Ukraine

With zero trust between the two sides, no one takes chances. For Ukraine, the dilemma is much more difficult. A military frontline weakened by weapons-withdrawal is a huge risk, but not sticking to Minsk and loosing international support is just as perilous. Hence Ukraine is more cautions and conducts far less ceasefire violations. The Russian proxies enjoy a backup-force by the regular Russian army, hence feel free to engage in escalations on their own, knowing that they will be supported by Moscow. Ultimately, there has effective been no ceasefire.

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September 28, 2016

Joint Investigative Team releasing their MH-17 Report in the Netherlands


United Nations -- A Dutch-led investigation has concluded that the powerful surface-to-air missile system that was used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine over two years ago, killing all 298 aboard, was trucked in from Russia at the request of Russian-backed separatists and returned to Russia the same night. The report largely confirmed the already widely documented Russian government role not only in the deployment of the missile system, called a Buk, or SA-11, butthe subsequent cover-up, which continues to this day.

The report by a team of prosecutors from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia and Ukraine was significant for applying standards of evidence admissible in court, while still building a case directly implicating Russia, and is likely to open a long diplomatic and legal struggle over the tragedy. The Dutch Safety Board determined in October that the plane had been shot down by a missile fired from a Buk surface-to-air system. The report of the Joint Investigative Team, led by the Netherlands' chief public prosecutor, Fred Westerbeke, confirmed that finding. It concluded that the weapon used in the attack had been brought to Ukraine from Russia, though it drew no conclusions about who gave the orders to move the weapon and -- most important -- to shoot-down the airliner.

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5 October 2016

MOSCOW, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A former senior official from breakaway eastern Ukraine said Russia directly finances pensions and public sector salaries in the two pro-Russian regions there. The assertion by former separatist minister Alexander Khodakovsky contradicts Moscow, which says it does not bankroll the separatist administration and, as a consequence, cannot influence the rebels to make peace with Kiev. Asked in an interview with Reuters if Russia was funding pensions and state wages in the Donbass, made up of Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk, Khodakovsky said: "Yes. These are the main areas. The budget sector and pensions, which need to be covered as a priority." "Without outside help, it's impossible to sustain the territory even if you have the most effective tax-raising system. The level of help from Russia exceeds the amounts that we collect within the territory," he said in a Moscow hotel. A spokesman for the finance ministry in the Donetsk separatist administration said sources of financing could not be disclosed for security reasons. The finance ministry in the Luhansk People's Republic, could not be reached for comment.

Khodakovsky is one of the most outspoken of the separatist leaders who declared the mainly Russian-speaking regions independent of Kiev after mass protests overthrew Ukraine's pro-Russian former president. In July 2014, he told Reuters in an interview that the separatists had a Buk anti-aircraft missile of the type which, according to a report released last week by a team of international investigators, shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, killing all 298 people on board. Ukraine and Western governments say Russia has also provided military help to the separatists, including sending troops and hardware into eastern Ukraine to fight Kiev's forces. The Kremlin denies sending in regular forces, although Putin acknowledged last year that Russia did have people in Ukraine "who were carrying out certain tasks, including in the military sphere".

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October 17, 2016

Arseny Pavlov, a military commander for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), has been killed in his home in eastern Ukraine. Pavlov, better known by his call-sign “Motorola,” had led the "Sparta Battalion" against Ukrainian government forces since 2014. The 33-year-old was killed by a remotely-activated explosion in the lift of his building, the Donetsk Ministry of Defense announced. It described Pavlov's death as “a terrorist act, carried out by Ukrainian special forces.” Speaking on Sunday night, DNR leader Alexander Zakharchenko said that he had lost a close friend. His statement described Pavlov as a “hero of he republic.”

Pavlov, a Russian citizen originally from the northern Komi republic, has been linked to a number of war crimes, namely the execution of prisoners of war. The commander reportedly confessed to the crime to in a telephone interview with a Russian reporter in April 2015, where he apparently claimed to have shot 15 captured soldiers.

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Vladimir Putin said:

“We were forced to defend the Russian-speaking population of Donbas, forced to react to the desire of people living in Crimea to return to the Russian Federation”.

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