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February 15 – Representatives of illegal armed groups did not let the observers of OSCE's special monitoring mission to visit Debaltseve (Donetsk oblast), – stated Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin.

February 15 – Pro-Russian militants have said that they will not adhere to ceasefire in Debaltseve. "Of course, we can open fire (on Debaltseve). This is our territory", – said the representative of "Ministry of Defense of People's Republic of Donetsk" Eduard Basurin.

February 15 – Russia and pro-Russian militants in Donbas are testing the strength of the "fragile peace", which was established there, – said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkyavichyus.

February 15 – Britain is ready to continue ensuring the unity of EU on sanctions against Russia if Minsk agreements are not adhered to, – said Prime Minister of Great Britain David Cameron.

February 15 – Illegal armed groups have fired at the positions of ATO forces over 60 times, – informed ATO's press center. "The sources provided information that the militants plan to invade Debaltseve from the towns of Horlivka and Vuhlehirsk. They were ordered to provoke Ukrainian military and disrupt peace agreements. To do this, the militants use practically all kinds of weapons. The enemy does not adhere to peace agreements and every day is trying to take over as many of our territories as possible". Moreover, the terrorists are deliberately firing at towns and villages where there are no ATO positions. For instance at 8:25 am and 3:10 pm the terrorists shelled Donetsk with mortars.

February 15 – Minsk agreements are another step towards peace, but we must always be ready for a possibility that Putin will not adhere to these agreements "because he never did", – said Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

February 15 – Russia is attempting to carry out a resolution in the U.N. Security Council which will change the "Minsk Agreement" – reported AV Press journalist Andriy Vasylliev. According to him, RF is trying to place all the responsibility for the peace process solely on Ukraine. Also the Russian version of the resolution demands that Ukraine first after the ceasefire moves its troops by 50 kilometers. Also Moscow wants to fully relent an any promises made in Minsk and demands the right to deliver to Ukraine so-called humanitarian convoys. "However, members of the Security Council all know what is involved in these "humanitarian convoys." Of course, the text in the Russian variant will not pass," noted the journalist.

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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.

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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

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