Crisis in the Ukraine

that's hilarious: official Russian servers informed


today Russian Customs Officers apprehended an individual who was smuggling a piece (one and eight rounds) from Ukraine into Russia ... a dangerous Illegal Combatant? LOL

The news on my favorite radio station just said that there is heavy fighting near the airport of Donetsk.

Prisoner swaps on shaky ground in Ukraine as Kiev accused of foul play

Prisoner swaps in Ukraine are in danger of stalling as rebels say they will no longer tolerate Kiev’s practice of producing random people for exchange instead of actual members of militia and political prisoners.

Prisoner exchanges are a crucial part for consolidating the shaky truce in eastern Ukraine. The peace deal signed in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5 states that all captives must be eventually set free. So far the OSCE-monitored swaps had been done on a one-for-one basis, and Kiev is apparently lacking genuine rebel captives to offer and is substituting them with whoever it can procure.

But the rebels say they won’t have it anymore.

“We don’t reject further trade, but the rules of the game have changed now. The Ukrainian side will have to deliver lists and IDs of our supporters they offer in advance,” prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, told Interfax. “We will be checking the people brought for exchange against those lists. If they try to send us wrong people, we would reject them and would hold a corresponding number of their military.”

On Friday last week the rebels said they would suspend all exchanges unless Kiev stops sending them people who have nothing to do with the militias. Despite the threat, a new trade did happen on Sunday, as Kiev offered 60 prisoners in exchange for 30 army soldiers captured by the rebels. The willingness to double the number of released captives may indicate that Kiev is trying to make concessions.

But the Sunday trade may have been the reason for the latest demand, as some of those released by the Ukrainian government insisted that they had never been combatants, RIA Novosti reported.

One of the prisoners, who introduced himself as Aleksandr from the city of Kharkov, said he was just snatched from the street near his home.

“I came out for a smoke. Gunmen in a police car drove by, dragged me in took to a police station,” he told the Russian news agency. “They beat me and made me confess of murdering several people. Told me that I was a terrorist. I could barely comprehend what was happening.”

He added he wouldn’t go home because he fears he would be arrested again.

Another ex-prisoner said he was a music teacher and that he was arrested for telling a family member on the phone that he could see Ukrainian military vehicles from his window. Apparently he was suspected of giving intelligence to the rebels, but he denies any ties with the militias.

Yet another said he was arrested in Nikolayev, a city far from the conflict zone, for taking part in a peaceful anti-government protest.

“Ukraine is passing off the wrong people all the time. Of the 60 people they offered for the latest trade, 45 were just random folk,” Andrey Purgin, a senior DPR official told the news agency.

The allegations of foul play were corroborated last week by the New York Times, which covered a prisoner swap on September 21. The newspaper cited the prisoners released by Kiev as saying that only seven of the 28 were rebel fighters. Those released by the rebels all looked like military.

The problem is aggravated by a concern among the rebels that their fighters may have been killed in captivity. In preparation for the latest exchange the rebels made a list of 100 captive militiamen, but Kiev could find only 29 of them, said Darya Morozova, who heads the exchange committee for the DPR.

There has long been reluctance among Ukrainian officials over prisoner exchanges. For months the bulk of the work to release captives was shouldered by civilian activists rather than officials, and ensuring that the agreed terms of prisoners swaps were upheld by Kiev was always a major issue, according to Vladimir Ruban, a retired Ukrainian general who found himself in the position of a key negotiator once the conflict in the east escalated.

“Everything can be settled, a compromise can be found in any situation. But relying on the Ukrainian side to hold to the terms – that’s an issue,” he said in an interview to Vesti newspaper in early September. “The Donetsk side understands that the Ukrainian side may not deliver, and still they agree to big concessions because they realize the peculiarity of the state and its officials. We still make deals. This is both great and awful.”

Actually fighting inside the airport area with several buildings taken by the militia.

Reported by VK since 2 days ago and check out Sampanviking's video which showed the militia taking the Donetsk airport building by building.

delft said:

The news on my favorite radio station just said that there is heavy fighting near the airport of Donetsk.

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Oh the skeletons just keep tumbling out of the closet. These evil east Ukraine separatists will pay for their crimes!!

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4th mass grave found in E. Ukraine, self-defense forces report

One more mass grave has been found in a village in eastern Ukraine, say self-defense forces. The site was located days after OSCE mission confirmed the discovery of three mass burial sites in areas recently abandoned by Kiev forces.

The new site of the suspected murders is near Nyzhnia Krynka village, not far from the town of Makeevka, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Purgin told ITAR-TASS. The number of bodies and their identities have yet to be determined.

Taped hands, gun wounds’: RT witnesses exhumation of mass graves in E. Ukraine

“Another grave discovered ... How many bodies and how these people died will be established during the exhumation,” Purgin said.

In the meantime, a group of international experts have already arrived at the area of mass burials in the village, a source from the DPR told RIA Novosti.

“About 10 international observers are currently working at the site of mass graves near the village of Nyzhnia Krynka,” said the source, adding that the group includes experts from Russia and France.

Several weeks ago, before a ceasefire was agreed, this area of Ukraine was under the control of the Ukrainian army and the National Guard’s Aidar battalion. Earlier this month, an Amnesty International report has confirmed that war crimes including abductions, executions and extortion were committed by this particular Ukrainian battalion.

Crimes of Ukrainian Aidar battalion confirmed in Amnesty Int’l report

Last week RT crew went to investigate the previously discovered site where four bodies have been found buried in shell craters behind a burnt-out coal mine, days after the OSCE confirmed that three mass graves, allegedly with many bodies, have been found near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Captured female Ukraine pilot brought to Moscow.

A Russian opposition leader who fled Russia had visited Ukraine and writes about what he experienced there. Most definitely not democracy as western media claims even today. This is Google's translation but it's perfectly understandable unless you choose not to see the truth in his words.



After his nine-day trip to Ukraine Russian opposition leader Alexei Sakhnin, who fled to his time in Sweden, shared his impressions in a letter to another Russian activist Alexei Gaskarov. According to him, all the "liberal mantra" the democracy of the new Kiev government is a lie.

Sakhnin writes in his letter that publishes ruposters.ru, Russian media, in general, true picture and convey the atmosphere of what is going on in Ukraine . Speaking of the "march of the liberals" the author does not hesitate to accuse them of blatant bias and "the transformation of the peace supporters in the victory of one party."

"You know, Ukrainian propaganda is too strong impression. After many years, when the country was a relative pluralism, watch what is happening now is very strange. We visited the editorial board of one of the most temperate sites. Types of people from Lugansk to Kiev doing some former leftists there involved. They type against torture, abduction, etc.. Etc.. But on the wall hangs a large sheet of Whatman on which are written the purposes and principles of editorial policy. The first of them, "Creating an atmosphere conducive conduct ATO." Ie. Foment war. On this basis, the facts are selected for publication. All of this "atmosphere" corresponds - published without verification. That there is - simply will not be published. About box I'm not saying. NTV and Layfnyuz could learn, "- he writes.

"Alex, I swear to you that something is happening there - it's a civil war. Without any intervention. Internal war. The worst - in Odessa. - Writes participant in the events at the Swamp - 7 out of 10 "ordinary people", ie. E. Taxi drivers, pensioners who rent rooms visitors, waitresses passenger routes called passwords "junta", "fascists". Sociology no I do not, but in this situation it could not be, but the feelings - they are the majority in the city. And you have no idea the degree of tension. Typical words of a taxi driver: "We're just waiting for when it will be possible to take revenge. '"

On the other side is even more interesting, the author notes: "We interviewed right quadrant (I go there as a Swedish journalist traveled). There's guys - 18-year-old enthusiasts. A complete copy of those who came to LF in 2011-2012. Such a naive and inexperienced romance. And it seems that the political patterns is Mussolini and Franco. They say, "who does not like the new Ukraine - a suitcase, train station, Russia." This is no April Fool's fascist organization, which brings down the shaft of green youth. "

According to Sakhnin, even more terrible situation in the camp t. n. "Moderate". "Picture this: a great office in the city center. At the gates of the armored car. In the yard of a bunch of bullies with guns. And the map of Ukraine. This - "social activists." Chuvachki of business collect money for patriotic purposes. Have developed a great system. Enough money and ammunition and at its own territorial defense battalion and a bunch of armed guys home. You wait for it - they have no official status they have. But they - the real power: money, weapons, organization. And none of the authorities against them can not do anything. According to the views they - she moderation. Like "we hate the Ukrainian nationalists, they are provocateurs." But I ask them, they say, you have half the town of dissent, both with them will continue to live? And he said to me, word for word: "For them, we have a compromise. They sit quietly at home. If they want to talk about the "junta," they say in a whisper to the toilet. If they go to the street, we begin to shoot. '"

"You know how, Alex, but it's real fascism. Without operetta clowns with swastikas. And these guys, and in Odessa and other cities - the darkness. And the capacity of civil dialogue is limited here that "we'll shoot." And they have weapons, money, organization. These are not empty threats. They have already shot. And it's seen. - Says Sakhnin - short, summing up. First, Ukraine is split. That's exactly right, without any Russian propaganda. In any case, the south-east. The intensity such that any outbreak will result in civil war everywhere. Without Russian intervention. " Recall that the coordinator of the movement "Left Front" Alexei Sakhnin about a year ago fled to Sweden and asked for political asylum. He believes that the Russian authorities were preparing to charge him with organizing riots May 6, 2012. ll14696601_3702

Latest report is 30 mass graves containing bodies of about 350 civilians found. Decomposed beyond identification.

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Russian-speaking citizens 'deliberately targeted' in E. Ukraine - Moscow investigators

Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against Ukraine’s military and civilian leadership, accusing top officials of “genocide” against the Russian-speaking population in southeast Ukraine during this year’s conflict.

According to Russian investigators, “unidentified people from the country’s highest political and military leadership of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and Right Sector gave the orders aimed at the complete destruction of Russian-speaking citizens living on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics."

As a result of those actions about 2,500 people died, said Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

“The investigation has found that Russian-speaking citizens were killed during attacks with multiple launch rocket systems Grad and Uragan, aviation rockets, tactical missiles Tochka-U and other kinds of heavy offensive weapons,” he said.

A total more than 500 residential buildings as well as local social facilities, including hospitals and schools, were damaged since April 12, the Investigative Committee said.

It estimated that over 300,000 local residents have been forced to leave and seek asylum in Russia.

Ukraine’s southeastern regions historically have a Russian-speaking majority, many of whom have cultural and family ties with Russia.

Dannhill said:

Latest report is 30 mass graves containing bodies of about 350 civilians found. Decomposed beyond identification.

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This news was given on the website of my favorite radio station but I didn't find it on the BBC site.