Crisis Oekra�ne - Rusland #196 Gevechten bij Donetsk Airprt

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On Ukraine frontline, villagers scramble over bombed bridge

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The car bomb exploded under the noses of the separatists who control the bridge and surrounding area and who accuse the military of being behind the blast.

No-one was injured but the blast was the latest violation of a fragile internationally-brokered truce reached in February.

A kilometre away from the bridge, Stanytsya Luganska is under the control of the Ukrainian army.

As a result, the front line is frozen, with rebels and Ukrainian soldiers both unable to advance.

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Ultra-nationalist Ukrainian battalion gears up for more fighting

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"PATRIOT OF UKRAINE"

The Azov battalion originated from Biletsky's paramilitary national socialist group called "Patriot of Ukraine", which propagated slogans of white supremacy, racial purity, the need for authoritarian power and a centralised national economy.

"Patriot of Ukraine" opposed giving up Ukraine's sovereignty by joining international blocs, called for rolling back of liberal economy and political democracy, including free media. In 2008, Biletsky urged "thousands of young fanatic apostles" to advance its ideas. Local media have reported on several violent incidents in which the group was involved.

Since Azov was officially created last May, it has been involved in fighting on the outskirts of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, a battle for the town of Illovaysk which Ukrainian forces lost last summer and across the coast of the Sea of Azov. But, since Azov was enrolled as a regiment of Ukraine's National Guard in September and started receiving increased supplies of heavy arms, Biletsky has toned down his rhetoric.Most of "Patriot of Ukraine" websites are now down or under restricted access. He denied Azov's symbol was a reference to Nazism, saying it was rather a Ukrainian nationalist symbol.

Biletsky said he now has infantry and artillery units and was building a proper tank force. His troops training on the cannons in Urzuf were heavily armed with quality uniforms. Biletsky said his troops, all volunteers, were "officially" making 6,000 hryvnia (212 pounds) a month but in fact around 10,000 hryvnia. Apart from getting funds from the interior ministry, Azov is believed to be getting support from among Ukrainian super-rich oligarchs.

Biletsky did not say whether and how his views have changed since he wrote the "Patriot of Ukraine" programme but said his priority now was extinguishing the pro-Russian rebellion. "We have only one goal right now - fighting for the homeland until all of it is freed. And then we will try to build a new Ukraine that we could all be proud of. We are patriots. We believe in our nation, nationalism is our ideology," he said.

Biletsky, a historian by education who is married with a son, was detained in 2011 on charges of assaulting a man. He was released after an amnesty in February 2014 and his aides dismiss the case as an example of political persecution of Ukrainian nationalists under Ukraine's ousted president and Moscow ally Viktor Yanukovich.

He has since been elected to the Ukrainian parliament, riding a wave of an increased nationalist sentiment in Ukraine triggered by the war.

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twitter:

maxseddon twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 12:13:26 Ukrainian emergencies minister arrested on corruption charges live on TV during a cabinet meeting: https://t.co/CFK95zZyK3 reageer retweet

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A Ukraine Factory That Can’t Close, and Workers Who Won’t Quit

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Caught on the front lines of a grinding artillery war since last July, Avdiivka’s several thousand workers have held on, stubbornly returning to work every day despite 160 documented rocket and artillery strikes, periodic blackouts (one lasted 27 days), an endless list of repairs and, worst of all, the deaths of five colleagues.

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Avdiivka Coke and Steel sits on the Ukrainian side of the front lines, just five miles from the ruins of Donetsk International Airport. The area is one of several focal points where two cease-fires in the last six months have gone largely unheeded. Wayward rocket and mortar strikes happen so often and are over so fast, Mr. Magomedov says, that sometimes workers simply ignore them and stay at their posts.

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The steel mills of Mariupol, an industrial hub also threatened by the separatists, run on coke produced in Avdiivka. If the supply of coke stopped (production has already fallen by more than half), the steel mills would be stranded.

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Despite the danger of shelling and extensive damage, the factory is considered one of the safest places in the area. Because roads to the plant are contested and the nearby towns where workers live lack electricity and water, nearly 2,000 employees are living on the factory grounds, sleeping on cots just a few feet from where they work.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 11:44 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

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Ukraine's president dismisses powerful regional governor

The government last week followed through on its plans to dilute the power of Ukraine's ultra-rich business elite by pushing a law through parliament that led, in effect, to control over an oil and gas company being wrested from Kolomoysky.

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Kolomoysky is a contentious figure in Ukraine - unafraid to use heavy-handed tactics in his business activities but also strongly committed to protecting Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Over the past year, he has tapped into his wealth, which Forbes magazine estimates stands at $1.3 billion, to finance volunteer battalions waging war against separatist militias. Those battalions have since been subordinated to central government control, although it is believed Kolomoysky still retains considerable sway over them.

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When then-President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown last year in a mass street revolt fueled in part by anger over corruption, many hoped business would no longer continue as usual.

Chief among the figures distrusted by the public are the tycoons that earned their riches in the chaos of the post-independence period. The hyper-rich in the former Soviet Union influence politics and government more brazenly and openly than their Western counterparts, earning them the label of oligarchs.

In a move transparently designed to cut Kolomoysky down to size, the parliament last week adopted a law requiring only 50 percent of shareholders of joint stock companies to attend company meetings before decision could be taken. The threshold was previously 60 percent. Poroshenko signed off on the law overnight Tuesday, around the time he was meeting with Kolomoysky to discuss the governor's dismissal.

That measure had the most immediate ramifications for Kolomoysky, whose Privat Group conglomerate holds a 43-percent stake in oil and gas company Ukrnafta.

Although the government-owned energy company Naftogaz controls just over 50 percent of Ukrnafta, Privat Group had - until now - been able to obstruct any policies going against Kolomoysky's interests.

twitter:

yurybarmin twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 09:24:54 A good question to ask now is what will happen to the battalions (Aidar, Azov, Dniepr & smaller ones) funded by #Kolomoisky reageer retweet

twitter:

kashulinsky twitterde op dinsdag 24-03-2015 om 10:52:46 Как �Газпром� теряет крупнейшего зарубежного клиента (угадайте, кто это был) https://t.co/BtQ6aPfBzL http://t.co/5HaVsNrWXz reageer retweet

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'The Surgeon': We Spoke with the Leader of Putin's Favorite Biker Club, the Night Wolves

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 12:57 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

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[ afbeelding ]

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Zaldostanov studied medicine in Moscow like his mother before him, and was such a successful surgeon in the 1980s that he was invited to work at a prestigious institute specializing in post-traumatic facial reconstruction. Work was plentiful thanks to the war among criminal interests that arose as the Soviet Union began to fall apart. His patients had wounds from bullets, knives, and in one case, a shovel.

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obk twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 13:10:51 Eerste Amerikaanse humvees komen aan in Kiev. Beep-beep. http://t.co/biy7CCgdbU reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 12:15 schreef Houtenbeen het volgende:

twitter:

maxseddon twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 12:13:26 Ukrainian emergencies minister arrested on corruption charges live on TV during a cabinet meeting: https://t.co/CFK95zZyK3 reageer retweet

twitter:

OliverBullough twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 12:50:54 Accusation against arrested minister is that he stole 15-20% of cash the state paid for fuel, including for ambulances in the Donbass. #ouch reageer retweet

twitter:

Liveuamap twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 13:08:02 Railway track between stations blown up, Demarino - Prosyana in Dnipropetrovsk region http://t.co/UaYYpHUws8 #Ukraine via @vitaliy00700 reageer retweet

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 12:29 schreef SureD1 het volgende:
Hoop gedoe op de usual (pro-Oekra�ne) twitter accounts over een aantal condensstrepen van vliegtuigen boven Loegansk. Ik zie er niks geks aan en ik kan zeker niet speculeren (wat elders wel overal gedaan wordt) over wat voor vliegtuigen dit zijn. Ik weet niet of er no burgerluchtvaart in de buurt van Loehansk komt (lijkt me niet na MH-17 en de ophef die deze trails van vandaag genereren) maar als dat niet zo is, is het waarschijnlijk wel iets militairs...

Самолеты мимо Луганска на Востоке 25.03.2015 9.30

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 12:49 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

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kashulinsky twitterde op dinsdag 24-03-2015 om 10:52:46 Как �Газпром� теряет крупнейшего зарубежного клиента (угадайте, кто это был) https://t.co/BtQ6aPfBzL http://t.co/5HaVsNrWXz reageer retweet

"Gazprom" verliest de grootste buitenlandse klant (raad eens wie het was)

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 14:49 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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Wel?

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 15:45 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

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Oekraine.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 13:18 schreef deelnemer het volgende:

twitter:

Liveuamap twitterde op woensdag 25-03-2015 om 13:08:02 Railway track between stations blown up, Demarino - Prosyana in Dnipropetrovsk region http://t.co/UaYYpHUws8 #Ukraine via @vitaliy00700 reageer retweet

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Самолеты мимо Луганска на Востоке 25.03.2015 9.30

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 18:46 schreef byah het volgende:
ik gok dat Rusland andere problemen gaat krijgen in de achtertuin

http://www.nytimes.com/ro(...)will-reclaim-siberia

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And if Beijing chose to take Siberia by force, the only way Moscow could stop [China] would be [by] using nuclear weapons.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:43 schreef Romanus het volgende:

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En dat is precies wat Rusland gaat doen als ze worden aangevallen. Die geven Siberi� echt niet zo maar op.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:45 schreef MotherFoker het volgende:

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Nou dit ziet er niet goed uit, lekker dan.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:46 schreef Romanus het volgende:

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Dit is een opiniestuk h�, nergens staat dat China van plan is om Siberi� met geweld over te nemen

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:46 schreef Romanus het volgende:

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Dit is een opiniestuk h�, nergens staat dat China van plan is om Siberi� met geweld over te nemen

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:48 schreef Nintex het volgende:

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Die hebben eerst nog een zee-oorlog te voeren met Japan over een paar eilandjes. Hoewel ik het gevoel krijgt dat het voorlopig blijft bij conflicten in het Midden Oosten en agressie van een doorgedraaide Vladimir Putin.

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Op woensdag 25 maart 2015 19:51 schreef crystal_meth het volgende:
A REAL uphill battle: Embarrassing footage emerges of military vehicle delivered to Ukraine from Britain failing to drive up and over small mound

http://www.dailymail.co.u(...)ive-small-mound.html