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Jewish identity in Ukraine is under threat and in danger of disappearing completely, Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, told an Israeli newspaper.

Dolinsky voiced his concerns to the Jerusalem Post while on a four-day trip to Israel sponsored by the Israeli-Jewish Congress, which promotes ties between Israelis and European Jews. He was accompanied by MP and leader of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Olexander Feldman.

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The Ukrainian Jewish community is in crisis, Dolinsky told the newspaper on Tuesday. Either we should decide that the last one turns off the light, or we need to continue our struggle.

Dolinsky cited both the economic crisis in Ukraine and the war in its eastern provinces as threats to Ukrainian Jewry, and warned about the far-right, ultra-nationalist and anti-Semitic groups which have become prevalent after the violent Euromaidan revolution in 2014.

Ukrainian nationalists marched through Kiev on New Years Day, chanting anti-Semitic slogans such as Juden raus! (Jews out! in German), Dolinsky said. It was guarded by hundreds of police... but after the march police told journalists they hadnt seen any anti-Semitic incidents.

During the torchlight procession, activists held up portraits of Stepan Bandera. Bandera was the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi forces during World War II and carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews. The Polish government considers the crimes committed by OUN-UPA against Poles during WWII to be genocide, but Bandera is considered a hero among Ukrainian nationalists for fighting against Soviet rule.

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Relations between Ukraine and Israel are frosty at the moment, as Ukraine recently used its vote in the UN Security Council to help pass Resolution 2334, which calls for an end to Israeli settlements in occupied territory.

In a phone conversation on Wednesday, however, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to intensify cooperation on economic and national security measures. Dolinsky called on Israel to do more to help Ukrainian Jews.

There is a feeling of a lack of support from Israel, though we are very pro-Israel, he said, adding that most Ukrainian Jews have strong family ties to Israel.

During the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Jews immigrated to Israel from Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics under the Law of Return, and now form around a fifth of the Israeli population.

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'Lights going out on Jewish community in Ukraine' Ukrainian Jewish Committee head - RT

The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, on Thursday blamed Russia for renewed, deadly fighting in Ukraine and said U.S. sanctions against Moscow would remain in place.

Haley's comments at her first formal appearance atthe U.N. Security Council were striking because, as a candidate, President Trump had suggested he would be willing to ease sanctions on Russia.

During the campaign, Trump did not criticize President Vladimir Putin for Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 or its support for armed insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Trump suggested at one point he might be willing to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and hinted he would consider lifting sanctions that Washington and its European allies had imposed on Moscow in response.

Trump's position on Ukraine has alarmed Europe, which fears an increasingly aggressive Russia, and was disputed by some of his Cabinet picks during their Senate confirmation hearings.

Among them was Haley, a former governor of South Carolina who is considered a rising star in the GOP.

"We do want to better our relations with Russia," Haley said Thursday at the U.N. "However,the dire situation in eastern Ukraineis one that demands clear and strong condemnation of Russian actions."

She cited suffering by the people of Ukraine after "nearly three years of Russian occupation and intervention."

Sanctions will remain in place "until Russia and the separatists it supports respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," she added.

Renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed dozens of people, including civilians, and spawned a humanitarian crisis as electricity, water and food have become scarce in some areas inthe dead of winter.

The White House has not commented on the fighting in Ukraine.

A State Department statement earlier this week condemned a "dramatic" surge in violence in eastern Ukraine, citing violations of a cease-fire with heavy artillery. But it did not mention Russia.

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UN Ambassador Nikki Haley blames Russia for new fighting in Ukraine - Los Angeles Times

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.

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

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 »

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NATO Shelves Plan to Meet With Ukraine - Wall Street Journal

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

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Ukraine fighting could pose early challenge to Trump - Washington Post