Critical Observer

GERMANY PRAISES RUSSIA’S ROLE IN UKRAINE TRUCE

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Germany appreciates Russia’s “important role” in securing the resumption of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) speaks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.<br />
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“According to what we have recently been observing there Russian politicians did much to make sure that the truce resumed on September 1 and was observed by all sides. We also hope that this will prevent any elections in Donetsk and Lugansk held on a day other than October 25,” Gernot Erler, German Special Coordinator for Russia Policy, said during a meeting on Tuesday with Konstantin Kosachev, who heads the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Federation Council – the upper chamber of the Russian parliament.<br />
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“It is paramount for the 18-day ceasefire to hold and for the upcoming elections to be held in line with the provisions of the Minsk accords,” he added.<br />
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Gernot Erler underscored Berlin’s insistence that these provisions be implemented in equal measure both by Russia and Ukraine.<br />
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Kiev authorities have set the country-wide local elections for October 25.<br />
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The Lugansk People's Republic is planning to hold separate elections on November 1, while the Donetsk People's Republic has decided to hold the elections on October 18.<br />
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Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko earlier urged the pro-independence leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics to hold local elections strictly in line with Ukrainian laws.

GERMANY PRAISES RUSSIA’S ROLE IN UKRAINE TRUCE

Germany appreciates Russia’s “important role” in securing the resumption of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Se...

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MINSK AGREEMENT DELAYS IN UKRAINE POROSHENKO'S FAULT

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The action, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has been undertaking, cause delays in execution of the Minsk agreements, head of the delegation from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to the Contact Group on settlement of the Ukrainian crisis Denis Pushilin told the Donetsk News Agency on Saturday.<br />
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"Pyotr Poroshenko does not have any plan of executing the Minsk agreements, he acts in a confused, inconsistent way," he said. "Yesterday he disavowed words of his representative [Ukraine’s former President] Leonid Kuchma that Minsk-2 execution terms may be extended."<br />
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He continued saying since the amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution had not been discussed with the self-proclaimed republics, they will have to be agreed to be presented once again to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).<br />
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"They will have to agree them with us, as it is a requirement of item 11 of the Complex of Measures," he said. "At the same time, a new voting procedure will take at least four months according to the Ukrainian legislation."<br />
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Thus, he said, the terms of the Minsk agreements are to be extended inevitably to early 2016.<br />
"This is a most optimistic forecast, and clearly the responsibility for the delay is purely with Poroshenko. He chose not to agree and still to present to Rada the unacceptable draft of the constitutional reform, and thus now we have to begin everything afresh thus slowing down the settlement process."<br />
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On Friday, Poroshenko ruled out the possibility of extending the Minsk agreements for 2016. "I asked Leonid Kuchma, my representative at the Contact Group, to cancel the statement that the Minsk process can be continued in 2016. No, everyone should fulfil the commitment within 2015," the Ukrainian president said.<br />
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According to the Minsk accords, all points of the agreement, especially the constitutional reform with consideration of separate areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, should be implemented by end of 2015.<br />
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On Thursday, Kuchma said that the Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in Donbass announced it is necessary to extend the Minsk agreements for 2016 if they are not implemented fully by end of 2015.<br />
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President Petro Poroshenko said he did not rule our holding a meeting in the "Normandy format" on settling the situation in Donbass in the framework of the UN General Assembly session in New York in late September.<br />
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"On September 12, the first meeting of the foreign ministers will take place - it will focus on agenda and draft documents to be discussed [in Paris]," Poroshenko told journalists on the sidelines of Yalta European Strategy (YES) meeting in Kiev.<br />
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"I do not rule out that one more meeting in this or another format may take place in the framework of UN General Assembly at the end of September in New York," the Ukrainian president said.<br />
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Minsk accords on settlement of crisis in Ukraine<br />
A peace deal struck on February 12 in Minsk, Belarus, by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and people’s militias starting from February 15, followed by withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of military engagement and prisoner release.<br />
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The package of measures envisages the pullback of all heavy weapons by both parties to locations equidistant from the disengagement line in order to create a security zone at least 50 kilometres wide for artillery systems with a calibre of 100 mm or more, a zone of security 70 kilometres wide for multiple rocket launchers and a zone 140 kilometres wide for multiple rocket launchers Tornado-S, Uragan and Smerch and for Tochka-U tactical rocket systems.<br />
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The Ukrainian forces and the self-defence forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.<br />
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According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the violence in Ukraine has killed 6,500 people in the past year, wounded 16,000 and left 5 million people in need of humanitarian aid. With more than 1.3 million registered IDPs, Ukraine has now the ninth largest number of internally displaced in the world, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

MINSK AGREEMENT DELAYS IN UKRAINE POROSHENKO'S FAULT

The action, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has been undertaking, cause delays in execution of the Minsk agreements, head of the del...

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KIEV PREPARES CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST EASTERN UKRAINE

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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ukraine stockpiling chemical weapons for deployment in Slavyansk, insider reveals. <span style="line-height: 1.1;">According to eastern Ukrainian sources who contacted WMR, the Ukrainian central government in Kiev has been stockpiling cylinders of toxic gas and canisters of other poisonous substances at an electrical plant in Slavyansk, a town in eastern Ukraine that remains occupied by Kiev troops.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, populated by mostly ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers, declared independence last year as the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The Ukrainian government, aided by neo-Nazi and Israeli mercenaries, as well as “Al Qaeda” and “Islamic State” veterans from Iraq and Syria, have been waging a war against the people of eastern Ukraine with military assistance from the United States and other NATO nations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A source in Slavyansk reports, “There’s chlorine in cylinders, in not less than five covered wagons and also in other containers with contents I know nothing about, labeled with words and signs “poison, “danger,” and “do not touch without protection.” The source added, “All of it was brought in under the guise of varnishes and paints, but I know the look of the packaging of both, and whatever was brought here last week has got nothing to do with it, it looks like a chemical weapon.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The report from the Donbas region also stated that the intelligence service of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) was informed by its sources inside the Ukrainian Security Service that Kiev plans to use the chemical weapons in eastern Ukraine and then blame the eastern Ukrainian separatists. The source with DPR intelligence said, “I think they will follow the suit of the militants in Syria, they [Kiev] will use it against their own soldiers and civilians, and blame us, following which they will invite foreign reporters, show the corpses, raising a worldwide scandal with demand that NATO forces bomb us.”</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A Ukrainian rail and road transportation industry source confirmed that the suspect canisters spotted in Slavyansk were, in fact, transported as dangerous cargo by the Ukrainian Security Service and Ukrainian military intelligence, with the full cooperation of Kiev and local authorities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Syria, Islamic State guerrillas and their allies used sarin and chlorine gas to attack civilians outside of Damascus and then blamed the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad for waging chemical warfare against his own people. The charge that certain governments have resorted to using chemical weapons, known as the “poor man’s weapon of mass destruction,” has been a favorite neocon propaganda tool employed against targeted leaders, including Assad, Libya’s late leader Muammar Qaddafi, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and, possibly soon, the leadership of eastern Ukraine. In all these cases, the story of chemical weapons use was either totally false or was altered to show it was the governments that used the weapons and not U.S.-supported rebels.</span></span></div>
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<a data-slb-active="1" data-slb-asset="1698600979" data-slb-internal="0" href="http://hw.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/083115chemicalweapon.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #025ab4; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="083115chemicalweapon" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-196569 img-responsive" height="320" src="http://hw.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/083115chemicalweapon.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none; vertical-align: middle;" width="620" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Assad was accused of using sarin gas on to kill some 1300 civilians near Damascus, including children (above). In fact, it was the Islamist guerrillas that carried out the attack and another in Aleppo that killed 30 civilians. The Israeli media blamed Assad and the international media, pressured as usual by Israel’s propaganda machine, blamed Assad. However, the neocon propaganda was so weak, President Obama opted not to commit U.S. forces to fight against Assad’s government.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The intelligence chatter from eastern Ukraine indicates that the United States and its allies in Kiev are going to use, once again, a page from the WMD false flag playbook, previously employed in Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Iraq.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Article by <b>Wayne Madsen</b></span></div>
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KIEV PREPARES CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST EASTERN UKRAINE

Ukraine stockpiling chemical weapons for deployment in Slavyansk, insider reveals. According to eastern Ukrainian sources who contacted ...

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UKRAINE CRISIS: NEW DEADLY PROTESTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 1.375;">One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministry said. </span><span style="color: #404040; line-height: 1.375;">Clashes between nationalists and riot police erupted after MPs gave initial backing to reforms for more autonomy in the rebel-held east.</span></span></h5>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some in the crowd lobbed what police said were live grenades at office</span>rs protecting parliament.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reforms are part of a peace plan to end fighting in eastern Ukraine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, said the violence was "a stab in the back".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Protesters led by the populist Radical Party and the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party - who oppose any concession to the Russian-backed separatists - gathered outside parliament early on Monday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a rowdy debate, 265 MPs out of 450 backed the first reading of the decentralisation bill, granting more powers to areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Initially, there were only minor clashes but a BBC correspondent then heard small explosions followed by a much larger one - apparently from a grenade.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Smoke outside Ukraine parliament (31 August)" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/11524/production/_85284907_ukraine.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/11524/production/_85284907_ukraine.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A missile was hurled at the ranks of riot police standing between the protesters and parliament</span></span></figcaption></figure><hr class="story-body__line" style="background-color: white; color: #404040; line-height: 16px;" />
<h2 class="story-body__crosshead" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #1e1e1e; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">'Pools of blood': Svyatoslav Khomenko, BBC News, Kiev</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The demonstrators numbered barely more than a few dozen - mainly young men, most of them masked. They started the fights with police, but others supported them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The protesters tried to pull the policemen away from their lines. They beat them and took their shields and helmets. Soon about a dozen young men were almost as well-equipped as the police.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Several times the atmosphere near the building seemed to calm down for a while, with clashes starting up again. And then the explosions began.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I saw some people - policemen and firemen - falling to the ground, and some running away from the site, limping. I saw pools of blood just near the wall of parliament.</span></div>
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<a class="story-body__link" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34107489" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Violent clashes outside Kiev's parliament</span></a></div>
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<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="National guardsman in Kiev" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/3A0A/production/_85285841_img_0162.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/3A0A/production/_85285841_img_0162.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The number of wounded quickly climbed as security forces tried to hold the protesters back</span></span></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, said some 30 people have been detained, including a Svoboda member who confessed to throwing a grenade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the 122 people hospitalised, more than 11 were in a critical condition, the minister added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He bitterly criticised Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok, <a class="story-body__link-external" href="https://www.facebook.com/arsen.avakov.1?fref=ts" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(17, 103, 168, 0.298039); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #222222; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">writing on Facebook </a>that several explosive devices had been thrown by people wearing Svoboda T-shirts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A policeman's leg was torn off below the knee in the blast, Interfax Ukraine reported, while journalists at the scene were also reported injured.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Shaky peace</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Almost 7,000 people have died since the conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in March 2014, after Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pushing through greater autonomy for the rebel-held areas is a key part of the Minsk peace deal, originally signed in February.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">During the summer, fighting between Ukrainian army forces and the rebels has escalated. But the two sides agreed last week to halt the violence on 1 September, the day children in the region return to school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Although the number of ceasefire violations appears to have fallen in recent days, OSCE monitors have warned that neither side was respecting the truce.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Smoke bomb hurled at national guard (31 August)" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/882A/production/_85285843_028795863-1.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/882A/production/_85285843_028795863-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Firecrackers and petrol bombs were hurled at the lines of national guardsmen</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="media-landscape has-caption full-width" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="National guardsman being moved to safety" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14792/production/_85285838_img_0165.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/14792/production/_85285838_img_0165.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></span><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible;"><span class="off-screen" style="border: 0px !important; clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 1px !important; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px !important;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image caption</span></span><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Colleagues helped take wounded national guardsmen to safety</span></span></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Under the draft constitutional changes going through parliament, there will be a special law covering local government in rebel-held areas.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, parliament speaker Volodymyr Hroysman was adamant that would not mean special status for Donetsk and Luhansk, which rebel leaders have declared republics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a national address late on Monday, President Poroshenko said if the proposals had been voted down, Ukraine would have been left "one-to-one against the aggressor".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The reforms must still pass a second reading, which correspondents say will be a tall order for the Ukrainian leader.</span></div>
<figure class="media-landscape no-caption full-width" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 16px; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="map" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/5D8C/production/_85284932_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_25_08_2015_624map.png" height="446" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/5D8C/production/_85284932_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_25_08_2015_624map.png" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="624" /></span><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="image-and-copyright-container" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Article Source: BBC News</span></figure><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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UKRAINE CRISIS: NEW DEADLY PROTESTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

One national guard member has been killed and over 100 injured in violent protests outside Ukraine's parliament, the interior ministr...

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Ukrainian military camp.. For Kids!

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STARE, Ukraine — More than 100 Ukrainian schoolchildren will have unusual tales to tell their mates when classes resume, after spending part of their summer vacations undergoing training by the National Guard.<br />
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The training at a National Guard camp about 75 kilometers (45 miles) from Kiev taught children aged 11-15 rudimentary military skills and gave them a taste of army life in courses over three days. At night the children were quartered in army tents; by day they got instruction in marksmanship, hand-to-hand fighting, weapons maintenance, first aid, map reading and orienteering.<br />
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For 11-year-old Oleksander Olinichenko, whose mother and father are both in the Ukrainian army, the camp was a chance to pursue his interest in all things military, as well as show his patriotism.<br />
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“’’I like everything here, they teach me to take apart and to assemble the assault rifle, they teach us hand-to-hand fighting, first aid - it’s very interesting,” said Oleksander, his face disguised by military goggles and a regulation helmet.<br />
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Some children are from military families in Kiev, others are refugees who relocated to the Ukrainian capital, having left their homes in eastern Ukraine when fighting broke out in 2014. Some of the children chosen to attend the camp come from low-income families, according to the National Guard press office.<br />
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National Guardsman Oleksander Honcharenko gave the children instruction in hand-to-hand fighting and karate. He told The Associated Press he and all the other instructors at the camp had served in the Ukrainian army during the conflict in East Ukraine.<br />
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“I think every person has to be able to defend himself and his relatives, his nearest and dearest, his family and property. The most important thing is to be able to react quickly in an extreme situation and to make the right decision. The kind of the hand-to-hand fighting that we teach helps them develop such abilities,” said Honcharenko, who is vice president of the Ukrainian Karate Association.<br />
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Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko recently vowed to increase troop numbers to fend off attacks by Russia-backed separatist rebels and warned his countrymen that there is still the threat of a “large-scale invasion.” He claimed that Russia had massed about 50,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, still had 9,000 soldiers in eastern Ukraine and had supplied the rebels with about 500 tanks and 400 pieces of artillery.<br />
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By <b>Dmytro Vlasov</b> |  AP | August 31

Ukrainian military camp.. For Kids!

STARE, Ukraine — More than 100 Ukrainian schoolchildren will have unusual tales to tell their mates when classes resume, after spending pa...

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POROSHENKO's SECRET MILITARY TECH DEAL WITH ANONYMOUS ALLIES

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<span style="line-height: 1.1;">The head of Ukraine has signed a decree on military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and a number of countries, the list of which has not been disclosed, but rather attached as a “classified document”, according to the statement of his press service.</span></h5>
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The details of the document are also being kept secret. However, control over the execution of the above decree has been handed to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, says the statement.</div>
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<img alt="Screenshot of a decree on military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and a number of countries" class="img-responsive" height="691" src="http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/102631/02/1026310233.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; outline: none; vertical-align: middle;" title="Screenshot of a decree on military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and a number of countries" width="1411" /></div>
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Earlier in April Ukraine already signed a number of agreements with NATO, including a memorandum on technical cooperation.</div>
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“A signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the government of Ukraine and NATO on cooperation on consultation, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels,” said the statement on the website of Ukraine’s Mission to NATO.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">“The signing of this international agreement opens up opportunities for further collaboration of our country’s and NATO’s experts to improve the legal framework for in-depth technical cooperation between Ukraine and the Alliance, as well as reflect the efforts of NATO and its member countries aimed at large-scale support for reforms of the Ukrainian security sector and defense in accordance with decisions made during the NATO summit in Wales,” the statement read.</span></div>
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“A leading role in the implementation of modern information technologies in the Ukrainian army will be played by NATO Communications and Information Agency,” it furthermore emphasized.<br />
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by Sputnik News</div>

POROSHENKO's SECRET MILITARY TECH DEAL WITH ANONYMOUS ALLIES

The head of Ukraine has signed a decree on military-technical cooperation between Ukraine and a number of countries, the list of which ha...

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Over 1 MILLION Ukrainian refugees in Russia; Forced out of homes by Donbass war

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Over 1 million people have moved to Russia from southeast Ukraine since the beginning of the armed conflict and about 600,000 of them decided never to return home, the head of the Federal Migration Service says.<br />
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Konstantin Romodanovsky said in an interview with Interfax that about 114,000 of Ukrainian refugees took part in the government program of resettlement and received material aid and a short track in getting Russian citizenship.<br />
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Romodanovsky also said that the influx of refugees from Ukraine had led to improvement of Russians’ attitudes towards migrants in general. According to a recent poll conducted by the independent Levada research center, 41 percent of Russians hold that the best way to tackle illegal migration was to help the refugees find jobs and receive legal status – twice as many as the 19 percent who gave the same answer just one year back.<br />
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In the same interview, Romodanovsky said that his agency was actively fighting illegal migration and over the past 2.5 years they have managed to detain and send back about 1.5 million people who tried to get on the Russian territory by bypassing the rules.<br />
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In mid-June this year the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that in 2014 the influx of Ukrainian citizens seeking refuge on Russian territory put the Russian Federation in first place in the world by number of asylum applications.<br />
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The UN confirmed that the military conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region was the main reason for the surge in asylum applications. Over 271,000 requests came from Ukrainian citizens, making 99 percent of the total number, the report reads. The report also stated that Russian authorities proved to be much more tolerant in their approach to Ukrainian applicants than their colleagues from Western countries.<br />
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Russia and Belarus fulfilled 90 percent of the asylum requests while nations such as the UK, France, Poland or Finland accepted no more than 10 percent of Ukrainian asylum seekers. The US, Canada and Germany proved to be more hospitable, fulfilling between 35 and 65 percent of requests, but these numbers are still far lower than the Russian figures, wrote the UN researchers.<br />
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The report also stated that in 2014 Ukraine surpassed the previous years’ leader, Syria, by number of people who wanted to flee their homeland. About one-fifth of a total 1.47 million asylum requests was made by Ukrainians and 94 percent of these requests were made in Russia.<br />
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by Sergey Pivovarov / RIA Novosti

Over 1 MILLION Ukrainian refugees in Russia; Forced out of homes by Donbass war

Over 1 million people have moved to Russia from southeast Ukraine since the beginning of the armed conflict and about 600,000 of them dec...

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War Criminal Petro Poroshenko says future in Ukraine conflict on 'brittle ice'

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<a href="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/6B53/production/_85157472_028687752-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="President Petro Poroshenko greets people after military parade (24 August)" border="0" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/6B53/production/_85157472_028687752-1.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/6B53/production/_85157472_028687752-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></a><div class="story-body__introduction" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 28px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
President Petro Poroshenko has marked Ukraine's independence day, warning of the need to act carefully in the next year in the face of "Russian aggression".</div>
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Ukraine was walking on "brittle ice" and the smallest false step could be fatal, he said.</div>
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Violence in the two eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk has escalated.</div>
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Russia has denied helping rebels in the east, despite a large body of evidence indicating its involvement.</div>
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President Poroshenko told Ukrainians that the threat of full-scale invasion remained, asserting that some 50,000 Russian troops were massed on Ukraine's eastern borders with a further 9,000 inside the self-declared rebel republics themselves.</div>
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<figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Ukrainian soldiers in Independence Square, Kiev (24 August)" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/117B/production/_85157440_028687845-1.jpg" height="549" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/117B/production/_85157440_028687845-1.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: #bdbdbd; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="976" /></figure><figure class="media-landscape full-width has-caption" style="background-color: #111111; border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><figcaption class="media-caption" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="media-caption__text" style="border: 0px; color: #ececec; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: 1.23077; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">More than 2,000 Ukrainian servicemen marched in the centre of Kiev</span></figcaption></figure><figure class="media-landscape full-width no-caption" style="border: 0px; clear: both; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 24px -24.640625px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="map" class="js-image-replace" datasrc="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83397000/png/_83397029_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_03_06_624map_v2.png" height="446" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/83397000/png/_83397029_ukraine_rebel_held_areas_03_06_624map_v2.png" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 616.203125px;" width="624" /></figure><br />
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Russia has insisted that any of its servicemen in the region are there on a voluntary basis.</div>
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Donetsk rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said Mr Poroshenko's figures were nonsense, apparently given to put pressure on European leaders ahead of a meeting in Berlin later between the Ukrainian leader, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande of France.</div>
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Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea last year weeks before the conflict began in Luhansk and Donetsk.</div>
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A ceasefire signed in February is at risk of unravelling because of the recent flare-up in fighting near the Ukrainian port city Mariupol and the rebel-held town of Horlivka.</div>
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Mr Basurin accused Ukraine of moving heavy weapons to the front line and of violating the ceasefire 21 times in one day.</div>
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Almost 7,000 people have died and more than 17,000 have been wounded since the fighting began, according to UN officials.</div>
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Mr Poroshenko said some 2,100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.</div>
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War Criminal Petro Poroshenko says future in Ukraine conflict on 'brittle ice'

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23 civilians killed by Ukrainian forces by shelling in Donbas last week

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Twenty-three civilians were killed in shellings by Ukrainian forces from August 15 to 21, and 32 more people were injured, the office of the human rights ombudsperson of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Monday.<br />
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"On August 15-21, as a result of military actions, 23 people died, among them four women and 19 men. Thirty-two people were hospitalized with injuries of varying severity, among them 24 men and eight women," Donetsk News Agency quoted the office as saying.<br />
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The human rights ombudsperson stressed that among the places subjected to most massive shellings are the town of Gorlovka, settlements of the Telmanovsky district, as well as Donetsk’s Kuybyshevsky, Petrovsky and Kirovsky districts.<br />
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From August 10 to 16, 17 people were killed in shellings by Ukrainian forces, and 45 more were injured, DPR defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said.<br />
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Earlier in August, DPR office of human rights ombudsperson said that almost 1,300 people have been killed in shellings by Ukraine forces in DPR since the beginning of 2015.<br />
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Donbas expects Merkel, Hollande to persuade Poroshenko to return to peace dialogue<br />
OSCE to pass on information on destruction in Gorlovka to international organizations.<br />
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Ceasefire is envisaged by the Minsk agreements on the settlements of the situation in Ukraine. The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.<br />
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The Minsk accords also envisage weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbas, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.<br />
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The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.<br />
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By TASS News Agency

23 civilians killed by Ukrainian forces by shelling in Donbas last week

Twenty-three civilians were killed in shellings by Ukrainian forces from August 15 to 21, and 32 more people were injured, the office of ...

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