Crisis Oekra�ne - Rusland #155 Staakt het vuren !

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Six parties have chance to get to Verkhovna Rada

KYIV, September 24 /Ukrinform/. If the parliamentary elections took place in September, six political parties would have a chance to overcome the threshold.

These data of the all-Ukrainian poll were aired at a press conference at Ukrinform by Director of the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the Science Academy of Ukraine Mykola Sliusarevsky, a Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"As of today, according to results of the social survey, six political parties would have real chances to overcome a 5% threshold at the elections to the Verkhovna Rada: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko - 31.5% of the active electorate, which determined its choice; Radical Party of Oleh Liashko - 12.7%; People's Front - 8.1%; the all-Ukrainian Association Batkivshchyna - 7.9%; Civil Position - 6.6%; Strong Ukraine - 6.3%,” Sliusarevsky noted.

According to him, Bloc of Petro Poroshenko leads in all regions of Ukraine. In addition, the
prevailing majority of the interviewed (over 68%) supports decisions of the President to this or other extent to dissolve the parliament and to call the preterm elections.

As a whole, Ukrainians positively estimate activities of the President, the expert says.
“Decisions and actions of head of state Petro Poroshenko are considered to be more or less adequate to development of the situation in the country by about 47% of respondents... At the same time, from the received data it comes that a positive estimate of the President's activity did not hamper critical estimation of his personnel appointments,” Sliusarevsky noted.

In particular, appointments to positions of Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, Prosecutor General, NBU governor, etc. Only 28.9% of the interviewed are content with these appointments to this or other extent, and another 26.2% of respondents were undecided.

A survey was held September 5-12, 2014, in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and Donbas settlements, captured by terrorists.

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OSCE SMM did not come under fire in Luhansk region

The OSCE special monitoring mission has announced that its monitors have not come under fire in Luhansk region recently.

"Media advisory: In response to media inquiries we can say our monitors in Luhansk Oblast were not fired upon earlier this week," the special monitoring mission tweeted.

Earlier on Wednesday spokesman for the information and analytical center of the National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said members of illegal armed groups opened fire at a car of the OSCE international monitoring mission on the bridge near the village of Schastia not far from Luhansk.

"A raiding group of terrorists shot at a car of the OSCE international mission on the bridge over the Siversky Donets River near the village of Schastia," Lysenko said at a briefing in Kyiv.

twitter:

StateOfUkraine twitterde op woensdag 24-09-2014 om 21:16:02 Tymchuk: @OSCE reports about the situation in east #Ukraine have suspiciously been contradicting the reports of other sources in the region reageer retweet

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EU plans for Iran gas imports if sanctions go

(Reuters) - The European Union is quietly increasing the urgency of a plan to import natural gas from Iran, as relations with Tehran thaw while those with top gas supplier Russia grow chillier.

Two "ifs" - the removal of sanctions on Iran and the addition of some pipeline infrastructure - are not preventing EU planners preparing, a European Commission source involved in developing EU energy strategy told Reuters.

[...]

Energy majors Total of France and Italy's Eni have in the past expressed interest in developing South Pars, one of the world's biggest gas fields, shared by Qatar and Iran, with total reserves estimated around 50 trillion cubic meters (tcm), enough to meet European demand for over 100 years.

Independent feasibility studies show that, if sanctions were to be eased and investments started soon, Iran could supply 10-20 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year to Turkey and Europe by the early 2020s.

[...]

twitter:

EuromaidanPR twitterde op woensdag 24-09-2014 om 21:11:11 #Dnipropetrovsk: last farewell to 21unidentified Ukr soldiers killed near #Ilovaysk @HromadskeTV http://t.co/6eYBKkhuxI |EMPR #NeverForget reageer retweet

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Amie_FR twitterde op woensdag 24-09-2014 om 15:32:56 Happening now. #Ukraine #Uman. World's biggest #Jewish pilgrimage http://t.co/TeI320F1HK reageer retweet

twitter:

Conflict_Report twitterde op woensdag 24-09-2014 om 15:56:27 #Brain_Drain Ukraine announced that it will close the Donetsk National University and transfer large parts to #Vinnitsa in western #Ukraine. reageer retweet

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Yatseniuk addresses Putin in his speech at UN

KYIV, September 25 /Ukrinform/. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, in his speech at the UN General Assembly session, has openly addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, urging him to stop the aggression against Ukraine.

He said this in his ten-minute speech, Ukrinform's correspondent reported.
"Mr. Putin, you can win the fight against the troops, but you will never win the fight against the nation - the united Ukrainian nation," Yatseniuk said.

He recalled that "Russia violated a number of bilateral and multilateral international agreements," starting with the UN Charter and ending with the resolutions on fighting terrorism that were adopted by the UN.

"We know what terrorism means. And we urge Russia to pull back its forces, to pull back its artillery, to stop to supply of Russian-led terrorists, to restore the control over the Ukrainian-Russian border, and to start real talks, peace talks," Yatseniuk said.

He acknowledged that the military option on resolving the crisis in Ukraine was not the best one. "This should be a comprehensive approach, which comprises diplomatic, financial, political, and only at last - military options," Yatseniuk said.

Yatseniuk urged Russia to fulfill all 12 points of the Minsk memorandum, stressing that "this is not a menu where you can pick anything."

He also called on the international community to help bring to justice those responsible for the tragedy with the downed Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft, which he called a "crime against humanity."
The prime minister expressed confidence that Ukraine would resume control over all of its territory, including Crimea.

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President orders government to abandon Ukraine's non-aligned status - decree

KYIV, September 25 /Ukrinform/.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree on "urgent measures" to protect Ukraine and strengthen its defense capability.

The text of the decree was published on the official website of the head of state on September 24.
According to the report, the decree was passed in connection with the further worsening of the situation in the area of national security as a result of Russian armed aggression.

The goal of these measures is to neutralize current threats to Ukraine's national security.
First of all, the decree defines as a priority in Ukraine's national interests in the sphere of foreign policy activity in 2014 and subsequent years the further development of Ukraine's strategic partnership with the United States, the EU and NATO.

Many of the key points in the decree are classified as "secret."

[...]

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Poroshenko says Ukraine to submit bid for EU membership in 2020

KYIV, September 25 /Ukrinform/.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that Ukraine intends to apply for membership of the European Union in 2020.

He said this, while opening the second stage of the 12th extraordinary congress of judges, Radio Liberty reported.

Poroshenko said that today he would present his reform program "Ukraine 2020" to the public.
"This program foresees about 60 reforms and special programs that will allow Ukraine to prepare for submitting in six years a bid for membership of the European Union," he said.

He said that a major reform was a change of the judicial system so to re-build public trust in judges.

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Poroshenko: Donbas truce proven workable

Not a single Ukrainian soldier died in the anti-terrorist operation zone in Donbas on Wednesday, for the first time in a long stretch of time, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"Yesterday was the first day in months when Ukraine did not have a single fatality. That was the first day of a real truce. Hail Ukraine," Poroshenko tweeted on Thursday morning.

The president said in his speech at the 12th extraordinary congress of the judiciary there were no wounded Ukrainian soldiers either, the presidential press service reports.

"This is the first day in many weeks and months where Ukraine does not have a single killed or wounded [serviceman], when the ceasefire finally worked," Poroshenko stressed.

"This is a really festive day," he said.

"Just imagine: no one is dead and no one is wounded. There were two rifle attacks near Debaltseve in the past 24 hours. The guns are silent, the rocket launchers are silent," Poroshenko said.

The president added that a special mission of the OSCE would arrive in Kharkiv on Thursday.

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Poroshenko: Most dangerous part of war in Ukraine's east over

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the worst of the hostilities in the east of the country are now over.

"I have no doubt that the main and the most dangerous part of the war is in the past, thanks to the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers," he said when presenting Strategy 2020 reform program in Kyiv on Thursday.

The president expressed the belief that his peace plan to resolve the situation in the east of the country has started working.

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Ukrainian president announces eight priority areas for reforms

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has named judicial sector reform, the decentralization of power and fighting corruption as the country's priorities.

Introducing the Strategy 2020 reform program in Kyiv on Thursday, the head of state said that the document contains more than 60 special programs and reforms that need to be implemented simultaneously.

According to him, there are eight priority areas for reform.

"I identified eight priority areas, the changes in which either solve the most pressing problems, or create institutional conditions for other reforms. Our first priorities include anti-corruption reform, the renewal of the government machine and government staff; judicial reform; police reform; decentralization and public administration reform; tax reform; the deregulation and the development of entrepreneurship; and reform of the security and defense sector," he said.

At the same time, Poroshenko said that he would add two more special programs to the list of priority reforms. These are "the energy independence of our country and the further promotion of Ukraine in the world."

The president said that Ukraine, as a positive brand "has already acquired an extremely high capitalization", which should be converted into a powerful flow of foreign investment into the Ukrainian economy.

Poroshenko said that he believed the judicial reform to be the most important one of the above-mentioned.

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Pilot Savchenko in Moscow detention facility - lawyer

Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko is in Moscow's Detention Facility 6, her lawyer Nikolai Polozov said.

"We have found Nadia Savchenko! She is in Detention Facility 6 in Pechatniki. Our colleague Ilya Novikov, a lawyer, is with her," Polozov said on Twitter on Thursday.

Savchenko, 31, fought in eastern Ukraine in the ranks of the Aidar volunteer battalion and in June was taken prisoner by Russian-sponsored insurgents near the town of Schastia in Luhansk region.

She resurfaced on July 8 - reports said she was being held in a detention center in Voronezh.

The Russian Investigative Committee claims that she crossed the border into Russia without any identification papers and masquerading as a Ukrainian refugee, and that officials who stopped her in a Russian village for an identity inspection identified her as a suspect in the killing of Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, reporters for Russian radio and television company VGTRK.

Ukraine's consul ultimately met with Savchenko after a long period during which she was denied any visits from defense lawyers and the consul. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that the pilot confirmed during the conversation with the consul that she had been transferred to Russia illegally and forcibly (handcuffed and blindfolded).

Her Russian defense lawyer Mark Feygin said Savchenko did not take direct part in the hostilities in Donbas.

On September 24, Feygin said that their client had been taken from Voronezh prison, but her whereabouts were unknown.

Investigative Committee official Vladimir Markin earlier told Interfax Savchenko has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation as part of the criminal case involving the killing of two Russian journalists.

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Russian convoy not humanitarian, this is intervention in Ukraine - Poroshenko

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the latest Russian aid convoy is not humanitarian, but, in fact, this is an intervention in Ukraine's territory

"The Russia convoy is not humanitarian. We consider this as an intervention in Ukraine's territory, and this is part of the actions that we have to stop," he said while introducing the Strategy 2020 program in Kyiv on Thursday.

Poroshenko said that white trucks brought "command equipment to Luhansk" through that section of the border that is not controlled by the Ukrainian side.

twitter:

EuromaidanPR twitterde op donderdag 25-09-2014 om 18:25:08 Two Ukr soldiers killed by MLRS fire near #mariupol others wounded @EuroMaydan @Liveuamap https://t.co/Cqo9Ozl2yP http://t.co/KoAa3WzWEi reageer retweet

twitter:

EuromaidanPR twitterde op donderdag 25-09-2014 om 18:38:25 RU terrorists continue to fire artilery barrage at #Debaltseve (#Donetsk region) http://t.co/LcZicv95Kp #Ukraine http://t.co/g57RkkorGI reageer retweet

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Conflict_Report twitterde op donderdag 25-09-2014 om 22:18:43 #Breaking A Russian MLRS attack towards #Donetsk #airport this afternoon. https://t.co/nAVrVtEG4z#UkraineUnderAttack reageer retweet

Донецк, 25.09.2014, обстрелы.