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February 11: The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko

US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa February 11 – The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko. Russia deliberately disrupts agreements. February 11 – 19 Ukrainian military were killed and 78 wounded as a result of shelling near the burial mound “Hostra Mogyla” close to Debaltseve and at other locations within ATO area, – informed the spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladyslav Seleznyov at a briefing on Wednesday morning. February 11 – In Donbas pro-Russian militants shelled the positions of Ukrainian troops 27 times on the night of February 11th. Most of the attacks occurred in the direction of Luhansk. 87 pro-Russian militants and 42 units of military equipment were destroyed in the last 24 hours (including 12 tanks, 14 multiple rocket launchers and 16 armored vehicles). February 11 – In Donetsk 6 people were killed and 8 wounded as a result of shelling at the bus station and entrance office of “Donetsk Metallurgical Plant”. February 11 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko spoke about a successful military operation at Debaltseve foothold: “Several successful operations were conducted yesterday at Debaltseve foothold. They allowed us to gain control over two municipalities and the contact line”, – said Poroshenko. February 11 – “People’s Republic of Luhansk” and “People’s Republic of Donetsk” demand that Ukraine stops the ATO and are requesting autonomy and new elections, – as stated in a protocol draft handed over on Tuesday night by the leaders of the terrorists to the contact group in Minsk. February 11 – Russian Federal TV Station “Channel 5” has broadcast a story describing how quickly and easily Russian troops can enter European capitals and threatened the West with missile attacks. Show’s authors vaguely disguised this information as campaign to hold “Victory Day parades” in the EU member-states capitals. February 11 – Russia implemented a direct military intervention during the battle at the city of Debaltseve, – stated Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Commander of Allied Land Command (NATO). February 11 – Russian Foreign Ministry believes that border control issues should be should negotiated upon with the militants, which, in its turn, doesn’t provide a solution to the problem, – stated Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. February 11 – Government is ready to establish martial law, should there be esalation of the situation in the east. This was stated by President Petro Poroshenko during a government meeting. Poroshenko emphasized that it is precisely “from the results of the summit that it will depend if we will be successful in stopping the aggressor by diplomatic means, or if we will switch into a very different course.” I and the government, and Parliament are ready to make a decision to impose martial law in the entire territory of Ukraine,” he noted. “In no way will I delay this decision, if the the irresponsible acts of the aggressor bring about a serious continued escalation of the conflict,” he emphasized. “I am convinced that our country can protect itself and that every person will do whatever posssible in order to demonstrate that victory will be ours. However, I stress, that I am a president of peace, and thatn through army means, the situation in Donbas should not be decided,” he added. Ukraine cannot be a buffer state Photo report from eastern Ukraine Help Ukraine seize this chance Economist Edward Lucas Attacks Russia’s RT and Sputnik for “manufacturing lies” and those working there as “freaks and propagandists” Feature by BBC Monitoring on 9 February Russian state media have hit back strongly at British journalist Edward Lucas after he criticized them at the recent Munich Security Conference and suggested that journalists working for them should be ostracized. One top TV presenter went as far as to brand Lucas a “village idiot”. At a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference on 6 February, Lucas, a senior editor at The Economist and author of The New Cold War, accused the Kremlin’s international media operations, RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik (rebranded successor to the Voice of Russia) of “manufacturing lies”. He said the people working for them were “freaks and propagandists”, who should be the target of a campaign of ostracism, according to records of the discussion published by RT and Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.[1] “If anyone puts a CV on my desk and on that CV I see they worked for RT or Sputnik or one of these things, that CV is going into the bin,” Lucas said. He added that people in the West were wrong to see working for the Kremlin’s international media as a “first stage on the career ladder”. “It’s not, it’s the last stage,” he told the Munich conference. “Journalistic Joe McCarthy” Russian state media came back, all guns blazing, with Lucas even getting a whole slot to himself on state channel Rossiya 1’s weekly current affairs news roundup Vesti Nedeli.[2] Outspoken host Dmitriy Kiselev, who is also director-general of Sputnik’s parent company Rossiya Segodnya (which confusingly translates as Russia Today), hurled a whole fistful of epithets at Lucas – “odious British journalist”, “hysterical Londoner” and even “village idiot” – while rubbishing his analysis of Russian politics and accusing The Economist of practising censorship. RT responded more primly, saying it was “absolutely outraged” by Lucas’s “specious attacks”, which, it said, were particularly “despicable” as several of its journalists were daily risking their lives to “report on stories nobody else dares to touch”.[3] Sputnik also had Lucas in its sights, describing him in one article as a “journalistic Joe McCarthy” – a reference to the US senator who instigated a witch-hunt against Communist sympathizers in the 1950s.[4] Lucas himself appeared to revel in the backlash, responding to Kiselev in kind. “Better than a Pulitzer prize? i get prime-time abuse from vile Kremlin mouthpiece Kiselov,” he tweeted.[5] He could also take comfort from the support of fellow Twitterati, who suggested he had got under RT’s skin. US journalist Michael Weiss observed that Lucas had “figured out RT hacks’ Achilles heel”, while Times columnist Oliver Kamm said he had “badly wounded them”.[6][7] Writer and Russia watcher Ben Judah also weighed in, saying Lucas had put the wind up RT. “Experts should refuse to appear on RT – or any other? disinformation channel”, he added.[8] “Misinformation” RT and its supporters also entered the fray on Twitter. One of its contributors, Robert Bridge, accused Lucas of being “scared to hear another side of the story”, while the channel itself suggested his attack on its journalists may have been provoked by recent criticism of The Economist on its show In The Now.[9][10] In The Now dismissed as “absurd” a claim by The Economist that Russian state TV “conceals” bad economic news from its viewers. It showed excerpts from top TV bulletins talking about the collapse of the rouble to prove the contrary. It also said that the story of the rouble’s woes and the looming recession had been well covered in Russian newspapers. To suggest otherwise, it said, was to promote “misinformation”.[11] It called its analysis of The Economist’s coverage a “tutorial on how to write a propaganda article”. But RT’s criticism of The Economist was itself guilty of omission and distortion. For example, it made no mention of the fact that on the day in mid December when the rouble tumbled by some 10 per cent, Rossiya 1 main news had ignored this story altogether. Also, it illustrated its claim about the Russian press’s economic coverage with screenshots not from leading newspapers but from news agencies and websites, one of them a little known business portal from the Volga republic of Tatarstan. The panel discussion at the Munich conference, which also featured NATO commander and US general Philip Breedlove and Norwegian Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, looked more broadly at the issue of hybrid warfare and the role played in it by different media organizations. According to a report by Judy Dempsey on the Carnegie Europe website, the participants said that one of the reasons why RT and its ilk have been able to make such an impact is the cutbacks at top Western international media, such as the BBC World Service and the Voice of America.[12] [1] http://rt.com/op-edge/230315-rt-responds-lucas-munich/ [2] http://vesti7.ru/news?id=45745 [3] See note 1 [4] http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150208/1017973545.html [5] https://twitter.com/edwardlucas/status/564531479263600642 [6] https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/564468359048486912 [7] https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/564408994853572609 [8] https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/564541740863193091 [9] https://twitter.com/Robert_Bridge/status/564665181549391873 [10] https://twitter.com/INTHENOWRT/status/564758039371472896 [11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5X3WYm_3U [12] http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=58998 Source: BBC Monitoring research 9 Feb 15 P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.
byTaras Voznyak
12/02/2015
6 minute read
February 11: The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko

By [email protected] (Тарас Возняк)

US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa

February 11 – The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko. Russia deliberately disrupts agreements.

February 11 – 19 Ukrainian military were killed and 78 wounded as a result of shelling near the burial mound “Hostra Mogyla” close to Debaltseve and at other locations within ATO area, – informed the spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Vladyslav Seleznyov at a briefing on Wednesday morning.

February 11 – In Donbas pro-Russian militants shelled the positions of Ukrainian troops 27 times on the night of February 11th. Most of the attacks occurred in the direction of Luhansk. 87 pro-Russian militants and 42 units of military equipment were destroyed in the last 24 hours (including 12 tanks, 14 multiple rocket launchers and 16 armored vehicles).

February 11 – In Donetsk 6 people were killed and 8 wounded as a result of shelling at the bus station and entrance office of “Donetsk Metallurgical Plant”.

February 11 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko spoke about a successful military operation at Debaltseve foothold: “Several successful operations were conducted yesterday at Debaltseve foothold. They allowed us to gain control over two municipalities and the contact line”, – said Poroshenko.

February 11 – “People’s Republic of Luhansk” and “People’s Republic of Donetsk” demand that Ukraine stops the ATO and are requesting autonomy and new elections, – as stated in a protocol draft handed over on Tuesday night by the leaders of the terrorists to the contact group in Minsk.

February 11 – Russian Federal TV Station “Channel 5” has broadcast a story describing how quickly and easily Russian troops can enter European capitals and threatened the West with missile attacks. Show’s authors vaguely disguised this information as campaign to hold “Victory Day parades” in the EU member-states capitals.

February 11 – Russia implemented a direct military intervention during the battle at the city of Debaltseve, – stated Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Commander of Allied Land Command (NATO).

February 11 – Russian Foreign Ministry believes that border control issues should be should negotiated upon with the militants, which, in its turn, doesn’t provide a solution to the problem, – stated Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

February 11 – Government is ready to establish martial law, should there be esalation of the situation in the east. This was stated by President Petro Poroshenko during a government meeting. Poroshenko emphasized that it is precisely “from the results of the summit that it will depend if we will be successful in stopping the aggressor by diplomatic means, or if we will switch into a very different course.” I and the government, and Parliament are ready to make a decision to impose martial law in the entire territory of Ukraine,” he noted.

“In no way will I delay this decision, if the the irresponsible acts of the aggressor bring about a serious continued escalation of the conflict,” he emphasized. “I am convinced that our country can protect itself and that every person will do whatever posssible in order to demonstrate that victory will be ours. However, I stress, that I am a president of peace, and thatn through army means, the situation in Donbas should not be decided,” he added.

Ukraine cannot be a buffer state

Photo report from eastern Ukraine

Help Ukraine seize this chance

Economist Edward Lucas Attacks Russia’s RT and Sputnik for “manufacturing lies” and those working there as “freaks and propagandists”

Feature by BBC Monitoring on 9 February

Russian state media have hit back strongly at British journalist Edward Lucas after he criticized them at the recent Munich Security Conference and suggested that journalists working for them should be ostracized. One top TV presenter went as far as to brand Lucas a “village idiot”.

At a panel discussion at the annual Munich Security Conference on 6 February, Lucas, a senior editor at The Economist and author of The New Cold War, accused the Kremlin’s international media operations, RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Sputnik (rebranded successor to the Voice of Russia) of “manufacturing lies”.

He said the people working for them were “freaks and propagandists”, who should be the target of a campaign of ostracism, according to records of the discussion published by RT and Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.[1]

“If anyone puts a CV on my desk and on that CV I see they worked for RT or Sputnik or one of these things, that CV is going into the bin,” Lucas said. He added that people in the West were wrong to see working for the Kremlin’s international media as a “first stage on the career ladder”. “It’s not, it’s the last stage,” he told the Munich conference.

“Journalistic Joe McCarthy”

Russian state media came back, all guns blazing, with Lucas even getting a whole slot to himself on state channel Rossiya 1’s weekly current affairs news roundup Vesti Nedeli.[2]

Outspoken host Dmitriy Kiselev, who is also director-general of Sputnik’s parent company Rossiya Segodnya (which confusingly translates as Russia Today), hurled a whole fistful of epithets at Lucas – “odious British journalist”, “hysterical Londoner” and even “village idiot” – while rubbishing his analysis of Russian politics and accusing The Economist of practising censorship.

RT responded more primly, saying it was “absolutely outraged” by Lucas’s “specious attacks”, which, it said, were particularly “despicable” as several of its journalists were daily risking their lives to “report on stories nobody else dares to touch”.[3]

Sputnik also had Lucas in its sights, describing him in one article as a “journalistic Joe McCarthy” – a reference to the US senator who instigated a witch-hunt against Communist sympathizers in the 1950s.[4]

Lucas himself appeared to revel in the backlash, responding to Kiselev in kind.

“Better than a Pulitzer prize? i get prime-time abuse from vile Kremlin mouthpiece Kiselov,” he tweeted.[5]

He could also take comfort from the support of fellow Twitterati, who suggested he had got under RT’s skin.

US journalist Michael Weiss observed that Lucas had “figured out RT hacks’ Achilles heel”, while Times columnist Oliver Kamm said he had “badly wounded them”.[6][7]

Writer and Russia watcher Ben Judah also weighed in, saying Lucas had put the wind up RT. “Experts should refuse to appear on RT – or any other? disinformation channel”, he added.[8]

“Misinformation”

RT and its supporters also entered the fray on Twitter.

One of its contributors, Robert Bridge, accused Lucas of being “scared to hear another side of the story”, while the channel itself suggested his attack on its journalists may have been provoked by recent criticism of The Economist on its show In The Now.[9][10]

In The Now dismissed as “absurd” a claim by The Economist that Russian state TV “conceals” bad economic news from its viewers. It showed excerpts from top TV bulletins talking about the collapse of the rouble to prove the contrary. It also said that the story of the rouble’s woes and the looming recession had been well covered in Russian newspapers. To suggest otherwise, it said, was to promote “misinformation”.[11]

It called its analysis of The Economist’s coverage a “tutorial on how to write a propaganda article”.

But RT’s criticism of The Economist was itself guilty of omission and distortion.

For example, it made no mention of the fact that on the day in mid December when the rouble tumbled by some 10 per cent, Rossiya 1 main news had ignored this story altogether.

Also, it illustrated its claim about the Russian press’s economic coverage with screenshots not from leading newspapers but from news agencies and websites, one of them a little known business portal from the Volga republic of Tatarstan.

The panel discussion at the Munich conference, which also featured NATO commander and US general Philip Breedlove and Norwegian Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide, looked more broadly at the issue of hybrid warfare and the role played in it by different media organizations.

According to a report by Judy Dempsey on the Carnegie Europe website, the participants said that one of the reasons why RT and its ilk have been able to make such an impact is the cutbacks at top Western international media, such as the BBC World Service and the Voice of America.[12]

[1] http://rt.com/op-edge/230315-rt-responds-lucas-munich/

[2] http://vesti7.ru/news?id=45745

[3] See note 1

[4] http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150208/1017973545.html

[5] https://twitter.com/edwardlucas/status/564531479263600642

[6] https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/564468359048486912

[7] https://twitter.com/OliverKamm/status/564408994853572609

[8] https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/564541740863193091

[9] https://twitter.com/Robert_Bridge/status/564665181549391873

[10] https://twitter.com/INTHENOWRT/status/564758039371472896

[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5X3WYm_3U

[12] http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=58998

Source: BBC Monitoring research 9 Feb 15

P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.

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    February 12: ”Normandy Four” negotiations concluded in Minsk with a disappointing result for Ukraine

    February 12 – "Normandy Four" negotiations concluded in Minsk with a disappointing result for Ukraine. Putin did not give in on a single point – there will be no withdrawal of Russian troops (they are, of course, nowhere close to Ukraine), no immediate resumption of control over the border, no reinstatement of sovereignty over occupied Crimea or Donbas. There are, however, the obligations on behalf of Ukraine to service social needs of separatists, legalize their armed gangs and hold fake elections under their watchful eye. The situation looks a lot like the surrender of Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) to Hitler.

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    February 12 – The transfer of the amphibious assault ship "Vladivostok" (Mistral-class) to Russia could begin as early as next week.

    February 12 – EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini does not expect sanctions against Russia to be discussed during the summit of EU member-states leaders to be held on Thursday.

    February 12 – Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Lamberto Zannier hassaid that at present it is impossible to determine whether the militants in Donbas are also soldiers of the regular Russian army. OSCE has completely exhausted itself as a security-oriented organization.

    February 12 – Agreements reached in Minsk during the meeting of the leaders of the countries of the "Normandy quartet" are absolutely weak. This was stated by the President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybaskaite, to journalists in Brussels before the EU Summit. "The fundamental part of the resolution is the control of the borders. It was not agreed upon and not resolved," she noted. "This means that the border is open for crossing by whatever soldiers and whatever artillery," remarked Grybaskaite. "This means that the resolution is totally weak," emphasized the President of Lithuania. She is also not very optimistic about the agreements on the cease-fire.

    "Five months ago we already had one agreement about a cease-fire which was not implemented. Let's see what happens with this one," underlined Grybaskaite. "We will observe in the next few days how at least these partial agreements will be implemented," she added.

    War is hell! (photo report from occupied Vuhlehirsk)

    Russia lies... great start to Minsk agreement (Savchenko cannot be released!!)

    Timothy Ash

    Ukraine – deal thoughts

    I guess with hindsight, a deal was always going to be done. Merkel was not going to get on a flight to Minsk, after Kyiv, Moscow, and Berlin, and not get something. And Putin needed to try and rebuild some bridges with Merkel, after seemingly upsetting her at Brisbane. Merkel is probably the honest broker in all this. She really feels for the Ukrainian position, but understands the real threat from Russia – she reads Putin better than any other Western leader, and cannot be bought. But it is Bismark-style real politik for Merkel, and she was desperate to stop the fighting – almost at any cost, which is entirely understandable. Hollande will likely get his aircraft carriers delivered, and sees all this as offering the hope of ressurection in terms of his presidency at home – a global leader, strutting the international stage and making Cameron, et al look like poodles, or rather a bulldog with no teeth. Putin gets his aircraft carriers, which will no doubt have a nice shiny berth now awaiting in Sebastopol. Putin also fended off near term threats of sanctions from the West, and can sell himself to allies in Europe (there are many) as a peacemaker – again heading off further sanctions threats. He has also not agreed to very much, as I don't think his signature is on the document, so if it fails (and it likely will) he can blame others. He has also headed off the threat of the US arming Ukraine – and therein he is in cahoots with Obama himself, who will see this deal as being useful in fending off calls from the DC consensus (including within his own administration) now to arm Ukraine – and can return to his own "splendid isolation" or "strategic patience" as it is now called stateside. That's a nice term for doing as little as possible. Poroshenko gets his IMF programme, and can try and roll out reforms attached to this to try and assure the supporters of Maydan that this team is really the Real Deal in terms of the reforms they so desire. Note the IMF press release was timed for 10am, just as news of the Minsk deal broke – so my sense is that someone was telling the Ukrainians that an IMF deal was contingent on a Minsk ceasefire deal. No ceasefire – no IMF deal. And the IMF gets to roll out its new programme, which it has been working on for months. Poroshenko probably also thinks that the ceasefire will buy time for Ukraine to regroup, rearm against the clear and present danger of further Russian intervention. But will it all stick/last? I just do not think so, as I still fail to see from this deal what is different to Minsk I in terms of delivery on Russian strategic objectives in Ukraine. Minsk I clearly did not deliver for Russia, hence that ceasefire did not last long, so let's see what is really different this time around. The issues of real autonomy/federalism, and border control don't appear to be properly addressed in this document. Constitutional reform towards the Russian agenda will be impossible for Poroshenko to deliver. And finally and fundamentally why I do not think that the status quo is sustainable – one year ago Russia felt the need to annex Crimea, and intervene in eastern Ukraine. But one year ago Ukraine was no threat to Russia as a) it was non aligned; b) popular support for Nato membership was low single digits, and there was little support in parliament or amongst political elites to drive Ukraine NATO membership. C) the west really did not want Ukraine in NATO as they saw this as a red rag to the Russian bull, and as events have proved could not defend Ukraine under NATO's TOR; c) the Ukrainian military had limited fighting capability as was proven in the early days of the conflict, but subsequently changed; d) the govt in Kyiv was weak and disarray and the Ukrainian economy on the brink of collapse; e) and as events have proven Russia had de facto control of Crimea via the stationing of 26,000 troops and the long term BSF agreement. And f) and finally Ukrainians were not anti-russian or even particularly anti-Putin. If Moscow was not a real threat a year ago, but Moscow felt compelled to intervene, look at the risk from a Russian perspective now from Ukraine – a) Ukraine is no longer non aligned. B) it now wants to join NATO and opinion polls now show majority support for this. C) Ukraine is rebuilding military capability and the military doctrine is now against the threat from Russia; d) Ukraine has a reform admin in Kyiv, which has a real chance of succeeding now with imf support. It can offer a rival and successful model of development to Putin's power vertical and sovereign democracy. E) Opinion polls show strong ukrainian opposition/distaste for the Putin regime. So, net-net the above still suggests the risk of further future Russian intervention in Ukraine.

    P.S.: Please spread this appeal as much as possible.

    byTaras Voznyak