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Euromaidan-SOS&Donbas-SOS Digest, July 1-17 2014

Focus: Human rights infringements linked to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine

Civilian aircraft shot down in Eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists on July 17 and carrying over 300 people on board became a major tragedy showing inhumane terrorist practices of the supporters of Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics”.

The tragedy took place against the background of Russia’s increasing assistance to separatists through heavy armament, unmanned aircrafts and shellfire against Ukrainian army from Russian territory.

Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine continues to provoke deaths of both military and civilians every day. Separatists continue to use inhumane tactics of kidnapping, murdering, attacking from civilian quarters and buildings, torturing the hostages and looting.

Read below the concrete reports about human rights violations in Eastern Ukraine over the last week.

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Malaysian aircraft shot down by pro-Russian terrorists. Photo: Reuters

Airplane crash

On July 17, a large passenger aircraft Boeing 777, performing a flight between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, was shot down in the eastern part of Ukraine. Over 300 people were killed in the crash. According to the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces, the airplane was crashed down by “Buk” missile system as the liner was flying at an altitude of 10,000 meters, reports Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

Ukraine has no long-range air defense missile systems in this area, the ministry said.

The leader of the terrorists Igor Girkin (Strelkov) immediately commented on the airplane crash, believing that it was the Ukrainian jet that crashed down: “In Torez An-26 was shot down, its crashes are lying somewhere near the coal mine “Progress”. He cynically added that the separatists “have warned everyone not to fly in our skies”.

Ukrainian intelligence service intercepted a phone talk among the separatists in which they admit that the plane was shot down from their checkpoint. In the end of the conversation, although visibly shocked about the crash of a civilian aircraft, they try to justify their shooting saying that this plane was probably “importing spies” and that nobody should fly over the territory where the war is going on.

Watch the video of the phone talk with English subtitles:

Russian intervention

Dmytro Tymchuk, a Ukrainian military expert, reports about growing involvement of Russian military after the end of the ceasefire. Heavy armament with personnel is supplied for terrorists; direct fire is regularly opened from the Russian territory on Ukrainian border guards and Ukrainian army.

Tymchuk reports that Russian professional military are operating again on Donbas, similarly to events in spring this year.

Aviation strike on Snezhnoye on July 14 could have been performed by the Russian aviation since the Ukrainian planes did not go aloft in the afternoon of that day. Regular shellfire of the Ukrainian military units from the Russian border is another evidence that Donbas events are not the Ukrainian internal conflict but a war of Russia against Ukraine, Tymchuk says.

Photo evidence posted by Russian border guard Arten Karat shows that tanks and armoured vehicles are heading through the official Russian border checkpoints to Ukrainian territory with the aim to help separatists.

On July 12 several unmanned aircrafts flying from Russia violated the Ukrainian airspace.

Similarly, on July 12 Ukrainian border guard checkpoint Marianovka was attacked by bomb fire from Russia’s Rostovska oblast.

Murders and attacks

Ukraine’s defense ministry reports that it found a grave of two priests tortured by the separatists in Sloviansk. Two sons of the one of the priest were also buried in the grave. They were reportedly kidnapped and killed by separatists who suspected them in assisting the Ukrainian army.

In Luhansk, on July 14th three civilians were killed, and 14 persons were wounded in clashes going on in and near the city. In the previous days, 8 civilians were killed, including one child, after shellfire launched by the separatists.

On July 8th thirty armed men captured neurological surgery building of the Donetsk regional clinical unit. Unknown persons opened fire against a bus in Avdiivka, killing 69-year-old woman.

Deaths

Local dwellers of in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk say they found huge number of dead bodies (estimated number can reach 1,500 people), buried by separatists in the suburbs of the cities. The bodies could have been left in the city after terrorists’ retreat.

Tortures

Yuriy Onyshchenko, Mayor of Prapasnaya, a town in Luhansk oblast, was released from detention by separatists; during the detention had been tortured, had his leg shot off, had a knife wound and a heart attack.

 Kidnappings and robberies

More than 10 people were kidnapped on July 9-10 in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

On July 8, orthodox priest Yuriy Ivanov (Kyiv patriarchy) was kidnapped in Donetsk. Terrorists also kidnapped a catholic priest, Viktor Vonsovich.

Two Ukrainian soldiers wounded during a battle in Donetsk airport on July 12th were taken by separatists from Donetsk regional hospital.

On July 8, directors of two coal mines in Donetsk were also kidnapped by the separatists.

A woman addressed a police unit in Donetsk saying that unknown people kidnapped her 34-year-old son.

Dmytro Ivchenko, a professor at Luhansk medical university, was kidnapped; the “health minister” of the Luhansk people’s republic requires USD 500 thousand for his release.

Every day over dozen cars are stolen in Donetsk. 19 cars were reportedly stolen on July 14; 14 cars on July 10, and 20 cars on July 9-10.

Repressions and human rights infringements

600 orphans are kept in orphan homes of Donetsk oblast as separatists grant no permission for them to leave for other regions in Ukraine , says Iryna Herashchenko, Ukraine’s  envoy for peaceful settlement.

Casualties

Ukraine reports that 258 soldiers were killed and 922 were wounded since the beginning of the counter-terrorist operation in the Eastern Ukraine. 45 soldiers are kept as hostages.

Human rights violations

Ukraine’s consul to Russia, Gennadiy Breskalenko, was repeatedly refused in his requests to visit Nadiya Savchenko, a Ukrainian pilot now detained in a Russian prison. By detaining the pilot Russia openly violates requests of the international community to release all the hostages.

Terrorists are also regularly using civilians or their homes as a living shield to protect themselves against Ukrainian army or to dissuade Ukrainian army from shooting at them.

Criminals

Vladimir Antiufeev, who was appointed vice-prime-minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” for “state security” is a person under international search, and is banned from visiting EU after he worked the minister for state security of Transnistria in 1992-2012.

Displaced persons

The number of internally displaced persons from Donbas reaches 1200 people daily. Ukrainian authorities report about over 35,000 of persons from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts who were internally displaced.

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March 27: First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Andriy Parubiy has said that Russia could try to carry out a large-scale invasion in the nearest future

March 27 – Polish prosecutors charged two Russian flight operations officers with involvement in the crash of Tu-154 near Smolensk on April 10th, 2010 (the plane was carrying President Lech Kaczynski), reports Wprost. According to military prosecutor Ireneusz Shelonk, they are accused of creating a situation which resulted in immediate danger as well as inadvertently causing disaster within airspace. Warsaw plans to summon these flight operations officers for questioning as suspects. The airplane, which was carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski and another 96 people, crashed, while landing in heavy fog and low visibility at an airfield Smolensk-North. All passengers and crew members died.

March 27 – During the night the militants fired at ATO positions 8 times as well as used heavy artillery – ATO's press center.

March 27 – First Deputy Speaker of Ukrainian Parliament Andriy Parubiy has said that Russia could try to carry out a large-scale invasion in the nearest future in order to have it over and dome with by May 9th, as planned by Putin. "Large number of troops is located close to the border of Ukraine with Russia. Many reports state, and this is no secret, that in the next week there is a high risk of large-scale military operation", – said Parubiy. "The operation must be carried out brilliantly before May 9th, believes Putin, and thus demonstrate the power of the Russian army. Therefore, we need lethal weapons not "when they invade Mariupol" but urgently".

March 27 – Every eight soldier joined the army on his own initiative, voluntarily. The plan of mobilization from January 20th to April 20th of 52,000 army obligated recruits into the Armed Forces of Ukraine has, as of today, been 76% fulfilled, informed at a briefing the Press Secretary of the General Staff, Vladislav Selezniov. According to him, every eight one of this number is a volunteer. Selezniov added that more than half of the plan of mobilizing of transport vehicles – the transfer of automobiles for the uses of the arm – has been fulfilled. Overall, in 2015, it is planned to call up into the army 104,000 individuals within the two mobilization stages. The first phase started on January 20th and will last for 90 days.

March 27 – Premier Arseniy Yatseniuk commissioned to involve European and American investigators in the battle against corruption in Ukraine. "Right now we have a form of the so-called international investigation commission, but I am asking that the Ministry of Internal Affairs to introduce a change in the law, so that we, according to the decision of the investigator, could involve into the carrying out of the investigative actions, professional representatives from the USA and separate EU countries, so that they could help us in the investigation of criminal cases, assist us in tracing the foreign assets and officials, and other people, suspected of corruption," he noted.

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Taras Kuzio: far more Europeans join separatists in Donbas than Isis in Syria:

Taras Kuzio: far more Europeans join separatists in Donbas than Isis in Syria

This week, St Petersburg hosted a bizarre gathering organized by the Rodina (Motherland) party of 150 European fascist and nationalist-populist political parties united in their opposition to the EU and US and in support of Russia's annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. Rodina is the loyal nationalist ally of President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party and consequently plays a similar role to the Radical Party's alliance with the Serbian Socialist party.

Russia's alignment with European fascist and nationalist-populist parties would seem to contradict official rhetoric that has incessantly attacked the Ukrainian Euromaidan leaders as a fascist junta brought to power by western intelligence agencies. It also, as Timothy Snyder of Yale University has pointed, out recalls uncanny memories of the 1939-1941 Soviet-Nazi Pact that also had the goal of dividing European powers.

One sinister outgrowth of Russia's cultivation of extreme right and extreme left parties and movements in Europe is the large mobilisation of people travelling to the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to fight for pro-Russian separatists.

There has been understandable outcry over the three young British girls who travelled to Istanbul on February 17 on their way to join Isis, the brutal terrorist organization based in Syria and Iraq. But what has gone unnoticed is the hundreds – far more Europeans than have travelled to join Isis – who have joined Russian-backed terrorists fighting Ukraine's legitimately elected leaders. The BBC reported that the influx of foreign fighters into eastern Ukraine "mirrors that of young Muslims from Britain and other parts of Europe travelling to the Middle East to fight in its wars".

Russian-backed separatists have attracted an eclectic mix of extreme left and extreme right followers, nostalgic in the former case for the USSR and the Spanish civil war and in the latter drawn by a common anti-EU and anti-US platform with Putin and the Donbas separatists. Greeks, traditionally the most pro-Russian nationals in the EU, the Hungarian Legion of St Isztvan, Serbs, French, Germans, Spaniards and volunteers from former Soviet republics such as Kyrgyzstan are fighting alongside separatists widely condemned by the UN and international human rights groups for crimes against humanity.

The eclectic group has included 20 Frenchmen from the fascist organisation Continental Unity formed in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Serbian war crimes suspect Vojislav Seselj. France's far right National Front party has strongly supported Russia's annexation of the Crimea and invasion of Eastern Ukraine and has received a $10 million loan from Russia.

Not surprisingly, there are reportedly over 100 extreme right Serbs fighting for what they see as a common Orthodox religious faith and historic ally. Russian nationalist Igor Girkin "Strelkov" ("Shooter") who commanded Russian special forces in western Donbas until summer of 2014 had fought for the Bosnian Serbs in the 1990s.

One hundred extreme right Germans are fighting alongside the terrorists according to Die Welt. Stephan Mayer, a member of the ruling Christian Democrats, told Die Welt that Germans who participate in civil wars should be taken to court, although presently the German criminal code only punishes those who fight alongside Isis.

The Spanish Republican Guard detained a group of extreme left-wing Spaniards on their return from eastern Ukraine. Angel Davilla-Rivas, one of the Spaniards, has two big tattoos of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin and explained his decision to go to Eastern Ukraine as "gratitude" for Stalin's support for the Spanish Republicans in the 1930s.

British volunteers have not reportedly gone to fight for the Donbas separatists, although the National Front (NF) and UKIP have given their support to Putin, and the NF attended this weeks St Petersburg conference. The Conservative Friends of Russia, renamed the Westminster Russia Forum after a critical in-depthinvestigation by The Guardian, has been functioning as a pro-Kremlin lobby group with extensive support from Sergey Nalobin at the Russian Embassy in London.

British journalist Graham Phillips, who moved from the Conservatives to UKIP, has sent numerous pro-separatist reports for Russian media outlets and was detained on March 4 at Heathrow and questioned for four hours by Border Police under Schedule 7 of the 2000 Terrorism Act about his activities in the Donbas before being released without charge. The British Foreign Office is allegedly pressuring Phillips to halt his reporting from the Donbas.

Phillips does not hide his political sympathies for pro-Russian separatists and does not attempt to be impartial in a conflict zone, posting photos of him wearing lapel badges of Novorossiya (New Russia, the Tsarist term used by Putin and separatists to describe Eastern and Southern Ukraine) and cheering after separatists captured the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve.

Phillips' notoriety came into the public domain late last year when he interviewed Ukrainian prisoners and a wounded Ukrainian soldier. In the interviews, herepeatedly demands the prisoners explain why they have come to "murder civilians" and asks are they "ready to go home now and accept that it is Novorossiya here and not Ukraine". In the second interview Phillips aggressively interviews a severely burnt Ukrainian soldier prisoner.

European law enforcement have been understandably concerned at their citizens travelling to join Isis, yet they have largely ignored the many more far right and far left extremists that are fighting for pro-Russian groups in Ukraine. Recent detentions in Spain and the UK were hesitant, because law enforcement officers still lack political direction as to how to respond to Russia's support for the separatists.

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