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Novorussia/Ukraine update 9\5\2015.. school-start truce ‘encouraging’
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Week of Ceasefire in Ukraine: President Poroshenko says less shelling in east regions
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Russia says Ukraine school-start truce ‘encouraging’ » voice of Sevastopol
Russia’s envoy to the European security watchdog OSCE has expressed hope that it will be possible to reach a lasting ceasefire in eastern Ukraine on the basis of an agreement between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias to end shelling from September 1.
“It is encouraging that all parties to the internal Ukrainian conflict observe the truce along the contact line established with the start of a new school year,” envoy Alexander Lukashevich said at a meeting of the OSCE permanent council. The text of his speech was published on Friday on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.
“We hope it will become possible to reach a full and lasting ceasefire on its basis in the near future,” he said, adding that Russia regarded the current truce as an important step towards implementing provisions of the peace plan, signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February.
The Russian side expects that the security working subgroup formed as part of the Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis “will formalise an agreement on verifiable withdrawal of tanks, mortars and artillery under 100mm calibre”, Lukashevich said, noting also that Moscow “will continue to take necessary measures to achieve a peaceful settlement in Ukraine serving the interests of all its citizens”.
Kiev and representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk agreed last week to strive for an end to all truce violations from September 1, the day that the new school year was to begin.
Comprehensive ceasefires have been declared twice over the past year, but sporadic clashes between the two forces continued. Both sides have blamed the other for the violations.
The Minsk agreement, brokered by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France February 12, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias starting from February 15.
This was to be followed by withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of military engagement by at least 15 kilometres (9 miles), prisoner release and agreement for international observers to monitor the truce.
Based on September’s stillborn Minsk peace protocol, the deal also laid out a road map for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give the war-torn eastern regions more autonomy.
Among the terms of the deal was a commitment to intensify the work of the Trilateral Contact Group comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Four subgroups, tasked with addressing security, political, economic and humanitarian issues, are expected to advance work by the Contact Group in activating elements of the Minsk deal.
Poroshenko says ceasefire observed in Donbas for 6 days
The ceasefire regime in Donbas has been in place for six days in a row, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday at a meeting with Polish president’s envoy Krzystof Szczerski.
“The ceasefire regime has been observed in Donbas for six days running, which gives hope for a peaceful development of the process,” the press service of the Ukrainian head of state quoted min as saying.
The Ukrainian president noted the potential and importance of developing relations between countries. Thus, he said Ukraine was paying special attention to closer military technical cooperation within the framework of the Ukrainian-Polish-Lithuanian brogade.
The sides, according to the press service, stressed the importance of consolidated efforts of the world community in establishing peace in Ukraine and preserving security in Europe. “The Polish president pledged that one of the most important tasks of the country’s foreign policy is to ensure security and peace in the region. The situation in Ukraine is vitally important in this context,” Szczerski was quoted as saying.
The sides discussed the roadmap of contacts between the two countries’ presidents. Poroshenko invited his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda to visit Ukraine. “Further development of our relations will make both countries stronger and will raise the level of trust,” Poroshenko said.
Obama Regime Publicly Splits With EU On Ukraine War
There now is open disagreement between three Western leaders regarding how to move forward with regard to Ukraine: Barack Obama of the United States, versus Francois Hollande of France, and Angela Merkel of Germany.
On Friday, August 29th, this split became public concerning whether the Minsk II accords for ending the Ukrainian civil war should remain in force. Obama supports the view of Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, to violate the Minsk II accords, which would end it; the same day, Hollande and Merkel agreed with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, that the Minsk II agreement needs to be implemented in full.
Merkel and Hollande had arranged the Minsk II accords without U.S. President Obama’s participation, because Obama’s Administration had installed the new, anti-Russian, government in Ukraine in a February 2014 coup, which sparked the breakaway from Ukraine by two former Ukrainian regions that had voted heavily for the man whom Obama had just overthrown, Viktor Yanukovych: first, Crimea, which had voted 75+% for Yanukovych; then Donbass (comprising “Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”), which had voted 90%+% for Yanukovych. Obama’s agent overseeing the coup, Victoria Nuland, selected Arseniy Yatsenyuk to run the post-coup government and he became the newly appointed Prime Minister when the coup (called “the most blatant coup in history”) occurred 18 days later. Then, on 25 May 2014, the parts of Ukraine that had not separated from Ukraine elected as Ukraine’s new President, Petro Poroshenko. Mr. Poroshenko had informed the EU’s investigators on 25 February 2014 that the overthrow of Yanukovych had been via a coup instead of by a revolution (such as the Obama Administration claimed); but, now, on 25 May 2014, he himself became the new Ukraine’s President. In order to protect himself against the possiblility of being violently overthrown as his predecessor Yanukovych had been, he filed a case with Ukraine’s supreme court, the Constitutional Court, to recognize officially that Yanukovych had illegally been removed from the Presidency. (That case is still pending.)
The current split concerns the provision in the Minsk II accords that requires the Ukrainian government to grant to the breakaway Donbass region a position within a new federal Ukrainian system in which the residents of Donbass will elect their own local leaders, instead of having their leaders imposed upon them (as the coup was) by the central Ukrainian government in Kiev. Donbass will then rejoin Ukraine, and the war will be officially over.
On August 29th, Russia’s Interfax News Agency headlined, “Poroshenko: Ukrainian constitution won’t envision special status for Donbass,” and reported that Poroshenko said (referring to the current Ukrainian Constitution, and which he will not change), “No matter how you look for it there, there is no special status [for Donbass]. … That would lead to a parade of sovereignties. My amendments to the constitution eliminate this article, and there will be no right to such special status.”
A few hours later the same day, Interfax bannered, “Merkel, Hollande Inform Putin on Adherence to Minsk Agreements,” and reported that Putin had phoned both EU leaders about this and received from them reassurance that they, like he, remained committed to full implementation of Minsk II. (Putin does not want Donbass to become part of Russia, but he also doesn’t want the invasion of it by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to continue, especially because it has caused nearly a million refugees into Russia from Donbass. So: he needed to know whether they were behind Poroshenko’s statement, or whether it reflected only Obama’s view.)
This is an international continuation of the disagreement within the Obama Administration regarding Poroshenko’s recent repeated threats to re-invade and forcibly take back Donbass despite the Minsk accords. At first, Kerry said that the U.S. would not support such an invasion, but his nominal subordinate, the Assistant Secretary of State for the area, Victoria Nuland, contradicted that, and President Obama sided with Nuland; she had been instructed to contradict Kerry on this.
One can only speculate as to why Poroshenko has now said that there is no way he will carry through the “special administrative status” provision, provision #11, of the Minsk II Accords. That provision demands specifically what Poroshenko now specifically rejects: “Constitutional reform in Ukraine, with a new constitution to come into effect by the end of 2015, the key element of which is decentralisation (taking into account peculiarities of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, agreed with representatives of these districts), and also approval of permanent legislation on the special status of particular districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in accordance with the measures spelt out in the attached footnote,[note 1] by the end of 2015.”
Putin does not want Donbass to be in Russia, but Poroshenko now refuses to grant Donbass “special administrative status” within Ukraine. The only way that Poroshenko wants to take back Donbass is by force. On April 30th, Poroshenko had said, “The war will end when Ukraine regains Donbass and Crimea,” and on May 11th, he said, “I have no doubt, we will free the [Donetsk] Airport [in Donetsk oblast], because it is our land.”
On August 27th, Edward Basurin, a military official of the Donetsk People’s Republic had announced “UAF Massively shelling DPR — Drastic Deterioration,” saying that, “The fascists have used heavy artillery prohibited by the Minsk Agreements against the civilian areas of Aleksandrovka and Marinka. The outskirts of Donetsk have been struck.” Thus, when Poroshenko, two days later, announced that he would not continue with the Minsk II accords, Putin immediately got back into direct contact with Hollande and Merkel, to ask whether they still fully supported the accords.
The result is a now-open split between the U.S. and Europe, over Ukraine. The split between Nuland and Kerry is now a split between the U.S. and Europe; or, as Nuland had said on 4 February 2014 while providing her subordinate in Kiev her instructions about the preparations and outcome of the coup: “F—k the EU!” Perhaps EU officials are getting increasingly cold feet about the entire matter, now a year-and-a-half later.
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/09/novorussiaukraine-update-952015-school.html
