Ukraine: Daily Highlights

Posted on October 21, 2014 by real7772013

20/10/2014 Ukraine: Daily Highlights – Powerful explosion took place in Donetsk at one of the bases of militants

В Донецке произошел мощнейший взрыв на одной из баз боевиков, обстрелы города и атаки на аэропорт продолжились

20/10/2014 Daily Highlights from “Digests & Analytics Ukraine” News Agency


 Verkhovna Rada adopted a law, wchich secures the rights of internallly displaced persons. Powerful explosion took place in Donetsk at one of the bases of militants. Shelling of the city and  attacks on the airport continued. The head of the investigative commission of the Verkhovna Rada blamed Defence Minister and Chief of General Staff for the tragedy in Ilovaysk.

Ukraine

  • Verkhovna Rada adopted the law “On ensuring the rights and freedoms of displaced persons”, which was developed by the Kharkiv Human Rights Group with the participation of the United Nations, the OSCE, the State Migration Service and representatives of public organizations.
  • Verkhovna Rada deputies did not even include to its agenda a bill authorizing  combat operation participants to vote at their places of service, thus limiting their right to vote.
  • Verkhovna Rada has canceled the previously announced re-registration of medications and adopted a National Program of AIDS prevention.
  • President Poroshenko asked Vice Prime Minister Groysman to start the heating season before the end of the current pre-election week.
  • Official exchange rate of Ukrainian hryvnya remained relatively stable: 12.95 UAH/USD, 16.60 UAH/EUR (-9 cop) and 3.15 UAH/10 RUB (-2 cop). NBU sold 200 mln. USD at auctions. Deputy Head of the National Bank explained that decrease of the speculative demand for foreign currency will allow to eliminate some of the administrative restrictions in the future.

Kyiv

  • As weather conditions have worsened and temperatures dropped, Kyiv authorities started to heat the infrastructure objects – schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and are getting ready to start heating residential buildings.
  • SBU announced the introduction of enhanced security regime in Kiev in connection with the plans of spies to destabilize the situation and disrupt the elections.

War in Ukraine

  • Ukrainian army positions in Luhansk and Donetsk regions are continuing to be subject of powerful shelling and attacks by militants.
    Border guards are capturing subversive groups and evidencing Russian drone air reconnaissance activities.
  • In Donetsk, around noon there was a huge explosion in the warehouses of the plant for the production of explosives, which insurgents used as a base. According to some reports, the explosion was arranged by the guerrillas. Explosion had shattered windows in homes throughout the city and damaged part of the glass exterior of “Donbass-Arena”. Ukrainian Defense Ministry denied reports of the shelling of the city with tactical missile complex “Tochka-U”  (SS-21 Scarab).

War in Ukraine continues, please read more here

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Dmitry Tymchuk: Updates from the “ceasefire zone” on 10/20

Posted on October 21, 2014 by chervonaruta

information_resistance_logo_engDmitry Tymchuk, Head of the Center for Military and Political Research, Coordinator of the Information Resistance group
10.20.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

According to Information Resistance operational data: 

Over the past day, Russian-terrorist forces have committed more than 60 attacks on the positions of Ukrainian troops. During the attacks, they used small arms, mortars, MLRS, cannon artillery, tanks, ZU-23-2.

The insurgents most actively fired at ATO [anti-terrorist operation] forces’ positions near Nikishyne, Trokhizbenka, Donetsk, Avdiivka, Tonenke, Fashchivka.

In the area of ​​Smile terrorists attempted a massive assault on the positions of ATO forces with heavy weaponry. All attacks were repulsed. There are casualties on both sides.

In Luhansk Oblast [region], the rotation of units of Russian armed forces is [almost] complete, as are the measures to restore the combat capability of local terrorist shock groups. A “transfer of equipment” to insurgents from Russian specialists is currently underway nearby the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska.

During the last week, the combat capabilities of the “Ghost Brigade” (under commander A. Mozgovoy) increased seriously due to weapons and equipment transferred to insurgents by the Russians. At the same time, [we observe] a deepening conflict between the command of “Ghost Brigade” and the armed formation “Zarya [Dawn]” (under the commander A. Patrushev, previously [under] I. Plotnitsky).

[We also observe] a growing conflict between different groups of terrorists in the “DNR” [“Donetsk People’s Republic”]. The “DNR” leadership is trying to cope with massive instances of shootings between separate groups of insurgents during the showdowns. At a meeting on the issue, the so-called “DNR Prime Minister” A. Zakharchenko sharply criticized the leaders of individual terrorist groups and promised to take the strictest measures against the initiators of the armed confrontations.

With the assistance of GRU specialists of the General Staff who arrived from Russia, a “division of information-psychological warfare” has been created in the “DNR.” The main task of the division is population outreach on territories controlled by Kyiv, first and foremost [being] in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

# Donetsk: They say the most violent explosion of all time. Oct. 20th. Photo source: Novosti Donbas

# Donetsk: They say the most violent explosion of all time. Oct. 20th. Photo source: Novosti Donbas.

Source: Dmitry Tymchuk FB

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Russian artist cuts off his earlobe on rooftop of psychiatric hospital where Ukrainian pilot Savchenko is being tortured.

Posted on October 19, 2014 by chervonaruta

By TSN.ua
10.18.2014 – 21:04
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

In Russia, an artist cut off his earlobe on the rooftop of the hospital in which pilot Savchenko is being held. 

Artist protests against the use of psychiatry for political purposes.

St. Petersburg actionist artist Petr Pavlensky cut off his earlobe, while sitting on the roof of the Institute of Psychiatry called the Serbsky Center, in Moscow. He was completely naked. Pavlensky called his action “Separation.”

“The knife separates the earlobe from the body. The concrete wall of the psychiatric institute separates smart society from insane patients. Turning the benefits of psychiatry to political purposes – [means] the police apparatus regains the authority to define the line between intelligence and insanity. Arming himself with psychiatric diagnoses, a bureaucrat in a white robe cuts off those pieces from society that prevent him from installing a single monolithic dictatorship for all and compulsory rules for everyone” – the artist said, explaining his action.

After the performance, police seized Pavlensky and delivered him to the Botkin Hospital.

To the Serbsky Institute, on whose roof the performance took place, the Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko was brought for psychiatric examination on October 13th. Russian authorities accused her [without evidence] of killing [2] VGTRK journalists [All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company] near Luhansk [Ukraine].

This is not the first time Pavlensky has shocked the public with his performance. In 2013, he nailed his scrotum to the pavement on the Red Square in Moscow. In addition to this, the artist sewed his mouth shut as a sign of solidarity with the participants of the punk group Pussy Riot.

Recall that her lawyer stated the Russians tortured Nadiya Savchenko in Serbsky Institute. [Editor: Savchenko was captured and kidnapped from Ukraine by Russian authorities and taken to Moscow].

Source: TSN.ua

READ MORE:

The US has called for the release of the pilot Savchenko as one of the conditions for the lifting of sanctions

Letters from Nadiya Savchenko to her sister Vera

A first-hand experience of Nadiya Savchenko’s court hearing

Kidnapped Pilot Nadiya Savchenko’s Letter to Ukrainian President

Captured Ukrainian Officer Nadiya Savchenko: “Your Russian authorities will kill me. All of Ukraine is behind me!” [VIDEO]

Posted in "Voices" in English, #Free Savchenko, English, English News, Eyewitness stories, War in Donbas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Chechens in Aidar Battalion: Wake up Ukraine!

Posted on October 19, 2014 by chervonaruta

By Chechen Center
10.19.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Chechens from the Aidar Battalion – Ukraine, wake up, the enemy is dangerous and cruel! Summon your heroic sons to protect independence!

Source: Chechen Center tweet

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Eyewitness: Surviving in Donetsk

Posted on October 19, 2014 by chervonaruta

By Galina Vogt
10.17.2014
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Market in the Oktyabrsky district of Donetsk after the shelling. Photo: A.Umanets, "Segodnya"

Market in the Oktyabrsky district of Donetsk after the shelling. Photo: A.Umanets, “Segodnya”

From Galina Vogt…

Good afternoon, my name is Sergei (I will not mention my surname, it is very dangerous), and I am living in Donetsk. Or rather, surviving. Why did I not leave? Because my parents did not want to go, and I cannot leave them here. You probably want to know, what it is like for us to live here? To be honest, many even rather like it, especially those who were no-one and, having taken up arms and joined the army of the DNR [Donetsk People’s Republic], have become big people. They are allowed to get away with a lot now and they actively use this.

If you do not pay attention to the buildings broken by artillery shelling, the city is more or less clean, and surprisingly, the municipal services are somehow working. Also many entertainment venues are open: bars, restaurants and night clubs. But at the same time for many there is simply nothing to eat; they join kilometre-long queues for the distribution of free food.

You know, many are under the impression that we are seemingly under fascist occupation by the Nazis, as if what we have seen in films and heard from grandmothers has come into our lives: in the evenings the bandits party in bars; some girls get their lives sorted and even marry in with men from the “militia,” some girls disappear; cars fly around the city full of insurgents looking for partisans and espionage groups, sometimes they find someone and take them away to the cellars.

There is only one clear difference from those days: when the cities were occupied by fascist Nazis, people knew that sooner or later they will be liberated, and now there is no such feeling. There is a feeling that we were simply left at the mercy of these non-humans, so that they would calm down.

But we still wait, there are still many of us like this, but every day there are less.
And the guys at the airport are real Heroes, you cannot even imagine what forces are thrown to knock them out from there.

Photo taken through the damaged windshield of a vehicle in Donetsk's Oktyabrsky district, adjoining the airport,on October 2, 2014. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL

Photo taken through the damaged windshield of a vehicle in Donetsk’s Oktyabrsky district, adjoining the airport,on October 2, 2014. AFP PHOTO / JOHN MACDOUGALL

Source: Inna Scherbininia FB

Posted in "Voices" in English, English, Eyewitness stories, Pictures, South&Eastern Ukraine, War in Donbas | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments