One Dead After Military Helicopter Crashes Near Kyiv
One person was reported killed and two others injured when a Ukrainian military helicopter crashed in the Kyiv region on March 24.
The Kyiv regional prosecutor's office said a lieutenant was killed and two other officers, a major and a captain, were injured when the MI-24 helicopter crashed near the village of Vinnytski Stavy in the Vasylkiv district.
The helicopter belonged to a military unit in Ukraine's western Lviv region.
It is unclear what the crew's mission was in Kyiv.
The military helicopter's crash occurred amid a standoff between President Petro Poroshenko and the governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Ihor Kolomoyskiy, over a leadership change at the Ukrnafta oil company.
Poroshenko said on March 23 that Ukrainian governors will not have their own private armies after media reports said armed men who occupied the Ukrnafta building in Kyiv were linked to Kolomoyskiy.
Based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- A senior leader of the Crimean Tatar community says he is urging members of the Muslim minority to remain on the Black Sea peninsula despite worsening conditions following Russia's takeover a year ago.
But in remarks at the European Parliament on March 24, Refat Chubarov grimly evoked the deportation of the Crimean Tatars under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
"After April 2014, we do not exclude any action on the part of Russia, including the deportation of whole nations," said Chubarov, leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, or assembly.
In 1944, Stalin ordered the mass deportation of about 180,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia, and many died during the journey or after their arrival.
Many deported Crimean Tatars or their children returned to Crimea during the late 1980s and the 1990s, but rights groups say they have faced discrimination and abuses since Russia seized control last spring.
Most Crimean Tatars opposed Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Chubarov said he could see a trend of emigration from Crimea.
He said the last session of the Mejlis was held via Skype because eight members are living in mainland Ukraine.
An excerpt:
“Why are you lying?” a Donetsk woman asked me two weeks ago. She was wondering what I was doing in Donetsk, the Russian separatist stronghold. I told her that I work as a journalist, but to her a journalist from Europe was equivalent to a liar. Sadly, this woman stands not alone.
Russia's war against Ukraine is above all a propaganda war.
Propaganda spreads fear and false information.
For this reason, working as a Western journalist in separatist-held territories is dangerous and unpredictable. You simply never know what to expect.
If you ask critical questions, it might take seconds for a separatist fighter to accuse you of being a Kyiv spy. Although Western journalists have never been a direct lethal target in the conflict, it remains a challenge to provide good, unbiased and critical coverage of the war.
Most fighters in the separatist-held territories claim they fight against "fascism" and "neo-Nazis," associating Ukraine with Stepan Bandera.
Like in any country, there is an extreme-right group in Ukraine, but it is only a small portion and doesn’t reflect Ukraine at all.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Ukraine welcomes US resolution on arms shipments
Kiev (dpa) - A US resolution in favour of arms shipments to Ukraine was welcomed Tuesday by the government in Kiev and condemned as a call for war by Russian lawmakers in Moscow.
"I thank US House of Representatives for a resolution calling to provide Ukraine with military assistance. Important that it is bipartisan," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said on Twitter.
A resolution passed Monday in Washington urges the Barack Obama administration to provide "lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine before it is too late" and criticises the "tepid" US response to Ukraine's request for military aid.
The resolution, which is not legally binding, argues that "Russian President Vladimir Putin's forcible takeover of Crimea last year emboldened him to expand his aggression in eastern Ukraine."
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, refused to comment on the resolution. But Alexei Pushkov, the hawkish chairman of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, warned that Moscow would react if the United States decides to send arms.
"This would be a massive rise in the level of confrontation," he was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Duma deputy Frants Klintsevich warned that arms shipments would kill off the Minsk peace agreements and that the resolution amounts to "a direct call for war."
Ukrainian politicians, in contrast, reiterated their call for
military aid.
"We do need this precision weaponry and our armed forces in the south in particular need to be modernized," Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatars, told a committee of the European Parliament.
Chubarov urged lawmakers not to forget Crimea and demanded that the Western sanctions be linked to Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
"The war against Ukraine started with the occupation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine may only be ceased with the liberation of Crimea," he said.
Since April, more than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
This just in from our news desk:
Ukraine will mark May 8 as a Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation for those who lost their lives during World War II.
Culture Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko told reporters on March 24 that "like all European nations, we will commemorate those who lost their lives during the war," adding that all Ukrainians who fought for Ukraine's independence "deserve honor and remembrance."
Kyrylenko said that May 9 will be marked as Victory Day as usual.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Ivan Krulko told the Interfax news agency that May 8 would remain a working day and May 9 might be turned into a working day as well.
Ukraine's move is a significant shift from traditional celebrations of Victory Day on May 9.
Russia and many other former Soviet republics commemorate the May 9 anniversary with parades and celebrations and have officially declared it a day off from work.
Many Western European countries celebrate the end of World War II on Victory in Europe Day (VE Day), which falls on May 8.
The Kremlin has portrayed the ouster of Moscow-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 as a U.S.-supported coup by fascists, and compares the pro-Western government now in power in Kyiv to Nazis.
(tsn.ua, UNIAN, Interfax)