The flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People Republic is flying over the city of Donetsk. The flag bears the emblem of Russia: two-headed eagle.
This June the war activity in the conflict area in eastern Ukraine had noticeably grown. It resulted in the highest number of civilian monthly casualties since August 2015. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 69 conflict-related civilian casualties in June (12 fatalities and 57 injuries). The majority of the casualties (four fatalities and 37 injuries) were caused by shelling from various artillery systems, including those that had been prohibited by the Minsk Agreement. Since the beginning of the conflict 21,880 people were wounded and 9,470 killed, up to 2,000 of the fatalities were civilians.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has come to conclusion: “The situation is prone to further deterioration since the parties strive to gain territory in the buffer zone and, in several locations, have been moving their positions closer to one another in the past two weeks.”
The website of the German newspaper Bild published an article, which, according to retelling by Russian language Internet, suggests that Russia fully controls the occupied areas of Donbas. Moreover, it indicates, the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk Republics have turned into puppet formations which are de facto the parts of Russia.
As the proof of what the article presents, it refers to the meeting of the Russian State Duma Committee for the provision of humanitarian support to affected by war areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. Authors of the article conclude that the Committee actually performs the role of a “shadow government of Donbas”. Russian government’s full control over finances, taxes and market of the so-called DNR and LCR makes the “republics” into the puppet “governments“, completely controlled by the Kremlin. The article states:
“This is a confirmation of the complete failure of the Minsk Agreement. A commitment on the part of Russia to the agreement is a sham. Therefore, the requirements of the West to hold democratic elections in the occupied territories in accordance with Ukrainian legislation are absurd.”
Ukrainian journalist Denis Popovich comments in the Ukrainian Russian language website Apostrophe:
“If the information presented by Bild is correct, the problem of Donbas can only be solved in Ukraine in two ways. The first is to completely abandon the occupied territories: Donbas and Crimea. The second is to try to win Donbas. If Ukraine really wants to regain control over Donbas, a military solution becomes the most likely scenario.”
This opinion of Denis Popovich is shared by many in Ukraine. Not many believe that conditions of the Minsk Agreement are feasible. It is extremely unlikely, that the Ukrainian Parliament would ever give the necessary 300 votes for giving “special status”, as demanded by Minsk Agreement, to Donbas Region.
Taras Stetskiv, a prominent Ukrainian politician and member of Ukrainian Parliament, believes that the President Petro Poroshenko is obliged to declare martial law and acknowledge that there is a war. Stetskiv stated in his interview to Apostrophe that by his opinion the current policy of the head of state, which is “flirting with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to negotiate with him”, can lead to the disintegration of the Ukrainian state.
Stetskiv said:
“The current Ukrainian government is always gives in to threats and pressure from Russia and the West. Unfortunately, the President of Ukraine believes that such policy of maneuvering and tricks will bring him success. But such policy never brought success to Ukraine.
“Poroshenko is afraid of the word ‘war’. He, like any businessman, wants to ‘negotiate’ with Putin. And it is impossible to negotiate with him. Any agreement with Putin is not possible.”
The events of the last days show the growth of the tension between Russia and Ukraine.
A new stage of “trade war” developed between the two countries. President Vladimir Putin has extended until the end of 2017 a ban on the transit of Ukrainian goods through the territory of the Russian Federation to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Ukrainian authorities are promising to answer this Putin’s action by the additional increases of restrictions for transit and import of Russian goods.
The ideological confrontation between Russia and Ukraine is also growing.
There was canceled a two-day music festival of alternative music Raw Fest, which was to be held this weekend in Moscow. More then 10,000 people were expected attend the festival from all over Russia.
The organizers received from the regional Prosecutor’s Office an ultimate warning, stressing the fact that performance of two Ukrainian groups allegedly involved in collecting funds for Ukrainian military actions in Donbas are included into the festival’s program. The document stated: “The current situation may lead to large-scale illegal actions of an extremist nature.” Interestingly enough the law enforcement office, instead of giving protection to the organizers from possible actions of hoodlums, seemed to threaten them with such actions by the hoodlums.
On the eve of the event its organizers reported on their website that they were unable to get permission from the authorities. They asked all guests who planned to come from other cities to stay home. However, on Saturday morning the message was removed from the festival page, obviously by order from the authorities who didn’t want to take responsibility for banning the event.
The greatest sensation of the week became a decision of Kiev’s City Council to change the name of one of Kiev’s streets from Moscow Prospect to Prospect of Stepan Bandera. Eighty-seve of 97 members of the Council voted for the decision. Stepan Bandera was a leader of Ukrainian nationalists, who, during WWII, collaborated with Germans. After the end of the war Bandera’s army for a long time kept fighting for Ukrainian independence with the Red Army. The Soviet and Russian propaganda always equalized all sympathizers of Bandera to Nazis.
At the same time Moscow salami, very popular in Ukraine, was renamed into Bandera salami.
Quite expectedly most Russians reacted to this obviously provocative decisions as a bull to a red cloth. In Russian media many asked: “Why wouldn’t they call the street Hitler’s Prospect?”
Just a few days ago the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s press service released information that an agreement on the supply of lethal arms and military equipment to Ukraine from Poland was signed in Warsaw. The document was signed by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak and his Polish counterpart Antoni Macierewicz. This news certainly changes the situation and Ukrainian commentators immediately expressed their expectations that Russia is now finally going to leave Donbas.
Are they right? Time will tell.
Ukraine deserves more support from Western countries. The Ukraine people are peaceful and hard working people who have lived under Russion opression for too long. I was in Ukraine in 1995 for 3 weeks on mission work project. They said “We love our freedom.”
I seriously doubt Polish arms to Ukraine will allow or even encourage resistance in Donbas. Yo! It’s Russia. It’s Ukraine.
Poland acting as stooges for USA / Israeli interests. Ukrainian Catholics sided with the Nazis. Ungrateful to the Russians and other soviets who saved them.
Do you ever get the feeling that Putin is making decisions based on knowledge of what US policy may be. It seems almost like he’s been reading our mail.
Pretty difficult to predict what Putin might do? It seems that Russia sees NATO as a real threat? Whats going on in Turkey right now may encourage Putin to make another???