Fears Of Mass Property Confiscation In Donbas

Operational Environment in eastern Ukraine as of June 16, 2016, 00:00

Poroshenko Orders Ukrainian Military Focus on Crimea, Black Sea

Ukraine is planning a "substantial enhancement" of its military position around the Black Sea and on the border of Crimea as part of a strategy of regaining the territory that Russia annexed two years ago.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the initiative on Friday, commemorating the second anniverary of the Russian annexation. "Crimea was, is and will be an integral part of the Ukrainian state and the country-criminal will be forced to return the loot," Poroshenko said.

"I am confident that we will certainly return these two administrative territories under the Ukrainian sovereignty. This extremely complex and promising process has already begun. Today, I have instructed to organize a special session of the National Security and Defense Council to clarify our strategy for the reintegration of Crimea," he said.

This strategy will include building up Ukraine's military capacity along the Black Sea and the Kherson oblast, which borders Crimea, Poroshenko added: "The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are instructed to submit proposals for substantial enhancement of military capacity of Ukraine in Kherson region and along the entire Black Sea coast. Russia has increased its military presence in the region, completes the peninsula’s transformation from a flourishing international resort into a big military base, which poses a nuclear threat not only to Ukraine, but also to all countries of the Black Sea region."

This would appear to be somewhat of a shift in Ukraine's military strategy, which has, understandably, been focused on fighting a civil war with pro-Russia militants in the eastern part of the country. Ukraine has lately been working on developing a new overall military strategy, which has been criticized from some quarters for an excessive focus on the so-called "anti-terror operation" in the Donbass and ignoring other potential Russian threats.

Also this week, Ukraine's interior minister Arsen Avakov said that his ministry is preparing new units that will be able to take back Crimea. "We need a new army, a new national guard, new police. That's what the government of Ukraine is doing right now. And you have to understand that. We should rebuild them and then, when we want, Crimea will be with us. I have no doubts about that," he said in an interview with Ukrainian television station 1+1.

This plan will include Crimean Tatars, as well, Avakov added. "Together with Mustafa Cemilov and Refat Chubarov [Crimean Tatar politcal leaders] we're preparing guys as special separate units of the national guard. The project is being prepared in order to be ready to return Crimea to us. I'm sure that it will happen when we're strong, and when we're ready."

Meanwhile, Russia continues to strengthen its military position in Crimea, and the U.S. is stepping up its efforts to train and equip the Ukrainian armed forces. U.S. ambassador to Kyiv Geoffrey Pyatt said last week that the U.S. plans to give Ukraine $335 million in training and equipment to Ukraine this year, compared with $266 million in such aid over the past two years.

Blockade of Russian trucks in Ukraine continues (updates)

The latest escalation of an economic war between Ukraine and Russia which includes reciprocal trade bans on a range of goods

February 16, 2016

17:50 Ukraine and Russia agree to suspend truck blockade: Ministry of Infrastructure

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to temporarily allow all freight transport through each others' territory until Feb 25.

The deal means trucks registered in both countries are free to transit. That's according to The Ministry of Infrastructure in Kyiv.

15:20 Russian truck blockade dispute with Ukraine escalates

It's early morning. The Ukrainian border is open, but these trucks registered in Russia are going nowhere. Around 30 vehicles queue to enter Romania. These drivers are among several hundred more caught up in a bitter trade war between Moscow and Kyiv. It's already day four of the freight blockade, but activists from Right Sector, a radical political group, say they're preparing for the long haul.

Ukraine warns UN about danger of potential Russian nuclear militarization of Crimea

Nuclear militarization of Crimea is a threat to the world's peace - Ukraine's UN envoy 

      

The militarization of Crimea with nuclear weapons is a threat to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations said at the UN Security Council Meeting on February 15.

"Ukraine is alarmed by the unprecedented build-up of weaponry in the occupied Crimea. Russia has deployed more than 23 thousand soldiers, hundreds of battle tanks, armored vehicles, combat aircraft and helicopters, dozens of seacoast defense systems in Crimea. The deployment of potentially nuclear-capable combat aircraft and military ships is especially dangerous, as well as Russia's intention to convert some Crimean Soviet infrastructure facilities to nuclear weapons storages," Yelchenko said.

He also spoke about the human rights violations, including kidnapping, torture and murder, committed in the region.

According to Yelchenko, the most vulnerable population of Crimea is the Crimean Tatars and those Ukrainians, who openly support Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Ukraine's envoy urged the UN Security Council to open offices of international human rights organizations in Crimea and to send peacekeeping forces to the conflict areas of the eastern Ukraine.

Observers: Fighting Flares In Eastern Ukraine, Residents In ‘Dire’ Situation

MUNICH, Germany -- Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government forces has flared in eastern Ukraine and the humanitarian situation is "dire," the head of Europe’s main security organization has told RFE/RL.

Combatants have moved heavy weaponry back up closer to the front line and the separatists in particular have been conducting “military activities” including exercises under cover of night, Lamberto Zannier, the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on February 14.

“The cease-fire is not holding as we would like it to,” Zannier said in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where Russia traded angry accusations with Ukraine and the West over a war that seemed unthinkable just over two years ago but has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014.

A cease-fire that was agreed as part of the February 2015 Minsk II accord took hold in September, but fighting increased later last year and has surged again after a truce for the New Year and Christmas holidays, Zannier said.

“It’s still, unfortunately, an active conflict,” he said. “We see...ongoing military activities, especially on the separatist side, we’ve seen rather large night exercises – military exercises. So there is a lot of dynamic, a lot of movement there, and that’s of course a concern.”

He said the OSCE, which has 700 unarmed monitors observing the conflict with equipment including drones, had recorded “the use of multiple-rocket launchers and field howitzers.”

Ukrainian forces and the Russia-backed separatists, who seized control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions after Moscow-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in the face of protests over his abandonment of a landmark deal with the European Union, pulled heavy weaponry back last year under Minsk II.

The accord also set out steps to resolve the conflict and was supposed to be completed by the end of 2015, with the return of Ukrainian control over its border with Russia in the separatist-held areas.

Few of the steps have been carried out, however, and Zannier said that elections under Ukrainian law in the separatist-held areas -- another key point of the settlement plan -- could probably not be held until after the summer. A senior separatist, meanwhile, said it would be at least 10 months before voting could be held.

At the Munich Security Conference on February 13, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accused Kyiv of foot-dragging on its obligations under the accord. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said it was Russia that is blocking a resolution, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Western sanctions imposed on Moscow will remain in place until Russia fulfills its commitments.

Western governments fear Russia is using the conflict to destabilize Ukraine, undermine its pro-Western government, and keep it from drawing closer to NATO and the European Union.

Despite powerful evidence, Russia denies accusations by Kyiv and the West that it has sent troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine to support the separatists.

Zannier said it is difficult for the OSCE monitors to determine whether Russian soldiers and arms are crossing into Ukraine now because they only have a mandate to observe at two border crossings, where they are positioned on the Russian side.

In separatist-held areas on the Ukrainian side, “we are being systematically prevented from reaching the border, especially in the Luhansk area,” he said, adding that “because it’s rather flat territory, obviously there are possibilities for men and equipment to cross that border in places where we are not there to see it.”

The ability of the monitors to record violations is also restricted by the fact that they operate only in the daytime, while “many of the violations occur at night,” Zannier said.

He also said that the OSCE monitors are now experiencing “systematic limitations” to their freedom of movement, and in some cases “threatening behavior” on the part of separatists at checkpoints.

“As people stop them, they also point guns, and this is obviously something we don’t like,” Zannier said. “It’s not, you know, a kind of friendly warning.”

He said that 90 percent of the incidents of this kind of limitation of movement in the past few weeks have been on the separatist side.

He said the frequency of such incidents "is making our role more complicated, but it’s also pointing to the general deterioration of the situation."

The cases of heavy weaponry use are “on both sides, and it’s understandable because if one side starts using heavy weaponry again, it’s inevitable that the other reacts,” Zannier said. “It’s a general dynamic that we are assessing, and it’s a worrying one, of course.”

Ukrainian military spokesman Oleskandr Motuzyanyk said on February 14 that seven Ukrainian military personnel were wounded over the previous 24 hours, and had no information on civilian casualties.

Citing Ukrainian military intelligence, Motuzyanyk said that one Russian serviceman was killed and died and one wounded nea rZaytsevo, in the Donetsk region. There was no comment from Russia on the claim.

Many of the people killed or maimed in the war have been civilians, and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes.

For those who remain, Zannier said, “the humanitarian situation is dire.”

He said that “we really feel that there is a need to open up channels to facilitate the movement of the population,” improve access to humanitarian assistance, and repair vital infrastructure for supplies of gas, power, and water.

Zannier said that people living in the war zone “are increasingly tired, and they want this thing to finish.”

He said he was speculating, but that there may be “increasingly a gap between the militant side of the separatist movement and the normal people, many of whom have left.”

Those people are “bitter about everything, but they also don’t seem to think that this is sustainable any longer, this kind of situation,” he said.

That should “push us to find ways to help bring this to an end,” Zannier said.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian service, TASS, and Interfax

Moldova Indicts, Sentences Individuals Who Fought As Mercenaries In Ukraine

Moldovan prosecutors say Russian-backed separatists in southeastern Ukraine have been hiring Moldovan mercenaries to fight on their side, sometimes promising as much as $3,000 monthly.

Dozens of Moldovans are known to have fought along the separatists for money, officials under the Prosecutor-General's Office said at a news conference on February 11.

Ten suspected mercenaries have been arrested and place under investigation since the beginning of the year, and two of them have already been sentenced to three years in prison each, said Igor Popa, the acting prosecutor-general for Moldova's capital, Chisinau.

Under Moldova's current legislation, serving as a mercenary abroad is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Popa said criminal cases are continuing against the remaining eight, aged 26 to 32, most of whom are Russian speakers from southern Moldova.

At the time of their arrest, all were carrying documents showing they belonged to separatist units from southeastern Ukraine.

"I regret to say it, but tens of Moldovans have been fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine," Popa said. "We have documented cases where Moldovan citizens have been injured and we don't rule out possible deaths of our citizens during this military conflict."

The precise number of Moldovans fighting in Ukraine is not known, but Moldovan security services say they are making every effort to identify suspected mercenaries.

Since they are usually ex-members of special military or police units, according to Popa, they pose a threat to Moldova's national security.

"Ukraine's security service promised during a joint meeting with its Moldovan counterpart that Kyiv would give them a list of all Moldovans known to be involved in the conflict," Popa said.

While empathy with the separatists' cause may have played a role in the recruitment of ethnic Russians from Moldova, the main incentive remains money.

"For example, one individual who was sent to court in January has admitted that he was promised from the outset that he would be paid some $3,000 monthly," said Nicu Sendrea, the deputy prosecutor for Chisinau.

Two other suspects were apprehended upon re-entering Moldova with large sums of Russian rubles after fighting alongside separatists in Ukraine.

"Both individuals admitted to being paid sums of money in Russian rubles -- one 15,000 rubles ($180), and the other one 40,000 rubles ($500) monthly," said Denis Rotaru, the head of Moldova's antiorganized crime unit.

More than 9,000 civilians and combatants have been killed since the war erupted in southeastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in April 2014. Fighting has diminished markedly after a second cease-fire was signed in Minsk in February 2015, but violations are frequent and a deal aimed to resolve the conflict has gone largely unimplemented.

'Damn Lies, Deep Crisis' In Russian Economy, Says Former Central Banker

A former deputy chairman of the Russian central bank has said Russia’s economic crisis is worse than Moscow admits and that the Kremlin’s optimism about future prospects "has not been based on reality."

Sergei Aleksashenko told SW on February 10 that "the Russian economy is not going to grow" in the near future "and the most likely scenario is stagnation in the medium term."

He said Russian authorities "have not acknowledged the real nature of the crisis, at least publicly" and the crisis "is not over, as the Kremlin claims."

"On the contrary," he said, “the Russian economy is set to continue downward."

The Russian economy has been hit hard by falling global oil prices and international sanctions imposed in response to the Kremlin’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula two years ago and its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin has wagered that ordinary Russians will withstand the hardships brought about amid deteriorating relations with the West over his foreign-policy maneuvers.

But now, Aleksashenko said, Russia is experiencing a series of negative trends that, by his estimate, dragged down Russia’s GDP by 9 percent in 2015.

Russia’s state statistics agency said GDP fell by only 3.7 percent last year

Aleksashenko called that a "statistical miracle" that "does not reflect the real problems."

“As the saying goes, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics,” he said. “If we slice and dice [the official statistical data,] it would be evident that the only growing component of Russia’s GDP was net export.”

For all other components, investments in Russia have been decreasing.

Russia saw a growth in net exports during 2015 at least in part because imports declined -- a situation exacerbated by a weakened ruble and the Kremlin’s retaliatory ban on importing food and other products from the EU and the United States.

In fact, Aleksashenko maintained, there was no growth of Russian exports at all.

Aleksashenko said the real problems facing Russia’s economy are a lack of investment, high inflation, and the declining ruble, which has lost half of its value against the U.S. dollar since early 2014.

Russian authorities have responded to lost Western export markets by announcing that Russia’s future growth will rely more on domestic production and, especially, with developing new trade ties in Asia to replace the loss of exports to the West.

Putin has pushed during the last two years to expand influence in Asia by developing Russia’s eastern territories and integrating them more with developing economies in the Asia-Pacific. That geopolitical strategy hinges on Russia’s potential to become a major supplier of oil, natural gas, iron, steel, and other raw materials to China and other Asian countries.

But Aleksashenko said the Kremlin’s talk of “a pivot to Asia” to fuel Russian growth is not supported by market realities.

“We should not treat the Chinese market as a substitute for the European one,” he said. “This natural gas is provided from different deposits and fields” that are as much as 2,000 kilometers apart and unconnected.

Further, he said, the bulk of Russian exports -- as much as 80 percent -- consists of raw materials and commodities.

But the economic slowdown in China has eased the global demand for such products.

“Therefore, Russia cannot sell more,” he said. “Of course, Moscow would like to rely more on exporting armaments. But that accounts for just about 5 percent of overall Russian exports.”

Russia also has tried to export cars to neighboring countries, he continued. But that accounts for less than 2 percent of exports.

Thus, he said, “external demand cannot be a significant driver of the Russian economy.”

Nor can domestic production, he added.

Agriculture is the only sector of the Russian economy that has shown continuous growth, expanding at an average of 3 percent each year since 2003. But agriculture’s share of Russian GDP is just over 3 percent.

Aleksashenko estimated the Russian agriculture sector would have to grow by 10 percent each year to become “a significant factor in overall growth of the Russian economy.”

And that, he said, “is not doable.”

Despite the ongoing impact of international sanctions, Aleksashenko suggested that they no longer are playing a decisive role in determining Russia’s economic trends and have little effect at all on Kremlin policy decisions.

“Financial sanctions prevent many Russian banks and companies from borrowing money in foreign markets,” he said. “That played a huge role by the end of 2014 and at the beginning of 2015 when Russia had to replay its foreign debt, amounting to 10 percent of its GDP.”

But he said that burden fell dramatically to less than 3 percent of GDP during the last three quarters of 2015 and will continue to fall through 2016.

“It’s still a huge burden, but it cannot destroy the Russian economy.”

Aleksashenko was the Russian central bank’s first deputy chairman from 1995 to 1998 and was a deputy finance minister under President Boris Yeltsin.

He said that in late 2014 he was forced out of his job as editor of an influential economic newsletter published by Moscow’s Higher School of Economics due to his criticism of the Kremlin’s economic leadership.

He is now a senior fellow in global economy and development at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Putin to visit Crimea, address local parliament

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Crimea and address the local parliament on August 14, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

 

He said members of all factions of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, will be attending.

 

Peskov said the president will also hold several meetings in Crimea’s cities of Sevastopol and Yalta.

Turkey grants US warship permission to enter Black Sea

 

PLEASE NOTE - THIS ARTICE IS PUBLISHED BY PUTIN MOUTHPIECE RT.COM

Turkey has given a US Navy Warship the green light to pass through the Bosphorus within the next two days as tensions in Ukraine’s Crimea region continue to divide world powers.
 

Turkish sources, speaking with the Hurriyet Daily News on Wednesday, declined to elaborate on the name of the US warship. The same officials told the daily on condition of anonymity that the ship in question was not the USS George H.W. Bush nuclear aircraft carrier as suggested in some news reports, as it did not meet the standards specified by the 1936 Montreux Convention in terms of weight.
 

The US vessel to pass through the straits will meet the convention’s standards, the sources said.
 

On Wednesday, the Russian Black Sea Fleet Staff confirmed to the Itar-Tass news agency that a US destroyer was expected to enter the Black Sea later this week.
 

On Sunday, Tass reported that the guided-missile frigate USS Taylor, one of two Navy ships assigned to the Black Sea during the Sochi Winter Olympics was still in the Turkish Black Sea port of Samsun. The frigate was deployed on February 5 along with the amphibious command ship, USS Mount Whitney. According to the Montreux Convention, warships of countries which do not border the Black Sea cannot remain in the waters for longer than 21 days. While the USS Mount Whitney left on February 25, the USS Taylor remained at the Turkish port, ostensibly for repairs after running aground on February 12.
 

Meanwhile, it was reported on Tuesday that two Russian warships entered the Black Sea through the Bosphorus. The 150 'Saratov' landing ship and the 156 'Yamal' assault ship crossed the strait around 05:30 GMT, en route to the Black Sea, the Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
 

No coastguard boats were seen escorting the ships. The Ukrainian Hetman Sahaydachny followed shortly thereafter, crossing the Dardanelles Strait off Turkey's west coast. Two coastguard vessels were reported by AA to be escorting the ship.
 

The vessel, which had participated in NATO-led Ocean Shield and Atalanta counter-piracy operations, reportedly docked near Odessa port on Wednesday, says the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

 

The traffic through the Turkish straits comes as tensions between the West and Russia over recent events in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, continue to simmer.
 

Russia currently leases a military wharf and shore installations in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The Ukrainian government agreed to extend Russia’s lease on the territory in 2010, allowing the Russian Black Sea Fleet to effectively stay in Crimea until 2047.
 

Five Russian naval units are currently stationed in the port city of Sevastopol, including the 30th Surface Ship Division, the 41st Missile Boat Brigade, the 247th Separate Submarine Division, the 68th Harbor Defense Ship, and the 422nd Separate Hydrographic Ship Division.
 

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the military personnel of the Black Sea Fleet are “in their deployment sites" and “additional vigilance measures were taken to safeguard the sites.”
 

“We will do everything to prevent bloodshed," he said, speaking ahead of his first face-to-face meeting with his US counterpart, John Kerry, since the crisis erupted.

 

Over a week after the government of Viktor Yanukovich was toppled by violent street protests, fears of deepening political and social strife have been particularly acute in Ukraine’s pro-Russian east and south.
 

One day after voting to oust Yanukovich, a newly reconfigured parliament did away with a 2012 law on minority languages, which permitted the use of two official languages in regions where the size of an ethnic minority exceeds 10 percent.
 

Apart from the Russian-majority regions affected by this law, Hungarian, Moldovan and Romanian also lost their status as official languages in several towns in Western Ukraine.
 

Authorities in the Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea – where over half the population is ethnically Russian – requested Moscow’s assistance following the legal downgrade of the Russian language.
 

Western states have accused Russia of militarily intervening in Crimea and called on Russian troops to return to their Black Sea bases. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recently dispatched military observers to Kiev. The observers from the pan-European security body are en route to Crimea, where they will monitor the situation on the ground.
 

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated President Putin’s previous words that Russian troops had not actually been deployed from their bases in Crimea. Lavrov said that forces with unmarked uniforms which had taken de-facto control over Crimea are self-defense units that are not under Russia’s auspices.
 

"If they are the self-defense forces created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we have no authority over them," Lavrov told a news conference in Madrid after a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.
 

"They do not receive orders [from us]," he said.
 

On Saturday, the Russian Federation Council – the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia – approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to send the country’s military forces to Ukraine to ensure peace and order in the region “until the socio-political situation in the country is stabilized.”

According to the bilateral agreement concerning Russia's Black Sea Fleet military bases in Crimea, Moscow is allowed to have up to 25,000 troops in Ukraine.

Reproduced from the Mail by MAC

Dictator's & Madmen

Ukraine Updates - Moscow timeline

Yanukovych asked Putin to use Russian army to "restore order in Ukraine" – Russia's permanent representative to UN 23:26

Russian military block most of Ukrainian military units in Crimea – Ukraine's acting defense minister 21:19

EU strongly condemns violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, calling Russia to immediate dialog with Ukraine 20:48

Govt cancels order to suspend preparations for signing Association Agreement with EU, says minister 18:08

Head of State Treasury Service resigns 17:59

Signing of EU association agreement to help Russian-Ukrainian relations, says PM Yatseniuk 17:54

Security official denies reports of hundreds of Ukrainian servicemen siding with Russia 17:51

Russian troops not to be allowed into Ukraine's eastern regions, says PM 17:42

No Ukrainian soldiers, apart from Berezovsky, obeying Crimean government - NSDC deputy 17:29

Kyiv not going to sue Russian people, Russian leadership is another matter, says acting foreign minister 17:16

 

FREE UKRAINE

Dictator Putin's Waffen SS - RUSSIAN AGGRESSION ON FOREIGN SOIL

The Crimean Prime Minister said Saturday that Russian troops are operating on the Ukrainian peninsula and made a personal appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more assistance.

 

The Kremlin said in a subsequent statement that it would not ignore the request for help.

 

Sergei Aksyonov, who was appointed prime minister after a parliamentary vote Thursday, said that an agreement was in place with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet for Russian soldiers to perform guard duties at strategic locations.

 

“We have established cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet to protect vitally important sites,” Aksyonov said during a Cabinet meeting.

 

There have been widespread reports of significant Russian military activity, including the movement of tanks, troops and helicopters, across the Crimea in recent days. But Russia has insisted that all the movements are allowed within the framework of a 1997 agreement with Ukraine about the use of naval bases.

 

“I am turning to Russian President Vladimir Putin to request assistance to preserve peace and calm,” said Aksyonov, who is the leader of Ukraine’s Russian Unity Party.

 

Aksyonov also announced that a referendum on the status of Crimea within Ukraine will be brought forward by almost two months, to March 30, and said that local security forces including the police and the army - which are usually commanded from Kiev - will be brought under his control.

 

The developments in Crimea appear to bring closer a possible partition of the former Soviet nation where a new government is struggling to control the country after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych last week.  

 

Putin has made no public comment on the current Ukrainian crisis since the opposition swept to power after months of street protests ended in a violent crackdown in which 82 people died.

 

Armed men in balaclavas have occupied key public buildings in Crimea in recent days and appeared to have taken control of the region’s two main airports. The Crimean parliament was seized Thursday by armed men who raised the Russian flag.

 

One of Ukraine’s largest telecommunications companies said in a statement Friday that telephone and internet links between Crimea and the rest of the country had been severed.

 

The incoming authorities in Kiev have described developments in Crimea as an invasion, and interim president Oleksandr Turchynov told reporters late Friday that Russia was seeking to provoke conflict.

Russia has recently moved about 6,000 additional troops into Crimea, Ukraine's defense minister said Saturday, according to report by Reuters news agency.

 

Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian Republic by the Soviet leadership in 1954. Since the fall of Communism it has enjoyed a large degree of political autonomy within Ukraine, including its own prime minister.

 

About 60 percent of the population in Crimea identifies itself as ethnic Russian, with the remainder being Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar.

 

Pro-Russian groups and Tatars, who mostly support the new regime in Kiev, clashed outside the Crimean parliament Thursday during a confrontation in which at least two people died.

UKRAINE UPDATES - Mosow timeline

13:47

Batkivshchyna party hopes situation around Crimea will be settled peacefully

 

13:03

Settlement in Ukraine requires return to Feb 21 agreements - Russian envoy

 

12:45

Medvedev warns Yatsenyuk Russia reserves right to defend its citizens, troops in Crimea

 

12:34

Ukrainian servicemen deployed in Crimea massively taking side of Crimean authorities

 

12:23

U.S. puts off decision on Obama's participation in G8 summit in Sochi -White House

 

12:21

UKRAINIAN SERVICEMEN DEPLOYED IN CRIMEA MASSIVELY TAKING SIDE OF CRIMEAN AUTHORITIES - INTERFAX CORRESPONDENT

 

12:11

Klitschko calls for consultations with Russian reps

 

11:57

Ukraine is ready to defend its sovereignty - Yatsenyuk

 

11:47

Ukraine asks west to consider all possible mechanisms of protecting its territorial integrity

 

11:31

Heads of Russian, British diplomacy discuss Ukraine

 

11:02

Russian, U.S. defense ministers discuss Ukraine - Russian Defense Ministry

 

10:59

Putin has not decided on sending Russian troops to Ukraine or recalling ambassador from U.S. yet - aide

 

10:34

Crisis in Ukraine in focal point of telephone conversation between Putin and Ban Ki-moon

 

10:27

IN CASE OF ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST RUSSIAN-SPEAKING POPULATION IN EAST UKRAINE AND CRIMEA RUSSIA WILL TAKE NECESSARY MEASURES IN FRAMEWORK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW - PUTIN TO UN SECRETARY GENERAL

 

10:22

Putin, Obama discuss various aspects of situation in Ukraine during telephone conversation - Kremlin

 

10:16

IN CASE OF FURTHER SPREAD OF VIOLENCE IN EASTERN UKRAINE AND CRIMEA MOSCOW RESERVES RIGHT TO PROTECT ITS INTERESTS AND RUSSIAN-SPEAKING POPULATION THERE - PUTIN TALKING TO OBAMA

 

10:14

PUTIN AND OBAMA THOROUGHLY DISCUSSED VARIOUS ASPECTS OF EXTRAORDINARY SITUATION IN UKRAINE DURING TELEPHONE CONVERSATION - KREMLIN

 

09:00

RUSSIA AND FSU GENERAL NEWS

 

Russian military regains its clout

Refitting Soviet-era warships, fielding new aircraft and tanks and seeking new overseas bases, the Russian military — which now has troops on alert amidst a crisis in Ukraine — is more potent than the force that briefly fought Georgia six years ago.

 

Moscow is seriously investing in building its clout. Since 2008, it has raised military spending by almost a third and drastically reformed both the armed forces and defense industry to tackle post-Cold War decay.

 

But Russian forces remain much weaker than at their Soviet peak and face huge problems ranging from corruption to a long-term shortage of recruits, not to mention the risk of insurgency if they set foot in Ukraine.

 

Moscow denies any direct link between the surprise military drills announced Wednesday and Ukraine, where largely pro-Western demonstrators ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, last weekend.

 

Nevertheless, the decision to put 150,000 troops on high alert along with jet fighters on Russia’s Western borders — where Ukraine lies — raised memories of Putin’s invasion of Georgia. Moscow’s expressions of concern for the safety of Russian citizens in Ukraine have also used similar language to statements that preceded the Georgian campaign.

 

In that five-day war, Russian troops evicted their Georgian counterparts from the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But the outdated forces suffered losses at the hands of the sometimes more technically advanced, Western-equipped Georgians, prompting soul-searching and criticism in Moscow.

 

According to some accounts, three of the four Russian aircraft lost were downed by their own side.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London estimates defense spending rose 31 percent between 2008 and 2013 to $68.2 billion. Russia is now firmly established as the world’s third-largest military spender, behind the U.S. and China, and the chaos under former President Boris Yeltsin, who stood down in 1999 to make way for Putin, is a thing of the past.

 

“There is a sense in the broader U.S. political discussion that Russia is still the basket case military of the Yeltsin era, but that is wrong,” said Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon official and now fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “(It) is not the Red Army of the 1970s, but it has made considerable strides.”

 

While Russian officials say Moscow will not intervene in Ukraine, many Western analysts are skeptical about their assertions that the exercises are not linked to the crisis in the former Soviet republic. Russia’s saber-rattling, they say, is another sign of its military confidence.

 

“There is certainly an element of intimidation to it,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, Russia specialist at the U.S. government-funded Center for Naval Analyses. “They have put a great deal of effort into military reforms since Georgia, and some of it has worked. They probably do have a greater ability to intervene in Ukraine than they did then — it’s not that big a step up.”

 

While any actual invasion could initially succeed, he said Moscow might struggle in the face of a resultant insurgency. A more limited operation in majority Russian-speaking Crimea — already home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet — could prove more achievable but is also seen as unlikely for now.

 

Russia says it is ready to work with the West on resolving the crisis but the interests of all Ukrainians must be taken into account. It accuses the new leaders in Kiev of violating a Western-backed peace deal and ignoring the interests of Russian-speakers.

 

The war games, scheduled to last from Friday until next week, are not the first of their kind. In September, the Zapad-13 exercise in Belarus saw 10,000 Russian troops deployed along the border with the Baltic states, former Soviet republics that now belong to the European Union. Another surprise exercise last July in Russia’s east involved 160,000 troops and was seen as a reminder that Moscow also remains nervous about its border with China.

 

Both exercises involved a level of activity that Russian forces would have been incapable of even five years ago, analysts say.

 

Russia is also asserting itself on the world stage. While its ability to send the army much beyond former Soviet borders seems limited, its warships have increased operations in the Arctic, Pacific, Baltic and Atlantic while returning to a near-permanent presence in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean for the first time in years. Russian long-range bombers are again periodically probing NATO airspace.

 

On Wednesday, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow is planning to expand its presence outside its borders with new military bases in a number of countries.

How viable these plans might be is unclear.

 

Since Georgia, Russia has abolished its cumbersome structure of undermanned divisions designed to fight on massive European fronts, replacing them with much more flexible smaller brigades and reducing the size of its officer corps by a third.

 

Its armaments industry was reorganized into a small number of largely state-owned firms, while Moscow promised that by 2020, 70 percent of its military equipment will be modernized. It has also partnered French manufacturers in building helicopter carriers, other European firms on ground vehicles and Israeli specialists on unmanned drones.

 

According to IISS, Russia now operates one aircraft carrier, five cruisers, 18 destroyers, nine frigates and 82 coastal warships as well as 64 submarines — 11 carrying ballistic missiles. Its air force is believed to have about 1,400 combat-capable aircraft.

 

IISS estimates Russia has 845,000 military personnel, with a largely theoretical reserve of 2 million with recent military service.

 

How much further the military will grow is also unclear. Corruption remains a serious problem. Demographics are also not going Russia’s way.

 

Still, “Moscow’s armed forces have already accomplished the organizational transition from mass mobilization army to modern combat force,” the German Institute for International and Security Affairs said in a January report. “Greater military muscle flexing must be expected.”

Crimean parliament sacks regional government, approves referendum

(Story source from Putins Mouthpiece- RT.com)

 

The Supreme Council of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea has dismissed the regional government, electing a pro-Russian party leader as its new chair. The MPs have also voted in favor of holding a referendum to decide the future of Crimea on May 25.
 

Fifty-five out of 64 MPs voted for the government’s dissolution. The decision was announced by parliament official Olga Sulnikova.
 

The decision to dismiss Crimea’s Council of Ministers was supported by 55 out of 64 Crimean MPs. The no-confidence motion came as a result of “unsatisfactory” work by the regional government in 2013, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
 

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Anatoly Mogilyov, was also dismissed. The leader of Crimea’s Russian Unity party, Sergey Aksyonov, has been voted in as the new chairman, RIA Novosti reports. The pro-Russian politician was supported by a majority of 53 MPs of the Crimean parliament, with 64 MPs taking part in the vote out of 100.
 

The new council of ministers is to be formed Friday.
 

The regional parliament then voted in favor of holding an All-Crimean referendum on the status of the Autonomous Republic, with 61 out of 64 MPs supporting the poll.
 

On May 25, Crimeans will vote “yes” or “no” on whether the “Autonomous Republic of Crimea has state sovereignty and is a part of Ukraine, in accordance with treaties and agreements.”
 

Earlier the presidium of the Crimean parliament have announced that they are confident "that only by holding an All-Crimean referendum on the issue of improving the status of the Autonomy and expanding its powers Crimeans will be able to determine the future of the Autonomy on their own and without any external pressure.”
 

As a result of “the unconstitutional seizure of power in Ukraine by radical nationalists supported by armed gangs,” Crimea’s peace and order is “under threat,” said Oksana Korniychuk, the press secretary of the head of the parliament.
 

Korniychuk spoke hours after an unknown group of people barricaded themselves inside the building of the Crimean parliament and installed Russian flags there. The group, however, allowed MPs inside, including the speaker of the parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov. The MPs then held their sessions as planned.
 

Later on Thursday, some 400 demonstrators announced an open-ended protest in front of the parliament building, demanding that a referendum on the status of Crimea be held.
 

The referendum on May 25 will coincide with the early Ukrainian presidential and city mayoral elections.