Mediaboss Marketing

Wall Street Journal

NATO Shelves Plan to Meet With Ukraine Wall Street Journal BRUSSELSNATO has shelved a plan to meet with Ukrainian officials about the alliance's missile-defense system, Western officials said, a new sign the alliance is trying to avoid provoking Russia. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization had considered ... Ukraine: People flee frontline eastern town amid upsurge in violenceeuronews NATO head Stoltenberg calls on Russia to help staunch violence in UkraineDeutsche Welle NATO Calls For Ceasefire in E Ukraine Amid Escalation of Conflict - ChiefSputnik International all 22 news articles »

Excerpt from:
NATO Shelves Plan to Meet With Ukraine - Wall Street Journal

A municipal worker inspects damage to a home after shelling in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 1, 2017.(Photo: Alexander Ermochenko, AP)

At least 12Ukrainiansoldiers have been killed and more than two dozenwounded in an outburst of fighting with Russian-backed rebels since the weekend that is playing out against a backdrop of still uncertain relations between Moscow and Washington.

In the latest deaths, Ukraine's Anti-Terrorist Operation saidtwo Ukrainian soldiers were killedWednesday in the disputed eastern regions.The governments press office said one soldier was killed and nine soldiers and one civilian injured late Tuesday in Avdiivka, a town of 20,000 people located just north of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

The government-held town of Avdiivka came under sustained shell fire, which knocked out power as temperatures fell as low as zero Fahrenheit, the Associated Press reported.Several buses were used to remove people from the conflict zone, Bloomberg reported.

Escalation in the area is of grave concern, with the civilian population greatly suffering,said Ertugrul Apakan, chief monitor of the special monitoring mission to the Ukraine by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.Violence on such a scale, involving the loss of life, is unacceptable and the protection of civilians must be paramount.

Henoted damage to awater filtration plant, disrupting the delivery ofheating supplies, electricity and water.In the late morning Wednesday, shelling subsided amidunconfirmed reports that bothsides had agreed to a cease-fire to restore electricity and water supplies, the AP reports.

AnAPcorrespondentreported seeingrebel artillery positions in the center of Donetsk city on Wednesday. Localresidents reported incessant outgoing and incoming artillery salvos heard throughout the night and in the morning, an intensity that the city has not seen in months,AP reported.

Separatist forces saidtwo of their fighters were killed and six wounded in the latest violence, according to the AP.

Local residents are provided with hot soup by the emergencies ministry at a humanitarian assistance point on Feb. 1, 2017, in Avdiivka, Ukraine. The conflict with Russia-backed rebels has intensified dramatically in the front-line town over the past several days.(Photo: Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images)

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cut short his visit to Germany and calledan emergency meeting of the Contact Group for the settlement of theconflict andappealed to the United Nations.

The U.N. Security Council expressed its "grave concern"over the "dangerous deterioration" in eastern Ukraine and called for an end to the violence.Both Russia and Ukraine are members of the council:Russia as a permanent member and Ukraine takingoverthe rotating presidency on Wednesday.Both nations had agreed to the Security Council statement, which decried the unrest for its"severe impact on the local civilian population."

TheState Department said in a statement that the United States "is deeply concerned with the recent spike in violence in eastern Ukraine."

The Ukrainian Crisis media center blamed Russian-backed militants for the upsurge in fighting, charging that the rebels hadlaunched an "unprovoked attack" on Ukrainian troops and the civilian population but met heavy resistance.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukrainian troops of launching offensive operations to pick up territory using heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.Ina statement, theministry also notedthateveryoutbreak of new fighting "strangely enough" occurred while the Ukrainian leadership, in this case Poroshenko, wason foreigntrips. "Clearly, this is an attempt to keep the crisis provoked by Kiev on the international agenda," the statement said.

Nearly 10,000 people have died since initial clashes broke out in April 2014between Ukrainian troops and rebels, largely ethnic Russians living in the eastern regions who are seeking independence from Kiev. A tenuous ceasefire known as the Minsk agreement was declared in a meeting in the Belarusian capital in February 2015 in an attempt to end the conflict.

An urgent meeting of the so-called Contact Group, which brings together representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the rebels along with the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe, ended Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus. The group, which aims at implementing the 2-year-old Minsk deal,called for the opposing sides to cease fire and urged them to pull back their heavy weapons by the end of the week.

Ukraine and NATO have accusedtheKremlin of supporting the rebels with troops and weapons. The United States and European Union have imposedsanctions on Russiafor supporting the rebels, as well as annexing Crimea, which was part of Ukraine.

Whether plannedor not, the latest eruptions come amid a shifting political landscape. Among them are President Trump'semergingrelationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders spoke Saturday for the first time, andTrump has publicly mused about the prospect of easing sanctions against the Kremlin. The sanctionswere imposed by the Obama administration over concerns about Russian hacking during the U.S. presidential election.

The escalation seems to be another reason for the soonest possible resumption of dialogue and cooperation between Russia and America, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's defense minister Stepan Poltorak charged Wednesday thataUkrainian Navy transport aircraft came under small arms attack over the Black Sea from a Russian oil rig. He said there were no injuries but the Antonov An026 aircraft was damage, according to Interfax Ukraine.

A spokesman for the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquartersin Sevastopol denied the charge, saying the oil rigs' security guards did not open fire on the plane but gave it flash signals to prevent it hitting a drilling tower, Tass reported.

Ukraine's month-long role as president of the U.N. Security Council will likely giveKiev an opportunity togaugewhether it still has the councils backing specifically from the so-called P3 permanent members of France, Britain and the United States in its claims to Crimea and on addressing instability on its eastern border.

The P3 have always been rock-solid supportive of Ukraine when it comes to the issue of Crimea, said Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraines ambassador to the U.N. We have heard remarks of Mr. Trump on Crimea when he was a presidential candidate. But we need to understand that campaign rhetoric and real business may vary.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jVT0Dj

More:
At least 12 Ukrainian soldiers killed in disputed east - USA TODAY

By Christian Borys By Christian Borys February 1 at 2:26 PM

AVDIIVKA, Ukraine Russian-backed separatists kept up a rocket and artillery attack on this frigid city Wednesday, in a surge in violence that could pose an early and difficult foreign policy challenge to the new Trump administration.

A planned evacuation of Avdiivka, organized by the Ukrainian government, found few takers Wednesday. Only 145 residents chose to board buses that would take them away from the fighting; 88 were children.

Sporadic shelling of Avdiivka, on the front line between separatists and regular Ukrainian forces, had intensified early this week, shortly after President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had their first phone conversation. The sudden eruption in the long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine threatens to put Trump, who has said he wants better relations with Moscow, on the spot.

Analysts say both Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appear to be trying to exploit the intensification of the fighting as a means of influencing the new U.S. administration: Putin could be daring Washington to do something about it; Poroshenko can play up Ukraines image as the aggrieved nation.

Small-arms fire and heavier detonations were audible Wednesday throughout the city center. The barrage was indiscriminate; on the outskirts of town, Katya Volkova, 60, was killed by shrapnel from a Grad rocket at 7:30 a.m. as she was out for a walk; her distraught daughter Nadya was kneeling over the body and weeping.

At the evacuation point, Ania Bohatysh, a 69-year-old pensioner, waved goodbye to her daughter and 17-month-old grandson. Its much stronger shelling than it was before, so thats why I wanted them to leave, she said. And now we dont even have water or heat. Its simply impossible to sleep anymore because of the shelling.

But Bohatysh stayed. Avdiivka is her home, she said, and she would rather die here than try to start life over again elsewhere.

Six Ukrainian soldiers have been killed here since Sunday, and 48 have been wounded, while unconfirmed reports indicated that the separatists suffered heavy losses. The number of civilian casualties is not clear.

The 20,000 people who remain here, out of a prewar population of 35,000, are without heat and water after heavy shelling took out electricity lines and wreaked havoc on the citys Soviet-era coke plant. It is the largest coke producer in Europe and critical to Ukraines steel industry.

The plant is working at 20 percent capacity now, according to plant director Musa Magomedov, who said that the town is on the precipice of a humanitarian disaster if the fighting continues.

For the first time since last summer, videos on social media purported to show protracted use of MLRS Grad rockets. The Grad, an imprecise and indiscriminate weapon, was banned under the Minsk II peace agreement, signed nearly two years ago. That agreement also prohibits the use of tanks and heavy artillery. However, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and reports from soldiers, all of these weapons were back in action over the past few days.

Alex Kokcharov, an analyst at IHS Janes, said he believes that the escalation could be a show of force by Russia.

Russia is willing to use the controlled escalation in Donbas to demonstrate its control of the conflict to the new U.S. administration, Kokcharov said. This is likely to be part of the wider Russian strategy of foreign and military assertiveness.

However, the surge also seems to have some political benefit for the administration in Kiev, bringing attention back to a seemingly forgotten conflict. In an unusual step, the bodies of soldiers killed in the latest battles were included in a procession Monday morning in Kiev, on the site of the countrys 2014 revolution.

Trumps election sent shock waves across Ukraine because of his stated willingness to cut a deal with Russia that could give Moscow a free hand in the region, spelling disaster for Kiev. The administration in Kiev is adamant that discussions of lifting sanctions are entirely premature.

Both sides hope to capitalize on the fighting, said Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in European studies at Kings College in London. My suspicion is that the Ukrainian army and government are not averse to playing up the impact of Russian shelling and general military activity. Poroshenko can now turn around and point to current developments to argue that any removal of sanctions is betrayal against an aggressor.

At the same time, he said, Putins trap is to dare Trump to do anything about attacks in Donbas after Trump has made such a big deal over partnering with Russia.

Read more:

An outburst of violence in Ukraine may be Trumps first test with Putin

Trump says it is very early to discuss lifting sanctions on Russia

As Trump seeks warmer ties with Russia, U.S. sends troops to Eastern Europe

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Read more here:
Ukraine fighting could pose early challenge to Trump - Washington Post

MOSCOW More than 10 people have been killed and dozens more woundedin some of the heaviestshellingin months between army and anti-government forcesin southeastUkraine, an outburst of violencethat may provokean early test of President Trumps ability to managenegotiations with the Kremlin over the thornyconflict.

In Washington, the State Department on Tuesday called for an immediate cease-fire.

With temperatures as low as minus-4 , what Ukrainian officials described as Grad rockets and 152mm artillery shells have rained down for days on the city of Avdiivka, an industrial hub built around a sprawling coking plant that has hosted a grinding standoff in this three-year-old conflict. Ukrainian forces, who recaptured the town in 2014, have suffered high casualties in the latest spate of violence: eight dead and 26 others wounded in two days. Separatist forces said that two of their fighters had died and six had been wounded in the fighting.

The latest round of violence occurred suddenly, and both sides have blamed the other for it.

Today for the first time in days Grad rocket launchers and heavy artillery were used against the civilian population and our units, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during a meeting with security officialsTuesday.The shelling is massive.

The situation has grown so dire that Ukrainian authorities have announced an evacuation of Avdiivka, the first of the city during the conflict.

Veronika Bahal, a press officer for the Ukrainian Ministry for Emergency Affairs in the Donetsk region, said by telephone that as many as 12,000 people may be evacuated by bus and light rail from the city beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Conditions are difficult in the town, she said, which lacks electricity and running water.

The uptick in fighting came just days after Trumps first telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when the two discussed the conflict in Ukraine and declared plansto improve relations. The fighting in Ukraine, where Russia is supporting anti-governmentseparatists,and the war in Syria were the basis for a frigid relationship between Putin and former president Barack Obama.

Trump, meanwhile, echoed Russian talking points about Ukraine during the campaign, saying that Putin had not sent his military into the country and that most people in Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, did not want to be a part of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian administrationis eager to establish a relationship with Trump, counting on traditional Republican skepticism about Russia to persuade the new president to maintainbadly needed U.S. support for Kiev. Ukrainian officialshave floated a possible meeting betweenthe two presidents in February, although it is not clear where or how that would be organized.

There have been suggestions that the Kremlin would test Trump early in his presidency with an international crisis or take advantage of the chaos in Washington to consolidate gains in southeast Ukraine. But with Trump now occupying the White House, the Kremlin may see the negotiating table as the best way to get what it wants now:a repeal of the sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea and recognition of Russia as a great power that can dominatea sphere of influence that includes Ukraine.

Mark Toner, the acting spokesman for the State Department, said that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had reported the use of heavy artillery and other weapons that are prohibited by the Minsk protocols, which were supposed to provide a road map out of the crisis but have increasingly gone ignored. He said a cease-fire was necessary to avoid a larger humanitarian crisis, and he reaffirmed American support for the Minsk agreement.

The conflict has left more than 10,000 dead since April 2014. Little territory has changed hands in the war since February 2015, when the separatists seized the town of Debaltseve in a bloody advance, but flare-ups in the form ofartillery duels have occurred periodically.

There was no sign that the violence was slowing by Tuesday night. Reached via an electronic messaging app, Musa Magomedov, the head of Avdiivkas coking plant, said there was still a lot offiring.

Magomedov said that the gas at the plant was being used to heat water for the town but that the planturgently needed deliveries ofnatural gas or would have to shut down.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told journaliststhe violence was a provocation.

At an emergency meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, U.S. Charge dAffairs Kate Byrnes, a 24-year veteran of the State Department, blamed the violence on combined Russian-separatist forces.

We call on Russia to stop the violence, honor the cease-fire, withdraw heavy weapons, and end attempts to seize new territory beyond the line of contact, she said.

Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more

As Trump seeks warmer ties with Russia, U.S. deploys troops in Eastern Europe

Trump says it is very early to discuss lifting sanctions on Russia

Trump orders ISIS plan, talks with Putin and gives Bannon national security role

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

See the original post here:
An outburst of violence in Ukraine may be Trump's first test with Putin - Washington Post

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says the federal government is concerned about a new outbreak of fighting in Ukraine and is looking at ways to improve Canada's military support to the country.

Government forces and Russian-backed rebels have traded heavy fire in eastern Ukraine over the last few days, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens more.

The surge in violence is threatening to overturn a two-year-old ceasefire that has been repeatedly broken by both sides, but helped minimize bloodshed.

Canada sent about 200 troops to Ukraine in the summer of 2015 to help train government forces, but the mission is set to expire at the end of March.

The Ukrainian government has publicly asked Canada to extend the mission and while the Liberal government has been non-committal, Sajjan's comments suggest an ongoing Canadian military presence.

The minister says Canada is steadfast in its support for Ukraine, and that Canadian troops are making a difference in the country.

Original post:
Minister hints at sending more help for Ukraine amid new of violence - National Observer