Ukraine arrests two top officials at cabinet meeting

March 25, 2015 (BBC News Europe) Two senior Ukrainian officials have been arrested during a cabinet meeting as part of an anti-corruption crackdown, hours after a powerful regional governor was sacked. The head of Ukraine's state emergencies service, Serhiy Bochkovsky, and his deputy Vasyl Stoyetsky were handcuffed by police at the televised meeting. They are suspected of involvement in high-level corruption. Earlier, Ukraine's president sacked a billionaire governor, Ihor Kolomoisky.

Ukrainian TV showed a policeman putting handcuffs on Serhiy Bochkovsky

Mr Kolomoisky had been running the key industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk and had financed armed volunteers to fight pro-Russian separatists in the east. He had been vying with President Petro Poroshenko for control of the Ukrnafta energy company. The two arrests shown on TV on Wednesday were connected to illegal kickbacks involving procurement contracts, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told the cabinet meeting. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, quoted by Reuters news agency, said that " when the country is at war and when we are counting every penny - they steal from people and the state. This will happen to everyone who breaks the law and sneers at the Ukrainian state."

The full article and a video of the arrest are available at:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32051743

Boris Nemtsov murder: Tens of thousands march in Moscow

1 March 2015 (BBC News Europe) Tens of thousands of people have marched through central Moscow to honour opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday. They carried portraits of Mr Nemtsov and banners saying "I am not afraid". He had been due to lead an opposition march on Sunday but his killing turned the event into a mourning rally. Mr Nemtsov's allies have accused the Kremlin of involvement, but President Vladimir Putin condemned the murder as "vile" and vowed to find the killers. Opposition supporters gathered at a point not far from the Kremlin before marching past the spot on Great Moskvoretsky Bridge where Mr Nemtsov was killed. Several thousand people have also marched in St Petersburg.

These placards read: "Heroes don't die" and "These bullets are for each one of us"

The whole article is available at

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31677506

Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead

27 February 2015 (BBC News Europe) A leading Russian opposition politician, former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead in Moscow, Russian officials say. An unidentified attacker shot Mr Nemtsov four times in central Moscow, a source in the law enforcement bodies told Russia's Interfax news agency. He was reportedly shot near the Kremlin while walking with a woman. He died just before a march in Moscow against the war in Ukraine which he was actively promoting.

Mr Nemtsov, 55, served as first deputy prime minister under the late President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. He had earned a reputation as an economic reformer while governor of one of Russia's biggest cities, Nizhny Novgorod. Falling out of favour with Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, Mr Nemtsov became an outspoken opposition politician. Mr Putin has been widely accused of fomenting the bloody rebellion in east Ukraine - an accusation he denies.

According to Russian-language news website Meduza, "several people" got out of a car and shot him. He was shot in the back with a pistol from a white car which fled the scene, Interfax's source said. One of the politician's colleagues in his RPR-Parnassus party, Ilya Yashin, confirmed Mr Nemtsov's death. "Unfortunately I can see the corpse of Boris Nemtsov in front of me now," he was quoted as saying by Russia's lenta.ru news website. "At the Bolshoy Zamoskvoretsky Bridge. I see the body and lots of police around it."

In his last tweet, Mr Nemtsov sent out an appeal for Russia's divided opposition to unite at an anti-war march he was planning for Sunday. "If you support stopping Russia's war with Ukraine, if you support stopping Putin's aggression, come to the Spring March in Maryino on 1 March," he wrote.

Russian opposition politician and former deputy PM Boris Nemtsov shot dead on Moscow street

27 February 2015.  I got this terrible news just a few minutes ago. This man had a unique strength to tell the truth about present day Russia and its policy toward Ukraine even when he was on the air in the center of Moscow (see picture). Undoubtedly he was a worthy opponent of an incumbent President of Russia. On my understanding this cynical assassination could be a sign of growing "Putin's intelligence agency dictatorship". Do not be surprised if in a few days Swedish television will broadcast the funeral ceremony for Boris Nemtsov in the presence of President of Russia. The show must go on...

I sincere wish they were parading somewhere in the Eastern Ukraine....

February 24, 2015 (The Washington post) U.S. military combat vehicles paraded Wednesday through an Estonian city that juts into Russia, a symbolic act that highlighted the stakes for both sides amid the worst tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War. The armored personnel carriers and other U.S. Army vehicles that rolled through the streets of Narva, a border city separated by a narrow frontier from Russia, were a dramatic reminder of the new military confrontation in Eastern Europe. The soldiers from the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry Regiment were taking part in a military parade to mark Estonia’s Independence Day. Narva is a vulnerable border city separated by a river from Russia. It has often been cited as a potential target for the Kremlin if it wanted to escalate its conflict with the West onto NATO territory.

Russia has long complained bitterly about NATO expansion, saying that the Cold War defense alliance was a major security threat as it drew closer to Russia’s borders. The anger grew especially passionate after the Baltic states joined in 2004, and Russian President Vladimir Putin cited fears that Ukraine would join NATO when he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March last year.

Read more at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/24/u-s-military-vehicles-paraded-300-yards-from-the-russian-border/

Deadly bomb blast hits rally in Kharkiv

February22, 2015 (BBC News Europe) A bomb has killed at least two people, including a police officer, and injured 10 others at a rally in Ukraine's second city Kharkiv located about 150 km. east from Poltava. The march was one of several being held to mark a year since the Kiev uprising that led to the fall of pro-Russia leader Viktor Yanukovych. Kharkiv lies outside the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, where a ceasefire appears finally to be taking hold.

President and distinguished foreign guests took part in the March of Dignity in Kyiv

February 22, 2015 The March of Dignity attended by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and distinguished foreign guests who came to Ukraine in order to participate in the events on the occasion of the anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity was held in Kyiv. Together with President Petro Poroshenko, Chairman of Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the March was headed by President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, Poland - Bronislaw Komorowski, Germany - Joachim Gauck, Moldova - Nicolae Timofti, Georgia - Giorgi Margvelashvili, Slovakia - Andrej Kiska, as well as President of the European Council Donald Tusk. 

Thousands of Ukrainians, clergy, representatives of Polish, Georgian, German and French communities also participated in the event. Members of the column were holding a large yellow-blue flag. People came with flags of Ukraine, EU, Georgia, Poland, Lithuania. From time to time people shouted "Glory to Ukraine - glory to heroes!", "Ukraine is Europe!", "Ukraine, freedom, dignity, victory!". People were singing the Anthem of Ukraine. Also, the record of the Anthem of Europe, "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven, sounded. The procession ended up with the Prayer for peace on Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The President and the distinguished foreign guests have laid icon-lamps under the Independence Stele.

President Petro Poroshenko and the heads of foreign states and governments who take part in the events on the occasion of the anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity have visited the exhibition "Presence. Proofs of Russian troops' aggression on the territory of Ukraine" opened on Mykhailivska Square in Kyiv.

The Head of State has commented on a few "exhibits", particularly MLRS "Grad" used by militants to shell peaceful cities and villages, remnants of the missile system "Smerch" used for the shelling of Kramatorsk, which ended up with 17 people killed and over 60 people wounded. Petro Poroshenko showed grenade launchers, which are not produced in Ukraine, captured by Ukrainian militaries, armored vehicles, Russian tanks, remnants of civilians' cars destroyed near Mariupol.

The President has also demonstrated Russian drones. The Head of State has drawn attention of the attendees to the fact that the OSCE SMM representatives, which observe the compliance with the ceasefire regime in Donbas, do not have an opportunity to use drones, because militants and Russian servicemen hinder it in every possible way. However, the Ukrainian servicemen have recorded the activity of about 120 enemy drones, as stated by Petro Poroshenko.

Read more at

http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/32337.html