An-132D: First aircraft without Russian components

March 31, 2017 The new multipurpose aircraft of Ukrainian production was designed through cooperation with world’s leading aviation concerns. Components for the new aircraft were supplied from Canada, USA, Great Britain and Germany, according to State ConcernUkroboronprom. An-132D was designed by Antonov State Company, which is part of Ukroboronprom, and was made without any components from Russian Federation.

The plane of such scale was designed in a record term — 1.5 years, which is considered almost impossible in the modern aviation. The production program of the aircraft was launched in 2015, the plane flew for the first time on March 31. Primarily, the program to create An-132D was made specifically for the organizations from Saudi Arabia and was the first stage of production of next generation An-132.

Airplane speed can reach 500 km per hour, maximum flight height — 9 thousand meters, carrying capacity — up to 9.2 tons. It is planned to produce the whole line of different planes on the basis of An-132. It is noteworthy that the new An-132D is the first aircraft which was created in the framework of new strategy to reform Defense sector of Ukraine.

Polish consulate in Ukraine attacked with grenade launcher

March 29, 2017 (UNIAN) Unidentified assailants attacked the Polish consulate in Lutsk, in western Ukraine on Wednesday, Radio Poland reported. “It was probably a grenade launcher,” Polish Consul Krzysztof Sawicki told local media. “The projectile hit the top floor, leaving a hole of about 70 centimeters.” No one was injured in the attack. The Polish foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Andrii Deshchytsia, in response.

“We expect and demand that the security of our institutions be improved across Ukraine,” a spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement. He called on Ukrainian authorities to “explain the circumstances of the incident,” and to “identify and arrest the perpetrators.” Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko condemned the attack on Twitter, saying he had “urgently” ordered authorities to “take all reasonable measures to investigate this incident and the perpetrators.”

Antonov airlines increases transportation of goods by 23% in 2016

March 29, 2017  (Interfax-Ukraine) Antonov Airlines (Kyiv), part of state enterprise Antonov, one of the leading global operators of heavy An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft with a cargo carrying capacity of 150 tonnes, in 2016 increased cargo transportation by 22.8% compared to 2015, to 21,463 tonnes, the Antonov press service has told Interfax-Ukraine. According to the press service, the number of flights carried out by the company in 2016 increased by 25.1%, to 448 flights, the time of flights in 2016 amounted to more than 4,600 hours.

The Antonov Airlines fleet now has seven An-124-100 Ruslan planes with a cargo capacity of 150 tonnes, an An-225 Mriya super transport aircraft with a capacity of 250 tonnes, a multi-purpose An-74T (10 tonnes) aircraft, An-22 Antei (60 tonnes), and An-26 (5.5 tonnes) aircraft. Since 2006, Antonov Airlines has been implementing a contract on strategic transportation within the NATO SALIS (Strategic Airlift Interim Solution) program in the interests of 18 alliance countries and the EU. In December 2014 the contract with Russia’s airline Volga-Dnepr was extended until the end of 2016. In autumn 2016 the Antonov Airlines management announced the plan to continue cooperation with NATO on the SALIS program after the completion of a joint contract with the Russian company. Within the framework of the new format of partnership, Leipzig remains the basic site of Ukrainian Ruslan aircraft.

Ukraine's leader calls killing of Putin critic a Russian terror act

March 23, 2017 (CNN) A former Russian lawmaker and Kremlin critic who fled to Ukraine last year was shot dead Thursday in Kiev -- a killing that Ukraine's President called a "Russian state terrorist act." Denis Voronenkov, who'd been a Communist member of Russia's lower legislative house before he left, was fatally shot outside a hotel in broad daylight, officials said. Voronenkov becomes the latest in a string of Russian critics of President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government who were killed or injured in mysterious circumstances. The suspect in his death died in the hospital after a shootout with Voronenkov's bodyguard.

A Ukrainian police officer seizes a gun at the scene where Voronenkov was shot dead on Thursday.

Denis Voronenkov, a former Communist legislator in Russia's lower legislative house, was shot dead in Kiev on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities say. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Thursday's killing a "Russian state terrorist act" on Twitter, and described Voronenkov as "one of the key witnesses of the Russian aggression against Ukraine" -- referring to Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and a subsequent war with pro-Russian rebels. Poroshenko's accusation drew a sharp rebuke from Moscow. Any claims that Russia is connected to the killing are "absurd," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian state-run TASS news agency. Voronenkov had denounced Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and said he was cooperating with Ukrainian prosecutors' treason case against former President Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician who fled Ukraine after deadly 2014 protests.

Read more at http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/23/europe/ukraine-former-russian-lawmaker-denis-voronenkov-killed/

Ukraine munitions blasts prompt mass evacuations

March 24, 2017 (BBC Europe) Some 20,000 people are being evacuated after a series of explosions at a massive arms depot in eastern Ukraine described by officials as sabotage. The base in Balakliya, near Kharkiv, is around 100km (60 miles) from fighting against Russian-backed separatists. The dump is used to store thousands of tonnes of ammunition including missiles and artillery weapons. Rescue teams are overseeing a huge evacuation effort for people living in the city and nearby villages. The total area of the dump spans more than 350 hectares, the military says. Everyone within a 10km (6 miles) radius of the dump is being evacuated, the Interfax news agency quoted an aide to President Petro Poroshenko as saying. Munitions from the depot are used to supply military units in the conflict zone in nearby Luhansk and Donetsk, reports say.

A huge cloud of smoke could be seen billowing above the ammunition depot of the Ukrainian armed forces on Thursday

Read the full article and see the video at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39363416

Ukraine says saboteurs blow up arms warehouse in east

March 23, 2017 (Reuters) The Ukrainian military said unknown saboteurs blew up a warehouse storing tank ammunition at a military base in the east of the country early on Thursday, but nobody was hurt. The base, which contained about 138,000 tonnes of ammunition, is located in the city of Balakleya about 100 km (60 miles) from the frontline of Ukraine's war against Russian-backed separatists. 

Rescue teams were evacuating nearby villages in the eastern Kharkiv region, the military said. "According to preliminary data ... as a result of sabotage, last night at 2.46 AM (0046 GMT), fire and explosions caused the detonation of ammunition at several sites storing rockets and artillery weapons," Ukraine's chief military prosecutor Anatoly Matios wrote on Facebook. 

Military spokesman Oleksander Motuzyanyk said security around other bases was being beefed up. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman was due to fly to the area later on Thursday. Saboteurs previously tried to destroy the same base using drones in 2015, another military spokesman, Yuzef Venskovich, told the 112 TV channel. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Ukraine and the separatist rebels since 2014.

Read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-blast-idUSKBN16U0N8?il=0

Remains of World War II pilot returned after seven decades

March 16, 2017 (Tampa Bay Times) Seven decades after he was shot down during World War II, Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. John Donald Mumford came home Thursday night. A flag-draped coffin holding his remains was carried out of the cargo hold of Southwest Airlines Flight 4599 from Chicago shortly after 8 p.m. Standing on the tarmac on the chilly March night at Tampa International Airport, Mumford's family watched the dignified transfer ceremony.

Ronald Woolums, an Air Force veteran, saluted. His brother, Lynn Woolums, held his right hand over his heart. Mumford was their uncle. "I just realized we have a family war hero," said Lynn Woolums of St. Petersburg. "He paid the ultimate price for our freedom." "This is very impressive," Ronald Woolums, also of St. Petersburg said of the ceremony. "He is finally home." Mumford was born in upstate New York and eventually moved with his family to 3490 Queensboro Lane in St. Petersburg. The Woolums brothers know very little else about their uncle, who, according to military records, grew to be nearly 6 feet tall and 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. So they were both amazed and grateful to read the details compiled by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in an 80-page, plastic-bound report about the incident and the search for his remains.

Mumford enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and went on to fly a P-51 Mustang fighter. On the morning of June 6, 1944, as the allies were launching the invasion of Normandy, Mumford, 22, was making what turned out to be his final flight. It was to escort B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in an attack on a German airfield. The mission was successful, destroying buildings, ramps and aircraft. But afterward, he was pounced on by German fighters and shot down over what is now Ukraine.

For years, because of fighting during World War II, followed by the tensions of the Cold War, there wasn't much that could be done. But in 2007, the DPAA's predecessor organization got some new information about Mumford from the Ukrainian government. Over the years, teams visited the crash site, interviewing witnesses and examining the location where Mumford crashed.

Based on the witness statements and aircraft wreckage, the team recommended that the Defense Department excavate the site to search for Mumford's remains. From July 16 through Aug. 5, 2016, a combined team from the DPAA and the Ukraine Armed Forces went looking. Investigators used standard archaeological techniques and eventually found a partial, broken skeleton that included parts of the cranium, ribs, vertebrae and leg and arm bones. The remains were sent back to the DPAA Laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, where they were eventually identified as Mumford's. It was those remains that were returned to Tampa on Thursday. A funeral service for Mumford will be held at 10:45 a.m. March 23 at Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home, 7820 38th Ave. N in St. Petersburg. Interment of his cremains will follow at the Bay Pines National Cemetery.

Heavy fighting with Grad, tanks near Ukraine's Mariupol

March 20, 2017 (UNIAN) Ukrainian civil volunteers report Russia's hybrid military forces are attacking Ukrainian positions near the Ukrainian-controlled strategic port city of Mariupol with all available weapons on Monday. "According to preliminary reports, an enemy fortified position has been completely destroyed together with the terrorists. The enemy has been intensifying the shelling and is already firing on its former positions. Enemy main battle tanks are also engaged in the fighting," the People's Project volunteers' center reported on Facebook on Monday, March 20.

Later, the center shared an update, saying that the hybrid troops are using Grad multiple rocket systems, tanks, banned 122mm and 152mm artillery systems and mortars. "At least nine Ukrainian troops have been wounded in action. Information about the casualties is being verified," the center wrote. In turn, volunteers from the Povernys Zhyvym [Back and Alive] project report that the fighting in the Mariupol sector goes on: the enemy continues to intensively shell the advanced positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), using large-caliber mortars and cannon artillery systems. 

"There is confirmation that around 12:00 Kyiv time, the terrorists fired Grad MLR systems," the volunteers said, adding that, according to unconfirmed information, there were wounded among the AFU fighters.

Ukrainian language set for media boost in new law

March 17, 2017 (BBC Europe) A new law in Ukraine requires at least 75% of national TV broadcasts to be in the Ukrainian language. It is a very sensitive issue for the country's many Russian speakers, with the conflict in eastern Ukraine partly about ethnic Russians' language rights. The language quota for local TV and radio stations has been set at 50%. The law is still going through parliament and requires presidential approval. President Petro Poroshenko has called for more Ukrainian language use on TV.

Ukrainian sociological research last year found Russian to be the main language of Ukrainian TV, press, the services sector and Ukrainian websites. The language issue is at the heart of the Ukraine conflict. Even though there had been little tension between Ukrainian and Russian speakers before hostilities erupted, the Kremlin said Russians in Ukraine faced "genocide" and deserved protection, by military means if necessary. Kiev, on the other hand, has been saying that it is the Ukrainian language that needs to be protected following decades of Soviet rule. Russian-language programming on TV has to have Ukrainian subtitles - even though it would be hard to find anyone in Ukraine who did not understand Russian. Any TV programmes that are seen as Russian propaganda are banned outright.

Kiev, May 2014: The annual Vyshyvanka march is a patriotic occasion for Ukrainians

The latest move has divided opinion in Ukraine. Critics say it will do nothing to win the hearts and minds of Russian speakers. "This law will violate the rights of millions of Ukrainian citizens whose mother tongue is Russian," said a statement by Inter, Ukraine's most popular TV channel which mostly broadcasts in Russian. But Oleksandr Tkachenko, the head of another popular Ukrainian television channel - One Plus One - supported the new law, calling it "a historic event". The full article is available at

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39302909

Rada ratifies FTA agreement between Ukraine and Canada

March 15, 2017 (Interfax) The Verkhovna Rada has ratified the free trade area agreement (FTA) between Ukraine and Canada. Some 272 people's deputies voted for this decision on March 14. Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy after voting said he would urgently sign the document. The agreement was signed in Kyiv on July 11, 2016. According to an explanatory note to the document, the ratification of the agreement will promote the development of bilateral trade and economic relations between Ukraine and Canada, will allow Ukrainian producers to benefit from customs-free access to the Canadian market, will open new markets for Ukrainian enterprises. 

First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv said in parliament that the results of the analysis conducted by research institutes show that the annulment of imports duties by Canada would help Ukrainian manufacturers of food, light, chemical, petrochemical and engineering industries to have the best advantages on the Canadian markets. On the other hand, the agreement would open opportunities for imports of raw materials and advanced technologies, which would prompt Ukraine's economic growth. Full article is available at:

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/408718.html

Ukraine-Russia court battle over "terrorism" claims

March 8, 2017 (Euronews) In a case that started on Monday, it accuses Russia of violating UN anti-terrorism and anti-discrimination conventions. Ukraine says separatist forces, backed by Russia, have carried out terrorist acts including the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, which killed 298 passengers and crew. It also accuses Russia of illegally annexing Crimea.

“Today I stand before the World Court to request protection of the basic human rights of Ukrainian people,” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Olena Zerkal said on the first of four days of hearings. Zerkal requested an immediate court order to stop what she called Russia’s abuses until the judges have heard the case in full. The UN court takes years to hear cases. International Relations Professor Andrea Stavitskiy from the Moscow State University branch in Sevastopol, believes the ruling by the UN’s highest court could be significant. “All the talk about Crimea’s return to Russia being a bad thing hasn’t yet had any legal proof,” he said. “The Hague tribunal can solve that issue, giving the West a sort of ‘legal proof’ of accusations that Russia is an aggressor and Putin is a tyrant.”

The International Court of Justice holds a public hearing in the case Ukraine v. Russian Federation, on March 6, 2017 in the Hague

Despite Ukraine’s claims of Russian racial discrimination, notably against Crimea’s minority ethnic Tatars, some people in the Black Sea peninsula spoke out strongly in favour of Moscow. “I want the world to understand that there wasn’t any annexation,” said Sevastopol resident Lada Litvak. “It was the legitimate will of the Crimean people. We really wanted to return to Russia and we managed to achieve it.” “I think the Hague tribunal should dismiss Ukraine’s claim,” added Aza Azamatova, another resident of Crimea. But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took to Facebook, making no secret of his feelings on the matter.

Russia has repeatedly denied sending troops or military equipment to eastern Ukraine. It also denies downing MH17. The UN court’s rulings are final and binding. But it has no means of enforcement.

Hon är stridspiloten i Ukraina som talar med fienden

Mars 4, 2017 (Dagens Nyheter) Hon kunde ha förblivit en hyllad hjälte i Ukraina. I stället gjorde hon sig obekväm. Nadija Savtjenko är soldaten som är beredd att skaka hand med fienden. DN:s Anna-Lena Laurén har träffat Ukrainas första kvinnliga stridspilot.

Foto: Anders Hansson

Läs vidare på http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/hon-ar-stridspiloten-i-ukraina-som-talar-med-fienden/

Visa lib for Ukraine to be approved by EU Council May 11, to be enforced from June - media

March 2, 2017 (UNIAN) The final approval of a visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine should take place at a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council May 11, Europeiska Pravda reports citing independent sources from influential EU member states. Politics 12:30, 02 March 2017 170 REUTERS The schedule has been informally agreed upon between the European institutions and member states, according to Europeiska Pravda. The Committee of Permanent Representatives of  EU member states (COREPER) will formally approve the decision on visa liberalization for Ukraine at a meeting in Brussels on March 2. On February 28, inter-institutional talks between the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament on EU visa liberalization for Ukraine ended successfully. "Visa trialogue for Ukraine has ended successfully. Dutch govt EU ambassadors will approve on 2 march (second round of approval likely in may)," RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels Rikard Jozwiak wrote on Twitter on February 28.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/1804011-visa-lib-for-ukraine-to-be-approved-by-eu-council-may-11-to-be-enforced-from-june-media.html