weekly news digest (november 19-25)

8/10/2019 Weekly News Digest (November 19-25)

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Weekly news digest

(November 19th

- 25th

)

This weekly news digest highlights the situation in the eastern Ukraine and on the Crimean peninsula,

the challenges Ukrainian war-torn economy is facing and the measures the international community

has taken to help Ukraine overcome the tough crisis.

The situation in the ATO area remains complicated and tense. The LPR and DPR rebels display

escalating military activity despite the ceasefire regime in the eastern Ukraine. During the week, the

ATO forces were shelled up to 400 times, since the very beginning of the ceasefire 3412. The

OSCE observes were shelled on November 19th near Maryinka, Donetsk region to discredit the

Ukrainian army. The undeclared war resulted in 4317 killed and 9921 wounded. The number of

internally displaced people went up to 467 000 (123 000 children), State emergency service of

Ukraine says. According to the UNICEF, more than 60% of the children in the rebel-held territories

received psychological trauma.

The LPR and DPR militants deliberately violate civilians safety, using non-combatants as a

human shield. 20 civilian objects in Debaltseve town, Donetsk region were shelled with heavy

weaponry. The shelling is mainly concentrated on Mariupol, Debaltseve and Donetsk airport to drive

Ukrainian forces out of these main transport hubs and defense objects.

Taking into account the regular displays of escalating military activity, Kyiv emphasizes how

vital it is to continue to put more pressure on Kremlin, to lambast its aggressive policy and to impose,

if possible, new sanctions to ensure peace in Europe and the rule of international law. The shelling

from Russian territory, Russian special forces responsible for the terrorist threat in Kharkiv and

Kremlin supplying heavy weaponry and military personnel are all of indisputable evidence of Russias

increased involvement in the eastern Ukraine again. This is the reason why an adequate and clear

response to Russias actions is needed.J. Stoltenberg also confirms there is Russian military build-up

in the eastern Ukraine. Kremlin has also announced the 8th illegal humanitarian aid convoy to come

soon. Pro-Russian rebels have completed the formation of the striking forces for purposes of small

groups tactics during winter warfare. The former rebels leader I. Hirkin in his interview to the

Ukrainian newspaper Zavtra (Tomorrow) admitted that Russian military personnel are fighting in

the Donbass.

The situation gets even more complicated with numerous problems in the occupied territories.

Mass murders, illegal arrests, thousands people kidnapped, tortures, court-martial sentences, sexual

violence, property rights denied and banks seizure are now a part of everyday life. DPR announced the

establishment of military field court with a right to issue death sentences. There is also an ongoing

inner struggle among the different rebels groups that DPR and LPR are not able to control. Because of

the food crisis that led to man-made famine and living conditions deterioration, there is increased

protest movement in the occupied territories. The locals are trying to deliver an ultimatum to the new


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authorities since the living conditions are unbearable. For now, 172 thousand people in Donetsk

region are left without drinking water, gas and energy supplies and practically have no roof over their

head.

Petro Poroshenko agrees that local elections to be held in the occupied territories, but only

according to the Ukrainian law. He also emphasizes that the Minsk agreement is already a political

dialog that will make it possible to solve the economical problems and restore Donbas by

establishing a free economic zone.

Still, the chances for a peaceful solution are gradually fading. DPR, recognized as a terrorist

organization in Ukraine, wanted the UN Security Council to hld an urgent meeting on their demand

to discuss the possibility of deploying the peacekeeping troops, including Russian servicemen, to the

eastern Ukraine to stop the humanitarian catastrophe and the social genocide. The world leaders have a

split position on the possible solution of the Ukrainian question. German, Polish, the UK, Lithuanian

and Estonian high official have no doubts when it comes to Russias political and economic pressure.

But Hungarian, Czech and Serbian leaders say that it was not a smart step to isolate and put pressure

on Kremlin. Czech President Milosh Zemans rhetoric remains pro-Russian: he says Ukraine should

remain neutral and has to adopt finlandization. The relationship between NATO and Russia remain

tense, says J. Stoltenberg and criticizes Kremlin for violating the Minsk agreement.

Ukrainian NGO leaders initiated a project aimed at monitoring the rights violations on the

Crimean peninsula. Starting from February 24th, numerous violations were registered: 103 violations

of civil and political rights, 70 - of national minorities rights, 65- of cultural and religious rights and139 - of socio-economic rights. Kyiv-loyal medias freedom of speech is extremely restricted,

mosques are being set alight, and people are forced to accept Russian citizenship. These violations can

be qualified as crimes against humanity and may be also viewed as a display of quasi-totalitarianism.

Economic problems, lack of water and energy supplies, food crisis and telecommunication

issues are peninsulas everyday challenges. Kremlin continues to integrate the Crimea into its military

defense complex and uses it to collect intelligence about Donbas.

Ukrainian war-torn economy is still declining. Industry production dropped by 16%, budget

deficit comes to 63 billion hryvnia. Because of the reduced export and hryvnia devaluation, the

expected inflation is 25% and the GDP to drop by 8%. The Donbas economy in the ATO area is to

decline by more than 25%. Ukraine is forced to import natural gas, coal and nuclear fuel from the

country-aggressor. The Worlds Bank expects the economic situation to improve slightly, but urges the

government to start the economic reform implementation.

The EU, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia help the country in the energy and gas sector. Kyiv

also gets tremendous military and economic support from Norway, Lithuania, the US, Bulgaria,

Poland, Sweden, Estonia and numerous international institutes like the UN, the OSCE, NATO, the

IMF, the WB, EBRD, UNICEF and the EIB.


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Ukraines possible NATO membership was on agenda this week. The President of Ukraine

Petro Poroshenko and the prime-minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said Ukraine is resuming integration into

Euro-Atlantic security system and the question of Ukraines NATO membership will be decided at an

all-Ukrainian referendum. However, Kyiv expresses its deep concern over some the world leaders

statements made about Ukraines Euro-Atlantic course. F. Steinmaier, L. Fabius and M.Zeman say

they do not see Ukraine a NATO member. V. Nuland said Ukraines Euro-Atlantic perspective is a

very ambitious goal and may be hard to achieve. J. Stoltenberg believes Ukraine may join NATO once

Kyiv fulfills all the requirements and gets support from the people of Ukraine.

Kremlin tried to discredit Ukrainian authorities once again during the extraordinary meeting of

the UN Security Council on November 21st. There was a vote on

a

resolution on "Combating

glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms

of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." 115 out of 193 member-countries

voted for, Ukraine along with the US and Canada voted no. 55 deleg ations, including the EU

countries, abstained. Undoubtedly, Russia used this to show Kyiv in a bad light. But Ukrainian

diplomat A. Tsymbaliuk emphasized that Kyiv, of course, condemns the displays of Nazism, neo-

Nazism and other totalitarian ideologies. He adds that Ukraine cannot vote for the resolution until

Stalinism and neo-Stalinism will not be condemned in the way fascism is, the two ideologies

Ukraine has suffered from tremendously.

Ukrainian government functions under constant Russian military, economic, political andinformational pressure. Kremlins policy in the Crimea and in the occupied territories, along with the

unbearable conditions there, has a negative influence on the countrys political and economic life.

The materials used for the weekly news digest include the official websites of the President, the

National Security and Defence Council, the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the

government, Ukrainian Internet newspaper Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth), Dmytro

Tymchuks blog Informatsiinyi sprotyv (Informational Resistance), Ukrainian news agency

UNIAN, Ukrainian news program TSN, weekly political magazine Korespondent ( Journalist),

daily Internet newspaper Novyny Krymu (The Crimean News), weekly political, economical and

the arts magazine Ukrainskyi Tyzhden (Ukrainian week), socio-political weekly Internet

newspaper in Russian Livyi bereh (The left bank), Ukrainian analytical newspaper Dzerkalo

tyzhnia (Weekly Mirror), Ukrainian weekly news magazine Fokus (Focus), Ukrainian news

website Liha. Novyny (League. News), etc.

weekly news digest (november 19-25)

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