Armed men storm government buildings in Crimea; two dead, 30 injured during confrontations (UPDATE)

February 27, 2014

Ukraine’s Acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov put police and security forces on alert after buildings of the Crimean parliament and administration were seized just before dawn on Feb. 27 by an unknown armed group. Two persons were killed and more than 30 people were injured in clashes on Feb. 26-27, according to officials. Thousands gathered in front of the parliament building with crowds split between those supporting the new government appointed by parliament in Kyiv and those calling for integration with Russia. The buildings of the Crimean Council of Ministers and the Crimean parliament were seized by an unknown group of 120 armed men at around 4 a.m., according to Crimea Prime Minister Anatoly Mogilyov, the nation’s former prime minister and a longtime loyalist of ousted President Viktor Yanukovch. Mogilyov and UDAR party lawmaker Serhiy Kunitsyn said the men were professionally trained individuals with automatic weapons. “More than 120 armed men entered the Crimean Supreme Council and the Crimean government. These professionally trained people are armed. They brought weapons – automatic weapons, grenade launchers, and machine guns,” Kunitsyn said, speaking from the parliament rostrum in Kyiv on Feb. 27.

“They have enough weapons to defend (the buildings) for a month,” he added.

Reuters news agency quoted an ethnic Russian on the scene as saying some of the armed men fired their weapons during seizure of the buildings. “We were building barricades in the night to protect parliament. Then this young Russian guy came up with a pistol … we all lay down, some more ran up, there was some shooting and around 50 went in through the window,” Leonid Khazanov told Reuters. “They’re still there … Then the police came, they seemed scared. I asked them (the armed men) what they wanted and they said ‘To make our own decisions, not to have Kyiv telling us what to do,'” Khazanov added. Mustafa Jemilov, former head of the Mejilis of the Crimean Tatar people, said in Ukraine’s parliament on Feb. 27 that the men occupying the crimean government buildings “came by buses from Sevastopol.” “There are reports of movement of armed vehicles from the Russian fleet in different directions,” he said. “We also got signals that in many hotels there are Russian soldiers in civilian clothes. This all is very alarming.”

He said that the Russian General Consul denied all involvement in the incident. “But they would hardly tell truth,” he added. Jemilov believes the group of armed men come from one of two camps: “either they are Russian soldiers, or former Berkut soldiers who with allegiances to Russia.” Crimea is the last bastion of opposition to the newly formed government in Kyiv after the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22. Russia’s Black Sea fleet is stationed in the port of Sevastopol. Crimea is also home to more than a million ethnic Russians, as well as ethnic Urkainains and Tatars, a group victimized by Soviet ruler Josef Stalin during World War II, whose first language is Russian. Russia’s foreign ministry said through a statement that the Kremlin was prepared to defend the rights of its compatriots and would react appropriately to any violation of them. Russian President Vladimir Putin has thus far not responded to some calls by ethnic Russians in Crimea to reclaim the peninsula, which was turned over to Soviet Ukraine in 1954.

Source = Kyiv Post

CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Ukraine: Russia ‘Won’t Deal With Mutineers’

February 24, 2014

Russia has said it would not deal with Ukraine’s interim leaders, calling them “armed mutineers” who stole power from President Viktor Yanukovych. The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev questioned their authority and called the situation in the neighbouring country “a real threat to our interests and to the lives of our citizens”. His comments are being seen as the strongest signal yet that Moscow does not want to be drawn into a bidding war with the West over Ukraine. The new acting leaders in Kiev have said they need $35bn (£21bn) to stave off default, as Russia threatened economic punishment. Mr Medvedev did not say a $15bn (£9bn) bailout for the country was dead. However, he signalled a deal that cuts the price Kiev pays for Russian gas had an expiry date and any extension would have to be negotiated. It comes as the White House said the US was ready to provide financial support to boost an International Monetary Fund aid programme.

Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney said: “The United States, working with partners around the world, stands ready to provide support for Ukraine as it takes the reforms it needs to, to get back to economic stability.” The US has stopped short of fully endorsing the country’s interim leader, parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchinov, as its legitimate ruler. Parliament is running the country until elections are held, and the top positions are held by former opposition figures. Ukraine has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Yanukovych, whose main backer is Moscow and whose exact whereabouts remain unknown. He and other officials are wanted by police for the “mass murder” of protesters last week in Kiev.

Source = Sky News

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING

Ukraine’s parliament dismisses President Yanukovych

February 22, 2014

UPDATED 16:22 GMT

——————————————————————

LIVE

<br /><a href=”http://www.ustream.tv/&#8221; style=”padding: 2px 0px 4px; width: 400px; background: #ffffff; display: block; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline; text-align: center;” target=”_blank”>Live streaming video by Ustream</a>

——————————————————————

Ukrainian president and opposition sign early poll deal

February 21, 2014

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders have signed a deal leading to an early presidential poll before the end of the year. The election is part of an agreement to end the country’s political crisis. The deal provides for a national unity government, electoral reform and constitutional changes reducing the president’s power. The compromise came after hours of talks, mediated by three European Union foreign ministers. The German and Polish ministers met protest leaders, who later announced that they backed the deal.

Source = BBC News

Continue reading →

Ukraine crisis: EU sanctions push over Kiev bloodshed

February 19, 2014

Europe’s leaders are to consider urgent sanctions against Ukraine after the worst violence in months of unrest claimed at least 26 lives. Violence that began on Tuesday continued through the night as police tried to uproot the protest stronghold in the capital Kiev. President Viktor Yanukovych blamed opposition leaders and Russia spoke of an attempted coup. But the EU said it expected measures to target those behind the “repression”. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke of the responsibility of “the political leadership” while several EU countries said they had no doubts that the Ukrainian authorities were to blame. With an emergency meeting due to take place on Thursday, EU leaders have been expressing concern:

Continue reading →

At least nine die on worst day of Ukraine protest violence

February 18, 2014

(Reuters) – Ukrainian protesters hurled petrol bombs, fireworks and stones at riot police on Tuesday, and at least nine people died in the worst day of violence since demonstrations erupted against President Viktor Yanukovich 12 weeks ago. Western powers warned Yanukovich against trying to smash the pro-European demonstrations and opposition leader Vitaly Klitschko, fearing an assault, urged women and children to leave Kiev’s central Maidan square “to avoid further victims”. A police spokeswoman said seven civilians and two policemen had died in Tuesday’s clashes.

Forces loyal to the Russian-backed leader broke through front-line barricades near the Dynamo Kiev football stadium and marched to the edge of occupied Independence Square (Maidan). They moved in hours after Moscow gave Ukraine $2 billion in aid which it had been holding back to demand decisive action to crush the protests. Nationwide protests against Yanukovich erupted in November after he bowed to Russian pressure and pulled out of a planned far-reaching trade agreement with the European Union, deciding instead to accept a Kremlin bailout for the former Soviet republic’s heavily indebted economy. In what has become a geo-political tussle redolent of the Cold War, the United States and its Western allies are urging Yanukovich to turn back to Europe and the prospect of an IMF-supported economic recovery, while Russia accuses them of meddling.

Clashes raged for several hours on Tuesday outside the parliament building, where opposition lawmaker Lesya Orobets said three demonstrators were killed and taken to a nearby officers’ club used as a medical centre. More than 100 people were injured, she said. “Three bodies of our supporters are in the building. Another seven are close to dying (because of wounds),” she said on her Facebook page. Two more bodies were lying in front of a Metro station on the southeastern side of the square, a photographer told Reuters. The police spokeswoman said the two officers and three protesters died of gunshot wounds. Two more protesters suffered heart attacks while one died in a fire and another in a traffic accident. The State Security Service (SBU), in a joint statement with the interior ministry, set protesters a 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) deadline to end street disorder or face “tough measures”.

“If by 6 p.m. the disturbances have not ended, we will be obliged to restore order by all means envisaged by law,” the statement said. The defence ministry issued a separate warning to protesters to evacuate the officers’ club near parliament. Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion who leads one of three main opposition groups, told protesters on the occupied square: “We cannot exclude the possibility of use of force in an assault on the Maidan.”

Source = Reuters

Continue reading →

Kiev protests: Dangers ahead for Ukraine

January 22, 2014

For successive Ukrainian governments, it has long been a standard strategy to prosecute, jail and occasionally poison political opponents. Human rights groups will complain, the European Union will tut, but the chances of getting hit with sanctions are unlikely, and besides, Vladimir Putin in Moscow is always there for backup. As President Viktor Yanukovych may be about to find out, though, there is just one problem with treating one’s rivals this way: it means they aren’t there just when you really need them most. With huge anti-government demonstrations in the capital, Kiev, now escalating into open street warfare, the best option for Mr Yanukovych to restore calm now have been to reach out to the leaders of the mainstream opposition. Cue a transitional government of national unity, and a little breathing space ahead of the next scheduled elections in February 2015.

Continue reading →

Police chief ‘torched his car and blamed lover’s husband’

January 18, 2011

A senior policeman set fire to his car outside his lover’s home and allowed her lawyer husband to take the blame, a court heard yesterday. Chief Superintendent James Trotman fraudulently claimed nearly £20,000 insurance on the burnt-out Citroen Picasso, which he used to buy an Audi A4 convertible, it is alleged. The father of two doused his car in petrol and torched it as he visited his lover, Karin Gray, at her property named Woodhouse in the hamlet of Boars Hill near Oxford, Swindon Crown Court was told. When Trotman returned to the smouldering vehicle, he looked ‘shaken and agitated’ and did not identify himself as a policeman to a fireman attending the blaze. But he told him: ‘That’s my bloody car. I’ve been seeing someone I shouldn’t have been seeing but keep that between me and your crewmate.’

Source = The Mail

Continue reading →

January 9th 2014

Today 10 Fire Stations across London (UK) closed due to a decision taken by Boris Johnson to save the tax payer 1p per day. Along with the closures of these vital fire stations 550+ firefighters have lost their jobs. The fire stations which have closed today are as follows:

Belsize, Bow, Clerkenwell, Downham, Kingsland, Knightsbridge, Silvertown, Southwark, Westminster and Woolwich

Continue reading →

Yasser Arafat ‘may have been poisoned with polonium’

November 6, 2013

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, says a Swiss forensic report obtained by al-Jazeera. Arafat’s official medical records say he died in 2004 from a stroke resulting from a blood disorder. But his body was exhumed last year amid continuing claims he was murdered. The Swiss report said tests on the body showed “unexpected high activity” of polonium, which “moderately” supported the poisoning theory. Many Palestinians have long believed that Israel poisoned Arafat. There have also been allegations that he had Aids or cancer. Israel has consistently denied any involvement. A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said the Swiss investigation was “more soap opera than science”.

Continue reading →