Several flashes visible over #Donetsk airport on the live stream. Faint explosions also heard.
— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) September 24, 2014
Heavy artillery shelling heard from the center of Donetsk, probably coming from the airport area
— Paul Gypteau (@paulgypteau) September 24, 2014
Christopher Miller has written an excellent story for Mashable aboutTatyana Rychkova, a 35-year-old former baker who has spent the past few months working as volunteer running supplies to Ukrainian soldiers:
She decided to volunteer after she visited the Airborne Brigade camp where her husband, Vadim Rychkov, worked as head of the unit’s communications.
“I saw the squalor they were living in and decided something needed to be done,” she says.
Even after her husband was killed in action here in August, Rychkova didn’t leave the front. If anything, his death only invigorated her.
In the 23 years since Ukraine declared independence, the country’s defense budget dwindled. With each successive administration, the military was stripped further of funds and material. Armor and artillery was sold off or fell into disrepair.
“There was no reason to think that we would need to have a strong army,” Oleksiy Melnyk, co-director for foreign relations and international security programs at the Kiev-based Razumkov center told me recently. After all, there was the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which the United States, Great Britain and Russia were to guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for its surrender of its nuclear arsenal, then one of the world’s largest.
So when Kiev launched its counter-insurgency operation in mid-April to root out separatists in eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, it found itself woefully unprepared.
Besides the poor condition of its armor, the army numbered only about 6,000 troops — and they lacked the training and even basic equipment needed to fight the pro-Russian rebels, who Moscow covertly supplied with advanced weapons systems.
Following his election in May, President Petro Poroshenko announced a partial mobilization, which helped with the personnel issue. But the soldiers still needed equipment.
Read the entire article here
Russia moves to ban foreign ownership of media, targeting likes of @Vedomosti, @ForbesRussia, @MoscowTimes. @ARothNYT http://t.co/vg3a5n3Pqq
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) September 24, 2014
Here's a wrap-up from RFE/RL's news desk on Obama's comments at the UN regarding Ukraine:
Addressing the UN General Assembly, U.S. President Barack Obama has said a cease-fire in Ukraine has offered an opening for peace, if Russia complies with it.
"The recent cease-fire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve that objective," he said today with respect to diplomacy and peace.
"If Russia takes that path -- a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people -- then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia's role in addressing common challenges," Obama said.
Obama said that Russia's actions in Ukraine challenge the post-war order.
He also said that Russia moved troops across the border after Ukraine "started to reassert control after its territory."
Obama added that the United States and its allies will support the Ukrainian people "as they develop their democracy and economy."
And our multimedia unit has also issued this video of Obama's remarks:
Ukraine cease-fire agreement, though, essentially cedes the Donbass to Russian control. No mention of that here.
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) September 24, 2014
"If #Russia takes that path (diplomacy/peace)...we will lift our sanctions & welcome Russia’s role in addressing common challenges," Obama.
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) September 24, 2014
Revealed: the Kremlin files which prove that Nato never betrayed Russia http://t.co/puJxZAN9YW via @spectator
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) September 24, 2014
President Obama starts his speech with strong words on Russia's aggression against Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/IgUwnFWo19
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) September 24, 2014
Kazakh activist pointed observation at @OSCE: "every time the Russian delegation takes the floor I feel more sympathy for Ukraine."
— Daniel Baer (@danbbaer) September 24, 2014