18:43
9.5.2014
18:44
9.5.2014
18:54
9.5.2014
Important to note that there's evidence of the bogus ads purporting to seek Chinese mercenaries to fight for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, but no proof that Russia is behind them.
19:01
9.5.2014
UNIAN and Interfax are reporting that an armed group of more than 100 men surrounded and seized a sanatorium in Donetsk and captured some 120 Ukrainian Interior Ministry police. The troops were said to have been using the sanatorium as a barracks when it was surrounded by gunmen from the "Donetsk People's Republic." Reports said shooting broke out and parts of the sanatorium caught fire, and that the troops eventually agreed to surrender their weapons and were put on buses and taken away from the area. It was unclear where they were taken. Ukraine's UNIAN news agency reported the armed group arrived at the sanatorium riding on Kamaz trucks. Our Russian Service cites a similar report in "Novosti Donbassa."
19:02
9.5.2014
OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier told reporters today in Kyiv, where he's on a two-day visit:
"It is important to de-escalate, it is important to promote an open dialogue and to engage everybody into this dialogue. We as the OSCE, we are there to support everybody in Ukraine, to support the government, to support the society in this dialogue. This is a dialogue where I think it is important that the parliament, Rada, takes a central role, it is important to bring back the political process from the streets into where it belongs, into the institutions."
"We are also engaging through our long term monitoring mission and then with a very large monitoring operation to support the process around the elections. It is important to engage now, to prepare for a process where everybody engages and where the results will reflect the will of the Ukrainian people."
"We are also engaging through our long term monitoring mission and then with a very large monitoring operation to support the process around the elections. It is important to engage now, to prepare for a process where everybody engages and where the results will reflect the will of the Ukrainian people."
19:05
9.5.2014
19:23
9.5.2014
Michael E. Brown is among those suggesting that the current crisis is partly of the West's own making, adding that "U.S. and European leaders are now grappling with the immediate challenge posed by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, but they must also undertake a fundamental strategic reassessment." He writes in "Foreign Affairs" that:
Agree or disagree, it's worth reading:
Russian aggression is real, and it may continue. Putin’s, domestic approval ratings are up, and they may stay up unless economic sanctions change Russian public and elite opinion. Putin is not yet looking for an “off-ramp” to defuse the confrontation. To the contrary, he currently has a domestic political incentive for a sustained confrontation with the West.
Agree or disagree, it's worth reading:
19:31
9.5.2014
A seemingly shaky report by UNN quotes an anonymous source claiming Ukrainian forces detained around 100 separatists who tried to surround their bus near Donetsk and force them to surrender their weapons. Definitely unconfirmed, at this point.