RNBO: News & Analysis Center July 11 Update

Andriy Lysenko, spokesperson for the National Security Council’s News & Analysis Center, reported at the Center’s noon briefing, July 11, 2014, that the international community is supportive of Ukraine’s actions to restore peace in the Donbas. President Petro Poroshenko had a three-way telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande. His collocutors admitted that there has been no progress on the Russian side in terms of carrying out the previously agreed steps to deescalate the situation in Eastern Ukraine.

The Ukrainian President specifically noted that Nadia Savchenko, a pilot with Ukraine’s Armed Forces, had been abducted by militants in Luhansk Oblast and now was revealed to be in a Russian prison in Voronezh. President Poroshenko issued an instruction to the Foreign and Justice Ministries to use every means they could to gain the Ukrainian pilot’s release. The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Bureau of Ukraine (SBU) are currently investigating the circumstances of Savchenko’s removal to Russia to determine further responses. According to official State Border Service data, Nadia Savchenko never crossed the Ukrainian border into Russia.

Open provocations at the border from the Russian Federation side continue. Around the village of Ilyenkove, border officers reported that six Russian helicopters had penetrated 4 kilometers into Ukrainian airspace and then quickly turned back. After a careful review of the county, the border patrol discovered mortar positions that had been set up and military issue ammunition.

Population centers in the conflict zone

In those territories freed of the terrorists, efforts to restore normal life continue. In Sloviansk, the central water supply system will be turned on again in the next few days. On July 10, pension payments will begin to be paid to people who get their benefits through the post office. Those pensioners in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk who get their monthly pensions through banks began receiving their benefits on their debit cards on July 7.

At the moment, prioritized social infrastructure is being restored in Sloviansk, starting with kindergartens, schools and hospitals. City residents now have access to medications, with priority being given to vital medicine such as insulin. Based on President Poroshenko’s negotiations for financial assistance, Germany will be providing €2.5 million to restore the infrastructure of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

In all the settlements in Eastern Ukraine that have been freed from the terrorists, work is going on to defuse mines, restore infrastructure, and deliver humanitarian aid to the local population. Local government agencies and utility companies have also begun to reopen their offices. In Donetsk Oblast, nearly 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid have been distributed in the last 24 hours.

Military sappers have finished checking out the territories between Izium and Sloviansk for any hidden mines. In the last 3 days alone, army engineers have uncovered and removed 2,000 explosives in Sloviansk.

Renewed suburban train service between Kharkiv and Sloviansk

Power has been restored in Kramatorsk and the water supply system and parts of the gas line are currently under repair.

In Shakhtarsk County, a high-tension power line and substation have resumed work after being damaged by explosives. Power has been renewed in Stepanivka, Latyshev, Tarany, Saurivka, and partly in Dmytrivka. The gas line between Dmytrivka and Dibrovka is being repaired.

Power is running again to the Sloviansk reservoir of potable water, including the first and second rises of the Donetsk water line, filtering stations #1 and #2. Once all the repair work is completed, it will be possible to provided full-capacity water supplies to Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka.

In Volnovakha and Krasnoarmiysk in Donetsk Oblast and Svatove in Luhansk Oblast, three transit centers for individuals who want shelter from the terrorists have been opened in the stadiums of public schools, in line with a Cabinet resolution and instructions from the President. A 24/7 hot line at 101 is now working. An interagency coordination unit for social services to citizens of Ukraine who are currently displaced from the areas where the Anti-Terrorist Operation is going on, is currently working. All the details are provided on the State Emergencies Service site.

Military action in the conflict zone

During the previous 24 hours, illegally armed groups opened gunfire 10 times on Ukrainian Armed Forces checkpoints and positions near Luhansk, Dovzhansk, Pryvolye, Siversk, Rozsypne, Marianivka, Shyshkove, Rubizhne, and Muratove. An APC-80 blew up on a landmine planted by the terrorists on the outskirts of the village of Chervona Zorya. One soldier was taken prisoner during these battles.

During the night of July 9-10, a special operation in the neighborhood of Siversk by Ukrainian military destroyed two mortar groups and a fortification built by the militants.

All during July 9, bands of terrorists continued to fire actively at the positions of Ukraine’s Armed Forces at Luhansk Airport using GRAD BM-21 rocket launchers and tanks. ATO forces rebuffed the enemy effectively. Ukraine’s Air Force took to the air and opened fire, costing the terrorists on GRAD BM-21 system with its crew and fighting unit.

Information has been coming in that the terrorists are taking over school buildings, kindergartens, educational institutions and other social infrastructure and arming them as firing positions.

Battles in the last 24 hours have resulted in 3 casualties among Ukrainian servicemen and 27 injuries.

The border area

Ukraine’s forces are maintaining control over the border area. In response to Presidential orders to counter terrorism and to stop the financing of arms trade, the State Border Service of Ukraine, together with the Security Bureau and the Customs Service, ran a special operation to prevent the transferring of large sums of currency across the border into Russia. As a result, at around 19:00 on July 9, at the Hoptivk
a border crossing into Russia, a thorough search of a Mitsubishi Pajero that was leaving Ukraine revealed US $2.8mn in the reserve tank.

In Krasnoarmiysk, the city council met in session to invite the Commander of the Third National Guard Battalion, Donbas, to coordinate efforts directed at maintaining peace, security and defending law and order. The town also started a list of local residents who want to join the ranks of the Donbas Battalion.

Source: mediarnbo.org

Translated by Lidia Wolanskyj