Category: Ukraine

Four days before a watershed presidential election in Ukraine, a new round of deadly fighting flared in the east of the country on Thursday. At least 13 government soldiers were reported killed in an abrupt escalation of violence as pro-Russian separatists struck back against government efforts to subdue them. The clashes could represent a risk for the interim authorities in Kiev, the capital, who have claimed to be getting the upper hand against the rebels, encouraged by rifts among separatist groups occupying public buildings in numerous cities in the southeast. In a posting on Facebook, Ukraine’s acting prime minister, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, accused Russia of escalating the conflict in eastern Ukraine and of trying to disrupt Sunday’s election. He called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and said he would provide “evidence” to support his claim. News reports quoted acting President Oleksandr […]

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The European Union expects Russia to keep gas flowing through Ukraine so long as diplomatic channels are open, the European Commission president said Wednesday. European Commission José Manuel Barroso sent a letter Wednesday to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In it, he said it was important that all parties to a row over gas supplies through Ukraine remain engaged. "As long as the trilateral talks are on-going, gas flows should not be interrupted," the letter stated. "It therefore continues to be Gazprom’s responsibility to ensure the deliveries of the required volumes as agreed in the supply contracts with European companies." Gazprom in April sent its Ukrainian counterpart Naftogaz a bill for more than $11 billion for taking on less gas than contracted in 2013. Moscow has called on Kiev to pay in advance for natural gas in order to avoid a similar row in 2009 that […]

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Ukraine rejects Russia demand to prepay for June natural gas imports, Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said, blaming Russia for the failure of the gas talks. In his letter to the European Commission and the leaders of the European Countries, which was published on the government website Tuesday, Mr. Yatsenyuk said Ukraine hasn’t declined to pay off its debt for Russian gas, but would only be willing to do so if Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) retains the old price. The prime minister said the three-party talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union were unsuccessful because of Moscow’s unwillingness to compromise. "As there is no readiness from the Russian side for the dispute resolution, the pre-payment issue can’t be part of our talks," Mr. Yatsenyuk said. Kiev and Moscow have been locked in an increasingly bitter gas feud since the ouster of Ukraine’s President […]

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Russia’s military units in the regions near Ukraine on Wednesday began moving to railway stations and airfields en route to their home bases, the defense ministry said. Military units in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Rostov regions started marching back and are expected to arrive at their home bases before June 1, the defense ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. Yet NATO, which estimates that Russia has 40,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, repeated Wednesday it could not yet see any signs of a Russian pullout. President Vladimir Putin ordered the withdrawal Monday in what could be an attempt to ease tensions with the West over Ukraine and avoid further sanctions. Russian television on Wednesday broadcast footage of columns of tanks and howitzers towed by heavy trucks. It wasn’t immediately clear where the footage was taken. The ministry said its units will […]

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The U.S. said there was as yet no evidence that Russian forces in regions bordering Ukraine have started a withdrawal announced by President two days ago. “We have not seen any withdrawal activity as of 2:45 this afternoon, and we’re watching as best we can constantly,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters at a briefing yesterday. “We’ve seen them say this before, we’re going to withdraw, we’re going to move.” Kirby’s comments echo assessments by the Ukrainian government and NATO. Russian state television said yesterday soldiers in three regions had started to return to their bases following Putin’s order. After annexing Crimea in March, Russia has been accused by the government in Kiev and its U.S. and EU allies of fomenting unrest in the mostly Russian-speaking east of Ukraine. Even so, Putin’s welcoming of a dialogue between the Kiev authorities and the regions and the announcement of […]

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Ukrainian presidential candidate Oleh Liahsko said shale gas could help bring a layer of political and economic independence to a new Ukrainian government. Liahsko, founder of the minority Radical Party, said the Ukrainian government needs to break the Russian grip on the energy sector for the sake of independence. Shale gas, he said Sunday, offers a good possibility for Ukraine. "We depended on Russia [for] over 23 years [since] independence — on gas," he said . "And this dependence is not only economic, but political." European consumers get about a quarter of their gas needs met by Russia, though most of that supply runs through the Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine. The Kremlin has used energy as a geopolitical tool in its disputes with Ukraine, which has moved closer to Europe since a November uprising. The Ukrainian government last year said there may be […]

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Ukrainian presidential candidate Oleh Liahsko said shale gas could help bring a layer of political and economic independence to a new Ukrainian government. Liahsko, founder of the minority Radical Party, said the Ukrainian government needs to break the Russian grip on the energy sector for the sake of independence. Shale gas, he said Sunday, offers a good possibility for Ukraine. "We depended on Russia [for] over 23 years [since] independence — on gas," he said . "And this dependence is not only economic, but political." European consumers get about a quarter of their gas needs met by Russia, though most of that supply runs through the Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine. The Kremlin has used energy as a geopolitical tool in its disputes with Ukraine, which has moved closer to Europe since a November uprising. The Ukrainian government last year said there may be […]

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On a Sunday in December when the Ukrainian uprising seemed about to tip into wide-scale violence, Petro Poroshenko, a pro-Western billionaire, thrust himself between antigovernment protesters and riot police officers clashing outside the presidential headquarters, climbed on a bulldozer that was threatening to plow through the crowd and grabbed an orange plastic megaphone. “Friends, calm down,” he shouted, as pro-government thugs brought in to antagonize the demonstrators cursed him and hurled anti-Semitic slurs, though he is a member of the Ukrainian Orthodox faith, not Jewish. As chaos swirled, Mr. Poroshenko, 48, stood his ground, helping keep injuries to a minimum, but also cementing his status as a leader of the pro-European opposition and defying the stereotype of the superrich above it all. Now, with less than a week to go until a presidential election here, Mr. Poroshenko is once again at the center of a fracas […]

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President ordered Russian troops near the Ukrainian border back to base, the state-run RIA news service reported, signaling a possible easing of tensions six days before Ukraine’s presidential election. Putin ordered forces in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions to return to their bases after completing exercises, RIA said today, citing the presidential press service. Putin, who discussed the situation in Ukraine with his Security Council today, welcomed contacts last week between the government in Kiev and supporters of greater powers for the country’s regions, including the Russian-speaking east, RIA reported. The comments come as Ukrainian forces continued skirmishes with insurgents in the east after pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions said they planned their own elections later this year. Putin, whom the Ukrainian government accuses of fomenting unrest in the east and who annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March, promised a withdrawal of Russian forces from […]

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On the day the U.S. barred its citizens from conducting business with Russia’s Igor Sechin, BP PLC’s American chief executive was in an uncomfortable spot: sitting at a boardroom table in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the oil executive. BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley is a director of OAO Rosneft , the state-controlled Russian oil company where Mr. Sechin is president and a major shareholder. The British company owns 19.75% of Rosneft. To ensure access to Russia’s vast reserves—and avoid political tangles that can ensnare companies in the country that don’t have Kremlin connections—big Western oil companies including BP, SA and Exxon Mobil Corp. have allied themselves with loyalists of Russian President Vladimir Putin . Mr. Sechin, a former government official, is one of Mr. Putin’s closest allies. Now, those connections are becoming liabilities as Western nations push Russia to by sanctioning some of those same individuals. That means the […]

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