BREAKING from Reuters: GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN SAYS RUSSIA SHOULD EXERCISE INFLUENCE ON SEPARATISTS IN EAST UKRAINE TO PREVENT HOLDING OF LOCAL ELECTIONS
This is getting a lot of play on Twitter today. The feelings of the new leader of the U.K. Labour Party on Ukraine-Russia-NATO:
Odesa activists are blocking the border with Transdniester, a Russian-backed breakaway region of Moldova.
According to the far-right Azov battalion in Odesa, the blockade is taking place from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. today. The activists will only block cars with Transdniester license plates.
“This event is aimed, primarily, to pressure the Kremlin...powerS in Transdniester, who constantly lie in their propaganda about an alleged Ukrainian economic blockade of Transdniester,” reads an Azov statement.
According to the organizers of the event, Moldovans who were forced to leave the separatist region due to “political persecutions,” will block the border from the other side.
The Odesa wing of Right Sector will also take part in the blockade. According to its spokesperson, Varvara Chernoyvanenko, the blockade will also be held in solidarity with the Crimean Tatars’ blockade of Crimea.
More on Seibert's comments:
The German government has criticized Russia for not distancing itself from plans by Russian-backed separatists to hold local elections in eastern Ukraine without consulting Kyiv.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on September 21 that it "is regrettable that Russia so far has not distanced itself from these plans."
The German Foreign Ministry said the same day that "we expect Moscow to use its influence so that the separatists cancel these elections."
The statements came after Igor Plotnitsky, a self-styled leader of the areas under separatist control in Ukraine's Luhansk region, said local elections in those areas would be held on November 1.
The ministry said it views plans to hold the elections "with great concern" and added that they would be a serious violation of the Minsk peace agreement signed in February.
Ukrainian leaders and other Western countries have also criticized the plans by rebel representatives in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to hold elections.
Chairman of the Mejlis Refat Chubarov was filmed talking to truck drivers as they tried to negotiate their passage through the blockade.
Smoking a cigarette at a table, surrounded by drivers, Chubarov explains that it is not only Crimean Tatars who are blocking the border, as there are many activists from different Ukrainian cities, he said.
“If you want, let them join the conversation," he says."Don’t pressure me to pity you, because I am a Crimean Tatar. It’s just that I know more about my own grief. I can say something else to you. Look, guys, Oleh Sentsov -- 20 years in prison! How much money does that cost?”
A Kherson entrepreneur left dozens of tons of potatoes for activists blocking the administrative border between mainland Ukraine and Crimea.
“A true example of the patriotism of this campaign," said Henichesk District Administration Head Oleksandr Vorobyov to RFE/RL's Crimean desk correspondent. "The cargo owner understood the situation, didn’t make any complaints and left the goods to the participants of the blockade. We don’t even know the name of this entrepreneur, but we thank him.”
Now the activists are dividing about 40 tons of potatoes among the three checkpoints that are under blockade.
Twitter user @aliona_ka posted a photo of a deck of cards titled #KrymNash (Russian transliteration for “Crimea is ours).
Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured with a crown on his head is an ace. His spokesman Dmitry Peskov, head of Russia Today media holding Dmitry Kiselyov and Night Wolves leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov are eights. Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and nationalist deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky are pictured as jokers in the deck of cards.