Ukraine War Update - 9 June 2015

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  8:22 AM PDT

Poroshenko bans to move Russian soldiers via Ukraine to TransNistria

   (Zik) --- Pres Poroshenko signed into law the bill on the denunciation of agreements with Moscow on the transit of Russian servicemen to TransNistria, the presidential website report says.

   The agreement was signed in Nov. 1995,. Rada banned movements of Russian troops via Ukraine on May 21.
   Now, Russia won’t be able to move its troops and military cargo via Ukraine by air, land and water.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  7:55 AM PDT

Forest fire put out, oil depot fire to be put out in next 24 hours

   KIEV, June 9 (Ukrinform). --- Rescuers have stopped the spread of forest fire near oil depot in Kiev region.

   This is reported by the press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

   "As of 14:30, the spread of fire in forest near oil depot blaze was put out. Four pieces of the Emergency Service equipment are still on the site to control the situation. The area of ??fire spreading in the forest was low - 100-150 meters," the press service notes.

   The rescuers will need about twenty four hours to put out fire at the oil depot, chairman of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Mykola Chechetkin said.

   According to him, the firemen had already managed to come directly in the depot.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  7:53 AM PDT

June 8, eight Ukrainian army servicemen killed and five wounded

   (Zik) --- Eight Ukrainian troopers were killed and 5 wounded in fighting on June 8, army spokesman confirmed.

   The high death toll is explained by the use of heavy artillery and tanks by the enemy – in violation of the Minsk agreements, the official said.

   Intelligence gathered by OSCE drones June 8 showed rebel mortars in firing positions close to apartment houses.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  7:46 AM PDT

Ukrainian fails to smuggle 8 boxes of tank spare parts to Poland

   (Zik) --- June 8, Lviv border guards captured a Ukrainian who tried to smuggle tank spares out of Ukraine, border guards website says.

   While the border guards were examining the cargo in a truck heading for Poland, they notices boxes with hydraulic systems part that carried army markings.

   Later on, the parts were identified as spares for T-72A tank.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  7:33 AM PDT

Turchynov: Military arsenal is 50 meters from oil depot blaze

   KIEV, June 9 (Ukrinform). --- The military arsenal in Vasylkiv, Kiev region, is located 50 meters from oil depot blaze.

"Fire in Vasylkiv is a threat because of the military arsenal, located 50 meters away," Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov has posted on Twitter.

Defense Minister of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak earlier stated that the aviation units, situated next to the oil depot, had taken all necessary measures to avoid spreading of fire to the military unit. The ammunition, which was in close proximity to the fire, was evacuated. However, the evacuation of all the ammunition still goes on.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015  4:34 AM PDT

Terrorists go on shelling Ukrainian positions in all directions, - ATO speaker.

   (Censor.NET) --- Over the past day, the fighters were shelling our positions mainly from small arms, but they also used the forbidden under the Minsk agreements arms in particular 152 mm artillery, 122 mm cannons, tanks and "grads".

   ATO speaker Colonel Andrii Lysenko said at a daily briefing, Censor.NET reports.
   Yesterday the fights took place at the Mariupol direction in the villages of Lomakyne and Shyrokyne.

   At the Donetsk direction, the most active fights were near Horlivka, in particular at its north-west outskirts. The enemy is conducting heavy mortar fire, and near the village of Chervonyi Palhar (close to Sverdlovsk) it used the 122-mm cannons and tanks, firing from two different points.
   The enemy was also actively firing at our positions to the west of Donetsk at a broad part of the front from Avdiivka to Marinka. In particular, the use of tanks by the fighters was registered near Vodiane and Opytne.
   Yesterday during execution of combat mission in Krasnohorivka vicinity, a truck exploded with seven sapper soldiers aboard. As a result of the explosion all soldiers were lethally wounded.

   Yesterday at the Luhansk direction active fights were conducted along the whole demarcation line at that part of the front - from Zolote to Stanytsia Luhanska. Near the village of Hrechyshkyne of Novoaidar district, Ukrainian soldiers eliminated a sabotage group. A heavy fight occurred in the village of Krymske, where the enemy positioned its infantry combat vehicles and mortars. Besides, three Ukrainian soldiers tripped a mine and were taken to a hospital.
   Yesterday, 55 flights of enemy drones were registered in the ATO zone.

Monday, June 8, 2015  23:07 PDT

Lone Russian Lawmaker To Oppose Crimean Annexation Faces Fraud Probe

   (RFE/RL) --- Russia's Investigative Committee says it has launched a criminal inquiry against Ilya Ponomaryov, the lone State Duma representative to vote against the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

   Ponomaryov, a member of the A Just Russia party, is accused of embezzling money earmarked for the Skolkovo science and technology park project outside Moscow.

   Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on June 9 that since Ponomaryov was currently residing outside Russia, the committee planned to seek an international arrest warrant for him.

   In April, Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted to strip Ponomaryov's immunity from prosecution.

   Lawmakers from A Just Russia announced on June 8 that they had begun the process of stripping Ponomaryov of his parliamentary mandate.

   Sergei Mironov, leader of the party's parliamentary faction, told reporters in Moscow that the move had nothing to do with the charges faced by Ponomaryov, but with the fact that Ponomaryov had not attended parliamentary sessions since September.

   In August 2014, Ponomaryov was reported to be living in the United States, prompting Russian authorities that month to freeze the lawmaker's bank accounts and to announce that he would not be allowed to return to Russia.

   He is believed to be living in California.

   Authorities accuse Ponomaryov, one of a handful of opposition lawmakers in the State Duma, of embezzling some 22 million rubles (about $393,000) earmarked for the Skolkovo technology hub.

   Ponomaryov denies wrongdoing and says the embezzlement allegations are politically motivated.

   In April, Ponomaryov told RFE/RL that he did not plan to apply for political asylum in any foreign country.

   "I do not intend to become a political emigre," Ponomaryov said. "I ended up here [in the United States] against my will. They intentionally waited until I was abroad on business to close the border to me. I am a Russian citizen. I am a deputy from Novosibirsk and I intend to remain such in the future."

   Ponomaryov was the only Duma member to vote in March 2014 against a treaty to annex Crimea from Ukraine, preventing a unanimous show of support in the 450-member body.

   The vote paved the way for the Crimean Peninsula to be absorbed by Russia, a contentious move that has not been recognized by the international community.

   He told RFE/RL that he voted "absolutely correctly and would vote in exactly the same way again."

Monday, June 8, 2015  20:03 PDT

Crimean Tatar Leader Says TV Station To Be Russian 'Propaganda Tool'

   (RFE/RL) --- Russia will establish a Crimean Tatar broadcasting company to replace TV and radio stations shut down by the Moscow-controlled government this spring, but a senior leader of the annexed peninsula's Muslim ethnic minority dismissed the initiative as a bid to create a "propaganda tool."

   In an order issued on June 9, the Moscow-backed government that controls Crimea said the Public Crimean Tatar Television and Radio Corporation (OKKT) must be registered by July 1.

   It said the regional State Commission for Nationalities will help establish the new broadcaster and will supervise its activities.

   The corporation's main goals were described as "production and distribution of television and radio programs providing thorough and multifaceted coverage of social, political, economic, and cultural activities of the Republic of Crimea...mainly in the Crimean Tatar language."

   The Kremlin-backed head of the Crimean government, Sergei Aksyonov, told a cabinet session that the broadcaster will be funded by the federal government in Moscow, which he said has allocated 177 million rubles ($3.2 million) for the purpose.

   "The issue of the public Crimean Tatar television is a major goal for the Ministry of Communication and Information," Aksyonov said.

   Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014, after deploying troops to secure key sites and staging a secession referendum dismissed by Kiev, the United States, the European Union, and about 100 UN member states as illegitimate.

   Rights groups and Western governments say Crimean Tatars, who largely opposed the annexation, have faced oppression, intimidation, and abuse since Russia's takeover.

   The Russian authorities announced plans for a new TV and radio company shortly after the only independent television channel broadcasting in the Crimean Tatar language, ATR, was forced to shut down and stopped operating on April 1. 

   ATR's programs and those of its several affiliates went off the air after Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor rejected several attempts by the company to register under Russian law, citing various technicalities.

   Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, told RFE/RL that the new broadcaster in the Crimean Tatar language will be "another propaganda tool for the occupiers in Crimea."

   "What they are creating is a media outlet fully controlled by the illegal government of annexed Crimea," Chubarov said in a telephone interview.

   "They have promised to set up a new -- what they have called -- 'public' television and radio corporation. However, the corporation will be fully controlled by their Committee for Nationalities. What can you expect from a state-controlled media outlet?"

   The Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body, was evicted from its premises in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, after a raid by the Russian authorities in September, and its members now meet on mainland Ukraine.

   Chubarov has been barred from Russia, and the Russian authorities in Crimea recently said he is being investigated on suspicion of separatism.

   On March 31, Amnesty International called the Crimean Tatar media outlets' de facto closure "a blatant attack on freedom of expression, dressed-up as an administrative procedure" and "a crude attempt to stifle independent media, gag dissenting voices, and intimidate the Crimean Tatar community."