to 20,000 people gathered for the rally in Kyiv.
Hundreds also joined peace marches in the Ukrainian cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Volnovakha, Lviv and Odesa. Internationally, Ukrainian communities in Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, London and other cities also held rallies.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and First Lady Maryna Poroshenko also took part in a rally that started at noon.
“Thousands of people from Zakarpattya to Luhansk, Donetsk oblasts gather on Independence Square today to pray for the innocent victims,” Poroshenko said in his address. “Our enemy wants us to get used to the horrible statistics, but that will never happen. We remember every Ukrainian hero who gave his life for territory integrity and independence.”







http://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/p...ly-377718.html

[Natalka]

[Natalka]

Rally in London today










In Dublin



In Tokyo, Japan today: An act of solidarity and social cohesion: "I am Volnovakha. I am Ukraine"

[Natalka]

Ukraine Troops Mount 'Mass Operation' to Retake Donetsk Airport From Separatists



Ukrainian troops launched a "mass operation" overnight retaking almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine lost to separatists in recent weeks, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Sunday. The army's offensive at the airport brought the fighting close to the city of Donetsk itself, center of a pro-Russian separatist rebellion. Residents reported intensified outgoing shelling including from residential areas in central parts of the separatist-held city.


"The decision was taken for a mass operation ... We succeeded in almost completely cleaning the territory of the airport, which belongs to the territory of Ukrainian forces as marked by military separation lines," Lysenko said in a televised briefing.



Lysenko said the operation had returned the battle lines near the airport to the previous status quo and that the Ukrainian army had thus not violated the Minsk 12-point peace plan agreed with Russia and separatist leaders last September. Four Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 32 injured in the past 24 hours, he said. With attempts to restart peace talks stalled, pro-Russian rebels have stepped up attacks in the past week, seizing from government troops parts of the airport, which is of strategic value to both sides.

[Natalka]

Yesterday in Mariupol



Zhdanov

[Natalka]

more from Kyiv

[Natalka]

Druzhkivka (Donetsk Oblast) stands for Ukraine

[Natalka]

Borys Gudziak, Eparchial Bishop of France, Benelux and Switzerland and seminarists carolling in the Paris metro

[Natalka]

Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:29am EST

Separatists renew attack on airport

Pro-Russian separatists renewed attacks on Ukrainian forces at an airport complex in the east on Monday after Kiev launched a mass operation to reclaim lost ground there that Russia called a "strategic mistake".
Ukrainian officials said three soldiers had been killed and 66 wounded over the past 24 hours, during which they said they had returned battle lines at the airport to the status quo under a much violated international peace plan.

---

added --

Terrorists blew up the overlapping in the second floor in the new terminal of Donetsk airport. Fragments fell on the Ukrainian military. Many Ukrainian defenders of airport were wounded – Yuriy Biryukov, Advisor of President of Ukraine - UNIAN - January 19, 17:37 Kyiv time

As Ukrainian news channels reports, Donetsk airport has almost been turned into the pile of ruins.

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Poroshenko: Ukrainian military opened fire in Donetsk airport once after [Russians and Russian backed] terrorists banned evacuation of wounded, killed - Interfax - January 19, 2014

Ukrainian troops had to open fire at Donetsk airport because the attacks by terrorists had sharply increased and terrorists had banned the evacuation of Ukrainian military and the dead from the airport, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.


"The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry yesterday issued a statement on my orders saying that we are ready to sign a ceasefire agreement immediately on condition of full observance of the Mink agreements," Poroshenko said

[Natalka]

Russian battalion task forces cross Ukrainian border


19.01.2015 | 16:25



"According to the latest information of the National Security and Defense Council, today two battalion task forces of the Russian Federation were spotted crossing the Ukrainian Russian border," a statement issued by the center reads.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the situation in the Donbas conflict zone remains difficult, according to Ukrainian officials.
Over the last day, Russian-backed militants have launched attacks using artillery and mortars on the settlements of Bohdanivka, Vuhlehirsk, Krasnohorivka, Kryakivka, Leninske, Mykolaivka, Novotoshkivka, Novgorod, Novotroitske, Oleksandrivske Orlovo-Ivanivka, Petrovske, Slovianoserbsk, Smile, Starohnativka, Tonenke, and Frunze. The most intense attacks were on Stanytsia Luhanska, Krymske and Troitske.

Read more on UNIAN: http://www.unian.info/society/103356...an-border.html