Ukraine Crisis - Page 575

MOSCOW, June 12./ITAR-TASS/. Gazprom will not postpone the payment deadline for Ukraine anymore, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Thursday, June 12.
The current deadline is 10:00 Moscow time June 16, when Gazprom should see $1.951 billion on its accounts. Otherwise, the company will move over to advance payments in settlements with Ukraine. “If nothing has been paid, nothing will be supplied,” Miller said.
Naftogaz of Ukraine should pay $1.454 billion for gas supplies in November and December 2013 and show progress in paying for April and May, he said.

On June 13 2014 00:06 nunez wrote:


only an idiot would think otherwise.

On June 13 2014 00:14 hunts wrote:


So you know exactly what's going on in ukraine, well enough to state that anyone who disagrees with something is an idiot? Interesting...

On June 13 2014 00:57 nunez wrote:
already busted on reddit, shopped photo from georgia / 2010.

russian t-72's invading ukraine, because a short video of what looks like a t-64, and disinfo twitter spammed in thread... hillarious. should prolly let that account go ghan, like you did euromaidanpr and seemingly carlbildt, it's just noise to the thread.

KIEV, June 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will make his first foreign visit as president to Brussels, acting Foreign Minister Andrei Deshchitsa said on Thursday, June 12.
“The president will travel to Brussels shortly to sign the Association Agreement (with the European Union on June 27). I think it is obvious that the first visit will take place on June 27,” he said.
Deshchitsa noted, however, that the Foreign Ministry “has not yet worked on the president’s trips in the coming week”.

On June 12 2014 23:47 Cheerio wrote:


I think he is talking about the aftermath footage, and you don't need journalists to flood youtube with it. Phosphorous bombs can lead to some devastating results.

On June 13 2014 03:09 Zealously wrote:


Is this a translation of the article's content?

MOSCOW, June 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow does not believe it is high time to send peacekeepers into Ukraine.

“We are not speaking about peacekeepers. We do not believe it is high time (for peacekeeping),” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. He believes Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko still keeps the credibility.

Lavrov said that “hope still exists that (Ukrainian) President Poroshenko’s statement on the end of the violence and beginning of the negotiations will come into force since Poroshenko still maintains trustworthiness and it can be used now,” Lavrov said.

“Everything is in the hands of Ukrainian authorities,” he said.

“We know that self-defense fighters in (Ukraine’s) east are ready for ceasefire but according to all the rules, the first step must be done by the Ukrainian authorities now that Poroshenko’s inauguration has taken place.

On June 13 2014 09:56 Cheerio wrote:
There are reports that the captured mayor of Horlovka has made an order concerning the town's russification:
- Russian language would be made the main one in schools, Ukrainian would be forbidden [clearly with the next educational season in mind]
- The Ukrainian flags should be put down and replaced by Russian ones with the slogan "Russia is the mother, Putin is the father"
- All the signs in the town should be changed from Ukrainian to Russian language.

The photocopy of the order
+ Show Spoiler +

http://news.liga.net/news/politics/2126821-v_gorlovke_boeviki_zastavlyayut_mera_davat_nezakonnye_rasporyazheniya.htm

President Barroso made the following statement during a press conference with
President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili, on occasion of his official visit to
Georgia:

“I called today President Poroshenko to discuss the situation in Ukraine, just
before meeting the President. I welcomed his peace initiative and direct talks with
Russia, the fact that now President Poroshenko and President Putin are speaking
directly is a positive step forward. At the same time President Poroshenko
conveyed to me his extreme concern with the ongoing armed unrest in Eastern
Ukraine and also today the incident with Russian tanks that according to the
Ukrainian authorities have crossed into Ukrainian territory.

The European Union has stated several times and I want to repeat it today that it
is very important that Russia ceases any kind of military actions in this area.
We believe that illegal armed groups need to disarm and we call on Russia to
withdraw the authorisation for use of force in Ukraine.

So once again, I make an appeal to Russia to engage constructively with Ukraine
and to give concrete steps and clear evidence of de-escalating efforts.

And coming back to the agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia that we
are going to sign in Brussels in June 27, I want to reiterate our willingness, as
European Union, to pursue talks with Russia, to discuss the concrete
implementation of these agreements, in case there are any concerns on the
Russian side. Of course we have to respect the content of these agreements, what
was already decided by the governments of these countries, but if there are some
concerns, if there are technical issues that the Russian authorities want to clarify,
we are ready for it.

So our message, as European Union, is a message of dialogue and cooperation,
not a message of confrontation. At the same time we have to be firm in the
respect of the sovereign right of any country to decide its own future.”
Source.

Ukrainian government forces reclaimed the port city of Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists in heavy fighting on Friday and said they had regained control of a long stretch of the border with Russia.

The advances are significant victories for the pro-European leadership in a military operation to crush the armed separatist rebellion that began in east Ukraine in April and hold the former Soviet republic of 45 million together.

"At 10:34 a.m. (0734 GMT) the Ukrainian flag was raised over City Hall in Mariupol," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook, less than six hours after the attack began on the city of 500,000, Ukraine's biggest Azov Sea port.

A ministry aide said the government forces stormed the rebels after they were surrounded and given 10 minutes to surrender. At least five separatists and two servicemen were killed in the battle before many of the rebels fled.

Mariupol, which has changed hands several times in weeks of conflict, is strategically important because it lies on major roads from the southeastern border with Russia into the rest of Ukraine and steel is exported through the port.

Regaining control of the long and winding frontier is also vital for the government because it accuses Moscow of allowing the rebels to bring tanks, other armoured vehicles and guns across the porous border.

Avakov said the government forces had won back control of a 120-km (75-mile) stretch of the border that had fallen to the rebels, but it is not clear who controls other parts of the about 2,000-km frontier.

The rebels, who have taken over several towns and cities and want east Ukraine to become part of Russia, confirmed five of their fighters were killed in the fighting for Mariupol.

Avakov said National Guard and Interior Ministry units were involved in the battle, as well as special forces.

A Ukrainian defence analyst, Dmytro Tymchuk, said four Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 31 wounded in fighting in other parts of east Ukraine in the past 24 hours. The death toll is not known but several hundred people have been reported killed in clashes this year in Kiev and the east of the country.

GAS TALKS TO RESUME

The rebels rose up in the Russian-speaking east and southeast after Russia annexed Crimea in March following the overthrow of Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovich, who had triggered protests by spurning trade and political pacts that would have deepened ties with the European Union.

The new president, Petro Poroshenko, intensified the military operation against the rebels after he was elected on May 25 but is also trying to win support for a peace plan.

Rebel leaders have not responded to his suggestion they could be invited to talks if they lay down their arms, and rebels in the field have scoffed at the idea of giving up their weapons, saying they do not trust him.

Poroshenko's aides say progress has been made at initial meetings with a Russian envoy, and any immediate threat of a Russian invasion has receded, but talks on solving a natural gas pricing row with Russia have stalled.

European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who is brokering the gas talks, said he hoped they would resume on Saturday.

The sides disagree over how much Ukraine should pay for its gas, and Russian state gas exporter Gazprom has threatened to turn off the taps to Kiev if it does not start paying billions of dollars in debts by Monday. This could disrupt supplies to the EU as it gets about half its gas imports from Russia, half of them via Ukraine.

But Oettinger said in Brussels: "I am optimistic the three parties will do all to avoid a disruption."

Political ties have also been strained by the appearance of several tanks in east Ukraine. Avakov accused Russia on Thursday of allowing the rebels to bring them across the border and Poroshenko told President Vladimir Putin by phone that the situation was "unacceptable."

Evidence that Russia is directly assisting the rebels militarily would implicate Moscow in the uprising, making a mockery of its denials of a role in the fighting. Russia did not immediately respond to the accusations and it was not clear how Putin reacted to Poroshenko by phone. His country has already been hit by U.S. and EU sanctions over events in Ukraine and could face more.
Source.

I am concerned about reports that pro-Russian armed gangs are acquiring heavy weapons from Russia, including Russian tanks. We have seen reports that Russian tanks and other armoured vehicles may have crossed the border into eastern Ukraine. If these reports are confirmed, this would mark a serious escalation of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

I continue to urge Russia to complete the withdrawal of its military forces on the border with Ukraine, to stop the flow of weapons and fighters across the border, and to exercise its influence among armed separatists to lay down their weapons and renounce violence. We call on the Russian Federation to meet its Geneva commitments and cooperate with the government of Ukraine as it implements its plans for promoting peace, unity and reform.
Source.

On June 13 2014 00:06 nunez wrote:


only an idiot would think otherwise.