OSCE mission verifies first stage of LPR arms withdrawal, says Russia's Interfax:
LUHANSK. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM) has finalized verification of armaments with calibers under 100mm and hardware withdrawn by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) under the Minsk agreements.
"The OSCE mission has finalized the process of verification of mortars with calibers up to 120mm withdrawn by the militia. So, the first stage of withdrawal of our armaments has come to an end," the Luhansk information center quoted LPR militia corps first deputy commander Sergei Kozlov as saying on Saturday.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] has tried to get a program probing corruption within its ranks removed from air, just weeks after two of the journalists were assaulted outside the SBU offices in Kyiv. Since it failed, there is no need to speculate on the reasons – the luxury vehicles that SBU staff use to get to work, rather than the public transport claimed, can be seen – and valued. The journalists note that the 50-70 thousand dollar price tags on many of these cars should require years, if not a whole lifetime for civil servants to earn.
Skhemy: Corruption in Detail is a joint initiative of UTV-1 and Radio Svoboda, with the program appearing every Thursday. Radio Svoboda reports that several hours before the latest edition was due to be broadcast, it received a letter signed by Mykhailo Hluhovsky, head of the Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast SBU. The letter cites various articles of the laws on the SBU and on countering terrorism, and suggests that filming SBU officers breaches their legal guarantees under these laws. It specifically suggests that filming anybody who has taken part or is involved in ATO [the ‘anti-terrorist operation’ or conflict in Donbas] could place them in danger.
It doubtless could but the program does not do this, and Katya Gorchinskaya, who heads the Radio Svoboda Investigative Journalist Programs says that they view the SBU intervention “as blackmail, and are shocked that the Security Service’s management should use such tactics against journalists”.