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Anti-Terrorist Operation: Liveblog (July 1)

Operational map as of June 26

Following the refusal of insurgents to lay down their arms or cooperate a unilateral ceasefire, President Petro Poroshenko announced the resumption of the Anti-Terrorist Operation of the Armed Forces & National Guard on late on June 30.

[quote]We will attack and we will liberate our land. The end of the ceasefire is our response to terrorists, rebels, looters, all those who mock the civilians who paralyze the economy of the region; who rip the payment of salaries, pensions, stipends; who undermine the railroads, destroy water pipes, those who deprive a normal peaceful life.[/quote]

Summary

As the ATO commenced early reports indicated that both artillery and airstrikes were being ordered as the military advanced, targeting previously-discovered terrorist positions.

Donetsk:

Destroyed Sloviansk TV tower
  • Loud explosions heard in Donetsk (video), multiple outlets reported insurgents are attempting to fire at jets with heavy machine guns. (10:20 AM)
  • 4 killed, 5 wounded in Kramatorsk as mini-bus came under fire, reports Donetsk RSA. Details were not disclosed. (9:50 AM)
  • Residents of Horlivka report tank battles involving the Russian Vostok Battalion. Sources say at least 4 Russian tanks are involved and civilians are fleeing the area in panic. (9:47 AM)
  • Shelling by pro-Russian insurgents in Sloviansk destroys city’s TV tower on Mount Karachun, where Ukrainian troops were stationed. There were no injuries reported.
  • Spokesman for the ATO states a number of insurgents have defected and/or deserted and are in ongoing negotiations, providing intelligence to Ukrainian forces. (8:41 AM)
  • In addition to heavy gunfire in Donetsk proper, resident of Snizhne, Horlivka, and Kramatorsk reported ongoing shelling. (4:00 AM)
  • During the night 1 soldier was wounded by sniper fire near Tarany, Donetsk region. (Tymchuk)

Luhansk:

  • Terrorists blow up train tracks in Luhansk region, suspending train activity. (9:25 AM)
  • Heavy armored military column moving in Luhansk at. (1:45 AM)
  • In broad daylight, terrorists are moving Russian tanks to Luhansk towed on platforms (June 30)
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February 11: The Russian proposal at the Summit in Minsk is unacceptable – president of Ukraine Poroshenko

U.S., 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.

February 16: Pro-Russian separatists cannot “morally” stop fighting for the town of Debaltseve

February 16 – Continued sanctions against Russia, crisis in Ukraine, and January terrorist acts in Paris have placed under threat the possibility of a peaceful life for more than 800 million Europeans. This was raised in the letter by the speaker of Derzhduma in Russia, Serhiy Naryshkin, addressed to the Parliaments of European countries, the European Council, European Parliament, as well as the OBSE Parliamentary Assembly, writes Newsweek. The letter urges European Parliaments to stop the crisis. It is noteworthy that the letter is not a public letter. It was released to journalists by the Parliaments. Interesting – who will resolve this war – if not Russia? Of course, Russia decided to scare the world with a World War, which it itself is unleashing. A reminder, on Monday, the new EU sanctions against Russia took effect.

February 16 – Illegal armed groups have fired at the positions of ATO forces over 112 times. The fragile ceasefire in Ukraine appears to have collapsed just 48 hours after being implemented, as separatist fighters and government troops continued to engage in tit-for-tat fighting.

February 16 – Pro-Russian separatists cannot "morally" stop fighting for the town of Debaltseve in east Ukraine because it is "internal territory" and must respond to fire from Ukrainian troops, Denis Pushilin, a rebel representative.

February 16 – In Rostov province, the Russian Emergencies Ministry has completed the preparation of the 12th column of humanitarian aid for Donbas and it is ready to ship. It consists of more than 170 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid totaling more than 1.5 thousand tons. The next "humanitarian convoy" of the Russian Federation, which crosses the Ukrainian border without the permission of the Ukrainian authorities, will be regarded as an invasion. This was stated by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, says Joinfo.ua.

February 16 – The United States said on Feb. 16 it is "gravely concerned" by fighting in and around Debaltseve in eastern Ukraine that flared up after a ceasefire agreement and said it is closely monitoring reports of a new column of Russian military equipment moving toward the region.

February 16 – The situation in eastern Ukraine is very unstable, and the path towards a total peace will be extremely complicated, especially concerning the situation around Debaltsev. This was stated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Ceasefire?? Battle for Debaltsevo rages

Putin ally in Czech Republic

Putin's countermove

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