TASS quotes annexed Crimea's acting governor in Sevastopol as saying the first ship arrived today in what should eventually be a regular ferry service between that Crimean port and the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. Today's ferry was carrying 80 freight trucks, the report says.
The acting governor, former deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Sergei Menyailo, was also quoted as saying four ferries with a capacity of 140 freight trucks should soon by plying the route twice a week.
From Reuters:
Four Dutch police experts visited the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on Monday to help recover belongings and human remains despite fighting nearby in east Ukraine.
The experts were on hand to advise a Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry team combing the wreckage in the fields where the plane was brought down on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew, a Reuters correspondent on the scene said.
Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch nationals.
As smoke rose from above trees about five kilometers away, despite a cease-fire, the team collected items including books, toothpaste, playing cards, a plastic watch and a stick of antiperspirant but many were too badly burned to identify.
Dutch forensics teams in the Netherlands have identified 272 victims of the crash, but there are still believed to be remains in the area.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday he was furious that Dutch investigators had been unable to finish work in the area because of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
A cease-fire has been in force since September 5 in the conflict that has killed more than 3,500 people but fighting has continued sporadically in some areas.
The aircraft, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, is widely believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian separatists. Kyiv blames the incident on the rebels and accuses Moscow of arming them. The rebels and Moscow deny the accusations.
More from AFP on Poroshenko's choice for defense minister, Stepan Poltorak:
"I talked to the generals and met regular soldiers, battalion commanders," Poroshenko told the 49-year-old career military man in a televised meeting. "These conversations convinced me about the accuracy of my choice." ...
Some analysts said Poltorak was widely respected in the armed forces and represented a politically safe choice for Poroshenko ahead of the polls in the former Soviet state.
Poltorak "transformed the National Guard from a volunteer corps into a real military," said Kyiv military analyst Georgiy Manchulenko.
From "The EU's Wavering Over Russia" by Judy Dempsey on her "Strategic Europe" blog:
For an organization that aspires to have regional or even global ambitions, the EU has played an insignificant role in helping resolve the Ukraine crisis.
The union has ceded responsibility for the crisis to the leaders of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia. These leaders first discussed Ukraine during World War II commemorations in Normandy in July. They have chosen to continue this four-way dialogue.
This new format is one of two recent trends that reveal much about the EU’s ambiguous attitude toward the Ukraine crisis and Russia.
The quadrilateral established in Normandy will emerge again on October 16. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the presidents of France, Ukraine, and Russia, Francoise Hollande, Petro Poroshenko, and Vladimir Putin, are expected to discuss Ukraine on the margins of a summit of European and Asian leaders in Milan.
Poland is notably absent from the talks on Ukraine. Germany has sidelined Poland’s role, despite the extremely close ties the two countries have forged over the past several years. Not surprisingly, France and Russia didn’t object to Warsaw being relegated to the backseat. It’s as if Poland’s attempts to help develop the EU’s Eastern Partnership and, later, its efforts to mediate during this year’s antigovernment demonstrations in Kiev have been forgotten.
Nor are the EU institutions involved in any substantial way in the four-party discussions. That only confirms how the big member states call the shots over the EU’s foreign policy.
This reflects badly on the EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.
Read more here.
From Reuters:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday proposed National Guard commander Stepan Poltorak for defense minister, the presidential website said.
Poltorak would replace Valery Heletey, who offered his resignation as defence minister on Sunday after facing open criticism for the rout of Ukrainian forces by Russian-backed separatists at the end of August.
Parliament will vote on Tuesday on Poroshenko's nomination of Poltorak, 49, who has headed the National Guard since April.
Just in from AFP:
Ukraine national guard chief Poltorak nominated as defense minister
From AP:
Ukrainian military officials say they have observed a reduction in the presence of Russian troops in areas at the heart of fighting between government troops and separatist rebels.
Security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Monday that Russian personnel stationed in field camps in Ukraine have been observed returning to their home bases inside Russia.
Moscow vehemently denies it has troops in Ukraine and that it provides support to separatist forces in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Lysenko's statement comes after an order by Russian President Vladimir Putin for thousands of troops posted near the Ukrainian border to return to their permanent bases.
Putin's spokesman said late Saturday that Putin had ordered approximately 17,600 troops to return home from the southern region of Rostov.