Dmitry Tymchuk: Update from the zone of combat operations

Maidan Community Sector, Lviv: Dear friends!

January 8 – Eleventh "humanitarian aid convoy" has the border with Ukraine from Russia avoiding proper control, – informed NSDC spokesman Andriy Lysenko. They are again transporting weapons to Ukraine and dead bodies to Russia.

January 8 – Up to 7.5 thousand Russian soldiers are located in Donbas at any given moment; they are constantly rotated, – said Ukraine's Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak.

January 8 – The Head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov believes that Mikhail Khodorkovsky (who is Jewish and a Russian opposition member) has declared himself to be an "enemy of all Muslims of the world" and his personal enemy.

January 8 – Donetsk airport and its surroundings were the sites of the most intense fighting within ATO area, – informs ATO press center. The militants opened fire 16 times and shelled Ukrainian positions using mortars and artillery, including "Grad" rocket launchers.

January 8 – Former leader of Donetsk militants Igor Strielkov (Hirkin) has urged Russia not to "bury its head in the sand" and recognize that it is at war with Ukraine.

January 8 – A special monitoring mission of OSCE in a report, published on the evening of January 6 notes the deterioration of the situation in Donbas. According to the information provided by OSCE, during the 24-hour period from January 4 to January 5, there were recoded 69 violations of the cease fire regime. 32 of these were observed to be from the side of the Ukrainian army, whereas 37 were from the side of the separatists. The most intensive fighting took place at Donetsk Airport, at the southern entrance to the village of Pisky and in the village itself. Also shots happened in the region of the residential areas of Nikishyn, Chornukhyne and Debaltse – in the villages of Ridkodub, Kam'ianka, and Horodyshche.

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

February 20 – 2 Ukrainian military were killed and 3 wounded in the ATO area in the last 24 hours. General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces confirms that 110 Ukrainian military of Debaltseve garrison were captured by the militants.

February 20 – Donbas territories that are not controlled by Ukrainian authorities are in debt – they owe Ukraine 7.5 billion UAH for gas, 3.5 billion UAH for electricity. Gas and electricity are being supplied by Ukraine to territories that have been occupied by the Russians free of charge. This is surrealism in Ukrainian for you. Ukraine also covers all the social costs incurred by the terrorists. Whereas within Ukraine all the rates are going up several-fold.

February 20 – Russia continues to transfer its soldiers and military equipment to Donbas, – informed NSDC spokesman Andriy Lysenko. Over 20 tanks, 10 self-propelled artillery systems and 15 trucks have all entered Ukraine from Russia and started moving towards Novoazovsk. Busses carrying Russian soldiers have also been recorded. 20 trucks transporting ammunition were spotted near Izvaryne moving towards Luhansk.

February 20 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed a Decree enacting the Decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of January 25th "On emergency measures to be taken against threat of Russian aggression and manifestations of terrorism, supported by the Russian Federation". In cooperation with the National Council for Radio and Television, the Government was instructed to take urgent action to curb Russian information aggression carried out using national and foreign media. State Fiscal Service and State Service for Financial Monitoring were instructed to immediately implement effective actions to identify and eliminate the channels used to fund the terrorists. NSDC has also urged General Prosecutor to take actions and recognise the so-called "People's Republic of Donetsk" and "People's Republic of Luhansk" as terrorist organizations.

February 20 – A year after the massacre at the Independence Square in Kyiv (the Maidan), a Prosecutor General of Ukraine has finally declared the suspicion of committing crimes to 18 former senior officials of Yanukovych regime, – informed during a press conference the Head of the Department for Special Investigations of the Prosecutor General Serhiy Gorbatyuk. International human rights organization "Amnesty International" presented a report stating that only two policemen have to date been criminally punished for crimes against "Maidan" and even they are now on probation. Everyone else still manages to successfully avoid any punishment.

February 20 – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed a Law on the creation of a joint Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian Brigade.

February 20 – Ukraine's example shows well that the position of halting nuclear power and refusing nuclear potential is not justified. This was stated by the former General Director of NATO, George Robertsonin an article published in the newspaper Herald Scotland. In polemics with the Scottish National Party, which supports the nuclear disarmament of Britain, he advises the opponents to search in Google information on the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, wherein Ukraine under "assurances made under oath" by Russia, USA, and Britain, renounced nuclear arms. "These countries, as well as both France and China, promised to: a) respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignity within the existing borders; b) refrain from the threat or the use of force against Ukraine, and c) refrain from economic pressure on Ukraine as a means of influencing its politics. "Don't these promises look good in the light of the bloody battles, which we see on our TV screens every evening?" asks Rebertson. Simultaneously, he emphasizes, that Russia is not even thinking of stopping its nuclear potential, but, on the contrary, is cultivating it.

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You can watch the documentary here: (in German)

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