Printable View
Novoazovsk checkpoint attacked, 1 Ukrainian soldier KIA, 8 injured
http://img.24liveblog.com/2014/07/05...6042519616.jpg
http://img.24liveblog.com/2014/07/05...6042485764.jpg
Around 15 terrorists attacked a point of technical surveillance using small arms and mortars in Novoazovsk, having approaced it via sea from Russian territory.
http://vipmedia.globalnews.ca/2014/0...0&h=433&crop=1
Ukrainian government forces maneuver antiaircraft missile launchers Buk as they are transported north-west from Slovyansk, eastern Ukraine
DONETSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian insurgents driven out of their key stronghold in eastern Ukraine have converged on the major industrial city of Donetsk, where their commander said Sunday that they will regroup to renew their fight against the Ukrainian government.
Ukrainian troops on Saturday forced the rebels out of Slovyansk, a city of about 100,000 that had been the center of the fighting. The success there suggests that the government may finally be making gains in the months-long battle against the insurgency.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1434924/pr...on-in-ukraine/
Ukrainians protest against Russian aggression in Rome
https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...05099985_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...c848019f0af444
After fleeing south from Slovyansk, large numbers of rebels appeared Sunday to be regrouping in Donetsk, a city of one million, where any push to contain them will involve dangerous urban warfare. Signaling resilience, insurgents on Sunday seized a building belonging to the state penitentiary service.
In Luhansk, the region’s second-largest city after Donetsk, other rebels attacked a jail, allowing eight prisoners to escape. In each case, officials said the rebels, after suffering losses, appeared to be searching for weapons.
As part of a continuing shake-up of the military, last week Mr. Poroshenko appointed a new defense minister — the country’s fourth this year — and a new chief of staff of the armed forces.
Visiting Slovyansk on Sunday, where he praised troops for expelling rebels and where the authorities were delivering food, water and other aid, the new defense minister, Valeriy Heletey, said that the effort to crush the insurgents would continue.
“We will conduct the antiterrorist operation in its active phase until not a single terrorist will remain on the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” he said.
Mr. Melnyk, the security analyst, cautioned that despite recent improvements, the military’s work was far from done. “It’s still premature to make the assessment that, wow, this is a great success,” he said. “There’s something going on in Donetsk. Those separatists, terrorists — whatever we want to call them — have decided to make one stronghold.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/wo...=fb-share&_r=1
Donetsk becomes a ghost town as fearful residents flee conflict
The upshot for Donetsk, once a city of a million people, is as much psychological as physical. Tens of thousands have fled and hundreds of businesses have closed. A surreal atmosphere pervades the city centre, where ATMs have run out of cash, shops shut early, and it is not uncommon to see men with machine guns posted outside a sushi restaurant or behind the wheel of a city ambulance. People strive to live as normally as possible: on one memorable occasion this month when a firefight endured for hours near the regional police headquarters, locals blithely went about their business in nearby districts as if they couldn't hear the shooting.
"The people are already very scared, and the spiritual condition here is not entirely good," the mayor, Alexander Lukyanchenko, told the Guardian. He said around 30,000 people had left the city since the start of the conflict, and many more had left on a kind of early summer holiday. In addition, 12% of small and medium-sized businesses had closed or significantly scaled back their work since the start of the year, and 8,207 employees had lost their jobs, he said. But such things are hard to count, and the real numbers may be much higher.
Indeed, it's difficult to find a cash machine with any cash, and grocery and convenience stores continue to reduce their hours or close altogether. A string of department stores on Artyoma Street, the city's main drag, have closed, with huge "50% off" sale signs still adorning the windows of three of them. One of those still open, Four Seasons, was advertising discounts of 60%. Its manager, Alexander, said customer flow was half that of last year.
A pair of distributors delivering milk and beer to stores said that although there was no shortage of food, the variety was limited because not all shipments got through to the warehouses. Foreign-made cigarettes are in short supply, and residents have had to resort to less popular local brands. An employee at a pharmaceutical distributor said foreign-made medicines were also hard to find because shipments had been disrupted, most likely by the maze of Ukrainian and rebel checkpoints, he said. In particular, cancer medicines and antibiotics are lacking.
The entire city is a ghost town after dark, due as much to a general sense of apprehension as to a loosely enforced 10pm curfew. Cafes and restaurants typically close around dusk, with custom desultory and staff eager to get home early on less frequent public transport. Nightclubs that were once packed with patrons echo pitifully. It's hard to find a bar in which to watch the World Cup.
much more here
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...crisis-donetsk
July 7
The active phase of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) continues in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. The priority obejctive is to restore peaceful civilan life on liberated territories. Ukrainian soldiers are actively destroying mines, humanitarian aid is being transportedю During the last 24 hours, terrorists opened fire 10 times against checkpoints and positions held by UAF units in the neighborhood of Luhansk, Kerminna, Amvrosiyivka and Dovzhanskiy. All attacks were repelled. There were no military casualties and only one man was injured.
Aid is also being provided to the local population, including medications, potable water and food. On July 6, residents of the towns of Sloviansk, Sviatohirsk and Druzhkivka were give more than 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
In the process of leaving Ukrainian towns and villages under pressure from the advance of ATO forces, saboteurs are mining key social and administrative buildings. Recognizing that this could lead to numberless losses among the general population, the President of Ukraine ordered the command of the various forces to pay particular attention to sweeping for mines and removing them in urban infrastructure in those towns liberated from the militants. In the last 24 hours alone, military sappers have disarmed 700 mines in the city of Sloviansk alone, and removed a few dozen detonators.
Recognizing that their inevitable defeat is looming, the saboteurs continue to destroy infrastructure. On July 6, terrorists blew up a rail bridge between the Horodnia and Kondrashivska stations, which provides access to the spur going to the Shchastynsk Combined Heating and Power Plant. In Donetsk Oblast, militants mined a dam in Zuhres and bridges on the approach to the town. In this manner, the mercenaries are doing everything they can to complicate the situation in the Donbas and to increase social tension among locals.
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/07/07/ukrainian-national-security-and-defense-council-report-july-7/
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...39b3a41da5defb
Ukrainian military servicemen were giving out humanitarian aid - including sausage - to the locals in Slovyansk.
Army prepares to liberate Donetsk and Luhansk as military offensive gathers pace
The Ukrainian army is preparing to dislodge Kremlin-backed separatists from Donetsk and Luhansk, the provincial capitals of two oblasts where 15 percent of Ukraine's population lives. The Interior Ministry's announcement that Kyiv will reassert its authority comes after the recapture by government forces of four cities across the region in recent days.
At a briefing on July 7, advisor to Ukraine’s interior minister Anton Gerashchenko outlined further plans for the government’s anti-terrorist operation and said normal life was returning to liberated Sloviansk, with all necessary services in the city set to resume in due course.
“Whoever remembers Grozny after its liberation by the Russian army, it was nothing more than a desert. Sloviansk, as you can see, is complete and has not been bombed. The people met our soldiers with open arms, crying from happiness,” a visibly confident Gerashchenko said, gesturing to a video showing an aerial view of the city following its recapture.According to Gerashchenko, Sloviansk’s railway station and post office will begin operating within 24 hours while supermarkets were being stocked up and food brought in for local inhabitants. Work is also being done to reconnect the water system as soon as possible, he added.
Gerashchenko said the regional capitals of Donetsk and Luhansk had been cordoned off and all those wanting to leave the cities were being checked for weapons. Peaceful citizens not carrying arms were being allowed to exit freely, he added.
The army has reclaimed control of several border crossings, Gerashchenko added, with only a few left to take back.
“The border is under fire-cover, meaning if any kind of military equipment enters from the Russian side our scouts will alert us and we will destroy it from the air or using artillery fire. I think in the next few days this problem will be solved,” he said.
----------
Meanwhile, rebel forces continue to attack government positions. On July 7 separatists blew up three bridges overlooking roads leading into Donetsk, in an apparent attempt to obstruct the army's access to the regional capital.
On the same day nine Ukrainian border guards were killed and 112 injured after a rebel attack, the deputy head of the State Border Service said at a press conference in Kyiv. One person has reportedly been flown to Israel for specialist treatment.
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukra...ce-354990.html
Statue of Lenin taken down in Kherson.
http://tvi.ua/image/cache/data/news/...65-437x277.jpg
https://fbexternal-a.akamaihd.net/sa...1961.jpg&cfs=1
KIEV, (Reuters) - Ukraine's government signalled its intention to press on with its campaign against pro-Russian rebels on Tuesday and the militants, regrouping after losing their stronghold, said they were preparing to fight back.
President Petro Poroshenko, drawing confidence from the fall of the rebel bastion of Slaviansk at the weekend, named a new chief of military operations in the east following his appointment of an aggressive new defence minister who ruled out negotiations until the separatists lay down their arms.
Sporadic shooting was heard from various parts of Donetsk overnight though no specific incidents were reported. But in Luhansk, a city on the border with Russia where rebels also control key buildings, two people in a minibus were killed by a shell that exploded nearby, a municipal official said.
Poroshenko, installed in office just a month ago, named Vasyl Grytsak to head the "anti-terrorist centre", making him operational chief in the drive to crush the rebels.
The move continued his shake-up of the military and security leadership in which he has appointed a hardline defence minister to bring fresh vigour to the fight against the insurgency.
(Poroshenko said) "Now negotiations can be possible only after the fighters have definitively surrendered their arms."
http://nr.news-republic.com/Web/Arti...d=25639071&m=m
JULY 8, 2014
Today the Armed Forces of Ukraine resumed traffic movement to the settlement Kryva Luka in Donetsk Oblast. Military engineers quickly built a new bridge instead the one destroyed by terrorists. Now it is possible to start delivering food, medicine, potable water, and other things needed for the residents of the settlement, spokesman of the RNBO Information and Analytical Center Andriy Lysenko announced at the evening daily briefing.
Military engineers demined and destroyed a MON-100 mine, 2 powerful bombs and their fuses on the Krasniy Liman-Sloviansk highway. However, a great deal of work still remains for the engineers. They receive information on mines, grenades, and shells which were abandoned after fighting by terrorists almost around-the-clock. The next step is to clear mines on the road from Sloviansk to Kramatorsk where undetonated mines lay right on the road and roadside.
Bandits continue to terrorize the local population. In Maryintsi they kidnapped and took to an unknown destination the city mayor of Kurakhivsk. In Donetsk the terrorists have committed robbery and seized eight vehicles of the bank Privatbank.
In the Novoazovsk county, southern Donetsk Oblast, National Guard troops took control of all of Azov coast. Currently, guards and soldiers of the Azov territorial defense battalion search for the attackers that fired at the border guards on duty in the Obryv observation point in Donetsk Oblast
http://euromaidanpress.com/2014/07/0...t-july-8-1700/
http://img.24liveblog.com/2014/07/09...9950177561.jpg
Another division of the Donbas battalion has arrived in Donetsk Oblast. We are confident that with such fighters the East of Ukraine will step by step be liberated from terrorists and peace and safety will be restored in all regions and cities. Donbas is Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine!
------
In Chernihiv Oblast, at the Armed Forces of Ukraine Training Center, a training camp for officers, graduates of higher military educational institutions was completed. Young officers worked out actions necessary to protect critical facilities, repel attacks of subversive groups, actions to be taken in case of mortar and artillery fire, as well as actions needed to destroy illegal armed groups.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...02100415_o.jpg
https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...37596351_o.jpg
https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/...95266825_o.jpg
Poroshenko in Sloviansk - people so happy it's been liberated.
Minister Fast Leads Trade and Development Mission to Ukraine
Reinforcing Canada’s commitment to Ukraine’s goals of freedom, democracy, peace and prosperity, through trade, investment and growth
July 9, 2014 - Kyiv, Ukraine - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, announced that he is leading a trade and development mission to Ukraine to build on strong people-to-people ties, further strengthen economic cooperation and create opportunities for Canada-Ukraine partnerships.
Minister Fast is in Kyiv from July 9 to 12, joined by members of Parliament James Bezan, Ted Opitz and Mark Warawa, along with nine Canadian-Ukrainian community and business representatives who share the goal of greater trade and improved social and economic conditions in Ukraine.
During his mission, Minister Fast and Canada’s delegation is advancing Canada as a strategic and supportive partner for Ukraine in energy, mining, education, aerospace, agriculture and agri-food.
Minister Fast is meeting with his counterpart, Pavlo Sheremeta, who recently announced the creation of an economic advisory council headed by Oleh Havrylyshyn of the Munk Centre at the University of Toronto and Basil Kalymon of the Richard Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.
Meetings are also taking place with Yury Prodan, Minister of Energy and Coal; Ihor Shvaika, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food; and Serhiy Kvit, Minister of Education and Science.
Canada has been steadfast in its support for the new Ukrainian government and in its opposition to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Ukraine has been identified as a priority country under Canada’s recently released Global Markets Action Plan as well as a development country of focus under Canada’s Aid Effectiveness Agenda.
http://www.international.gc.ca/media....aspx?lang=eng
from Minister Fast:
Today, while on a trade and development mission in Ukraine, I took a moment to visit the Holodomor Memorial Museum. While there, I placed the traditional remembrance offering of a pot of grain with a candle in memory of the Ukrainian men, women and children who died in the catastrophic famine of 1932-33.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...87077532_n.jpg