Ukrainian lawmaker and failed presidential candidate Serhiy Tyhypko told an audience at a metallurgical plant in central Ukraine that the country's economy has adopted a dangerous trajectory, according to Interfax:
"We have lost exports of machines, pipes, steel and chemical products.... Our exports of grain and ore have grown. Ukraine is slowly transforming into a resource-supplying appendage of Europe and the global economy," Tihipko said during a visit to the Interpipe Group metallurgical plant in Dnipropetrovsk on Thursday.
The Kremlin seeks to calm investors, our news desk reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told potential investors in Moscow that "unwarranted" Western sanctions won’t stop the economy from developing.
In a bid to calm investors, Putin told an investment conference on October 2 that Russia remained committed to developing an economy that is "strong, flourishing, free, and open to the world."
Prospects for foreign investors in Russia have been dampened by Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.
Putin said Russia aimed to "actively" use national currencies in trade deals with China and other countries -- implying a shift away from the U.S. dollar.
He also said Moscow didn’t plan to introduce restrictions on cross-border capital and currency movements after a dramatic decline of the value of the ruble.
Putin also said the state was prepared to support economic sectors and companies that are being hit by sanctions. (Reuters, AFP, TASS, and Interfax)
The Russian politician who broke the news of Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine being secretly buried in Pskov now under more pressure:
From our news desk:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed hope that Ukraine's parliamentary elections later this month will help bring stability to the country.
Addressing the annual Russia Calling investment conference in Moscow on October 2, Putin said economic and political stability in Ukraine was in Russia's interests.
The Russian president said Moscow wanted a "predictable" and "reliable" relationship with Ukraine and that he regards the former Soviet republic as Russia's "most brotherly" nation.
The elections to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada are scheduled for October 26.
Government forces and pro-Russian separatist continue to battle in eastern Ukraine despite a September 5 cease-fire in the conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people since April. (Reuters and Interfax)
A widow of a Russian officer who died in fighting in #Donbas Ukraine: "He wasn't a volunteer" http://t.co/Mfukc1oknL pic.twitter.com/SQu2g5iEvL
— Nataliya Gumenyuk (@ngumenyuk) October 1, 2014
Meanwhile, this just in from RFE/RL's Belarus Service:
Belarusian citizens fighting in Ukraine's east on either side of the conflict will be jailed.
Belarusian KGB chief Valery Vakulchyk told journalists in Minsk on October 2 that any Belarusians found to have fought in Ukraine will be defined as "mercenaries," who are banned under Belarusian law.
People in Belarus found to have acted as a mercenary can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.
Media reports in Belarus said in August that some individuals have been recruiting people in Belarus to fight for pro-Russian separatist forces in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
There were also reports of Belarusian volunteers fighting for Ukraine against the separatists.
Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting against pro-Russian separatists in the country's east for six months.
Life And Death In The Foxholes For Front-Line Troops In Ukraine -- this powerful video from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service is well worth a watch, particularly if you are interested in the sort of conditions soldiers are enduring at the front:
RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth has been reporting on how Ukrainian activists intent on pursuing a post Euromaidan purge of corrupt officials have been doing the so-called "Trash-Bucket Challenge:"
Impatient with unsigned lustration legislation, activists from groups like the ultranationalist Right Sector have been tossing officials in trash containers -- and sometimes beating them, too -- to signal disgust at the officials' ties to the government of former President Viktor Yanukovych, their alleged corruption, or their supposed support for separatists in the country’s east.
The latest target? Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker from ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, who has condemned Ukraine’s military campaign against pro-Russian rebels in the war-torn east.
Shufrych arrived on September 30 in the Black Sea city of Odesa for a campaign press conference ahead of October 26 parliamentary elections.
Shufrych was beaten, his face bloodied, and his shirt torn off outside a regional administration building by a mob of more than a dozen activists wearing masks, including members of Right Sector. He fled to his minivan before the crowd could toss him into a trash container, receiving little help from police in the process.
Read the entire article here
Live stream pointed at Donetsk airport. Smoke. https://t.co/i24KVk9vNX
— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) October 2, 2014
Big assault there today. Ukrainians have held that place doggedly for months. Not clear how long they can cling on. http://t.co/OWLTP6lI12
— Roland Oliphant (@RolandOliphant) October 2, 2014