Archive for the ‘Ukraine’ Category

Russia’s grip on Europe’s oil supply threatens Ukraine’s energy independence – The Independent

The fields around Grabova and Debaltsave came to international attention as the crash site of Flight MH17, the MalaysiaAirlines aircraft Ukraines separatists were accused of shooting down. But along the roads, on the scarred landscape, is another reminder of the civil war, one which continues to pose a great problem for the government in Kiev.

These are coal mines which are now in the Russian sponsored Donetsk Peoples Republic, lost to Ukraine. To the south Crimea, annexed by Moscow, is another piece of territory lost, and with it has gone a maritime zone with underwater energy resources, which analysts say may rival the North Sea.

To the west the town of Slovyansk, scene of bitter fighting not long ago, sits part of the countrys shale gas reserves of 1.2 trillion, the third largest in Europe, yet reserves which have remained largely unexplored due to the strife.

All this has contributed to Ukraine facing an energy crisis which makes it dependant on gas from Russia with a source of friction over the terms of trade to add to the bitter political enmity between the two states.

It is not just Ukraine which is dependent on Moscow for energy, but a lot of Western Europe. One reason Boris Johnsons recent attempt to toughen sanctions against Vladimir Putins government so abjectly failed was because of the thirst of German industry for supplies from the east.

An international conference in Houston, Texas, starting on Wednesday will examine how Ukraine can become energy self-sufficient and, in the future, can even start exporting to the West.

Ukrainian companies and the government of Petro Poroshenko insist this is something highly achievable. Vadym Pozharskyi, advisor to the board of directors of The Burisma Group, the countrys largest private gas concern, said:A major part of our objective, our strategic goal in the coming years is energy independence.

The fact is that the energy sector is a key source of revenues for the Ukrainian budget, we are not only providing the country with domestic gas, but also investing billions in production and state of the art exploration and drilling technologies.

Of course Ukraine lost sources of energy in the east, but there are other sources with significant potential.

Mr Pozharskyi continued: Wehave always encouraged the government and market players to reform the gas market based on European best practices. It is absolutely crucial that market players, infrastructure investors and also Ukraines international partners see our country as a reliable partner if we are to reach that potential.

Allegations of corruption and inefficiency continues to bedevil Ukraine four years after the Maidan protests overthrew the government of Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych. Burismaand other companies in Ukraines private energy sector complain that the gas regulator had imposed bureaucratic restrictions which is hindering the aim of self-sufficiency.

But Burisma has also been involved in court proceedings with its president, Nikolay Ziochevski, a former government minister, facing criminal charges over alleged misappropriation of assets. However, after two lengthy trials,in Britain, where the assets were held, and Ukraine, the charges were dismissed.

The company hired a former US District Attorney General, John Buretta, as counsel. He is among a number of Western figures with ties to the company including Hunter Biden, the son Joe Biden, the former US vice-president and Joseph Cofer Black, an ex- director of counterintelligence at the CIA.

Mr Buretta wanted to point out that the High Court in London and the court in Kiev had totally exonerated Mr Ziochevski of charges.He said: I have extensive experience with assessing allegations of corruption, both from the government side while serving in the Department of Justice, and from the private side.I have served as an expert witness in proceedings outside the USin such matters and have handled a broad range of matters for companies and individuals involving various countries.

Regardless of the country, it is important that prosecutors follow the law and the evidence the law and evidence dictates; then the rule of law flourishes.

Final report on downing of MH17 in Ukraine due

While Burisma and Ukrainian gas companies try to drive the country towards self-sufficiency and a future exporter, there is acrimony within the EU over Russian gas. Berlin has publicly acknowledged the need to be less reliant on Moscow, but, at the same time, it is engaged with the Nord Stream 2 project which will pipe Russian gas from the Baltic to Germany.

This has led to protests from member states in eastern Europe. Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo maintained this project is not an economic one, its a geopolitical one.But Nord Stream 2 is going ahead.

Moscow remains convinced that its strategic advantage, asymmetric interdependency, will continue. As a member of the silovki, the officialdom of the security sector,declared recently:Russia can live at least one year without any European investment and technology. But Europe cannot survive for even 30 days without Russian gas.

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Russia's grip on Europe's oil supply threatens Ukraine's energy independence - The Independent

He fought with Russian-backed militants in Ukraine. Now he’s a U.S. … – Washington Post

A prominent militant who fought with Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and participated in far-right European politics recently completed U.S.Army training and is serving in an American infantry division in Hawaii, according to Army and other records.

Guillaume Cuvelier, 29, shipped for basic training in January and graduated as an infantryman at Fort Benning, Ga., the records show. In a short exchange with The Washington Post, Cuvelier confirmed that he was actively serving in the U.S. Army.

With his well-documented history of espousing extreme right-wing views andhisrole in an armed group backed by a U.S. adversary, Cuveliers ability to join the Army raises questions about the recruitment process and whether applicants are thoroughly screened before they are able to enlist.

Born and raised in France as a dual French and American citizen, Cuvelier spent his formative years alongside French ultranationalists before picking up a Kalashnikov in eastern Ukraine in 2014, according to social media posts, a documentary in which he was featured, and accounts from people who knew him.A year later he fought with the Kurdish peshmerga in northern Iraq before coming back to the United States.

Following inquiries by The Post, the military has begun an inquiry to ensure the process used to enlist this individual followed all of the required standards and procedures, said Kelli Bland, a spokesman for the U.S. Armys recruiting command, in an email.

In Ukraine, Cuvelier, also known asLenormand, fought for the Russian-backed Donetsk Peoples Republic, the breakaway state subject to U.S. governmentsanctions and labeled terrorist by the U.S.-allied government in Kiev. Cuveliers service with the group appears to be in direct violation of a March 2014 executive order that was applied to the republic that June. The order prohibits U.S. citizens from assisting by way of funds, goods or services, any of the sanctioned entities covered by the order, opening up Cuvelier to possible federal prosecution.

The U.S. Army often forbids those who display extremist views or actions from entry, said Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, a spokesman for the Armys Department of Manpower and Reserve Affairs, in an email. Taylor added that if an Army official determines an applicant has the potential for meeting Army standards, the official may in exceptional cases allow those who have overcome mistakes and past conduct, made earlier in their lives, to serve their country. However, in many cases a history of gang or extremist activity is disqualifying.

Cuvelier said he has changed.

The [U.S.] army is my only chance of moving on and cutting with my past, Cuvelier said in a text message. I realized I like this country, its way of life and its Constitution enough to defend it.

By publishing a story on me, you are jeopardizing my career and rendering a great service to anyone trying to embarrass the Army. My former Russian comrades would love it. so, I please ask you to reconsider using my name and/or photo.

As a dualcitizen, Cuvelier would be subject to more extensive background checksif he hadsought an Army position requiring a security clearance, but he did not need one as an infantryman, Bland said. If Cuvelier had no outstanding criminal activity in the United States and didnt discuss his past, there would have been no reason to bar him from enlisting, she added.

Cuvelier grew up in Rouen, France, and graduated from university there in 2009, according to his Facebook profile, which has since been deleted. His younger brother, Gabriel Cuvelier, said in a series of texts that his family isfairly complicated, without providing details, but that Cuvelier had always been kind and peaceful and never sought attention.

Online documentsshow Cuvelier was an active member in the Party of France, a political body that splintered from Marine Le Pens National Front, in 2010. Jean-Yves Camus, a French analyst who studies the far-right and has tracked Cuvelier, compared the Party of France to an American white-nationalist groupcalled National Vanguard.

Cuvelierwas also part of the neo-fascist group Troisime voie and an identity movement called the Young Identitarians, according toAnton Shekhovtsov, a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, who focuses on right-wing movements across Europe and has written extensively about the Ukraine conflict.

Cuveliers younger brother couldnt explain how his older sibling first got involved with Frances far right, but said his views led him to meet people.

I believe that when he was in France, he sort of saw that no honest way of going about politics was possible, so he decided to take action differently, the younger Cuvelier said in a text. Thats all I can say.

Upon arriving in Ukraine in the middle of 2014, Cuvelierhelped start a French-Serbian foreign fighter unit called the Unit Continentale. The groups manifesto on itsFacebook pagestates that NATO is a terrorist military alliance and that France is a slave of the American Empire. The groups views are based on an ideology called continentalism espoused by the anti-Western Russian political scientist, Alexander Dugin. The groups page also has multipleposts from July and August 2014 that solicited donations directly to Cuveliers bank account in France.

Russia embodies a power. A power of resistance, what we want to bring back to the West. A society structured around tradition, family, patriotism, Cuvelier says, explaining his motives for joining the separatists during the 2015 documentary titledPolite People.

Cuvelier eventually split from Unit Continentale, according to the documentary on Western militants who joined the fight in eastern Ukraine. In the film, Cuveliers band of fighters adopts the nameTeam Vikernes after the Norwegian black metal artist, self-proclaimed Nazi and convicted murderer,Varg Vikernes.

Videos posted on the Team Vikernes page show its members firing around the Donetsk airport, the site of a bloody close-quarters fight between Ukrainian troops and separatists in the winter of 2014. Cuvelier declined to answer any questions about his service in eastern Ukraine and when pressed overa series oftext messages said, I was never really in DPR. It was a hologram. He declined any further comment.

In the documentary, there is a still picture of Cuvelier with a medal pinned to his chest standing shoulder to shoulder with Igor Girkin (who was the commander of the separatists during the summer of 2014). It appears in the documentary that Cuvelier may have been honored with the medal in Moscow in 2015.

Girkin has beensanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for his role with the separatists and on a Russian radio talk showadmittedto having looters executed. He is also accused in a U.S. lawsuit of orchestrating the shoot-down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 over Ukraine in July 2014, killing nearly 300 people.

Following his time in Ukraine, Cuvelier traveled to northern Iraq in 2015 and set up another unit of foreign fighters, this time allied with the Kurdish Peshmerga.

The group, called Qalubna Makum, was located near Daquq in northern Iraq from the end of 2015 to mid-2016.

Rick Findler, a U.K.-based photographer who followed Qalubna Makum for 10 days said, They thought they could just show up with guns and start fighting. Instead they just sat in a room for months.

The Peshmerga eventually forced Cuvelier to leave Iraq after anincident in which he wasaccused of beating an American volunteer with a rifle, according to Heloisa Jaira, a Peshmerga medic, who treated the victim.

Weeks later, he arrived in the United States.

Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report.

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He fought with Russian-backed militants in Ukraine. Now he's a U.S. ... - Washington Post

Eurovision 2017: Seven things you HAVE to see in Ukraine capital Kiev – Express.co.uk

Known for its religious architecture, striking monuments and fascinating Eastern history, Kiev (Kyiv) straddles the Dnieper River dividing the Ukraine.

The countrys capital will host the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest from Tuesday May 9.

Visitors have already begun flooding in from all over the world to participate and spectate at the famous event.

To mark the occasion, Lonely Planet local Pavlo Fedykovych has revealed to Express.co.uk his top seven things to do in the charming city.

GETTY

With its bohemian atmosphere and attractive hilly setting, this street has always been the home of Kyivs artists.

Its lined with independent galleries and quirky workshops, making it the perfect place to pick up a handmade souvenir from one of the local artisans.

Ukrainian food is just as tasty as it is cheap. Try traditional varenyky (filled dumplings) or for a typical Kyiv urban snack, the perepichka (sausage in a fried bun). Kyivska Perepichka, a popular vendor outside Teatralna metro station is the best place to grab one of these.

Kyivs eclectic cityscape makes it a perfect destination for architecture lovers. On a single street, you can find baroque buildings next to Soviet-style apartment blocks, or elegant Art Nouveau palaces overlooking newly built skyscrapers.

Eurovision

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Eurovision 2017: Meet the contestants

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Kyivs splendid churches gave it the nickname City of Golden Domes. Two unmissable examples are the Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra monastery complex and the grand St Sophias Cathedral, both Unesco World Heritage sites.

You can spend days admiring the medieval frescoes and baroque facades.

Kyiv spreads along the wide Dnipro river, and its numerous islands offer a great range of outdoor activities.

Truhaniv island is the perfect spot for relaxing walks or cycling with beautiful river views.

During the summer, Hydropark becomes leisure central with sandy beaches, water activities and fancy bars.

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For visitors from the UK, Kyivs prices are fantastically cheap

Kyiv was once the third-largest city of the Soviet Union, so its no wonder that colossal apartment blocks, socialist-realist frescoes and bizarre modernist buildings are found pretty much everywhere in the Ukrainian capital.

But theres one structure you simply cant miss: the enormous Rodina Mat (meaning Motherland) memorial, part of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. With a height of 102m, its a distinctive element of Kyivs skyline.

For visitors from the UK, Kyivs prices are fantastically cheap. For example, one metro ride will cost you about 0,15 euros, while opera tickets start from just one euro.

Food and accommodation costs are also much lower than in other parts of Europe which makes the Ukrainian capital a very tempting budget-friendly destination.

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Eurovision 2017: Seven things you HAVE to see in Ukraine capital Kiev - Express.co.uk

TRAVEL DIARY: UKRAINE, PART I – Norwich Radical (blog)

by Rob Harding

Yeah, its another one of these. Might as well. These days the local news is moving so fast, and so depressingly, that Id rather talk about Eastern Europes most recent frozen conflict and a three-decade-old nuclear disaster zone.

Day 1: As we depart for the airport, my companion alerts me that the US has just dropped a massive bomb in Afghanistan and is now threatening to fight North Korea.This is fine

Lviv is one of Ukraines westernmost cities, furthest from the fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the Crimean peninsula, on the eastern side of the country. As is apparently standard in Ukraine at the moment, there are soldiers everywhere. Most are apparently on leave and none are armed even the police, unusual for the region. However, theyre still omnipresent, even hitting some of the same tourist attractions as we do in this small but pleasant city. Members of the Berkut militia, famed for their brutal intervention during the 2013 Euromaidan uprising, stand around the station, unarmed, in ludicrous blue-and-white camo gear.

Members of the Berkut militia, famed for their brutal intervention during the 2013 Euromaidan uprising, stand around the station, unarmed, in ludicrous blue-and-white camo gear.

In the main market square, a shack has been set up with blasting music, piles of spent mortar shells and hundreds of photographs and profiles, memorialising the dead of the Euromaidan and the war. It sits on its own. Most people ignore it.

Nationalism and war propaganda have taken hold in a curious way in Lviv through tourism. The standard tat-ridden hole-in-the-wall shops and stalls sell anti-Putin and pro-Ukrainian merchandise (patriotic t-shirts, even) alongside woven rugs and wooden swords. I bought a doormat with Putins face on it, and I am informed it calls the Russian dictator something extremely unpleasant. Im aware I might have just funded the Ukrainian nationalist far right, but since I did so to the tune of around 2 (the Ukrainian Hryvnia isnt a particularly durable currency, and Ukraine is cheap), I can probably live with myself.

In one corner of the rather pretty central square is the Pravda Beer Theatre, which sells nationalist merchandise, including a Putin-branded beer that depicts the man naked (and poorly endowed) against a backdrop of Russian soldiers invading Ukraine. Its not great beer, but the message Putin Huilo (or Putin is a dickhead (rough translation)) is everywhere. They also sell Trump Beer, a fine Imperial Mexican lager that goes down very smooth and made the customs officers laugh when we brought it through the airport.

He greets visitors with a machine gun, and offers a late-night shooting range (against Putin-shaped targets, of course).

Elsewhere, theres a hidden WWII partisan-themed bar beneath the square, with a doorman who requires the password:Slava Ukrayini!. He greetsvisitors with a machine gun, and offers a late-night shooting range (against Putin-shaped targets, of course). The place isnot quite as depressingly nationalist as the rumoured bar elsewhere in the city, run by the right-wing ultranationalist group Right Sector (Source: Russian. Treat with caution), but it speaks to a general trend.

Incidentally, if youre visiting Lviv, I can say that both those bars pale in comparison to the Masoch bondage cafe (link SFW-ish). Both a celebration of Leopold Von Sacher-Masochs ideas and the ultimate extension of Ukrainian wait-staff rudeness (both national institutions), it serves excellent cocktails and reasonably decent beatings.

The war is still a long way from Kiev, but it still has the trappings of a city at war. Soldiers are omnipresent, as, of course, are flags. The propaganda is muted, oddly confined to advertising billboards which would otherwise promote local restaurants and space exhibits at nearby museums. Nevertheless, it is there mostly recruitment posters, occasionally featuring heroic soldiers standing alongside warriors from Ukraines past.

Below the Peoples Friendship Arch, a soviet-era monument symbolising the friendship between Ukraine and the other Soviet nations (mainly Russia, of course), the inscriptions have been spray-painted out with the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and daubed with anti-Russian slogans. Shortly after we left, the arch began being painted in the colours of the rainbow for the upcoming Eurovision.

the situation is much more fluid towards the frontlines, where many are less inclined to take sides or even actively resentful at being forced to choose

Theres an interesting display at the WWII memorial museum at the south end of town. We went there to climb the 62m statue of Mother Motherland (which only takes cash, if youre wondering. Bring 200 UKH each, there are no cash machines), but found a new exhibit beneath it. The museum displays a number of tanks and armoured personnel carriers captured on the frontlines, along with what purports to be evidence that they belong to, or have been loaned from, the Russian Federation. Russias extensive involvement in the War in Donbass is hardly secret, but its startling to see physical proof, even if the technical details require verification.

( placard placed next to the vehicle shown in the header image )

The nationalism and anti-Russian sentiment on display in Kiev is more muted than in Lviv, but its still interesting to note that both are much more strongly pro-Ukrainian than many further East. Contacts note that the situation is much more fluid towards the frontlines, where many are less inclined to take sides or even actively resentful at being forced to choose between Russian and Ukraine. One noted that the separatists may well have won the 2014 Donbass referendums even without the extensive rigging and intimidation of the opposition that took place Eastern Ukraine feels much closer to Russia than Europe, and did not necessarily view the 2013 revolution favourably. Partly for this reason, the War in Donbass seems to have frozen, just as the wars in Transnistra, Abkhazia and others have done before them.

All image credit: Rob Harding

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TRAVEL DIARY: UKRAINE, PART I - Norwich Radical (blog)

New lease of life for Ukraine’s war-torn mountain observatory – Phys.Org

May 2, 2017 by Dmytro Gorshkov view of Bilyi Slon, or the White Elephant, the highest inhabited building in Ukraine and an old astronomical observatory on Chornogora mountain, near the village of Vorokhta

Perched spectacularly 2,000 metres up on a snowcapped peak in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains, the Bilyi Slon observatory has stood empty and battered by the elements for some seven decades.

Abandoned only a year after it was built in what was then Poland due to the outbreak of World War II, it became a carcass of thick sandstone walls and missing windows that looked more like a ruined castle than a scientific outpost.

Now, with efforts under way to raise around $1 million (920,000 euros) in funding, scientists aim to restore the wreck and transform it into a learning centre for young researchers studying wildlife, plants and weather patterns.

"There was no roof, all the floors were warped," local mountain rescuer Vasyl Fitsak, part of a small crew stationed there, told AFP as icy winds swirled outside.

"There were piles of bricks, stones and trash that hikers left here for years. Some piles reached two metres (6.6 feet) in height."

Work on rebuilding the observatorynicknamed Bilyi Slon (White Elephant) by locals because of how it looks when covered in snowstarted in 2012.

Scientists hope that significant progress on the restoration will be made by next year, when the observatory marks its 80th anniversary.

So far the copper roof has been restored and debris cleared from much of the building.

But tough conditions mean that progress has been slow and there remains a lot to be done.

Snowstorms and freezing temperatures mean that work can only go ahead six months of the year and no more than 10 construction workers can stay at any one time because of the cramped conditions.

The observatory, which sits on the Pip Ivan peak, the second highest in the Chornogora mountain range, is a six-hour hike from the nearest town. In summer the only road for transporting up building materials becomes an impassable bog.

Epic history

The observatory's location has not only proved inhospitable due to the dreadful weather.

It has also been buffeted by the hurricane of history that has blown through this blood-soaked region in eastern Europe.

Completed in 1938 on what was then the Polish-Czechoslovak border, the five-storey observatory was equipped with a modern telescope and served as a base for Polish military meteorologists.

After just one year, however, the scientists hurriedly packed up their equipment and fled as Soviet troops seized the area under a pact with Nazi Germany to divide Poland.

It then fell under Nazi control after Hitler's invasion of the USSR and was used as a barracks until it was recaptured by Moscow's forces in 1944.

It remains unclear why the Soviet troops did not restore the facility, which ended up serving as a shelter for the few hardy hikers who made it up to the summit.

Stargazing stumped

Given its tumultuous history, the observatory never had the chance to fulfil its initial purpose as an astronomical observatory.

Those behind the projectwhich has received its first tranche of funding from Poland's culture ministryadmit that conditions mean it is unlikely to be used for serious stargazing in the future.

Curator Igor Tsependa said that the spot only enjoys some 60 cloudless days a year, while world-class observatories usually get as many as 330 clear days annually.

Instead Tsependa, a university rector in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, hopes it will become a hub for studying local flora and fauna, as well as conducting weather studies.

"From the educational point of view this object is pretty attractive," he says, adding that he expects researchers from both Ukraine and Poland to use it.

While its remote location and harsh climate have put off tourists, Tsependa also says that the restored observatory could help open up the Carpathians to new visitors.

"It's a pity that we don't have many sites on this mountain range," Tsependa said.

"So this observatory could become the first step in the development of modern tourism in Ukraine, just like in other European countries."

Explore further: Spain will get giant telescope if Hawaii doesn't, group says

2017 AFP

An agreement has been reached for a giant telescope to be built in Spain's Canary Islands if it cannot be put atop a Hawaii mountain.

The University of Hawaii has announced the third Mauna Kea observatory that will be decommissioned, fulfilling the governor's request to remove 25 percent of the telescopes from the mountain.

The future of one of the world's largest single-dish radio telescopes is in question after the U.S. National Science Foundation announced Wednesday it was accepting proposals from those interested in assuming operations at ...

A remote Russian observatory housing what was once the world's largest mirrored telescope has become the setting for an art installation that explores the near-infinite reaches of both outer space and the human imagination.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory has raised the aviation warning level after a volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupted again.

An active Alaska volcano has erupted again, this time sending a cloud of ash and ice 35,000 feet in the air.

Combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with radio observations and computer simulations, an international team of scientists has discovered a vast wave of hot gas in the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster. Spanning ...

A mysterious gamma-ray glow at the center of the Milky Way is most likely caused by pulsars the incredibly dense, rapidly spinning cores of collapsed ancient stars that were up to 30 times more massive than the sun. That's ...

(Phys.org)Jason Wright, an astronomy professor at Penn State, has uploaded a paper to the arXiv preprint sever that addresses the issue of whether we have looked hard enough for extinct alien lifeparticularly intelligent ...

NASA's SOFIA aircraft, a 747 loaded with a 2.5-meter telescope in the back and stripped of most creature comforts in the front, took a big U-turn over the Pacific west of Mexico.

It was a good week for astrobiology. Within days of NASA's announcement that the necessary ingredients for life exist in the plumes erupting from the southern pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus, scientists gathered at Stanford ...

Collisions between galaxies, especially ones rich in molecular gas, can trigger bursts of star formation that heat the dust and result in their shining brightly in the infrared. Astronomers think that there is also significant ...

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