UN believes Donbas terrorists are Russian citizens, diplomat says

Yuriy Serheyev

President Poroshenko’s peace plan has generated a positive reaction at the United Nations and an appreciation that this step can help achieve peace and lead to dialogue, said Ukraine’s representative to the UN, Yuriy Serheyev, during an interview with Inter TV Channel, Sunday, June 22.

According to Serheyev, there is no chance that international representatives would take part in negotiations with representatives of terrorist organizations. One of the principles of the UN is “no dialogue with terrorists,” he pointed out.

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Poroshenko speaks of war, peace plan, and rebuilding Donbas

 

Address of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, June 21, 2014

Dear Fellow Citizens

The Armed Forces have completed the most wide-ranging military operation in the recent history of our country. The army has taken control and has established a defensive system along most of the border with Russia in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. The forces of the Antiterrorist Operation (ATO) have freed a large number of populated areas from terrorists and have tightly encircled the extremist groups.

Donbas townspeople get rid of terrorists

Residents of the town of Shabelkivka, in the Donetsk Oblast, drove away armed militants and dismantled their checkpoint, reports Espreso TV, June 21, citing News of Donbas.

The townspeople asked the separatists-terrorists to leave Shabelkivka, which is near Kramatorsk, and to dismantle their illegally installed checkpoints, the residents told News of Donbas . However, the representatives of the militants from the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” refused to comply. The townspeople then got together and went unarmed to the checkpoint, dismantled it, and drove away the militants.

Armed militants attack Akhmetov’s mine

Saturday morning, June 21, unidentified armed men in armored personnel carriers and trucks with “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) symbols broke into the territory of the DTEK Mine Komsomolets Donbasa (belonging to oligarch Rinat Akhmetov -Ed.), reports Ukrainska Pravda, citing the DTEK press service.

Under threat of arms, the intruders forced the employees in the administrative building to lie face down and turn off all mobile phones. At the time, there were some 700 people in the mine, the press service reports.

For Putin, peace in Donbas is a catastrophe

That the Kremlin called the peace plan of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “an ultimatum” was probably not surprising for the head of state himself and for international observers. Poroshenko really did propose a peace plan, which is aimed to normalise the situation in Donbas and find ways to develop the region within the state of Ukraine. But Russia does not need a peace plan. And Russia does not need consultations between the Ukrainian government and the legitimate government of Donbas. And Russia definitely does not need early elections to the local government bodies in Donbas – for it, that would be a catastrophe. Russia needs the Ukrainian President to hold talks with those that had been appointed by the Administration of the Russian President to “represent” the citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – Pushilin, Gubarev, Bolotov and other cheats. 

The problem of the refugees: a lucky chance or an irreversible threat

Valeriy Pekar, UP

Some journalists have already started talking about “refugees from hot spots.” We think in words, and many of our military problems are rooted in the fact that we have spent too much time calling the occupants “green men,” and the terrorists “the militia” etc. 

There are no “hot spots” and no “refugees” in Ukraine. 

In Ukraine, there is a zone of activity of terrorist organisations and there are refugees from it. 

Therefore lets not talk about “refugees from hot spots,” but about refugees from the zone of terrorist organisation activities. 

Bezler and emptiness. What awaits Donbas after the war

Yekaternia Sergatsova

Journalist from UP.Life Yekaterina Sergatsova talked to the Donetsk intellectuals about the reasons of what is happening in Donbas, and what awaits the region after the war is over.

“Donbas is a region which has definitely inherited the system of values that existed in the Soviet Union: historical paternalism, dominance of collective values, historical memory, for the most part oriented towards the Soviet heritage,” Dmitro Mironovich, culture sociologist in charge of the sociology lab in one of the Donetsk universities, begins our conversation.

According to Mironovich, such moods were beneficial for the local government: the economy of the region which had been created in the USSR has not changed. Consequentially, the lifestyle of the citizens in the region has not changed either. 

Donbas: The Proletarian Revenge

The supply of Russian weapons has turned the separatist-controlled territories into a real war theater. The population supports the insurgents because they promise to restore order and Soviet values. The region can rapidly turn into a new Transnistria.

Today the region is embroiled in war. Not everywhere, only in a triangle 200 km long on each side, with the corners of this triangle being the cities of Sloviansk, Donetsk and Luhansk.One month was enough for Donbas to change drastically. At the end of April there was only an anti-Maidan, that engaged in mass activities imitating the methods used by protesters in Kyiv, however, in this case to express distrust to the new government of the country.

How political technologists are fooling people in Donbas

Igor Eidman, sociologist

At the moment many are writing about informational war against Ukraine, which has become a major reason for real bloody clashes, regarding the undermining role of the Russian television, which makes the citizens of the east and west bump heads. Of course, the role of television is big, but this just a part of a thoroughly-prepared informational campaign to fuel war.

Ten naïve questions about life in Donetsk

Editor of Vgorode-Donetsk Alina Balaban on how the events in the east are reflected on the life of regular Donetsk citizens.