US/NATO/EU and the desperate subversion of Ukraine

[John Dolva]

Monday, June 16

11:27 GMT:

Ukrainian authorities have handed over two journalists from the Russian Zvezda TV channel previously detained by Kiev troops to the Russian Navy Deputy Attaché Eduard Belashev.

Correspondent Evgeny Davydov and sound editor Nikita Konashenkov were detained in eastern Ukraine by Kiev’s National Guard on their way to Dnepropetrovsk Airport on Saturday.

Ukrainian troops detain Russian journalists on regular basis, claiming that they gather intelligence for militias opposing the government in Kiev.

10:33 GMT:

The negotiations on the release of two Russian journalists from Zvezda TV channel will take place on Monday afternoon in the administration of the city of Dnepropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine, an attaché of the Russian Embassy in Ukraine told RIA Novosti. After the talks it will become clear whether the journalists will be freed, he added.

Correspondent Evgeny Davydov and sound engineer Nikita Konashenkov were taken by Ukraine‘s National Guard in Donetsk Region on Saturday. They were on their way to Dnepropetrovsk Airport for a flight back to Moscow.

[John Dolva]

UNITED NATIONS, June 17, /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Acting Foreign Minister Andrei Deshchytsya does not exist for Russia any more, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin said Monday as he commented the Deshchytsya’s obscene expressions in public addressed to President Vladimir Putin.

Lavrov: There is nothing to talk about with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia

As an acting minister Deshchytsya had only one function, namely, to translate the U.S. instructions into the Ukrainian language, Churkin said.

“He doesn’t exist for us anymore,” he said. “And the loss isn’t very big.”

Russia’s embassy in Kiev was assaulted by a mob of radicals in Kiev Saturday. Andrei Deshchytsya, who came to the site, took the liberty of making obscene remarks on the Russian leadership.

The scene was caught on camera and went international via social networks in no time.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said somewhat later he had “nothing to talk about to a personage named Deshchytsya anymore.

_____

Meanwhile the US elites mouthpiece Psaki has been instructed to find a way to excuse the juntas portrayal of the ukrainian freedom fighters as subhuman that ukraine needs to be cleansed of, apparently by constructing a gauntlet to herd them out of the country and a wall to keep them out.

_____

[John Dolva]

MOSCOW, June 16, /ITAR-TASS/. Two people were killed and four were injured on Monday when Ukraine’s military shelled a driving school in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Region, representatives of the city’s militia said.

“We just returned from the 17th district, took the bodies of two killed and four wounded people out of there,” they told Itar-Tass by phone.

Earlier it was reported that Ukraine’s military shelled from grenade launchers and mortars a power substation, a tuberculosis clinic and a driving school in Kramatorsk.

Besides, a militia spokesman said, a few shells exploded in the nonresidential sector.

Clashes have been underway between the Ukrainian military and militias in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which refused to recognize the authorities who had been propelled to power amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February 2014.

A Kiev-led punitive operation against federalization supporters in Ukraine's Southeast that involves armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation has already claimed hundreds of lives, including civilian, and left some buildings destroyed and damaged.

The Donetsk and Lugansk regions held referendums on May 11, in which most voters supported independence from Ukraine. Their independence has not been officially recognized.

Russia has repeatedly called on Kiev to end the punitive operation and engage in dialogue with Ukraine’s Southeast.

New Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, who won the May 25 early presidential elections and took office on June 7, has not given orders to stop the deadly operation despite hopes he would do so after he was sworn in.

[John Dolva]

Monday, June 16

19:33 GMT:

Russia will present a new version of the draft resolution on Ukraine at the UN Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told journalists before heading to the council's closed meeting. The attack on the Russian embassy in Kiev will also be brought up at the meeting, Churkin said.

19:23 GMT:

Ukrainian authorities plan to suggest a short ceasefire during which a "corridor" for the militia to leave the country will be organized, Ukraine's first deputy PM Vitaly Yarema told Ukraine's ICTV channel. Speaking about President Poroshenko's plan, the minister said that "they will be offered amnesty, except those people who have committed serious crimes.” Yarema added that if the self-defense members do not accept Kiev's offer, "the operation will be continued, but it will be carried out at a different quality level."

17:53 GMT:

Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has decided to demarcate the country's border with Russia on a unilateral basis, the council's coup-appointed secretary Andrey Parubiy reported on Monday. A number of decisions aimed at strengthening security on the Ukraine-Russia border were made, he said. This includes the construction of facilities on the Ukrainian side along the whole border, not just in the eastern territories where the military crackdown is being carried out. Ukraine's President Poroshenko, who activates the council's decisions, insisted these measures should be applied as soon as possible, Parubiy said.

15:14 GMT:

Ukrainian police have detained four protesters carrying explosives and a knife outside the Russian consulate in the city of Odessa. The four were involved in brawl in which several people were injured, ITAR-TASS reports. Nearly 200 people, including some wearing symbols of radical group Right Sector, gathered outside the consulate demanding the Russian flag be taken down. The group was confronted by another mob of people who also were there, demanding that police “go fight in Donetsk.”

[John Dolva]

KIEV, June 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russian special services may stand behind the events at the Russian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Monday.

"We believe that the result of these events could also be a clever provocation by Russian special services," the adviser to the Ukraine’s Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said at a briefing in Kiev.

"We do not rule out that the very idea of protesting in front of the Russian embassy was planted by the Russian special services," Gerashchenko added.

Gerashchenko noted that Ukrainian specialists are now examining such a possibility. In particular, they are trying to find out who had sent a message with a call to go to the Russian embassy in Kiev.

____

It seems baffling, even comical, the lengths the junta goes to excuse itself from its actions.

One has to remember that these banderites are fascists following the mold of their predecessors and as such are merely true to form.

[John Dolva]

Autodefensas en Donetsk paralizan sistema bancario regional

Kiev, 16 jun (PL) Fuerzas de autodefensas de Donetsk, sureste de Ucrania, tomaron hoy las sedes de la tesorería regional, el fisco y la filial del Banco Nacional, según confirmó el Gobierno, mientras el Ejército arreció los bombardeos en zonas residenciales.

[John Dolva]

RT :

Reporters from Russia's Zvezda TV channel have been freed from captivity in Ukraine, where Right Sector fighters detained, interrogated, and beat them for ransom. Risking their lives, they didn’t turn off their phones, which was crucial for their release.

A plane carrying Evgeny Davydov and Nikita Konashenkov landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport at 15:44 GMT on Monday. A few hours before their arrival in the Russian capital, the two journalists were handed over to Russian naval attaché Eduard Belashev in the city of Dnepropetrovsk.

The journalists spent two days in captivity, and were subjected to long questioning, intimidation, and beatings.

Recent images of the two men show the areas around their eyes covered in bruises. Their colleagues say that Davydov has complained of pain in his ear and partial hearing loss.

Zvezda TV channel has shared details of the reporters' detention and release. The channel’s head, Aleksey Pimanov, said that Davydov and Konashenkov were freed due to “diplomatic efforts.” The station's management sent pleas to new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and the Ukrainian judiciary demanding the journalists' immediate release.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the release “good news” and the “result of persistent work of all of our structures with the active participation and support of the Russian media.” Moscow says the “illegal practice of detaining journalists in Ukraine” must stop, and that the right to peaceful and objective press coverage of events in Ukraine must be safeguarded.

The reporters were detained on June 14 while on their way to the airport. Saturday was meant to be the last day of their business trip in turbulent Ukraine and they were expected to fly home. They had been in Ukraine for over a month.

Constantly on the phone with Zvezda TV channel’s editors, Evgeny and Nikita successfully passed several checkpoints. However, they were stopped and detained at a post of the Ukrainian National Guard near Pokrovskoye, and the connection with the reporters was temporarily lost.

Zvezda journalists in Moscow launched a massive operation trying to find their colleagues. Both the Right Sector and the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) refused to comment on the detentions.

Eventually, the channel managed to determine the address of where Evgeny and Nikita were being held. This finding showed that Right Sector fighters were behind the detention – the building is shared by the SBU and the radical group. As Zvezda journalists found out later, the man who interrogated their detained colleagues was Maksim Miroshnichenko, the Right Sector’s press secretary in Dnepropetrovsk.

During the interrogation process, the journalists kept one of their phones constantly connected to the channel’s headquarters. The recording will now be transferred to authorities, who will launch a torture case. The use of force against the reporters can be heard on the recording.

Throughout the questioning, which was full of cursing, Miroshnichenko reportedly tried to force the journalists to admit they lied about the true purpose of their visit. Under pressure, the interrogators forced the Russian crew to denounce their reporting on the use of white phosphorus by the Ukrainian military in an aerial assault on the outskirts of Slavyansk on Thursday.

After the channel managed to determine the journalists' whereabouts, representatives of the Right Sector contacted Zvezda demanding a US$200,000 ransom for the reporters, who they called “scum.” Failure to provide the money would result in consequences, with the captors sending a message to family members that the journalists would be “kept for some 10 years.”

On Monday, a YouTube video surfaced showing Davydov and Konashenkov with bruises on their faces. In the footage, the two are seemingly being forced to say they have “no complaints” about their treatment by the Right Sector, and that the visible hemorrhages on their bodies were caused by a fight with a colleague.

Their documents also surfaced on the internet, showing they were accredited by the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. But, in violation of all norms of international law and the Geneva Convention, the reporters were forced to sign statements which falsely declared their lack of professional ethics.

“Everything is done on the orders of the Kremlin in order to use this information in international politics to the detriment of Ukraine,” Davydov's forced statement allegedly read.

Konashenkov's written testament apparently claimed that they covered Ukrainian roadblocks, “also on Moscow's orders,” in order to make “untrue photographs.”

Upon their safe return to Russia, the journalists were taken to hospital for treatment. Before they boarded the ambulance, they gave a few comments to the press crew that greeted them at the airport. They thanked the Russian authorities and media channels for helping secure their release. They also briefly shared the details of their abduction.

“We were traveling from Donetsk to Dnepropetrovsk. We had a direct return flight from Dnepropetrovsk to Moscow on Saturday. About 120 km from Dnepropetrovsk, we were stopped at a roadblock. This was the National Guard's checkpoint. They stopped us, asked us for our documents, checked all our personal possessions, examining everything,” the duo told journalists.

“Seeing our Russian passports and that we are Zvezda TV staff, their face expressions changed. They smirked and said that they have a jackpot in their hands. They abducted us, blindfolded us, and placed us in a car, before driving us somewhere to a field, then to some base. They threw us in a cellar.”

A press conference with Konashenkov and Davydov is scheduled to take place later on Tuesday.

Russian journalists from a range of media outlets have been repeatedly detained during the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Another set of Zvezda crew members were abducted two weeks ago and released after several days of interrogation on accusations of espionage. RT contributor and UK national Graham Phillips was detained for over 36 hours by Kiev military forces back in May. Earlier, two Russian journalists working for LifeNews TV channel were also captured by Kiev forces, forced on their knees at gunpoint and taken to Kiev for interrogations which lasted almost one week.

[John Dolva]

KRAMATORSK, June 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian military forces continue a military operation in the south-east of the country, shelling massively and delivering missile and bomb strikes at suburbs in east Ukraine’s Donetsk regional cities of Sloviansk and Horlivka.

Ukrainian military forces are waging a strong heavy gunfire at the settlements of Semyonovka and Cherevkivka near Sloviansk, a representative of people’s militia told ITAR-TASS on Monday evening.

“Such a strong gunfire has not taken place for a long time. Windows in the northern part of the town are shuddering from shell explosions,” he said.

Military forces had waged artillery fire at central Kramatorsk located 10km away from Sloviansk earlier on Tuesday. Ten civilians were killed, and more than ten others were wounded.

Situation in Luhansk

Missile and bomb strikes were delivered at Metallist, a suburb in the Luhansk region, which is situated 1km away from the city administrative border. The gunfire lasted for ten minutes, the representative of people’s militia told ITAR-TASS.

“For the first time in the last few days, th sounds of bombing were heard quite distinclty in central Luhansk,” he said. Air alert sirens were turned on in the city.

Latest developments in Ukraine's south-east

Gallery

5 photo

Donetsk Republic takes under control national bank branch

Militiamen rebuffed a Ukrainian air strike, a fighter Su-25 was presumably downed near the city of Horlivka. The press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic could not confirm this information.

The situation in eastern Ukraine keeps deteriorating as Ukrainian army continues shelling residential areas from multiple Grad fire launch systems and tanks and delivering air strikes. Military forces used unguided shells and phosphorous bombs that, according to Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, “can be qualified as a war crime".

[John Dolva]

Tuesday, June 17

10:51 GMT:

At least 30 members of self-defense forces have been killed or injured in the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine so far, Vladislav Seleznyov, the spokesman for the military operation against the pro-autonomy protesters in eastern Ukraine, wrote on his Facebook page.

10:51 GMT:

The radical Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) group has formed a battalion in honor of Aleksandr Muzychko, the deceased leader of the group, Dmitry Yarosh, told UNN news channel.

The battalion will be formed in the city of Rovno, western Ukraine.

Notorious Ukrainian right-wing militant leader Muzychko, also known as Sashko Bilyi, was shot dead during a police raid against his gang in March by Ukrainian police.

10:51 GMT:

More than 1,500 refugees from Ukraine’s south-east have arrived in the Moscow region, the regional governor’s press service reports.

He added that at least 2264 Ukrainian citizens have called the Moscow Federal Migration Service requesting asylum.

10:16 GMT:

Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the latest arrest of two journalists from Russian Zvezda TV channel.

Correspondent Evgeny Davydov and sound engineer Nikita Konashenkov were detained in the Donetsk region on Saturday while they were on their way to Dnepropetrovsk Airport for a flight back to Moscow. The journalists were freed on Monday afternoon.

09:59 GMT:

09:53 GMT:

Прямое попадание в один из медпунктов #ДНР в #Славянск / Direct hit on one of the aid posts of rebels in #Slavyansk pic.twitter.com/ACepS19Rx0

— Андрей Краснощёков (@a_krasnoschekov) June 17, 2014

09:10 GMT:

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has denied reports that the country’s security forces have used phosphorus bombs during a military operation in Eastern Ukraine, RIA Novosti said. Earlier reports said the bombs, which have been banned by the Geneva Convention, were used against civilians in the village of Semyonovka near Slavyansk.

[John Dolva]

RT :

Two journalists for Russian TV channel Rossiya have died from wounds sustained during a Ukrainian military shelling attack near Lugansk, eastern Ukraine. Reporter Igor Kornelyuk passed away on the operating table, a doctor at the hospital confirmed to RT.

The doctor told RT that "sadly, he has passed away."

Just minutes ago Kornelyuk, a reporter for the Russian channel Rossiya, was in critical condition and had been receiving phone calls from Moscow. The attending doctor, however, had been answering his calls.

Viktor Denisov, the cameraman with the Rossiya crew, told LifeNews how he managed to get out of harm’s way during the attack that claimed his colleague’s life.

Denisov said he was standing 100 meters from the spot where the mine detonated.

“I must say I was really lucky, I’d walked toward our cars, about 100 meters away, and that’s when the shelling started. My colleagues were supposed to have been out of the range of fire, but for some reason one of the shells flew straight into them,” Denisov said.

When the attack began, Denisov ran toward the fleeing residents, who stood nearby. They managed to escape together.

The Rossiya crew had been taken to the scene of the shelling by taxi.

They were escorted by the self-defense forces in the village of Mirny and headed toward a local checkpoint.

Their position was then shelled and the self-defense forces told the crew to head for safety.

A local resident who witnessed the shelling said that a mine had apparently detonated right next to a group of journalists, of which the Rossiya crew was a part.

“Our hospital is receiving many wounded as the shelling continues,” a local doctor told RT over the phone.

[John Dolva]

An explosion has struck a pipeline in the eastern Ukrainian Poltava region. Witnesses say flames from the blast are up to 200 meter high, RIA Novosti reports.

The “Brotherhood” natural gas pipeline (Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod) is about one kilometer away from the nearest settlement. No injuries have been reported from the blast. Fire fighting crews have been deployed to the scene.

Operating since 1967, the “Brotherhood” is the largest consumer gas pipeline in Europe, clocking in at 4,451 km. It cuts through Ukraine and runs into Slovakia, where it diverges in two directions; with one part supplying gas to the Czech Republic, Germany, France and Switzerland, and the other to Austria, Italy, Hungary and several countries in the Balkans.

[John Dolva]

Moscow slams Kiev for unleashing 'terror' against Russian reporters

As the news of the incident emerged, the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and the killing.

"The death of the Russian journalist near Lugansk has shown in its entirety the criminal nature of the forces that launched the military operation in the country’s east," said the ministry in a statement.

Civilians seen evacuating Lugansk (top) - seconds after a shell explodes just near them (bottom)

"We are proud of all journalists who, coming under machine-gun fire, shelling, artillery or aircraft bombs, courageously deliver the truth about what's really happening in Ukraine. It is the very truth authorities in Kiev and various militant groups are afraid of, who have organized real terror towards journalists from Russia," Russia's Foreign Ministry statement says.

The ministry said it was awaiting strong condemnation from all global media outlets.

"We demand Ukrainian authorities immediately carry out an independent investigation into this tragedy and punish the culprits," the statement read.

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic condemned the killing of Russian journalists in Ukraine and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

[John Dolva]

Having survived a ruthless mortar attack by Kiev armed forces on a group of refugees escorted by local militia in Eastern Ukraine, the cameraman of Rossiya TV channel recalls details of the shelling that took the lives of his two colleagues.

He was standing just a few hundred meters from a spot where the mortar shells fell, Viktor Denisov of Rossiya TV states.

“We were heading towards the location where, according to our information, the local militia was trying to secure refugees, leading them away from possible attacks. I was walking together with a representative of the self-defense forces, when I saw a group of about eight people – the refugees,” Viktor Denisov of the Rossiya TV crew said.

“The militia were directing people towards the safe road. At that very moment the first shell exploded right next to a militia guy. The hand, with which he was pointing to a safe place just moments ago, was torn in pieces.”

He added that his colleagues were at that location too, where he heard more shells exploding in the following minutes. As he was standing around 200 meters from the scene, he didn't see them clearly behind the trees. “I just saw and filmed a self-defence member pulling out another one, who had no legs.”

Taking cover in the distance, Denisov has managed to film a series of explosions that hit the area where just moments ago people were standing.

[John Dolva]

Tuesday, June 17

22:29 GMT:

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a statement condemning the killing of journalists in Ukraine and has called for an investigation.

“The Security Council calls for a thorough investigation of all violent incidents, including against journalists," Current chairman of UN Security Council, Vitaly Churkin said.

According to Churkin's statement, members of the Council voiced “concern” over numerous detentions and attacks on the press in Ukraine, as well as issued condolences to victims of those who perished covering the events in Ukraine, including an Italian photo journalist killed on May 25.

[John Dolva]

Wednesday, June 18

00:17 GMT:

Introduction of martial law on the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions will only lead to more violence and would be the worst scenario for Ukraine, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said, RIA Novosti reports.

Russian reaction follows a move by political forces inside Ukrainian parliament that are finalizing a draft bill that would impose martial law in south-eastern Ukraine, pending President Petro Poroshenko's approval.

Martial law, Churkin said would lead to “more violence”, calling such a move a “bad start” for Poroshenko, who instead of a dialogue has chosen “military campaign.”

Tuesday, June 17

22:29 GMT:

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a statement condemning the killing of journalists in Ukraine and has called for an investigation.

“The Security Council calls for a thorough investigation of all violent incidents, including against journalists," Current chairman of UN Security Council, Vitaly Churkin said.

According to Churkin's statement, members of the Council voiced “concern” over numerous detentions and attacks on the press in Ukraine, as well as issued condolences to victims of those who perished covering the events in Ukraine, including an Italian photo journalist killed on May 25.