SUMMARY of Ukrainian media review January 10-11 The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, together with other European leaders including the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, was present at the March of Peace in Paris which took place on January 11 in memory of the victims of the terrorist act against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. There are no parallels drawn by Western media between Islamic terrorism that Europe faced once again and Russian terrorism that Ukraine has been fighting against since 2014. In the context of the recent attacks, European politicians are discussing the prospect of tightening border control between Schengen community and non-EU members. WAR. ACTIONS IN THE ATO ZONE. Pro-Russian militants continue firing upon , mostly using heavy armament, including artillery and MRLS. For instance, armed groups fired at the neighbourhoods of Novotoshkivske, Chernukhino, and Ozyryanivka as well as the new terminal of the Donetsk airport. . The Ukrainian-controlled town of Shchastya in Donetsk oblast was attacked twice with mortar fire. PEACEFUL REGULATION OF THE CRISIS The president of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel held a telephone conversation on the situation in Ukraine on Saturday. During the conversation Putin insisted on the need for “direct political dialogue” between Kyiv and pro-Russian militants, stated the Krym.Realii website. At the same time, according to the chancellor’s press-secretary, Stefan Seibert, Merkel explained to Putin that all the parties should contribute to the implementation of the Minsk peace plan, , stated the Reuters news agency. It also includes Russia using its influence on separatists in order to reach consensus, said the spokesman. In her weekly address,Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized the unacceptability of violations of the established interstate borders and called upon European solidarity. If violations, like those when Russia acted against Ukraine, take place again, we will have to oppose them, - emphasized Merkel. The Ukrainian-Russian-OSCE contact group conducted consultations with the DPR and LPR representatives in the form of a video conference prior to possible meeting of the heads of the states in Normand format in the Kazakh capital of Astana. NATO Secretary General Iens Stoltenberg reported a slight improvement of the situation in the east of Ukraine. According to Alliances information, tension in the east of Ukraine has reduced slightly. In his interview to the German Die Welt newspaper published on Monday, January 12, NATO Secretary General Iens Stoltenberg said that the number of armed clashes in the Donbas slightly decreased. According to him, “there are still fights here and there, but at the same time there signs of some lessening of tensions. Simultaneously, the OSCE representatives recorded a considerable deterioration in the cease fire in Donbas. This was reflected in a recent report released by the OSCE mission to Ukraine. ACTIVITY OF THE PARLIAMENT. WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT. On Saturday, January 10, the German social-legal channel ARD published a full version of the interview with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk without simultaneous translation into German. The interview is over fourteen minutes long, while the shortened version that was broadcasted on January 7 lasted a bit longer than six minutes and was heavily criticized by the Russian government. In the shortened recording, one the Ukrainian Prime Minister states: Russian military aggression against Ukraine is an infringement upon European security. All of us very well remember Soviet invasion both of Ukraine and Germany. It must be avoided. No one can be allowed to rewrite the results of the World War II as the President of Russia, Mr. Putin, is trying to do. The English word invasion possessed wider meaning than the phase military entrance, as interpreted by Russia, and can be translated as infringement or encroachment. Serhiy Leshchenko said that there is another conflict impending in the Parliament in connection to the President’s draft law on judicial system reform. REFORMS. The billionaire George Soros arrived to Kyiv, according to the TSN Ukrainian new service. The journalists claim that Soros will meet Ukrainian members of parliament, but the topic of the meeting is unknown. CRITICS OF THE PRESIDENT Pinchuk’s TV channel ICTV and Ukrainian newspaper “Hazeta po-Ukrayinsky” released an article by the relatively unknown political expert Yuriy Paliychuk on the main blunders of new authorities: delaying reforms and Poroshenko’s overtures with oligarchs. OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS The prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation, Yuriy Chayka, informed that the General Prosecutors office still has not received any requests from their Ukrainian colleagues regarding the extradition of the former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and other former Ukrainian politicians. “ Therequests of extradition of Ukrainian political figures had not been filed so far by competent authorities of Ukraine. If such requests are filed, they will be considered in correspondence with international treaties and Russian legislation, Chayka said in an interview published by the “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” newspaper on Monday. The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine refunded 272 million hryvnias of VAT to the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works controlled by armed pro-Russian militants in November 2014, a source in the State Treasury informed the UNIAN news agency. Alchevsk is controlled by so-called “Prizrak” (Ghost) battalionlead by Aleksey Mozgovyi. The Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works is a part of Donbas Industrial Union Corporation, which sold more than 50 percent of its shares in metallurgic assets to a group of Russian investors in December 2009. According to the Head of State Fiscal Service, Ihor Bilous, a large amountof fraud involving VAT payments in 2013 amounted to approximately 70 billion hryvnias stolen from the state budget. The legal counsel of the director of the state enterprise “Ukrinterenerho”, Volodymyr Zinevych, demanded that the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Anti-Corruption and Corruption Control hold a new session and hear information on the course of investigation on the purchase of coal from the RSA by the company with the direct participation of Zinevych and his legal representatives. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The center is located in the hotel Ukraina (4 Instytutska Street), 3rd floor. Hotline +38 050 157 8159, +38 050 157 8423, fax +38 044 593 7407, e-mail [email protected]. For more information please visit uacrisis.org, and follow us on Twitter, Twitter (Russian version), Facebook, YouTube. The Ukrainian Crisis Media Centre was set up in March 2014 to provide the international community with objective information about events in Ukraine and threats to national security, particularly in the military, political, economic, energy and humanitarian spheres. The Centre is providing media support on a 24/7 basis to all those covering events in Ukraine and runs a daily schedule of live press briefings and moderated discussions to provide the world with accurate and up-to-date information about the fast-moving situation in Ukraine. Since inception the Center has evolved into a communications hub with outreach to both internal audiences in Ukraine as well as conducting active outreach to opinion formers and the media outside of Ukraine. Since its launch Ukraine Crisis Media Center has initiated and organized over 370+ press briefings, with 500+ speakers, among whom there are leading government officials, diplomats, experts and civic activists and opinion formers.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:31:08 +0000
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