Mediaboss Marketing

ODESSA, Ukraine Ukraine's navy is in Odessa's harbor, though it can be hard to spot.

It's tucked behind a collection of storage tanks and overshadowed by immense cargo vessels docked nearby. There are a couple dozen boats, few much larger than a decent-sized yacht and many in desperate need of repair. The government is begging the public to help pay their bills.

This is what's left of Ukraine's fleet since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula two months ago, taking with it the navy's key base and most of its ships.

"Times are not the best for the fleet now," admitted Capt. Oleh Chubuk, spokesman for Ukraine's naval command.

The reality is far worse. Separatist unrest is battering eastern Ukraine, breakaway leaders have vowed to disrupt Sunday's presidential elections and Crimea has been annexed by Russia.

Ukraine's military is facing its worst crisis ever with a navy that has lost two-thirds of its vessels, an army desperate for basic equipment and a defense ministry that has taken to hustling 50-cent donations that people can make with mobile phone text messages. It has raised over $1 million so far that way enough to buy one interceptor missile on a U.S. Navy warship but military officials are thrilled.

"We'll use the money to buy the things we lack, like bulletproof helmets and medical supplies," said Bogdan Buta, Ukraine's deputy defense minister.

Kiev's Western allies, meanwhile, including the United States, have shown little willingness to help it rearm, fearing that more weaponry could upset diplomatic negotiations or provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin even further.

The loss of Crimea, a peninsula that dangles from the Ukrainian mainland deep into the Black Sea, meant the loss of Kiev's naval headquarters as well as a series of navy bases and all the ships and boats in port there.

This has left Ukraine with little influence over its own crisis, and, despite its long coastline and numerous ports, little power in the Black Sea.

Continue reading here:
Ukraine faces Russia with a crippled navy, crowd-funded budget: "Times are not the best"

KIEV: Ukraine confirmed on Tuesday that Russia had pulled its troops back from the border for the first time in a move that could ease spiralling tensions five days ahead of a make-or-break presidential poll.

The state border service's surprise announcement that none of the estimated 40,000 soldiers were now stationed within 10 kilometres (six miles) of Ukraine has the potential to deflate the bloody Kremlin-backed insurgency that threatens to tear the ex-Soviet nation apart.

The provisional Western-backed leaders in Kiev won another boost on Tuesday when Ukraine's richest tycoon Rinat Akhmetov denounced the armed rebels who have overrun a dozen cities in his eastern industrial power base as bandits who might create "genocide".

The turmoil that began with the popular overthrow in February of a pro-Russian leader and then saw Kremlin forces retaliate by annexing the Crimean peninsula has plunged East-West relations to post-Cold War lows and stoked fears of all-out civil conflict.

The United Nations estimates that around 130 people have died since violence in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions near the Russian border first broke out in early April.

The UN refugee agency also said on Tuesday that another 10,000 people -- many of them ethnic Tatars in Crimea -- have been internally displaced.

Ukraine's border guard said that Russian troops had been stationed within a few hundreds metres (yards) of the border until President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered their withdrawal.

"As far as the presence of (Russian) forces within 10 kilometres of our border, they are not there anymore," Ukrainian news agencies quoted border guard official Sergiy Astakhov as saying.

"What is happening further away from the border -- that is not for us to say."

The United States and NATO have sent troops to Poland and the three tiny Baltic nations to calm jitters about Russian troops possibly not only overrunning Ukraine but also pushing further into Europe in a bid to reclaim ex-Soviet satellite states.

Continue reading here:
Ukraine says Russia pulls back forces ahead of vote

NATALIYA VASILYEVA AND YURAS KARMANAU

Ukraine's government launched talks on Wednesday (local time) on decentralising power as part of a European-backed peace plan but didn't invite its main foes, the pro-Russia insurgents who have declared independence in the east.

That deliberate oversight left it unclear whether the negotiations might help cool the tensions in the east.

In his opening remarks, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said authorities were "ready for a dialogue" but insisted they will not talk to the pro-Russia gunmen who have seized buildings and fought government troops across eastern Ukraine.

"Let's have a dialogue, let's discuss specific proposals," Turchynov said, "But those armed people who are trying to wage a war on their own country, those who are with arms in their hands trying to dictate their will, or rather the will of another country, we will use legal procedures against them and they will face justice."

Insurgents in the east shrugged off the round-table talks as meaningless.

"We haven't received any offers to join a round table and dialogue," Denis Pushilin, an insurgent leader in Donetsk. "If the authorities in Kiev want a dialogue, they must come here. If we go to Kiev, they will arrest us."

Asked if they would be willing to take part in discussions if the round table was held in the east, Pushilin told The Associated Press that "talks with Kiev authorities could only be about one thing: the recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic."

Turchynov chaired the first in a series of round tables with spiritual leaders, lawmakers, government figures and regional officials as part of a peace plan crafted by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a security group that also includes Russia and the United States.

Ukraine right now is deeply divided between those in the west, who want closer ties with Europe, and those in the east, who have strong traditional and language ties with Russia.

Read the rest here:
Ukraine talks begin but separatists missing

GERALD CELENTE: Dark Future For The Ukraine
Gerald Celente reveals his forecast for Ukraine - The Ukraine is in a state of confusion, as fighting continues in eastern parts of the European nation. Since the invasion of Crimea by Russian....

By: econonical

Read the original:
GERALD CELENTE: Dark Future For The Ukraine - Video

Crimean Tatar Tragedy: Ukraine marks 70th anniversary of 1944 deportation by Stalinist regime
Residents of Ukraine #39;s capital Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine on 17 May held evening vigils to mark former Soviet ruler Josef Stalin #39;s decision in 1944 to forcibly relocate more than 200000...

By: Ukraine News One

Continue reading here:
Crimean Tatar Tragedy: Ukraine marks 70th anniversary of 1944 deportation by Stalinist regime - Video