06/12/2014 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Ukraine celebrated the Armed Forces Day

06/12/2014 Daily Highlights by "Digests and Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics of the day

Ukraine celebrated the Armed Forces Day. Civil activists protested against attempts to remove the head of Vinnytsya regional Council. Russian President Putin has demanded Ukraine to reintegrate the Donbass under the terms of federalization.

Events In Ukraine

• On December 6th Ukraine celebrated the Armed Forces Day, which have been announced in 1993 in honor of the date of the enactment of the AFU.
• Civil society activists in Vinnytsya held a protest action against the removal of the head of the regional Council, who appointed by the request of the Maidan people this spring. 14 people were wounded during clashes with police. The protesters have broken the Council building doors and intervened in the extraordinary session of the regional Council Board. They demanded the resignation of the current governor from the "Poroshenko Block". "Svoboda" party members intend to continue the protest action on this Sunday.
• President Poroshenko announced that the next meeting of the international contact group consisting of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE representatives to resolve the crisis in the Donbas is to be held on December 9th.
• Defense Minister Poltorak said that the next wave of partial mobilization is required in order to rotate soldiers who stayed in the combat zone for six months but the process should be carried out taking into account mistakes committed earlier. Army recruitment should be done on a mixed basis using both conscript and contract soldiers.
• Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal case against the head of the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation Kadyrov who openly threatened some of the Ukrainian Parliament deputies. Protection of the deputies has been strenthened.

War in Ukraine

• During the last day, militants attacked Ukrainian army positions and civil areas about 60 times. Donets’k airport and Avdiyivka are the remaining “hot spots” of the battle zone. Terrorist troops shelled Mariupil suburbs again.
• Ukrainian authorities said that 1,252 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and more then 3000 wounded since the beginning of war in the Donbass.
• Russia continues to transfer heavy arms and mercenaries to Ukraine. At least two columns consisting of 9 infantry combat vehicles, 7 tanks and 103 trucks have crossed the border in a day. Russian troops are continuing a regrouping and transfer of heavy vehicles and artillery to the main potential offensive directions.
• The head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration Moskal called the OSCE an absolutely useless organization that has not solved any single problem, including the problem of negotiations with the leaders of the terrorist Luhansk "republic".

Ukraine and the World

• After a meeting with French President Hollande, Russian President Putin said that Ukraine is obliged to restore economic links with the Donbas occupied by pro-Russian militants, buy coal from and supply electricity to the Donets’k and Luhans’k “people republics”.
• The head of "Gazprom" Miller said that Russia abandons the concept of the natural gas supply to end users in Europe and are ready to sell gas to the EU on the border between Turkey and Greece. Russia will extend natural gas pipeline system through the Black Sea.
• Polish Ambassador in Ukraine Lytvyn said that Poland is already supplying coal to Ukrainian consumers, although volumes of delivering are still small. Nevertheless, good economic relations have been established between the two countries thus assistance of governments is not needed.
• Russian authorities have unblocked shipments of coal to power plants in Ukraine which Ukrainian buyers already paid for.

Trends

• Russia increases pressure on Ukraine and tries to transfer the responsibility for economic and humanitarian problems in the Donbass to Ukrainian authorities. The following events confirm this: the return to the format of "Minsk" talks; the unlocking of coal shipments for Ukrainian power plants from Russian side; President Putin’s demands of reintegration of the Donbass territories, seized by militants, with Ukraine under the terms of federalization; while supply of arms and mercenaries from Russia is not stopping. By the way, the Ukrainian Parliament have not seen the cancellation of the law "On special status of the certain areas of the Donbass" on its agenda.
• Meetings of civil activists in the Vinnytsya demonstrated that "Poroshenko Block" actively cooperates with former members of Party of Regions in order to promote president's decisions, and to revise the results of the Maydan.