13:56
12.6.2014
Are Ukrainian authorities trying to restrict journos from going to Slovyansk? @AFP team and other medias had to wait 2 hours yesterday 1/2
— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) June 12, 2014
at a Ukrainian-controled checkpoint, despite having all accreditations. Only press cars were stopped. We deeply regret this situation. 2/2
— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) June 12, 2014
13:25
12.6.2014
Typically, that Medvedev selfie has been getting all sorts of rough treatment on social media:
One more #MedvedevSelfie from the beloved Crimea with its growing demand @djp3tros @JerryPopowicz pic.twitter.com/MSCFvsT7Fh
— Ruthen (@RutheniaRus) June 11, 2014
13:24
12.6.2014
UKR separatist paper sez 150 Americans (25 CIA) killed; load of US-made biological agents brought from Georgia: http://t.co/8CgS61uAPj
— Robert Coalson (@CoalsonR) June 12, 2014
13:23
12.6.2014
BuzzFeed's Mike Giglio has been spending time in Donetsk and has come back with a a pretty gripping dispatch on the volatile atmosphere that still prevails in the eastern city:
Read the entire article here
Donetsk — a relatively affluent city with riverside parks and a sparkling soccer stadium — seemed to proceed with normal life as Oleg drove past glass-walled office buildings. “It looks like there is no war. Everything is quiet — peaceful,” he said. “And we will see how that will change now.”
He pulled up to the last rebel checkpoint before the road to the airport became a no-man’s-land. Shirtless men in dusty jeans worked feverishly in the fading sunlight, digging and stacking sandbags, with an eye to the approaching night. Then the sedan passed into the silence of the edge of war; the Ukrainian army was hidden in the distance somewhere. Oleg stopped the car in front of a flatbed truck. Bullet holes pocked the windshield; shoes and clothing scraps were scattered around. The back was caked in blood. Some 30 rebels had died there, Oleg said, when the truck was ambushed en route to the airport by a Ukrainian RPG team. The only sound on the deserted highway came from a billboard flapping in the wind overhead. “This cannot go without punishment,” Oleg said.
A silver van pulled up suddenly, and a man in a black cap pointed a submachine gun from the driver’s side window. “Who are you?” he shouted. A young couple, holding hands, approached on the sidewalk about 100 yards away, taking slow and deliberate steps toward an apartment building set back in the trees. Bursts of gunfire echoed nearby. Then the sedan was back onto Donetsk’s busy streets. “And now there is no war. So it’s a feature of civil war,” Oleg said, meaning that sometimes people don’t recognize it until it’s right upon them. “Most people still don’t understand that this is war. But when there will be more victims and more death, they will stand up.”
He pulled up to the last rebel checkpoint before the road to the airport became a no-man’s-land. Shirtless men in dusty jeans worked feverishly in the fading sunlight, digging and stacking sandbags, with an eye to the approaching night. Then the sedan passed into the silence of the edge of war; the Ukrainian army was hidden in the distance somewhere. Oleg stopped the car in front of a flatbed truck. Bullet holes pocked the windshield; shoes and clothing scraps were scattered around. The back was caked in blood. Some 30 rebels had died there, Oleg said, when the truck was ambushed en route to the airport by a Ukrainian RPG team. The only sound on the deserted highway came from a billboard flapping in the wind overhead. “This cannot go without punishment,” Oleg said.
A silver van pulled up suddenly, and a man in a black cap pointed a submachine gun from the driver’s side window. “Who are you?” he shouted. A young couple, holding hands, approached on the sidewalk about 100 yards away, taking slow and deliberate steps toward an apartment building set back in the trees. Bursts of gunfire echoed nearby. Then the sedan was back onto Donetsk’s busy streets. “And now there is no war. So it’s a feature of civil war,” Oleg said, meaning that sometimes people don’t recognize it until it’s right upon them. “Most people still don’t understand that this is war. But when there will be more victims and more death, they will stand up.”
Read the entire article here
09:06
12.6.2014
08:42
12.6.2014
Pro-Kyiv military blogger Dmitry Tymchuk claims that Russian special services in the Rostov region have trained and created a "special force totaling 80 people from Crimea." All of them were participants in "self-defense" forces that helped Russia annex the peninsula in February and March.
Members of the special force will be "inserted into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Tymchuk says.
Members of the special force will be "inserted into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Tymchuk says.
08:29
12.6.2014
21:36
11.6.2014
Barring major developments, that concludes our live blogging for June 11. You can follow developments on Ukraine and the rest of RFE/RL's broadcast area HERE.
21:36
11.6.2014
WATCH: Veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, who has been barred from returning to his homeland after Russia's annexation of Crimea, says Moscow is relying "on the old Soviet policy of dividing the Crimean Tatars." In an interview with RFE/RL's Alsu Kurmasheva and Andrei Shary, Dzhemilev said that after attempts to co-opt the representative body of the Tatar community failed, the authorities may ban the Crimean Tatar Mejlis throughout the peninsula. He also said Moscow's annexation of Crimea is "damaging to the basic interests of Russia and the Russian people." (RFE/RL's Russian and Tatar-Bashkir Services)
21:22
11.6.2014
From Slovyansk: