Crisis in Ukraine

[LazyLion]

NASA SUSPENDS RUSSIA TIES, EXCEPT ON SPACE STATION

NASA has cut ties with Russia except for cooperation aboard the International Space Station due to the crisis in Ukraine, the US space agency said Wednesday.

"Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation," said a NASA statement.

"NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station."

The story was first reported by news site The Verge, which obtained an internal memo describing the policy change.

A copy of the memo posted online described a halt to travel to Russia by NASA employees and of visits by Russians to NASA facilities, and a freeze on exchange of email, teleconferences and video conferences.

The new policy does not apply to "operational International Space Station activities" or "multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation," said the memo.

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are the sole means of transport to the ISS for the world's astronauts. The United States pays Russia an average of $70.7 million per seat.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told lawmakers on March 27 that he was aware of no threat that would jeopardize the Russian-US partnership at the space station.

Earlier Wednesday, NATO warned that Russia's military presence on the flashpoint border -- estimated at about 40,000 troops -- with Ukraine was of "grave concern."

NATO on Tuesday announced the alliance was suspending all practical cooperation with Russia, military and civilian, and that there was no confirmation that Russian troops were pulling back from the border.


Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 03 Apr 2014 03:18

 

[LazyLion]

OBAMA TO MEET WITH TOP LAWMAKERS ON UKRAINE CRISIS

The White House says President Barack Obama will meet with top lawmakers on Thursday about the situation in Ukraine.

Obama plans to host House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday evening in the Oval Office.

The White House says Obama will also update the leaders on his trip last week to Europe. Much of that four-country trip was dominated by efforts to coordinate the West's response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Congress has sent Obama a bill providing $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine and punishing Russia for its bold annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Some in Congress are pushing Obama to take further steps, including increasing natural gas exports to Europe.


Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 03 Apr 2014 01:10

 

[LazyLion]

UKRAINE DETAINS RIOT POLICE OVER SNIPER DEATHS
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press

Authorities in Ukraine said Thursday that they have detained several members of an elite riot police unit on suspicion of shooting protesters during bloody anti-government clashes in February that left more than 100 dead.

The Prosecutor General's Office said those detained include the head of a company in the Berkut riot police who allegedly handed out weapons for use against demonstrators.

A government report was to be released later Thursday on the events on Feb. 18-20.

Days after those killings, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital, precipitating the fall of his government.

The identity of the snipers is disputed. The interim government says Yanukovych ordered snipers to be deployed - a charge Yanukovych denied in an AP interview on Wednesday.

Opponents of the current leadership say snipers were organized by opposition leaders trying to whip up outrage.

Yanukovych also said he "was wrong" in inviting Russian troops into Crimea, which was swiftly annexed by Moscow following a referendum in which reunion with Russia was backed by 97 percent of those who voted.

Ukraine's fledging government and Western leaders have since expressed concern about a recent build-up of Russian forces near the Ukrainian border. President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week that the troops were there for military exercises and that one battalion has already left.

Yanukovych, in the interview with AP and Russia's state NTV television, did not answer several questions about whether he would support any Russian move into other areas of Ukraine on the pretext of protecting ethnic Russians.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday offered further assurances, telling reporters that Russian troops "will be returning to the place of their permanent quarters as soon as other participants of the exercise have completed their tasks."

Lavrov, however, accused the Ukrainian government "and their patrons in the West of blowing this out of the proportion," adding that Russia did not violate any international norms by sending additional troops to its own borders.


Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 11:04

 

[LazyLion]

UKRAINE SAYS YANUKOVYCH ISSUED 'CRIMINAL ORDER' TO FIRE AT PROTESTERS

Ukraine's acting interior minister on Thursday accused deposed pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych of issuing the "criminal order" to fire at protesters during February unrest in Kiev that claimed nearly 90 lives.

"Yanukovych issed the criminal order... to open fire against protesters on February 18-20," acting interior minister Arsen Avakov told reporters.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 12:03

 

[LazyLion]

UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIAN AGENTS INVOLVED IN KIEV CARNAGE

Ukraine on Thursday accused both ousted pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych and Russian security agents of being responsible for February unrest in Kiev that claimed nearly 90 lives.

Acting interior minister Arsen Avakov said Yanukovych issued the "criminal order" to fire at the pro-EU protesters while agents from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) helped him plan and carry out the deadly assault.

"Yanukovych issued the criminal order... to open fire against protesters on February 18-20," Avakov told reporters.

"FSB agents took part in both the planning and execution of the so-called anti-terrorist operation," he added.

Three months of at-times violent anti-government protests by supporters of closer European ties culminated in two days of carnage in Kiev that led to parliament's February 22 ouster of Yanukovych and his Russian-backed government.

Nearly 20 people -- most of them protesters -- died of gunshot wounds during hours of street battles across central Kiev on the night of February 18-19.

More than 60 people were killed on February 20 during battles that broke out on Kiev's central Independence Square in the morning and continued into late afternoon.

Many of those who died appeared to have been killed by snipers.

Russia has suggested that ultranationalists were the first to open fire against the police in an effort to spark a larger altercation that could then be blamed on Yanukovych and his backers in the Kremlin.

Ukrainian prosecutors of Thursday announced the arrest of 11 Ukrainian anti-riot police officers and their commander for their involvement in the unrest.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 13:12

 

[LazyLion]

LATVIA POSTPONES RUSSIAN PATRIARCH'S VISIT AMID UKRAINE CRISIS

Latvia has asked the head of the Russian Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, to postpone a planned visit amid tension between Russia and the Baltic states over Moscow's actions in Ukraine.

A letter from Latvian President Andris Berzins requesting that the May visit be put off indefinitely was handed to Kirill's representatives in Moscow on Thursday.

"The visit is postponed due to the circumstances regarding sanctions and the general international situation," foreign ministry spokesman Karlis Eihenbaums told AFP, adding that the request had been made "absolutely" because of Russian activity in Ukraine.

"The visit might take place later this year or it might be even later on. It very much depends on the international situation and Russia's behaviour."

He said the request was consistent with a March 21 decision by the European Union, of which Latvia is a member, to suspend all high-level contacts with Russian authorities.

"We are a very open society here and there are a number of people for whom this visit is important, but if anyone can blame themselves it is the Russians," Eihenbaums said.

The ex-Soviet Baltic state, which has a population of two million people, counts around 350,000 Orthodox adherents among its large Russian minority, making it one of the country's three major religions alongside Lutheranism and Catholicism.

But Berzins's letter also stems in part from domestic pressure, with many prominent Latvians claiming in recent weeks that his response to the Ukraine crisis has been weak compared to that of his counterparts in neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania.

Some even called on Berzins to step down, prompting him to issue a strong defence of his actions, saying on Tuesday that he had expressed "clear and direct views" regarding the situation in Crimea.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 13:51

 

[Unhappy438]

Dmitry Rogozin (Russian deputy prime minister) indirectly threatening war with Europe on his twitter

https://twitter.com/Rogozin/statuses/451463532887171073
https://twitter.com/Rogozin/statuses/451463700063735808

"If you think that because of your visa sanctions you have freed yourself from trouble of seeing me and my colleagues I want to assure you that Russian military-industrial complex has plenty of other ways beyond tourist visa to travel the world."

 

[zippy]

Dmitry Rogozin (Russian deputy prime minister) indirectly threatening war with Europe on his twitter

https://twitter.com/Rogozin/statuses/451463532887171073
https://twitter.com/Rogozin/statuses/451463700063735808

"If you think that because of your visa sanctions you have freed yourself from trouble of seeing me and my colleagues I want to assure you that Russian military-industrial complex has plenty of other ways beyond tourist visa to travel the world."

he seems to be taking this whole sanctions thing badly

I wonder what the response would have been if the US vice-president tweeted something similar ?

 

[LazyLion]

UKRAINIAN OFFICERS JOIN NATO DRILLS IN BULGARIA

Ukraine has dispatched 16 senior officers across the Black Sea to Bulgaria to join a NATO military exercise in a demonstration of cooperation between the alliance and the crisis-torn former Soviet republic.

Organizers said Thursday that the drills, dubbed Saber Guardian, involve over 700 troops from 13 NATO member and partner nations, as well as representatives from NATO.

Although planned in 2013, the exercise is coinciding with an East-West standoff over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The exercises are being held just few hundred miles away from the contested Black Sea peninsula.

Maj. Gen. Richard Longo, deputy commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, said "our peaceful, humanitarian-focused exercise will help bring stability to this geopolitically significant part of the world."


Source : Sapa-AP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 14:19

 

[LazyLion]

EUROPEAN WATCHDOG URGES AIRLINES TO AVOID CRIMEA AIRSPACE

The European aviation safety watchdog on Thursday urged airlines to avoid the airspace above Crimea, warning of "serious risks" after the peninsula was annexed by Russia.

In a statement, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said Russia's stated intention of taking over air traffic above Crimea, which is currently under Ukraine's responsibility, posed "serious risks to the safety of international civil flights".

"Due to the unsafe situation where more than one air traffic service provider may be controlling flights within the same airspace from 3 April 2014,... consideration should be given to measures to avoid the airspace and circumnavigate the Simferopol FIR (airspace) with alternative routings," the EASA said.

Russia annexed Crimea last month after Ukraine's pro-Moscow leader Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in February following three months of anti-government protests that rocked the capital Kiev and other cities.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 15:53

 

[LazyLion]

RUSSIA SCRAPS LAST GAS DISCOUNT TO UKRAINE, HIKES PRICE

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday he has scrapped the last discount on gas price granted by Moscow to Ukraine, effectively raising the price by $100 to $485 for every 1,000 cubic metres.

"I am taking the decision to denounce the government decree from 30 April 2010," Medvedev said, referring to the discount on Russia granted to its neighbour in exchange for keeping its Black Sea Fleet facilities in Crimea's port of Sevastopol.

The decision means that "the price on gas for Ukraine is automatically... going up and will be $485 for 1000cm starting in April," Gazprom chief Alexei Miller told Medvedev as the two were shown meeting on state television.

Putin on Wednesday ended Russia's agreements with Ukraine over the status of its Black Sea fleet, which had been based in Sevastopol since the tsarist era. Moscow has in recent weeks annexed the peninsula.

Medvedev added that Russia is looking into seeking further compensation from Ukraine for the discount granted since the 2010 agreement, which had prolonged Russia's Black Sea fleet lease to 2017.

Tensions between Moscow and Kiev are running high after a pro-West government came to power in Kiev following the fall of president Viktor Yanukovych and Russia seized the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in defiance of the international community.

In a sign of relentless economic pressure on Ukraine, Gazprom earlier on Thursday said it is demanding that the country pays for all debt accrued for recent gas deliveries.

"Naftogaz Ukraine must take immediate measures to pay off the accrued debt," the Russian company said in a statement after Miller met with head of Naftogaz Andrei Sobolev.

"At this time, the total debt by Naftogaz is estimated at over $2.2 billion including deliveries in March," Gazprom said.

"So let our Ukrainian partners find the necessary finances to pay for their debt and make the current payments, since cooperation in this sphere, as well as other spheres, cannot continue any other way," Medvedev told Miller.

"People who make decisions in Ukraine now should understand this," he said.

Russia has repeatedly shown readiness to use gas as a lever in conflicts with Ukraine, which remains dependent on imports from its resource-rich former Soviet master to keep the country running.

Thursday's price hike came just two days after Moscow got rid of another discount that was in place since December.

That discount had been accorded when President Vladimir Putin met with the former president Viktor Yanukovych.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mjs
Date : 03 Apr 2014 15:25

 

[LazyLion]

FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY FOR CRIMEAN TATARS UNDER PUTIN
by Anna SMOLCHENKO

In the dying days of the Soviet Union, Milyara Settarova was a young activist who took part in historic demonstrations in Moscow demanding Crimean Tatars be allowed to return home from Central Asia, where they had been deported under Stalin.

Twenty-seven years later, the feisty 51-year-old is up in arms again, protesting Russia's takeover of Crimea.

"I do not trust Russia," said Settarova, who teaches her native language at a university in Simferopol, the Black Sea peninsula's main city.

"I don't believe that this state will give us more rights than we already have," she told AFP.

She said many Tatars have still not forgiven Moscow for the horrors their families went through under deportation in 1944.

Crimea's 300,000 Tatars largely boycotted a disputed referendum last month in which nearly 97 percent of voters -- mainly from the region's Russian-speaking majority -- chose to split from Ukraine.

This week the minority's assembly, the Mejlis, agreed to cooperate with the peninsula's new authorities but also said they would consider conducting their own plebiscite on broader autonomy.

The Tatars' spiritual leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, who is a Ukrainian lawmaker, told a session of the UN Security Council this week his people were extremely worried about their future and even their lives.

"The possibility is rather high of bloody inter-ethnic conflicts, or to be more precise of the slaughter of Crimea's Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians which may unfold in Crimea in the coming days," he said.

Citing the UN Refugee Agency, Dzhemilev said 5,000 Tatars had already fled the peninsula of some two million people.

Under Stalin, Tatars, a Turkish-speaking Muslim population, were accused of collaborating with Nazi Germany and deported to Central Asia.

Nearly half of them died of starvation and disease.

The Tatars began returning to Crimea under Mikhail Gorbachev and became Ukrainian nationals after independence in 1991.

They have since experienced a cultural revival but still wrestle with problems such as land ownership and continuing exclusion.

Some said they were encouraged by Ukraine's pro-EU uprising, which ousted Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

But that optimism turned to dread with Crimea's subsequent absorption into Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to allay their fears, saying Tatar would be elevated to the level of a state language on the peninsula and steps taken to end their marginalisation.

Local authorities promised them posts in the regional government.

But the Tatars insist that is not enough and seek a quota system to ensure a share in power.

Many said the crisis stirred painful memories.

Zera Ametova, a doctor from the town of Bakhchysaray, the Crimean Tatars' historic capital, said the sight of Russian armoured personnel carriers and armed soldiers last month proved too much for many too bear.

"This is a stress that will take years to treat," she told AFP.

She said she had seen a spike in health problems among her Tatar patients, and blamed the crisis for hastening her 82-year-old father's death.

He died of a stroke on the eve of the March 16 referendum, which has been denounced as illegal by Ukraine and much of the international community.

"He survived war, hunger, deportation," said Ametova, 54.

"He watched television and cried. He really took it to heart."

Two weeks before her father's death, one of Ametova's three sisters also ended up in intensive care after the crisis deepened her depression, she said.

"She took 20 sleeping pills," Ametova said. "She said 'I am tired of living.'"

Ametova lamented that just as her people were getting back on their feet, their world has been turned upside down again.

"I do not understand Putin's politics. Does he want to help us? Or does he want to win new lands?" she sighed.

"I don't understand the chaos I am living in."


Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 04 Apr 2014 05:44

 

[LazyLion]

RUSSIA SAYS ALL UKRAINIAN SERVICEMEN LEFT CRIMEA

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says all the Ukrainian servicemen stationed in Crimea were allowed to leave for mainland Ukraine but 8,000 military men stayed and applied for permission to serve in the Russian army.

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March after Crimea residents voted overwhelmingly to seek to join Russia. The referendum was called two weeks earlier, coinciding with the military occupation of the region by armed men in unmarked uniforms.

Shoigu on Friday denied claims that the Russian army has mistreated Ukrainian servicemen, Russia news agencies reported.


Source : Sapa-AP /ma
Date : 04 Apr 2014 09:59

 

[LazyLion]

NO 'REAL' UKRAINE DE-ESCALATION, 'EUROPE MUSTN'T RELAX': UK'S HAGUE

"Europe must not relax" over the crisis in Ukraine as Russian troops have made only "a token withdrawal" from the border, British Foreign Secretary Wlliam Hague said Friday.

Arriving for talks with his European Union counterparts, Hague said: "Any withdrawal of the forces has been only a token withdrawal. So, we have not seen real de-escalation by Russia. Therefore Europe must not relax."


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 04 Apr 2014 12:25

 

[zippy]

and in another development :

Ukraine: 'Darth Vader' presidency bid rejected

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26882664

Ukrainian authorities have rejected a bid from a man calling himself Darth Vader, who wants to run in the presidential elections.

The man, who appears in the costume of the fictional character from the Star Wars films and is often accompanied by people dressed in other Star Wars outfits, was nominated for the presidency by the Internet Party of Ukraine. Earlier he told the party's congress that he wanted to turn Ukraine into "a galactic empire".

But the country's Central Electoral Commission says parts of Darth Vader's application were "questionable" and some paperwork was probably forged. Apparently, the man is really an electrician called Viktor Shevchenko, who changed his name to Darth Vader in March.

But at least one commission member suggests Darth Vader's campaign could be an attempt to discredit the upcoming election - possibly by Russia, which does not recognise the Ukraine's interim government. "It may seem like an innocent joke, but someone paid 2.5m hryvnyas ($227,000) for this joke," says Ihor Zhydenko, referring to the deposit that must be given along with the application.

Zhydenko adds that Darth Vader might run for the presidency in Russia, where he has received extensive media coverage. "They already have little green men," he says, referring to Russian troops in the Crimea region. "Such a commander-in-chief would be appropriate."

Twenty-three candidates have been registered to run in the snap presidential election in Ukraine on 25 May. The election was called after President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted following months of protests.

 

[LazyLion]

AFTER RUSSIA ANGER ON UKRAINE COMMENTS, GERMANY SOOTHES

Chancellor Angela Merkel sought Friday through a spokesman to avert further tension with Moscow over a minister's mention of Adolf Hitler this week while criticizing the Russian annexation of Ukraine. "It's completely beyond doubt that every member of the German government is completely conscious of the great suffering of the Russian peoples in World War II, the enormous damage and the enormous cruelties committed in Germany's name," said Steffen Seibert. "That's so obvious it doesn't need expression," he told reporters, while refusing further comment on remarks this week by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble that led to a diplomatic protest. At the start of the week, Schaeuble had told Berlin schoolchildren he wanted to avoid Ukraine going bankrupt and being taken over by militias, giving a pretext for Russia to invade to protect Russian speakers. He then mentioned Hitler's 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland, in what was then Czechoslovakia. "We all know that from history," Schaeuble said. "Hitler used such methods to take over the Sudetenland and much more." On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, "we believe that such pseudo-historical remarks are a provocation." "In the overall context of Ukraine, we are concerned with quite different questions, like how we achieve a de-escalation of a situation that remains volatile," said Seibert, refusing to review Schaeuble's remarks. "It's all been said. We don't have anything more to add," he said. On German television late Thursday, Schaeuble denied associating Russia's leaders with Hitler. "I'm not that stupid as to compare somebody to Hitler," he said, adding that a single sentence had been reported out of context.


Source : Sapa-dpa /kd
Date : 04 Apr 2014 14:05

 

[Unhappy438]

Russian buildup around Belgorod continues

Despite Russian claims to have withdrawn some troops from its borders with Ukraine, satellite imagery shows that Russian Army deployments to the border region appear to continue.

http://www.janes.com/article/36324/russian-buildup-around-belgorod-continues

 

[Unhappy438]

Loads of pro Russian protests today, taking over regional offices in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv

[video=youtube;4bsu60ARDgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bsu60ARDgU[/video]

 

[Space_Chief]

Loads of pro Russian protests today, taking over regional offices in Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkiv

[video=youtube;4bsu60ARDgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bsu60ARDgU[/video]

Obviously all those people are paid off by Putin.

 

[Taranis]

Obviously all those people are paid off by Putin.

What make you say that? Putin tried to avoid this chaos in Crimea.

"Obvious" to nobody else perhaps?