Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing
14 May 2015, 8 PM Kyiv time
- Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) reported at 12:30 PM Kyiv time that in the last 24 hours, the confrontation at Shyrokyne (towards Mariupol) has intensified. Kremlin-backed terrorists are firing on Ukrainian positions with small arms and artillery. Towards Donetsk, clashes between Kremlin-backed terrorists and Ukrainian forces took place near the Donetsk airport, along the Krasnohorivka-Avdiyivka line. Kremlin-backed terrorists also shelled Ukrainian positions with artillery in the western suburbs of Horlivka. Towards Luhansk, firefights took place near Shchastya and Stanytsia Luhanska. The RNBO reported that in the last 24 hours no Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 4 were wounded.
- ATO Deputy Commander: Over 8000 Russian troops in Ukraine
At a briefing in Kramatorsk, Donetsk oblast, on 13 May, Col. S. Halushko, deputy commander of the anti-terrorism operation (ATO), stated that army groups on Ukrainian territory include over 8000 Russian soldiers, along with 520 armored vehicles, 149 artillery units, 190 tanks, 89 multiple launch rocket systems, 8 TOS-1 “Buratino” 220 mm multiple rocket launchers, 66 anti-aircraft systems, and 4 OTR-21 “Tochka” short-range tactical ballistic missiles. This is in addition to the units of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “Peoples’ Republics,” which number 33,000 personnel, over 500 tanks, over 860 armored vehicles and 657 artillery units.
- Ukraine Parliament appeals to international community to condemn violations of the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatars in Russian-Occupied Crimea
Ukraine’s Parliament adopted a resolution appealing to the UN, European Parliament, PACE, Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, world leaders and all members of the international community “to condemn the violent deportation of the Crimean Tatars carried out by the Communist regime of the USSR on 18 May 1944, and the current actions of Russia, targeted at violating the rights of the Crimean Tatar People as an indigenous People of Ukraine.” The resolution “calls on the international community to put pressure on the Russian Federation as a party, which illegally annexed Crimea, routinely violates the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatars […] and to facilitate the restoration of the work of human rights monitoring missions in Crimea; […]calls on the international community to condemn the repressive actions of the Russian Federation in occupied Crimea, targeted against human rights and freedoms, and to show unanimous solidarity and increase pressure on Russia to restore Ukrainian jurisdiction within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.” The resolution also“demands that the Russian Federation end the practice of abductions, illegal detentions and imprisonments, prohibitions on entry to the territory of Crimea of representatives of the Crimean Tatar People, violations of freedom of speech and media, restrictions on the freedom of the religion and the treatment of any democratic dissent as extremist actions.”
- Ukrainian President meets with European Council President ahead of Riga Summit
Ukrainian President P. Poroshenko met with the President of the European Council, D. Tusk, ahead of the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga, which will be held 21-22 May. Poroshenko “emphasized that Ukraine needed greater coordination of actions between the EU and USA in the issues of peaceful settlement [of the conflict in eastern Ukraine] and fulfillment of the Minsk agreements.” Poroshenko also stated that Ukraine “expected that the prospect of a visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens would be put forward at the Eastern Partnership Summit.”
- Ukraine PM: Firtash, Lyovochkin companies illegally using state-owned gas distribution networks
Ukrainian PM A. Yatsenyuk instructed the Minister of Energy and Coal V. Demchyshyn to prepare a Government order that will force private companies to pay for the use of state-owned gas distribution networks. He stated that companies controlled by Ukrainian oligarchs D. Firtash and S. Lyovochkin (former Head of the Yanukovych Presidential Administration), are illegally using the state-owned gas distribution networks and must pay for using it, as required by law.
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