Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

President @Poroshenko honored memory of warriors fallen during #WWII

[Natalka]

Kyiv "We remember 1939-1945 we prevail" slogan assembled from cardboard boxes along Khreshatyk

[Natalka]

[Natalka]

500 #Ukrainian servicemen are being sworn in at the #WWII memorial complex

[Natalka]

#Dnipropetrovsk celebrates #Vday

[Natalka]

Parishioners of a village church in the Kherson Oblast voted to transfer their parish to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate after their former Moscow Patriarchate priest refused to pray for Ukrainian soldiers defending their country in the Donbas. Reports indicate that similar transfers that have been taking place in western Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war are now occuring in southern Ukraine.

The village church is more than 100 years old, but it has begun to celebrate liturgy in Ukrainian only recently, when local parishioners decided to transfer their church from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Kyiv one.
The villagers say they were offended by their former priest’s bigotry and reached their decision at a community meeting after the priest refused to pray for fellow countrymen who are protecting their country in the ATO zone.

Father Bohdan, the new priest, reports that representatives of the Moscow patriarchate tried to prevent the transfer of the church and organized various provocations, including visits by priests from Moscow, who tried to frighten the villagers with “medieval curses.”



http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/0...-patriarchate/

[Natalka]

Lviv student freed after being held illegally in Russia



Lviv student Yury Yatsenko was welcomed home in his native Lviv on Friday, May 8, a year after being detained in Russia, tortured and then convicted on fabricated charges.

As reported, Yury Yatsenko and his friend Bohdan Yarychevsky were stopped by police in the Kursk oblast on May 5, 2014. It should have been a simple check of the young men’s documents, however the police were clearly heavily under the influence of the propaganda exuding from State-controlled Russian television. When they discovered that the men were not only from Ukraine, incriminating as that was, but from Lviv, they rang the FSB who sent counter-intelligence officers.
The two Ukrainians were told quite directly that either they “cooperate” or face prosecution. The ‘cooperation’ demanded was public statements aimed at discrediting Ukraine.

more info on their bizarre ordeal here

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1431124532

[Natalka]

Ukrainian children receive awards for their fallen hero fathers

A memorial was opened in Kirovohrad May 8 to commemorate the residents of the city who lost their lives defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion. The memorial carries names of 117 heroes.

During the memorial’s opening, an award ceremony was held, with families receiving military distinction awards in place of their fallen fathers, husbands and sons.







A five-year Ukrainian girl received a bravery medal in place of her border guard father killed in action defending Ukraine from Russian invasion. 8 May, 2015, Kirovohrad, Ukraine.

http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/1...-hero-fathers/

[Natalka]

(this post was supposed to come AFTER the following one, SC switched them!)


#Russian activists rally in #Moscow on Nadia #Savchenko's BDay

Some protestors were detained, at least one journalist
- latest:
Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 39m 39 minutes ago 3 journalists were detained & 1 was beaten by #Moscow police during #FreeSavchenko rally. #Russian freedom of speech as it is

[Natalka]

Today is the 34th birthday of Nadiya Savchenko, still in prison in Russia.



Today is #FreeSavchenko day of global support, with a twitter storm, and people posting pics from all around the world.

Today's celebration of Nadia's birthday near the Russian Embassy in Kyiv.
Messages projected at the top




"Happy Birthday, Nadiya"

[Natalka]

Pisky village, Donetsk Oblast. Life goes on...

[Natalka]

13.05.2015

Russian-backed militants in the Donbas attacked Ukrainian army positions in the village of Pisky, using almost all types of weapons they have, Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorist Operation press center reported on Facebook page on Wednesday.

They fired banned artillery, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, and other weapons available to them," the report says.

In addition, the militants fired large-caliber mortars near the village of Shyrokyne.
According to the report, in the direction of Artemivsk the militants fired 152mm artillery on the village of Druzhba. They also fired 120 mm mortars and tank weapons on the villages of Leninske and Kirove.
From midnight till morning, the militants continuously shelled the village of Stanytsia Luhanska. A sniper was working near the village of Shastya.
"In addition, the militants fired anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns twice on the village of Opytne," the report reads.
"During this period, the Ukrainian army recorded reconnaissance overflights by enemy drones in the villages of Shastya, Orlivske, Talakivka, Chermalyk and others," the ATO headquarters said.



http://www.unian.info/war/1077312-at...-luhanska.html

[Natalka]

Militants massing 700 tanks for offensive in Donbas

Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorist Operation headquarters says Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukraine have massed a force of 700 militant Russian tanks and 43,000 soldiers, of whom 9,000 are Russian servicemen, Ukraine’s TSN news broadcaster reported on Tuesday.

Intelligence suggests that the militants have restocked their weapon and ammunition supplies, and they are targeting the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces in order to improve their skills for the active phase of hostilities.
The most threatening force of the enemy is its tank brigades, the headquarters said. The number of armored vehicles of the Russian-backed militants is already almost 700 units, it said.
"On the territory of Luhansk region and Luhansk the militants have created three powerful rear maintenance bases, where they store their armored vehicles. There is a lot of military equipment in Donetsk - the militants hide it in residential areas, industrial bases, and warehouses," National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.



http://www.unian.info/war/1077240-at...in-donbas.html

[Natalka]

Euromaidan PR @Euro maidanPR · 6h 6 hours ago

Serviceman of Karpatska Sich unit was heavily injured in #Pisky as mine exploded nearby, taken to Artemivsk hospital

Near a soldier exploded a mine, he got extremely heavy fragmentation of arms and legs.

Now doctors are fighting for his life Artemìvs′koï Central District Hospital. Considered transporting a soldier in Kharkov or Dnepropetrovsk. However, this option appears if the doctors will be able to stabilize the status of General.

[Natalka]

Second mission of Canadian surgeons

Kyiv, May 12, 2015. Canadian physicians are about to do five craniofacial surgeries within the next week as part of the second medical mission to Ukraine, said Krystina Waler, Director of Humanitarian Initiatives at the Canada Ukraine Foundation, during the press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. Ms. Waler told that a group of 20 professional doctors, anesthesiologists and nurses from Canada would treat Euromaidan protesters and soldiers wounded in the course of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine. “Canadian doctors will focus on the post-injury reconstruction of facial, skull and limb injuries during their second mission,” Ms. Waler said. The overall grant for medical operations provided by the Board of Canada Ukraine Foundation constitutes almost $250,000.

“For the last six months we were looking for the most complicated cases of injuries that the Ukrainians have suffered in the course of revolutionary events of 2013-2014 as well as in the ATO zone,” said Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn, Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Toronto. Every facial reconstruction surgery takes up to 9 hours, therefore, the number of surgeries have decreased in comparison with last year’s mission; however, Canadian physicians are going to deal with much more complicated injuries

http://uacrisis.org/kanadski-hirurgi/