Build up to WW3 UKRAINE WARSHIPS are being BLOCKED from LEAVING Port by RUSSIAN MARINES
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By: breakingnewsapril
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Build up to WW3 UKRAINE WARSHIPS are being BLOCKED from LEAVING Port by RUSSIAN MARINES - Video
Ukraine crisis, Viktor Yanukovich Leaves China Without Aid Deal
Chinese Vice Finance Minister Guangyao says China backs IMF financial support for Ukraine, during what he calls a difficult time. Gavino Garay reports. Subsc...
By: breakingnewsapril
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Ukraine crisis, Viktor Yanukovich Leaves China Without Aid Deal - Video
Pope makes Easter plea for Ukraine peace after gunbattle
Leading automakers gather for China #39;s biggest car show, expressing confidence in the world #39;s largest car market despite lacklustre economic growth. Duration:...
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Pope makes Easter plea for Ukraine peace after gunbattle - Video
Ukraine's interim government says it has proof that Russian military and intelligence forces are fomenting the unrest that has destabilized the eastern part of that country since Russia's annexation of Crimea last month.
The New York Times reports that photos and descriptions circulated by the Kiev government show that some of the so-called "green men" -- gunmen who have seized government buildings and demanded Crimea-style referenda on becoming part of Russia -- have been identified in other photos as being among Russian troops.
The Times also reports that one of the men in the photos has been identified as Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, a veteran Russian military and intelligence operative. Strelkov is believed to have served Russia undercover both in Crimea and in the city of Slovyansk, one of the centers of the most recent unrest.
Last week, Ukrainian authorities released a wanted poster for Mr. Strelkov, accompanied by a pencil sketch of his gaunt face. "What, they can't even get a proper photo of him?" one of the men behind the sandbagged entrance to the city council of Slovyansk over the weekend, who referred to himself simply as Daisy, told a Wall Street Journal reporter. When asked about the role of Russian intelligence, the man declined to answer and told a reporter to leave immediately.
The Obama administration has endorsed the claims of the Ukrainians, saying that Russia could face new economic sanctions if government buildings currently occupied by demonstrators are not vacated under the terms of an agreement reached Thursday among Russian, Ukrainian, American and European diplomats. Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Ukraine Monday morning to meet with Ukraine's interim prime minister and president, as well as other officials.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly denied that Russian forces are involved in the unrest, which began after the February deposition of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. That message is backed up by the separatists themselves, who claim that their movement is entirely homegrown and in response to what they consider an illegal coup that resulted in Yanukovych's downfall.
The unit accused of operating in eastern Ukraine is known as the GRU, the Russian acronym for the Main Intelligence Department of the Russian General Staff. It is an elite Russian military intelligence unit that has participated in virtually every military conflict in which Moscow has been embroiled in recent decades, including wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Georgia.
In eastern Ukraine, Ukraine's State Security Service alleges the Russian operatives' task is to coordinate pro-Russian militias, help them identify targets and carry out seizures of key installations, such as police and security headquarters, government offices and communications infrastructure.
Ukrainian security officials say Russian intelligence has spent years building up a network of sleeper agents in eastern Ukraine. One of them, they say, is Igor Bezler, a 49-year-old Crimean native who they say served in the GRU until 2002, when he moved to the eastern city of Horlivka. There, he worked as a security guard and as head of a funeral company.
Then, last week, after a pro-Russian mob took over the town's police station, a video posted on a local news organization's website showed him parading in fatigues in front of a couple dozen local police, identifying himself as a lieutenant colonel in the Russian army and telling them they had a new chief. Ukrainian officials allege he was tasked earlier this month with seizing state-security buildings in Donetsk region, then taking the police station in Horlivka.
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Ukraine claims Russian military behind unrest- Biden in Ukraine as tensions rise
Ukraine is boosting natural-gas imports from Russia to the highest in 10 weeks after President Vladimir Putin gave the country one month to resume payments or have to start prepaying for the fuel.
Ukraine imported almost 115 million cubic meters of gas from Russia on April 19, the most since Feb. 5, preliminary data from the Russian Energy Ministrys CDU-TEK unit show. That compares with 40 million cubic meters on April 16, before Putins statement. The daily average in April last year was about 49 million cubic meters, according to Ukrainian Energy Ministry data.
Ukraine depends on Russian gas for half of its domestic needs and carries about 15 percent of Europes supply through its pipelines from Russia, making energy a key component in the international tensions over the smaller countrys future.
OAO Gazprom (OGZD), Russias state-controlled gas exporter, is supplying fuel to Ukraine with little chance of receiving payment on more than $2.2 billion already owed to it, Dmitry Peskov, Putins spokesman, said April 11.
Russia is ready to wait for a month after not receiving a single ruble or dollar from Ukraine for March deliveries, Putin said April 17 during an annual call-in show.
Gazproms contract signed with Ukraine in 2009 stipulates a move to advance payments if the country falls behind on paying for supplies. That agreement ended a pricing dispute that led Gazprom to halt deliveries to Ukraine, which disrupted transit flows to Europe for about two weeks during freezing weather.
Sergei Kupriyanov, Gazproms spokesman, didnt immediately comment about the increase in imports when reached by phone. Aliona Osmolovska, a spokeswoman for NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, declined to comment by phone.
Gas supplies to Ukraine and fuel transit to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines are proceeding as normal, a different Gazprom press official said by phone, without elaborating and asking not to be identified in line with corporate policy.
Ukraine is seeking to diversify energy supplies by buying gas from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary using east-west pipelines in reverse. Fuel supplies from Poland started on April 15, at levels amounting to about 3 percent of the former Soviet republics domestic consumption. Talks on additional volumes from other countries are still in progress.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elena Mazneva in Moscow at emazneva@bloomberg.net
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Ukraine Boosts Russian Gas Imports as Prepayment Threat Looms