Here is today's map of te military situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
A month after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ostensibly defeated billionaire Igor Kolomoisky in a battle for control of a state-owned energy company, another oligarch is in his crosshairs: Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
For the last couple of days, hundreds of people who say they are miners have flooded the government quarter in the capital, Kiev, banging their helmets on the pavement, demanding the payment of salary arrears and the firing of the energy minister. Poroshenko's allies say Akhmetov has engineered the protests as part of an effort to keep control over the assets he amassed under deposed President Viktor Yanukovych.
Akhmetov was a close ally of Yanukovych, helping bring him to power in 2010 and benefiting hugely from government contracts and privatizations afterwards. Bloomberg Billionaires estimates his fortune at $7.2 billion. The source of that fortune is System Capital Management, a huge diversified holding that includes steel mills, coal mines and power plants, as well as investments in media, telecommunications, financial services and real estate.
Perhaps because he has so many assets in Ukraine, Akhmetov didn't flee to Russia with Yanukovych and many of his allies after last year's "revolution of dignity." Unlike fellow oligarch Kolomoisky, however, he's done little to fight the pro-Russian insurgency in his eastern Ukrainian power base, seeking only to keep most of his factories running. That requires maintaining a working relationship with Russia and its eastern Ukrainian proxies, which, in Kiev, is a badge of disloyalty.
Given the delicacy of Akhmetov's balancing act, losses are inevitable. Last year, the revenue of steel holding Metinvest, SCM's most valuable asset with production facilities mostly in east Ukraine, dropped 18 percent and profit fell 59 percent. That, and the effect of the festering conflict on the entire group's results, led Bloomberg Billionaires to revise Akhmetov's fortune downward by $1.1 billion on April 8.
One soldier killed, two wounded near Mariupol:
One Ukrainian serviceman has been killed and two wounded in shelling by pro-Russian separatists near the port of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
Reuters quoted a military spokesman as saying the serviceman was killed on April 25 in Shyrokyne, a strategic village on the outskirts of the port city of Mariupol.
Interfax also reported fighting taking place in Shyrokyne and that two Ukrainian servicemen had been injured.
Interfax said the exchange began at 6:20 a.m. and that the servicemen said they were successfully holding their positions.
Earlier this month, the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine identified Shyrokyne as one of the areas where it had seen an increase in cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine in recent days.
In February, Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists agreed to a European-brokered cease-fire agreement. (Reuters, Interfax)