181 people killed, 293 injured in Kiev military op in eastern Ukraine
Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine has left 181 people killed, including 59 of ruling regime troops, and 293 injured, according to the country’s Prosecutor General.
Oleg Makhnitsky announced the recent figures at a press conference. However, it was not clear whether the death toll included casualties among self-defense forces.
The Prosecutor General has also added that over 220 people have been abducted, including 12 foreign citizens, since the uprising started in Lugansk and Donetsk Regions.
"Six hundred and seventy-five criminal enterprises connected with subversive activities, terrorist acts, and violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine are currently being investigated,”Makhnitsky told the media.
Kiev has been conducting its “anti-terrorist operation” in eastern Ukraine since April, following a mass uprising against the coup-appointed government, demanding broader independence from the capital.
Following the May 11 referendums, in which the Lugansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic voted for the two regions’ independence and proclaimed themselves sovereign states, the military operation by Kiev troops has intensified.
The day after the presidential elections on May 25, the likely winner, billionaire Petro Poroshenko, announced that the military operation in the southeast of the country would continue, demanding“it must be more effective, and military units must be better equipped.”
Just a few hours after the early results of the elections were announced, Ukrainian troops stepped up its military activity and deployed fighter jets and helicopters at Donetsk International Airport in an attempt to win it back from self-defense forces.
More than 50 civilians and as many self-defense troops were killed in the subsequent clashes, local militia estimated.
On Wednesday, May 28, Kiev troops targeted civilian quarters of Slavyansk, for the first time shelling one of the city’s schools and a kindergarten.
All the pupils and teachers were quickly evacuated from the school as the shell hit the roof and exploded right above the hall where children played.
The shelling also damaged a block of flats and a dormitory in the city’s teachers’ college, shattering glass in the windows of the college.
Shortly afterwards, the Ukrainian military shelled a children’s hospital, also in Slavyansk.
This past weekend, over a thousand people rallied in Donetsk demanding that children be protected from Kiev’s assault.
The Kiev forces quickly blamed the violence on self-defense units, which they refer to as“terrorists.”
In a recent move, Kiev deployed fighter jets to the city of Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, where eight people died after an explosion in a regional administration building on June 2. Wounded people were trapped inside the administration HQs, which caught on fire. Locals outside the building were urged to flee the area as unexploded shells were found in the park nearby.
“Ukraine’s Air Force struck Lugansk downtown at 4pm. Military aircraft made a targeted strike, deploying cluster bombs. The administration building is partially destroyed,” the government of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) said.
While Kiev has denied launching the fatal attack and blamed on the explosion on “terrorists” trying to launch an anti-aircraft missile, the leader of the ruling Party of Regions, Aleksandr Efremov, has called it “unprecedentedly” cruel crime and demanded it be investigated in The Hague court.
Itar Tass
Fighter jet, combat helicopter downed as battles still rage in Ukraine’s Sloviansk
June 03, 15:50 UTC+4
Ukraine's parliament-appointed acting prosecutor general said 181 people were dead and 293 wounded since fighting broke out in the country's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions
Ukraine's parliament-appointed acting prosecutor general said 181 people were dead and 293 wounded since fighting broke out in the country's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions
SLOVIANSK, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. People’s militia in the conflict-hit south-eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk downed a Su-25 fighter and a combat helicopter as well as destroyed four armoured combat vehicles as pro-Kiev troops continue attacks on the city, Sloviansk People’s Mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev said on Tuesday.
Ponomarev said that on Tuesday two militia people were killed in armed clashes near Sloviansk, adding that “there were no casualties reported among civilians.”
His spokeswoman Stella Khorosheva said that Ukraine's military has amassed armoured vehicles and self-propelled mortars and howitzers near the city. The military equipment numbering 100 units includes Grad salvo systems.
At the Ukrainian parliament’s session on Tuesday, Vladimir Medyanik, a lawmaker with the Communist Party, urged the government to immediately stop the bloodshed in the eight-million populated south-eastern region of Ukraine, where the death toll already amounts to dozens or hundreds killed.
He also said that a Ukrainian warplane killed seven people and wounded ten in a missile strike at the Luhansk regional administrative building on Monday night.
“Hostilities should be stopped immediately. There cannot be a winner in the civil war,” Medyanik said addressing the parliament.
Ukraine's parliament-appointed acting prosecutor general said 181 people were dead and 293 wounded since fighting broke out in the country's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
"Fifty-nine servicemen were among those killed," Oleg Makhnitsky told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that more than 200 people, including 12 foreigners, had been abducted in the country's east.
Prosecutors had opened 765 criminal cases over sabotage, terrorist attacks and riots, he said.
Massive protests against the coup-imposed Ukrainian authorities erupted in Ukraine’s south-eastern territories, mainly the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after Crimea’s merger with Russia. Demonstrators in the Southeast, who have been demanding Ukraine’s federalization, seized some government buildings.
A punitive operation by Kiev against federalization supporters has already claimed dozens of lives, including civilian. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions held referendums on May 11, in which most voters supported independence from Ukraine.
People’s Mayor of Donetsk Alexander Lukyanchenko said evacuation of all people from his city is impossible at the moment. He said there are currently 60,000 children and about 270,000 elderly staying in the city.
Gazprom to launch storage in Germany September-November
June 03, 14:30 UTC+4
Gazprom said earlier that it will launch gas depots in several European countries to ensure uninterrupted supplies
Gazprom said earlier that it will launch gas depots in several European countries to ensure uninterrupted supplies
MOSCOW, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian gas giant Gazprom will launch a German underground gas storage in September-November, Gazprom Export CEO Alexander Medvedev said Tuesday.
The storage now operates in a test mode and its capacity stands at 113 million cubic meters of gas. By 2017, Gazprom plans to raise the capacity to about 600 million cubic meters.
Gazprom said earlier that it will launch gas depots in several European countries to ensure uninterrupted supplies.
Russia’s Gazprom, Ukraine’s Naftogaz may continue talks on Tuesday
June 03, 12:02 UTC+4
Ukraine has not paid for 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas Russia supplied to Ukraine
Ukraine has not paid for 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas Russia supplied to Ukraine
MOSCOW, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian state-run oil and gas company Naftogaz may continue talks already on Tuesday, Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov told reporters.
In May, Ukraine has consumed 3.6 billion cubic meters of Russian gas. Ukraine has not paid for 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas Russia supplied to Ukraine, Kupriyanov added. Russia has exported gas to Ukraine in a record high volume for this time of the year, he said.
Earlier, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that in May, Ukraine had been consuming gas in a maximum volume per day envisaged in the gas contract with Russia and that Ukraine's gas consumption in May alone fetched a price worth around $1.7 billion.
On Monday, Ukraine paid off $786.4 million to Gazprom for gas supplied in February-March, 2014. The Russian Energy Ministry has confirmed that Ukraine has made two payments — for February and March, 2014.
According to Russian sources, Ukraine owes $1.6 billion to Russia for gas sold to Ukraine for $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters in January-March 2014 .
In April, Ukraine's debt totaled $1.3 billion for gas sold for a price worth $485.5 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Ukraine's overall gas debt for 2013 totals $0.6 billion.
Gazprom, Ukraine to mull $350-380 gas price
June 03, 10:47 UTC+4
Gazprom agreed not to switch Kiev to a prepayment system, while both countries abandoned their plans to go to international courts
Gazprom agreed not to switch Kiev to a prepayment system, while both countries abandoned their plans to go to international courts
BRUSSELS, June 03. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s gas giant Gazprom and Ukraine’s energy company Naftogaz will consult with their governments a supply price of $350-380 per 1,000 cubic meters, a medium price between $268.5 and $485 Kiev used to pay, EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, who mediated in the talks, said late on Monday.
The two parties also agreed not to interrupt supplies, and Gazprom agreed not to switch Kiev to a prepayment system, while both countries abandoned their plans to go to international courts.
The next meeting between Russia and Ukraine with the mediation of the EU will take place before the next week’s end, Oettinger said, adding that Ukraine has paid its debt to Russiafor the February-April deliveries.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the next meeting will depend on how Ukraine repays its debt for the supplies in November and December at a price of $385, as well as payments for May gas at $500.
“Both parties have agreed that neither of them is going to file a suit to the Stockholm arbitration court,” he said.
Miller has not ruled out postponing the deadline for the June bill payment if only insignificant questions remain outstanding by June 9.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/06/unveiling-western-hypocrisy-russia-connects-syria-and-ukraine.html
June 02, 2014
Unveiling "Western" Hypocrisy Russia Connects Syria And Ukraine
A few days ago we read this:
Australia, Luxembourg, and Jordan are planning to circulate a new U.N. Security Council resolution that diplomats say would authorize the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria through four border crossings without approval from President Bashar Assad's government.
...
Diplomats familiar with the draft said it is under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which means it could be enforced militarily. It would authorize humanitarian access at three crossings from Turkey and one from Iraq.
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Some diplomats doubt Russia would approve a new humanitarian resolution under Chapter 7, but they say it could be a bargaining chip in negotiations.
That "bargaining chip" is worth nothing. Russia will veto any Chapter 7 resolution on Syria. There is nothing to bargain about that. But using that "bargaining chip" is now firing back.
For June Russia will be take up the presidency of the UN Security Council which allows it, to a certain extend, to set the agenda. The first point on that agenda is now the question of "human corridors" from Russia into east-Ukraine:
Russia will submit a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on Monday calling for an immediate end to worsening violence in Ukraine and the creation of humanitarian corridors in the east of the country, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
...
[The draft resolution] will also include "a demand for the creation, without delay, of humanitarian corridors though which peaceful civilians could leave combat zones if they wish," he said. The text would also call for guarantees of unhindered access for humanitarian aid.
"Now how about a Chapter 7 clause for that?" Lavrov will ask his colleagues.
Russia is actively linking the cases of Syria and Ukraine. That may not bring any progress on either issue. But by connecting the cases Russia can publicly demonstrated the utter hypocrisy of "western" policies. The target of this is the "western" public which is already against further "western" meddling in Syria as well as in Ukraine. I expect more such political "mirroring" of the two situations in the coming weeks and month.
This morning the Kiev regime sent jets and bombed the regional administration building in Luhansk which had been taken over by federalists. At least five people were killed. This is another escalation by Kiev and the puppet players behind the regime with the larger intend to openly draw Russia into a fight with NATO. Moscow will not fall for the bait.
Posted by b on June 2, 2014 at 12:09 PM | Permalink
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