Category: Ukraine

DONETSK, Ukraine — Unexpectedly, at the height of the Ukrainian winter, war has exploded anew on a half-dozen battered fronts across eastern Ukraine , accompanied by increasing evidence that Russian troops and Russian equipment have been pouring into the region again. A shaky cease-fire has all but vanished, with rebel leaders vowing fresh attacks. Civilians are being hit by deadly mortars at bus stops. Tanks are rumbling down snowy roads in rebel-held areas with soldiers in unmarked green uniforms sitting on their turrets, waving at bystanders — a disquieting echo of the “little green men” whose appearance in Crimea opened this stubborn conflict in the spring. The renewed fighting has dashed any hopes of reinvigorating a cease-fire signed in September and honored more in name than in fact since then. It has also put to rest the notion that Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, would be so staggered by […]

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Russian gas company Gazprom chief Alexei Miller says Ukraine still in debt, but contractual obligations will be honored. (UPI Photo/Anatoli Zhdanov) MOSCOW, Jan. 22 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom remains committed to its contractual obligations in Ukraine, company chairman Alexei Miller said. Most of the Russian natural gas bound for the European market runs through Soviet-era transit networks in Ukraine. Ongoing contractual rows between Kiev and Gazprom, and simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine, means that conventional route, as well as Ukrainian gas supplies, is at risk. The Russian company said it was operating under the terms of historic documents embraced by the pre-conflict government in Ukraine, which extends through 2019. A so-called winter package gives Ukraine a discount on gas prices, though that deal expires March 31. Miller said the company remained committed to gas supplies to Ukraine and gas transits to Europe. "Gazprom has cooperated and will […]

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MOSCOW — Ukrainian officials acknowledged on Thursday that they had relinquished to rebel forces control over the terminal of the airport in Donetsk, while artillery fire gutted a trolley bus in the embattled city, killing at least eight people, and evidence emerged of a growing Russian military role in the area. The airport, the scene of fierce battles in recent days, is nonfunctional, the terminal and runways having been destroyed months ago. Nonetheless, it has retained high symbolic value in the ongoing hostilities as the government’s last toehold in the city, the largest in the contested territory of southeastern Ukraine. At a news briefing in Kiev on Thursday, a Ukrainian military spokesman, Vladyslav Seleznyov, said that six soldiers had died in the fighting over the airport and 16 had been captured by forces of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic before a decision was made to withdraw from the ruined […]

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Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk has signed agreement with neighboring Poland to diversify regional gas networks. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI KIEV, Ukraine, Jan. 20 (UPI) — The Ukrainian prime minister announced a pipeline deal with neighboring Poland that diversifies the energy sector with better access to liquefied natural gas hubs. Ukrainian company Naftogaz signed a deal with its Polish counterparts, Gaz-System, to build a pipeline between the two countries. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the deal ensures his country remains an important hub in the European energy market. It’s not a reverse pipeline, "but it means an access to gas from the LNG terminals that have already been built in [Lithuania] and Poland," he said. The European market gets about a quarter of its gas needs met by Russia, though most of that runs through Soviet-era transit networks in Ukraine. Lingering contractual disputes between Kiev and […]

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KIEV (Reuters) – Pro-Russian separatists renewed attacks on Ukrainian forces at an airport complex in the east on Monday after Kiev launched a mass operation to reclaim lost ground there that Russia called a "strategic mistake". Ukrainian officials said three soldiers had been killed and 66 wounded over the past 24 hours, during which they said they had returned battle lines at the airport outside Donetsk to the status quo under a much violated international peace plan. Russia expressed concern at what it called escalation by Kiev and published its own peace plan on Monday in the form of a letter from President Vladimir Putin to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, which it said Poroshenko had rejected. "It’s the biggest, even strategic mistake of the Ukrainian authorities to bank on a military solution to the crisis," Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying. "This may lead to irreversible […]

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ENLARGE Ukrainian and European Union flags. EU governments discussed Friday increasing the amount the bloc lends to Ukraine over the medium term. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images BRUSSELS–-European Union governments discussed Friday increasing the amount the bloc lends to Ukraine in the medium term, with a number of bigger member states saying the proposed loan package floated by Brussels wasn’t large enough, according to people familiar with the debate. Last week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed a €1.8 billion ($2.10 billion) balance of payment loan for Ukraine through 2015 and early 2016. The money is planned alongside fresh assistance from the U.S. and other international sources to help the government in Kiev fill a funding gap estimated by the country at around $15 billion through the first quarter of 2016. Earlier this week, the U.S. pledged $2 billion in additional loan guarantees for Ukraine. According to two officials, a number […]

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AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov World Video Buy AP Photo Reprints Latest News DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Valentina Dudareva’s voice cracks with despair as she stands in the snow, surveying the bombed-out windows of her apartment block in Donetsk, the separatist capital in eastern Ukraine. Cold, poor and hungry, Dudareva is among the masses of people trapped by fighting between the government and Russian-backed militias, reliant on outside help that often fails to arrive. More than six months have passed since Dudareva last received her pension – and the Russian food aid packages so trumpeted by rebel authorities are nowhere to be seen. Anger she once reserved for the Ukrainian armed forces shelling the city is now directed at the separatist government. "They tell us: `Go to the theater. There are tickets for sale!’" Dudareva said, dabbing a handkerchief to her cheek. "But I want to eat. I want my pension." […]

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ENLARGE German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, second left, welcomes his counterparts from France, Laurent Fabius, right, Russia, Sergey Lavrov, left, and Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, second right, for a meeting in Berlin Monday on the Ukraine situation. Michael Sohn/Press Pool BERLIN—Hopes for a Ukraine peace summit this week faded after top diplomats from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine late Monday failed to reach agreement on how to resolve the conflict amid heightened fighting there. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with Laurent Fabius, Pavlo Klimkin and Sergei Lavrov —the foreign ministers of France, Ukraine and Russia, respectively—in the latest effort to resolve the Ukraine conflict, which began almost a year ago and set off the worst diplomatic crisis between Russia and the West since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The ministers couldn’t find sufficient common ground for holding a peace summit, which Ukraine had hoped would take place in […]

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BUDAPEST—After a three-month break while it filled up its own reserves, Hungary restarted natural gas transport to Ukraine on Saturday via a pipeline connecting the neighboring countries, the foreign affairs and trade ministry told The Wall Street Journal. Ukraine is highly dependent on gas imports, especially amid ongoing conflicts with Russia. Hungary transported 2.6 million cubic meters of gas so far to Ukraine, and will continue to sell about 2.5 million cubic meters a day in the coming days. In comparison, Ukraine received around 3.5 million a day cubic meters of gas from Hungary in September before Hungary ceased shipping to its eastern neighbor. Ukraine continues to receive gas from Slovakia, but not from Poland, the ministry added. Write to Veronika Gulyas at [email protected]

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