29/08/2014 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Ukraine goes in NATO and the EU - Russian troops with support of mercenaries and terrorists of DPR and LPR are advancing to the Ukrainian territory

29.08.2014 Daily Highlights by “Digests & Analytics Ukraine” News Agency

Ukraine

• Yatsenuk Government has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill to amend non-aligned status of Ukraine. It chooses a course of participation in NATO and the EU, and a ban on participation in any post-Soviet economic, political or military alliances.
• Authorities in the Donetsk region are preparing housing for temporary refugees for the winter season. These will include summer vacation establishments, which have heating, and those where heating could be easily introduced.
• Defence Ministry has announced on its official site a call for volunteers with experience for filling teams for BMP-2 and mobile artillery units SAU-2.
• State enterprises of the concern “Ukroboronprom” have been switched to an uninterrupted three-shift operations schedule. The efficiency of its operations have increased by 40%.
• Hryvna is continuing to fluctuate wildly. NBU has again slightly lowered the official exchange rate. 13,60 грн/$ (-16 cop), 17,93 грн/€ (-23 cop), 3,74 грн/10 руб (-2cop).
  During a working meeting of the directors of the National Bank and bankers,the main regulation mechanisms were adopted for the foreign currency exchange. Additional restrictions on the work with clients will not get introduced.

Kyiv

• The authorities of Kiev region are saying that the numbers of refugees from the East and Crimea have approached maximum levels that the civilian infrastructure could absorb, like hospitals, schools and child care facilities.

War in Ukraine

• Ukrainian army has suffered heavy losses in the battles in Ilovays’k, where they face  Russian regular troops. Russian troops with support of mercenaries and terrorists of DPR and LPR are advancing to the Ukrainian territory from three main directions: toward Luhans’k, toward the southern outskirts of Donets’k, and toward Mariupil’. Ukrainian troops were forced to release control of the strategic height of Savur-Mohyla, and towns of Khryaschuvate and Novosletlivka. Mercenaries are actively using methods of guerilla warfare and drones for attacking convoys of Ukrainian military.
• Terrorists in the war zone have shot down Ukrainian fighter jet SU-25. The pilot has safely ejected and returned to Ukrainian positions.
• According to the UN data, the number of civilians killed in fighting in the east of Ukraine since April is more than 2,500. Daily, about 36 civilians are dying. There is no precise data about hostages held by the terrorists. Hostages are being tortured and are subjected to forced labor. According to Human Rights Watch, fighters of the special Ukrainian battalions have been also implicated in unfounded violence and they have to be taught the principles of international law.
• Russia is getting ready to use rail roads to deliver “humanitarian aid”. Experts are noting that this way Russia could remove hardware of strategic plans from Donbas with no eyewitnesses.
• Deputy Chairman of the European Commission Oettinger after talks in Moscow with the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation said that the EU will offer a new plan of payments for natural gas for Ukraine, which includes payment of previously consumed gas and the preservation of Ukraine's commitments on natural gas transit.
• Dire situation in the cities under control of terrorists of DPR and LPR. Civilians there are killed or injured every day as a result of large-scale shellings. The rebels are systematically destroying civilian infrastructure, which may result in a humanitarian catastrophe in the winter. Eyewitnesses are confirming facts of shelling of the cities by militants with heavy artillery and the “Grad” rocket launchers.
  Mines, metallurgical coke plants and power plants are not working in the occupied territories.

International

• White House representative Josh Earnest said that Russia is setting itself up to new sanctions for the beginning of a direct invasion of Ukrainian territory, which has been confirmed by NATO.
• IMF has decided to disburse the second tranche of the stand-by loan to Ukraine on September 3rd. $400 mln of it will go towards supporting Ukrainian foreign currency reserves, while $1 bln is designated for covering the budget deficit. The third and fourth tranches will be combined together with the initially designated amounts intact.
• EU has informed that they are ready to introduce additional sanctions against Russia. However, those are not covering the energy sector.
  US new sanctions include another Russian bank, “Asia-Banka”.
• After extraordinary session of the Ukraine-NATO commission, NATO General Secretary Rasmussen said that the alliance will demonstrate a decisive support for Ukraine at its summit in Wales in response to direct Russian aggression on the Ukrainian territory.
  Representative of the German Chancellor Steffen Seibert said that eyewitness accounts of the military actions by Russian troops are the base for talking about direct Russian intervention in Ukraine.

Trends

• Witnesses from the front lines, both military and civilians, are saying that regular Russian troops have replaced rebel militia in the war zone. Military command is in hands of officers of GRU (Central Intelligence Agency of Russian army) and the central command is located in Krasnodon. Without direct military support from Russia, the rebels were under a threat of military defeat. And now, anti-Ukrainian military forces have sharply intensified their actions in directions, where Ukrainian army previously has achieved a strategic breakthrough. According to British Government information, there are about five thousand Russian troops inside Ukrainian territory and twenty thousand more in the border areas.
• The volume and structure of additional sanctions, as well as energy issue talks between EU and RF, have shown Europe’s critical dependency on the Russian gas supplies and transit over Ukrainian territory. Putin is essentially blackmailing Europe in anticipation of the start of the cold weather season.