15/03/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted he had planned and carried out the annexation of Crimea

03/15/2015 Daily Highlights by the "Digests & Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics of the Day

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted he had planned and carried out the annexation of Crimea. Yet another Russian "convoy" invaded Ukraine. Russian aggression compels NATO members to increase defence expenditure.

Key Events of Ukraine

• President Poroshenko arrived in Germany on a two-day working visit. During the press conference he said that Ukraine has fulfilled all the clauses of the Minsk Agreement. Pro-Russian militants of DPR and LPR violated the ceasefire more than 1,100 times, they continue to attack and fire on the positions of Ukrainian Armed Forces, and prohibit OSCE observers monitoring the withdrawal of weapons. That is why President Poroshenko called the West to impose new sanctions against Russia.

Ukraine at War

• In the Donbass, rebels fired on Ukrainian position dozens of times using artillery, tanks and small arms along the all confrontation line. One Ukrainian soldier was killed in the Peski village.
• Yet another "convoy" invaded the territory of Ukraine from Russia through uncontrolled border line.

Ukraine and the World

• Russian state TV channel showed the film "Crimea. The Way Home". President Putin admitted his involvement in the planning and implementation of the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea in support of former President Yanukovych, and his willingness to use nuclear weapons at Western intervention in the conflict.
• NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that NATO countries should increase defense expenditure to 2% of GDP due to the aggressive actions of Russia and the terrorist threat from radical Islamic groups. Key NATO countries - Germany, Italy, and the UK, have cut defense budgets over the last year; the Baltic countries, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania, have increased it.

The Trends

• President Poroshenko constantly demands from the West to strengthen the sanctions against Russia, but Ukraine has not yet imposed any sanctions and is not going to break the trade and economic relations with Russia.
• Despite the absence of control of the Putin convoys’ freight, Ukrainian authorities de facto consider them to have humanitarian contents and do not take active measures to prevent acts of invasion.