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High Inflation Makes Ukraine’s Troubled Situation Worse

Photo The Petrivka market in Kiev. Across Ukraine, the price of everything seems to have gone up sharply, including tea, apples and fresh fish. Credit Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times KIEV, Ukraine — Olesia Verchenko looked over a selection of blackened avocados at a supermarket here recently. Their price has roughly doubled over the last year, notwithstanding the stickers on them advertising a 25 percent discount. “I don’t think anybody takes avocado anymore, so they are basically rotting on the shelves,” said Ms. Verchenko, an economist. While the rest of Europe tries desperately to shrug off low inflation, Ukraine has added rapidly rising prices to its long list of problems during its civil war with Russian-backed rebels. Official inflation figures showed that prices rose 61 percent in April compared with a year earlier. But many prices have doubled and tripled. Ms. Verchenko, a 37-year-old mother of two […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine Repels Separatists in Fierce Fighting, Poroshenko Says

Photo Ukrainian service members hauled a cart of ammunition on Friday in Maryinka, a town near Donetsk where they have been battling pro-Russia separatists. Credit Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press KIEV, Ukraine — In what amounted to a multidimensional confidence-building campaign, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine tried on Friday to rally international support for his country and to maintain pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, including economic sanctions. Mr. Poroshenko held a major news conference, gave interviews to foreign journalists, spoke by phone with President Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, and prepared to welcome two visiting prime ministers to Kiev, Shinzo Abe of Japan and Stephen Harper of Canada. His diplomatic activities precede a summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 7 nations that is scheduled to begin Sunday at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps, with security issues on the agenda. In each of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hardening of Positions Undercuts Ukraine Peace Accord

Photo President Petro Poroshenko, in Parliament in Kiev on Thursday, demanded that Russia withdraw all troops from Ukraine. Credit Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency SHYROKYNE, Ukraine — The trenches near this battered town in southeastern Ukraine slice surreally for miles across fields of sunflowers, in places running in three lines separated by a mile or two of mined ground, Ukrainian commanders say. A feature not just of this bitterly contested ground, the trenches extend in varying degrees of completeness all the way to the northern limits of the line separating Ukraine from the separatist regions in the east. To some extent, they reflect a military necessity, with daily skirmishes along the barrier and occasional flare-ups, like one near Donetsk on Wednesday in which at least 21 people were killed. There is a political subtext as well, a hardening of positions on both sides that is steadily undermining a peace accord […]

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U.N. finds growing signs of Russian involvement in Ukraine war

GENEVA A separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine is revealing increasing evidence, but not yet conclusive legal proof, of Russian state involvement, senior United Nations human rights officials said on Monday. "We are speaking about increasing inflow of (unofficial) fighters and increasing evidence that there are also some (Russian) servicemen involved in fighting," Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told a news conference in Geneva. Russia denies Western accusations that it is backing pro-Russian rebels with arms and troops. On May 21, U.N. officials interviewed two Russians captured in eastern Ukraine. The two men believe they should be treated as captured servicemen, but Russia says they are former soldiers who had left the military. The pair were charged with terrorism by Ukrainian authorities, putting them "between a rock and a hard place", Simonovic said. "It is very difficult to prove whether they are servicemen or not. That is why […]

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Putin Declares Soldiers’ Deaths and Wounds Secret, in War and Peace

MOSCOW — The deaths or wounds of Russian soldiers in “special operations” can be classified as military secrets, even in peacetime, President Vladimir V. Putin decreed on Thursday. The decree comes as Russia faces accusations that it is sending its soldiers clandestinely to fight in Ukraine , an allegation the Kremlin denies. Mr. Putin’s decree amended a law that previously let the military keep soldiers’ deaths or injuries secret only in times of war. Mr. Putin has repeatedly insisted that Russian soldiers are not taking part in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels have continued despite a cease-fire deal in February. At home, Russia’s political opposition says that by refusing to acknowledge that its soldiers are in combat in Ukraine, the Russian military is unjustly denying them disability payments, and denying their relatives death benefits and other awards. All the while, there are […]

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Armed With Google and YouTube, Analysts Gauge Russia’s Presence in Ukraine

WASHINGTON — An unusual investigation using publicly available videos, smartphone photographs and satellite images shows that Russia is continuing to defy the West by conducting protracted military operations inside Ukraine , according to an independent report. Russia has long dismissed Western allegations that its military has intervened in Ukraine as little more than computer-generated propaganda. In an attempt to puncture the Russian denials, independent experts have operated like digital Sherlock Holmeses, using Google’s Street View, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, satellite photographs and Russia’s version of Facebook, including social media updates by Russian soldiers. That research was then supplemented by more traditional sources like court documents and local media reports. “Independent researchers, using open sources and rigorous methodology, have demonstrated that Russian troops and Russian weapons have been an important part of the fight in Ukraine’s east,” said John E. Herbst, a former American ambassador to Ukraine and one of the […]

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Ukraine Says It Has Captured 2 Russian Soldiers

MOSCOW — The Ukrainian government said on Monday that it had captured two wounded Russian soldiers in eastern Ukraine and would prosecute them on terrorism charges, prompting a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin to repeat the Kremlin’s longstanding denial that any Russian troops had been deployed across the border. The soldiers were identified by Gen. Viktor Muzhenko, the chief of the general staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as Capt. Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sgt. Aleksandr Aleksandrov of the Third Special Forces Brigade, which is based in Togliatti, a city in southern Russia . Russia’s denials that its active duty soldiers have been fighting in eastern Ukraine have continued despite substantial evidence to the contrary, including the funerals of young Russian soldiers killed in action. The Kremlin has acknowledged that some Russians have participated in the fighting, but says that they are volunteers who often choose to fight […]

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Ukrainian shale handcuffed, company says

Ukrainian shale explorer granted more areas for work, but says business climate too cost prohibitive to start drilling campaign. File Photo by ekina/Shutterstock LONDON, May 18 (UPI) — Junior shale explorer JXK Oil & Gas said Monday it was granted more areas for work in Ukraine, though the cost of business was still prohibitive to drilling. JXK, which has headquarters in London, said Ukrainian authorities expanded by 13 square miles its production license in the Elizavetovskoye area, to bring the total to 40 square miles. The company started a multistage hydraulic fracturing operation in Ukraine in 2013, describing it as likely the largest operation of its kind in Europe to date. The company said it was pleased with the license expansion, but was unable to continue with operations in the country. "This further award is recognition of our ability to develop the potential of our Ukrainian licenses," JKX Chief […]

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Special Report: Russian soldiers quit over Ukraine

MOSCOW/DONETSK Some Russian soldiers are quitting the army because of the conflict in Ukraine, several soldiers and human rights activists have told Reuters. Their accounts call into question the Kremlin’s continued assertions that no Russian soldiers have been sent to Ukraine, and that any Russians fighting alongside rebels there are volunteers. Evidence for Russians fighting in Ukraine – Russian army equipment found in the country, testimony from soldiers’ families and from Ukrainians who say they were captured by Russian paratroopers – is abundant. Associates of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent Kremlin critic killed in February, will soon publish a report which they say will contain new evidence of the Russian military presence in Ukraine. Until now, however, it has been extremely rare to find Russian soldiers who have fought there and are willing to talk. It is even rarer to find soldiers who have quit the army. Five soldiers who […]

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New Fighting Threatens Ukraine Truce

Russia and Ukraine agreed to call for the pullback of more weaponry from the front lines in eastern Ukraine, amid a recent increase in violence between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed rebels. Photo: AP. KIEV, Ukraine—A sharp uptick in fighting between government troops and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claimed at least seven lives in the last 24 hours, highlighting the continued volatility despite a two-month-old truce. The casualty toll marks the worst violence in the region since Feb. 19 , when dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed during the withdrawal from the key transportation hub of Debaltseve. Since then, a cease-fire deal signed Feb. 12 has largely held, although progress on other elements of the peace plan has been slow. The surge in fighting came just hours after foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met in Berlin to try push ahead with the next steps . […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple