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.

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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. 

Our goal is peace, not war – Poroshenko met with the government of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko presented the peace plan for the regulation of the situation in the east of the country at the meeting with the representatives of the legitimate government of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

“During the meeting the head of state presented 14 points of the peace plan in the east of the country. In particular, Poroshenko emphasised the importance of amending the Constitution of Ukraine to decentralise the government. The President noted that the according project of the amendments to the Main Law will be sent for examination by the Venetian Committee,” repors the press service of the head of state. 

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. 

Fakes of Russian propaganda – 2

Radio Svoboda continues to survey how Russian media and individual social media users manipulate the public opinion by pretending that photographs and footage from various places all over the globe come from the Ukrainian events. The compilation was prepared by Ihor Losyk. 

Volodymyr Groysman: “In the nearest 5-10 years Ukraine will be the most interesting country in Europe”

Volodymyr Groysman’s tenure as vice Prime Minister could have ended after the 100 days that he had worked in Arseniy Yatseniuk’s team. Immediately after the inauguration, President Petro Poroshenko asked him to lead his Administration. Groysman refused, motivating it with the necessity to finish what he started in the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Essentially, the reform of local government. 

“If we are to give power to the oblasts, we will get feudal principalities; no, the power should be delegated to territorial communities directly,” says Groysman. In “civilian life,” so before Maidan, the young mayor of Vinnytsya was considered one of the most successful mayors in the country. Mobilised to the government, today he works in the office he inherited from Olexandr Vilkil and Boris Kolesnikov.

Groysman has already prepared the theoretical basis of the reform, the realisation of which in practice is being halted by war. In addition, purely political circumstances are unfolding as well: the new Constitution, re-election, without which any means will be half-baked.

This interview is the dissolution of stereotypes. The stereotype that decentralisation is something extremely complex and complicated, that one cannot make sense of that. That it is not beneficial to regular citizens, but the local elites, which are simply fooling the regular citizens. That decentralisation and coherent budget policies are discordant. That Donbas is unique in its demands to be “heard in Kyiv.” 

“I remember the social investigations that were conducted from time to time in central Ukraine. In particular, in Vinnytsya. The measures of non-acceptance of the central government: the President, Prime Minister, its other representatives, is stably over 50%. Anti-ratings were simply off the scale,” says Groysman. 

Donbas: divorce and maiden name?

Olexandr Kochetkov, for UP

“Our situation is good. But not hopeless.”

Alexandr Novikov, “Dialogues in the elevator” 

One out of three terrorists in Donbas is taking photos with the MPADS. And only the “Hindenburg” dirigible is a better target than the huge and slow Il-76.

The author does not know the surname and military rank of the person who gave the order to deliver the military replacement to Luhansk airport by air. But in any army, except for ours, the case would have reached tribune.

The issue is not only the losses, which are unacceptable for the ATO. But also the blow landed to the military spirit and faith in the commanders, which our soldiers have experienced at the “eastern front.” 

U.S. Intelligence: Russian tanks “sent from Russia to Ukraine”

During the U.S. State Department’s press briefing, deputy spokesperson Marie Harf dismissed earlier reports that insurgent-piloted tanks in the Donetsk region were of Ukrainian military origin. Rather, she elaborated that intelligence has provided convincing evidence that Donetsk militants acquired heavy weapons and military equipment from Russia, including Russian tanks.

“They were somehow pulled out of the Russian warehouses, someone taught them how to use them, and they were sent from Russia to Ukraine,” Harf flatly explained.

Militants had thus far admitted they acquired the units “from a military warehouse” but without elaborating further. Unlike past acquisitions of weaponized vehicles which have been readily shown off to news agencies and crowds alike, these militants instead shied away from any bravado, anxiously warning Reuters journalists against capturing any photography of the acquired tanks.

ATO forces have killed more than 150 terrorists over the last day

Liga.Net- June 13, 2014

Terrorists killed in action in the border areas with Russia, near the town of Snizhne, Donetsk Oblast, and in other towns in Eastern Ukraine

Terrorists killed in action in the border areas with Russia, near the town of Snizhne, Donetsk Oblast, and in other towns in Eastern Ukraine

Over the past day, anti-terrorist operation (ATO) forces have killed more than 150 terrorists in the zone of the ATO, said a LigaBusinessInform source in the ATO.

According to the source, the terrorists were killed in operations in the areas bordering on Russia, near the town of Snizhne in Donetsk Oblast and in other towns in Eastern Ukraine. “The operation continues. Liberation of the occupied territories is going according to plan. Morale of the soldiers is high,” the source said.

As a reminder, earlier the Ministry of Defense reported that Ukrainian special troops destroyed 12 military vehicles. The Defense Ministry also reported that over the past day, the terrorist side lost more than 40 militants who were transporting large quantities of weapons and ammunition of Russian origin.

“Chechenization” of Ukraine: what for?

Russia is already spreading the “experience” of occupied Chechnya to Donbas.

Obviously, sending Chechens to the far away and completely disconnected Ukraine was a decision made by the Russian Federation government also with the goal to bury the issue of Russia’ military crimes in Chechnya forever – bury it under the tag of the “bandit people,” which would like nothing more than “to go to war, no matter where and what for.”

The long trace of the unfinished Russian-Chechen War is becoming more and more obvious on the “soil” of Eastern Ukraine. The grievous crimes committed by the Russian military-political forces on Chechen land, which have gone unnoticed by the main international institutions, have “metastasised” first in the aggression against Georgia. And now, with even more rascality, they are being committed in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine.