Category: Ukraine

Thousands of steelworkers fanned out on Thursday through the city of Mariupol, establishing control over the streets and banishing the pro-Kremlin militants who until recently had seemed to be consolidating their grip on power, dealing a setback to Russia and possibly reversing the momentum in eastern Ukraine. By late Thursday, miners and steelworkers had deployed in at least five cities, including the regional capital, Donetsk. They had not, however, become the dominant force there that they were in Mariupol, the region’s second-largest city and the site last week of a bloody confrontation between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian militants. While it was still far too early to say the tide had turned in eastern Ukraine, the day’s events were a blow to separatists who recently seized control here and in a dozen or so other cities and who held a referendum on independence on Sunday. Backed by […]

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The top U.S. and U.K. diplomats vowed to punish Russia with industrywide sanctions if this month’s Ukrainian presidential election is undermined as the Kiev government’s forces moved to flush out separatists in the east. “If Russia or its proxies disrupt the elections,” the U.S. and its allies “will impose sectoral economic sanctions as a result,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in London yesterday after meeting his counterparts from Britain, Italy , France and Germany . Pro-Russian separatists “are literally sowing mayhem,” seeking to “speak for everyone through the barrel of a gun.” Discord over the election risks another round of escalation as the Kiev government and its U.S. and European allies blame Russia for the unrest in Ukraine’s easternmost regions. Russian calls to include rebels in national unity talks that began May 14 were rejected as the meetings opened without separatist leaders’ participation. In eastern Ukraine, government troops […]

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A two-day meeting designed to improve global energy security starts in Moscow today just as Russia threatens to halt natural gas shipments to Ukraine, risking disruption to European supplies. At least 18 ministers from countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Turkey are attending the International Energy Forum’s conference, where Europe will also be represented. They meet days after an ultimatum to Ukraine raised questions about Russia’s reliability as a supplier. The U.K. delegation declined to attend the forum to protest Russia’s role in Ukraine, IEF Secretary-General Aldo Flores-Quiroga said today. “The IEF remains ready to facilitate producer-consumer dialogue regardless of circumstances,” he said. OAO Gazprom (OGZD) , Russia’s state-run gas exporter, threatened to halt June supplies without advance payment, as Kiev has fallen behind in payments for Russian shipments dating from last year. Ukraine is a key transit route for EU gas, with about 15 percent of the region’s […]

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Russia’s foreign minister said Ukraine is sliding into a civil war that could make it impossible to hold legitimate elections, as Ukrainian leaders and their international allies blamed Russia for the violence. “When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians, I believe it’s as close to civil war as you can get,” Sergei Lavrov told Bloomberg Television yesterday in an interview in Moscow. “In the east and south of Ukraine, there is a war, a real war, with heavy weaponry used, and if this is something that is conducive to free and fair elections, then I don’t understand something about freedom.” The Kiev government and its U.S. and European Union allies blame Russia for the unrest in Ukraine ’s easternmost regions. Pro-Russian separatists there were excluded from national unity talks that began yesterday in the capital to ease tensions as a May 25 presidential vote looms. U.S. and EU leaders say they’ll tighten […]

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Insurgents killed seven Ukrainian soldiers and wounded eight others in an ambush near an eastern rebel-held stronghold as the defense minister said the country was fighting an “undeclared war” with Russia . More than 30 attackers struck a convoy near the Donetsk region city of Kramatorsk at about 1 p.m., according to a statement by the Defense Ministry , which said that six paratroopers were killed. Another died later during transport to the hospital, according to Interfax. “Russia is already engaged” in Ukraine “in supporting Russian-led protesters and terrorists,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters in Brussels today after talks with European Commission President Jose Barroso . “We urge Russia to condemn them, to urge all these so-called protesters — or really, terrorists — to leave and vacate the buildings, and to do everything they can to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. Russia will fail to make Ukraine […]

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European natural gas traders are betting Russia ’s economy can’t afford to lose more than $100 billion if the crisis in Ukraine escalates, reducing the odds of a long-lasting supply cut to the former Soviet nation. Gas futures in the U.K., Europe’s biggest market, declined 19 percent since Russia invaded Crimea in February and tumbled last week to the lowest since 2010. An escalation of the conflict with Ukraine could cost Russia $115 billion on average in 2015, or more than 3 percent of its gross domestic product, according to IHS Inc. Expanding sanctions from the U.S. and European Union threaten Russia’s economy, which the International Monetary Fund says is entering a recession. The world’s biggest energy exporter is struggling to raise investments to stimulate growth as ties with the U.S. and the EU deteriorate, sparking capital flight and a selloff of ruble assets. “The Russian economy is already […]

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine needs a total of 18.5 billion cubic meters of gas in storage to avoid problems in winter, double what it has now, Gazprom (GAZP.MM) Deputy Chief Executive Vitaly Markelov said on Tuesday. Moscow and Kiev are on the cusp of another gas war after Kiev has refused to pay at higher levels demanded by Gazprom. The Russian company is now asking for prepayment for June and says it will only provide gas that is paid for. "According to our colleagues (in Ukraine), 9 bcm is in storage. To pass through autumn and winter periods normally, we estimate that (Ukraine) needs around 18.5 bcm (in total)," Markelov told a news conference. "So around 9 bcm more is needed." Ukraine wants to change the conditions of a 2009 contract that locked Kiev into buying a set volume, whether it needs it or not, at $485 per 1,000 […]

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine needs a total of 18.5 billion cubic meters of gas in storage to avoid problems in winter, double what it has now, Gazprom (GAZP.MM) Deputy Chief Executive Vitaly Markelov said on Tuesday. Moscow and Kiev are on the cusp of another gas war after Kiev has refused to pay at higher levels demanded by Gazprom. The Russian company is now asking for prepayment for June and says it will only provide gas that is paid for. "According to our colleagues (in Ukraine), 9 bcm is in storage. To pass through autumn and winter periods normally, we estimate that (Ukraine) needs around 18.5 bcm (in total)," Markelov told a news conference. "So around 9 bcm more is needed." Ukraine wants to change the conditions of a 2009 contract that locked Kiev into buying a set volume, whether it needs it or not, at $485 per 1,000 […]

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Ukraine’s interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, on Monday dismissed weekend referendums in the country’s restive, Russian-speaking eastern region as a farce with no legal basis, as the European Union prepared to announce a relatively modest tightening of sanctions against Moscow and its allies. The Kremlin said Russia “respects the will of the population” in two provinces in eastern Ukraine that participated on Sunday in chaotic ballots offering them a question about self-rule. But a statement from Moscow left open the possibility of dialogue and mediation to resolve the crisis. The ballots left the destiny of the east — Ukraine’s industrial heartland — unclear, as armed forces loyal to the interim government in Kiev and pro-Russian militants remained locked in a tense standoff that sometimes overflowed into gunfire. According to early results cited by The Associated Press, 89 percent of voters in the Donetsk region and 96 percent in neighboring […]

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Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine who organised referendums on two regions’ links with Kiev claimed resounding victories on Monday, saying about 90 per cent of voters backed greater self-rule. Organisers of Sunday’s ballots , which were widely condemned by Kiev and the west as a “farce”, said 89 per cent of voters in Donetsk and up to 98 per cent in Luhansk backed greater autonomy. Turnout was about 75 per cent, the organisers said, but myriad irregularities were reported in many areas and there was no independent scrutiny of the process. Oleksandr Turchynov, acting president of Ukraine , told parliament on Monday that turnout was 24 per cent in Luhansk and 32 per cent in Donetsk. The separatists, who held the vote despite Russia calling for it to be postponed, have yet to decide how much self-determination they want. Voters backing greater self-rule in Donetsk said they wanted different […]

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