Leader of OSCE National Dialogue Project in Ukraine presents recommendations to Permanent Council

Leader of OSCE National Dialogue Project in Ukraine presents recommendations to Permanent Council

Voices of Ukraine

OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine

VIENNA, 30 April 2014 – Ambassador Hido Biščević of Croatia, Team Leader of the OSCE’s National Dialogue Project in Ukraine, addressed the OSCE Permanent Council today. He presented recommendations on how the OSCE can contribute to social cohesion and tolerance amid the current crisis.

The project was implemented over a four-week period from late March at the request of the Ukrainian authorities. Experts were deployed to Odesa-Kherson, Kharkiv-Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Lviv. They spoke to a wide range of people from state institutions and civil society to assess their views and concerns and to identify entry points for the OSCE dialogue facilitation.

“People in Ukraine share many concerns, regardless of where they live, what language they speak, how old they are, or what socio-economic position they hold,” said Biščević. “In that sense, the challenge of dialogue is as much tapping into commonalities as it is…

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Donetsk blogger: attack on Ukrainian rally was attack by Russian nazis upon Ukrainians for being Ukrainian

A blogger shares a powerful realization after witnessing the brutal beatings of participants of a peaceful pro-Ukraine rally in Donetsk by pipe wielding pro-Russian/Russian thugs on April 28. The clincher was when he read the story in a major Russian paper, with the headline claiming that it was Ukrainian nationalists who attacked an anti-fascist rally….

EU–Russia energy co-operation successfully continues – Russia laughs at would-be sanctions from EU again

By Vitalii Usenko, April 30, 2014

It appears that work on the South Stream pipeline project will continue, reports ITAR-TASS. On April 29, 2014, South Stream Transport BV signed a contract for the construction of the second line of the offshore section (including the Crimean Black Sea shelf, currently occupied by Russia) of the South Stream project with Swiss company Allseas Group. The contract also foresees deepwater laying of the pipeline, so an additional contract was signed with Saipem, an Italian oil and gas contractor, to ensure construction. On the same day, Gazprom signed a memorandum on the construction of an onshore section of the South Stream in Austria, according to Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom. Additional agreements to build the onshore sections of the pipeline,have been signed agreement with Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, and Croatia.

National Security official believes Maidan brawl ordered by Russian special services

The huge brawl on Maidan (Independence Square) in the center of Kyiv that took place today, April 29, between Maidan self-defense activists and participants in a torchlight parade was ordered by the Russian special services, states Victoria Syumar, the deputy secretary of the National Security Council, on her Facebook.

Poroshenko refutes allegations of National Guards handing in weapons in Luhansk

Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko has refuted the mass media’s claims about National Guard fighters handing in their weapons at the demand of the terrorists seizing the Luhansk Regional Administration in a facebook post.

 
Some mass media have spread not accurate information about the National Guard fighters from Vinnitsya handing in their weapons during the attack of separatists on the Luhansk Regional Administration. Indeed, 150 National Guards were blocked inside the building. 

I contacted the commander by phone. It turns out that under pressure of physical violence the separatists demanded the guards give in their weapons. But NOT ONE guard had accepted the terrorists’ demands and DID NOT HAND IN THEIR ARMS!
Having received an order to retreat, they had broken through the encirclement and now are situated in one of the zones of the Luhansk Oblast under National Guard control.

Children of Russian officials prefer overseas?

Lavrov’s daughter is not the only one living a good life abroad

While the notion of new Russian patriotism is being profoundly propagated to general public, Russia’s high-ranking officials are hardly adhering to the ideals, which they are trying to promote to the masses.

Chronology of the Ukrainian language’s 134 prohibitions in 400 years

The Ukrainian language has survived 134 prohibitions in 400 years! So which language needs protecting?

The chronology of Ukrainian language bans:

Poll numbers dismal for pro-Russian candidates in Ukraine

Mykhaylo Dobkin

By Taras Klochko, Espreso.TV, April 29

The Kremlin is more likely to insist on the illegitimacy of the presidential elections in Ukraine in the event there is no pro-Russian candidate. Oleh Tsarov’s withdrawal from the race and a similar declaration expected from Mykhaylo Dobkin are the first steps in this direction.

Today the pro-Russian candidate Oleh Tsarov announced his decision to withdraw from the presidential election, citing fears for his life and his inability to visit the capital, where he claims Right Sector fighters are lying in wait. At the same time, Tsarov recommended that other candidates who live in the Southeast do the same.

Donetsk Journalist on Russian Media Fabrications – April 28, 2014

William's Euromaidan Chronicle

Facebook Status Update from Vera Kholmgorova, Donetsk Journalist (translated by William Risch, Georgia College):

Reflections. About convictions, journalism, and professional ethics. Stirred up by yesterday’s events (April 28, 2014).

The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS presented news about supporters of Russia brutally breaking up a meeting for Ukraine in Donetsk as Ukrainian fascists from Right Sector attacking a peaceful march against commemorations of the SS Galicia division’s founding.

Yes. Exactly that. There are a lot of sources on the web, so I won’t give them here.

It’s awful, especially for those who were there yesterday (including some, like myself, who were there for professional reasons). And it’s strange, to be honest.

Russian propaganda has known no shame. For a long time. And it was never ashamed. And now it’s even less ashamed, because there wouldn’t have been anything surprising, let’s say, if there appeared news on TASS about brave Russian patriots…

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Donetsk Student Demonstrators Tortured, Presented as “Right Sector” to Russian Media – April 29, 2014

William's Euromaidan Chronicle

Tsenzor.NET

April 29, 2014, 18:17

“Terrorists in Donetsk Torture, Film Students, Present as Right Sector to Russian Channels” (translated by William Risch, Georgia College)

A gang of separatists in Donetsk seized two students from Donetsk National University, tortured them brutally, and then showed them on video as Right Sector militants for Russian television stations.

Tsenzor.NET reports relatives of students telling this to OstroV. According to the students, they had taken part in a peaceful pro-Ukrainian meeting on the evening of April 28, and separatists armed with knives and metal rods attacked them. The students were going home through Shcherbakov Park after the meeting was over, and there a group of armed separatists stopped them. They searched and interrogated them. Having found yellow-and-blue ribbons on the students, the separatists used force on the guys and took them to the Donetsk Oblast State Administration (OGA) building.

“They took them to the oblast…

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