BBC News – Ukraine votes to drop non-aligned status

December 24, 2014 (BBC News) Ukraine’s parliament has voted to drop the country’s non-aligned status and work towards Nato membership. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the move “counterproductive” and said it would boost tensions. The BBC’s David Stern in Kiev says it is not clear when Ukraine will apply for Nato membership and many officials see it as a distant prospect. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pledged to seek Nato membership over Russian support for rebels in the east. Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in March, denies supplying the rebels with weapons. However, it is subject to EU and US sanctions over the crisis. In a vote in Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday, MPs overwhelmingly backed the move by 303 to 8. Speaking before the vote, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Ukraine was determined to pivot towards Europe and the West. “This will lead to integration in the European and the Euro-Atlantic space,” he said. The non-aligned status, which Ukraine adopted in 2010 under Russian pressure, prevents states from joining military alliances.

On Ukrainian Army Day (December 6) Ukrainian army got more armored vehicles than in the past 10 years

An armored vehicles transfer ceremony have taken place in Chuguyiv near Kharkiv on December 6, 2014. Modernized and repaired tanks T-64B (Bulat) and armored troop carriers are among military equipment to be sent soon to the warfare area. Besides self-propelled howitzers 2S1 “Gvozdika” and helicopters Mi-8 and Mi-2 will be delivered to the east of Ukraine soon. Ukraine has partly suspended the supplies of military equipment abroad to meet growing requirements of Ukrainian Army.

The annexation of Crimea and the hybrid war with Russian Federation have changed the Ukrainian government’s attitude toward the domestic military industry. Consequently, Ukraine’s arms production sector is likely to cease being an export-oriented industry that depended on Russia and exploited the fame of the Soviet military-industrial complex, while not developing much of its own hardware or technologies. President Petro Poroshenko told the government last September that the Ukrainian military-industrial complex could become one of the engines of the national economy. 

We have to thank you all Ukrainian engineers and workers for their selfless labour. They succeeded in breathing new life into military factories and specialized repair shops that have been standing idle for decades. To say truly, these vehicles are out of the date in comparison with what NATO countries are currently armed with, but undoubtedly it is better than nothing. Unfortunately the countries that acts as guarantors of our territorial integrity as well as other western friends of Ukraine more inclined to provide us with whatever you want but not lethal arms. More and more people here in Ukraine has started to think about whether the decision regarding a non-nuclear -weapon status was mistaken or not ...

Putin’s Loss of German Trust Seals the West’s Isolation of Russia

Nov.17, 2014 (time.com)

After a night spent debating the Ukraine crisis with the Russian President, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came out more determined than ever to push the Kremlin out of Eastern Europe

Russia's President Vladimir Putin looks on at a press conference following the G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane, Australia.

During a sppech on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel predicted a drawn-out confrontation with Moscow. Breaking from her normally subdued political style, she even invoked the worst years of the 20th century in describing the West’s conflict with Russia over Ukraine. “After the horrors of two world wars and the end of the Cold War, this challenges the peaceful order in Europe,” she said, referring to what she called Putin’s “old-thinking” view of Eastern Europe as Russia’s stomping ground. “I am convinced this won’t succeed,” she said. In the end, the West would win out against the challenge emanating from Russia, “even if the path will be long and hard and full of setbacks,” Merkel told a conference in Brisbane, Australia.

It was in many ways the low point for Putin’s deepening estrangement from the West. During the G20 summit of world leaders held in Brisbane over the weekend, the Russian leader was broadly ostracized by the most powerful figures at the table, and some of them were far less diplomatic toward Putin than Merkel has been. In greeting Putin on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper reportedly said, “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine.” Later that day, Merkel came to the Hilton Hotel in central Brisbane for an unscheduled meeting with Putin that reportedly lasted almost six hours, running well into Sunday morning. The subject was the conflict in Ukraine, and according to the Kremlin, Putin did his best to “clarify in detail the Russian approach to this situation.” But his efforts to win Merkel’s sympathy – or at least her understanding – appear to have done the opposite. He emerged from their encounter apparently so exhausted that he decided to leave the summit early, saying he needed to get some sleep.

http://time.com/3590588/putin-merkel-germany-russia/

U.S. Congress to Consider Granting Weapons and Ammunition to Ukraine

November 11, 2014 (Cenzor.net) The U.S. Congress will consider the law on Lend-Lease, which proposes to transfer weapons, ammunition, and other types of armament to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression. The author of the bill, Republican Michael Burgess, is convinced that financial aid in the current situation is no longer enough, Censor.net reports citing the Voice of America. Commenting on the events in Ukraine, Burgess said: "Ukrainians want to live in a united, independent, stable and prosperous democracy. And without a doubt, the war in the Donbas complicates reform efforts. Russian aggression made Ukraine a more united, more democratic and, ironically, more pro-Western. The results of the recent elections have confirmed it. The GOP representative aims to help Ukraine in its quest for freedom and democracy". 

"The position of the Congress is solidarity with Ukraine. The US has already provided financial and material assistance to Ukraine, but taking into account the constant aggression and lack of respect for the peace plan, demonstrated by Russia, Ukraine needs more than money. Ukraine needs weapons, ammunition, body armor, and communication means," the congressman said. "Of course, financial assistance is important, but not as much as weapons and ammunition to fight off the Russian troops which invaded a sovereign country." 

Automobile manufacturer “AutoKraz” located in Poltava region has launched a production of new armoured vehicles for the need of Ukrainian army

New armored vehicles “Spartan” and “Kuga” are equipped with up-to-date protection systems. An armored vehicle “Kuga” is designed for military operation in town, and another model – “Spartan” has been designed as an armored all-terrain vehicle equipped with a powerful small arms. The President of “AutoKraz” company Roman Chernyak said that all armored cars will be delivered very soon to the warfare area. Since next month such deliveries will become regular. Before to be sent to the East of Ukraine a new vehicles were shown to the public. 

You may visit a web site of the “AutoKraz” company at http://www.autokraz.com.ua/index.php/en/

Ukraine conflict: Heavy fighting for Donetsk airport

3 October 2014 (BBC News Europe) Heavy firing could be heard near the airport - strategically important for both sides in the conflict. A government spokesman said the rebels had broken into one of the terminals but were later pushed back. The rebels say they have seized the airport. A truce agreed in eastern Ukraine on 5 September looks increasingly fragile.

On Friday US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to "express his concern about intensifying violence in eastern Ukraine". "Russia must use its influence with the separatists and end these attacks immediately", state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

"The situation in the area of Donetsk airport remains difficult," Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told Ukraine's Kanal 5 TV.

"The militants, using smoke bombs as a cover, broke into the ground floor of the old terminal," he said.

Ukrainian soldiers had pushed the rebels from half the building, Mr Seleznyov added.But leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic claimed that their fighters had seized the whole airport. Eyewitnesses earlier told local media that a number of rebels had been killed during the clashes. A correspondent for Associated Press news agency reported seeing three rebel tanks firing at the main terminal, with sniper shots ringing out. 

Fighting for the airport - a vantage point for the Ukrainian army to fire on positions in rebel-held Donetsk - has intensified in recent days. Ukraine says two servicemen have been killed and another nine wounded since Thursday. Mr Seleznyov also accused Russia of sending drones over the airport to help the rebels' reconnaissance efforts and direct fire. Russia has denied sending arms to the rebels or soldiers to eastern Ukraine, though it says "volunteers" have crossed into Ukraine. Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned indiscriminate shelling in east Ukraine after a Red Cross employee was killed. Swiss citizen Laurent DuPasquier, 38, died when a shell landed near ICRC offices in Donetsk on Thursday.

Read more and see video at

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29481979

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Russia, Ukraine and Europe have been into Vladimir Putin's black hole of fear

 Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Alexey Druginyn/RIA Novosti/EPA

18 September 2014 ( Mikhail Shishkin theguardian) The formula for saving any dictatorship is universal: create an enemy, start a war. We are back in Soviet times of total lies. I remember that as a child I read about black holes in a popular science magazine about space and it scared me. The idea of our world being sucked into these breaks in the universe kept bothering me until I realised that it all was so far away that it would not reach us. But then a black hole tore our world very close to us. It started sucking in houses, roads, cars, planes, people and whole countries. Russia and Ukrainehave already fallen into this black hole. And it is now sucking in Europe in front of our eyes. This hole in the universe is the soul of one very lonely ageing man. The black hole is his fear. TV images of the demise of Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi were messages that fate sent him from exotic countries. Protest rallies that gathered hundreds of thousands of people in Moscow ruined his inauguration and signalled approaching danger. The disgraceful flight of Ukraine's Viktor Yanukovych earlier this year set off alarm bells: if Ukrainians could oust their gang, it could serve as an example for the brotherly nation. The instinct of self-preservation kicked in immediately. The formula for saving any dictatorship is universal: create an enemy, start a war. The state of war is the regime's elixir of life. A nation in patriotic ecstasy becomes one with its "national leader", while any dissenters can be declared "national traitors". 

The whole article is available at

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/18/russia-ukraine-europe-putin-black-hole