13/10-19/10/2014 Weekly Highlights from “Digests & Analytics Ukraine” News Agency
Week marked by several significant events.
A summit was convened in Milan for solving burning issues for Europe - natural gas supplies from Russia and the crisis in eastern Ukraine. No significant progress was achieved on any of the issues. Moreover, Putin attempted to intimidate Europe with reduction of gas supplies if reverse supplies to Ukraine continue.
Despite the appearance of the withdrawal of troops from the Donbas, numbers of Russian servicemen, "volunteers" and military equipment continues to grow. Shelling of the Ukrainian army positions and attacks on the Donetsk airport do not for a single day. Russian army units carried out a reconnaissance in force in most sectors of the front.
Next week's seasonal shutdown of the ferry to the Crimea cuts it off from supplies from the mainland, and can provoke escalations of Russian combat actions on the territory of Ukraine. Russia continues to pull up new army units to the borders and to train militants in field camps in Rostov region.
Stepan Poltorak was appointed a new Defense Minister. He previously was commander of the National Guard.
President Poroshenko signed a law on the special status of individual regions of the Donbass. Militants of terrorist "republics" DPR and LPR ignored Ukrainian initiatives and pursue a policy of secession from Ukraine, but still use the Ukrainian resources for free. The number of internally displaced people increases substantially, despite the fact that some of them, with no means of subsistence, returned to the place of permanent residence.
The Government of Ukraine "dragged" through parliament a package of anti-corruption laws, but their practical application has become a farce.
The practice of bribing voters by parliamentary candidates gained immense scale, despite the passage of a law to toughen liability for interference in the electoral process and already opened criminal cases.
Activity of Russian agents and saboteurs in Ukraine has noticeably increased. They managed to organize a series of rallies of servicemen of the National Guard and other law enforcement agencies by coordinating the efforts of recruiters through Russian social network "Vkontakte". Law enforcement efforts still manage to prevent resonant attacks.
In general, the situation can be described as the concentration of forces and preparation for the active phase of the fighting on the eve of elections in Ukraine. Using the winter, period terrorists will have an opportunity to use heavy equipment and tanks for an offensive.
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