Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing
4 September 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 yesterday, Russian-terrorist forces violated the ceasefire five times. Towards Luhansk, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions at Krymske with grenade launchers. Towards Donetsk, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions south and west of Avdiyivka with small arms and grenade launchers. Near Opytne, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions with an 82-mm mortar. The RNBO reported that in the last 24 hours, one Ukrainian soldier was killed, and none were wounded.
- Sentstov appeals verdict to Russian supreme court; Savchenko trial to resume 15 September
Oleh Sentsov’s attorney D. Dinze stated that defense has appealed the guilty verdict on fabricated charges against Sentsov to Russia’s supreme court, Radio Svoboda reported. On 25 September, a Russian military court sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in a labor camp and Ukrainian activist Oleksandr Kolchenko to 10 years on fabricated terrorism charges. Sentsov was abducted and tortured by Russia’s FSB in occupied Crimea in May, 2014, for his opposition to Russia’s invasion and occupation of Crimea. The Russian trial of Ukrainian pilot and MP Nadiya Savchenko will resume on 15 September. Savchenko was serving in eastern Ukraine, when she was abducted by Kremlin-backed terrorists in June 2014 and taken to Russia, where she has been illegally detained and imprisoned since that time. Russia has ignored repeated calls from the international community for her immediate release. On 3 September, US Permanent Representative to the OSCE D. Baer stated, “We strongly condemn the Russian court’s sentencing of Mr. Sentsov and Mr. Kolchenko, and call on the Russian Federation to honor its international commitments by releasing, without delay, all hostages and illegally detained Ukrainian citizens – including Nadiya Savchenko, who has already spent over a year in detention in Russia. The continued detention of Ms. Savchenko is totally unacceptable. […]We continue to have serious concerns about Ms. Savchenko’s treatment in detention and are watching her trial very closely. Russia continues to ignore its commitments under the Minsk agreements, including those related to the release of all hostages and illegally detained persons. We again call upon the Russian Federation to implement those commitments by immediately releasing Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Nadiya Savchenko, and all other remaining hostages.”
- Human rights organization calls for letter writing campaign to Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia
The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG) called for letters of support to be written to Ukrainian political prisoners illegally imprisoned in Russia. KHPG stated, “Russia and the occupation regime in Crimea are currently holding a number of Ukrainians prisoner on entirely fabricated charges. Some of them have already been declared political prisoners by the renowned Memorial Human Rights Centre, for example, Nadiya Savchenko; Oleg Sentsov; Oleksandr Kolchenko and Gennady Afanasyev. Others are simply held in detention, with all those in Russia having been in custody for over a year. […]Every letter helps make it clear that the authorities are being watched.[…]Former Soviet political prisoners like Myroslav Marynovych have stressed how important it was to them to receive letters from people all over the world, demonstrating that they were not forgotten.” Addresses at which the prisoners can be reached, as well as other instructions, can be found at http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1441197604
- US State Department: “We’ve seen continuing destabilizing actions on the part of Russia in eastern Ukraine
US State Department Deputy Spokesperson M Toner stated on 3 September, “There would be no conflict in eastern Ukraine if Russia were not providing tanks, armored vehicles, heavy artillery, military personnel to the separatists. I think we all understand that. We’ve made that very clear over many months, including showing satellite imagery that shows Russian troops, command and control on the ground in eastern Ukraine. […] we’ve seen continued destabilizing actions on the part of Russia in eastern Ukraine. We now have this ceasefire in place, but we remain concerned about further ceasefire activities.”
- Atlantic Council: NATO’s conventional deterrent “dramatically insufficient”
Writing for the Atlantic Council, Stephen Blank, Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, stated, “Since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the world has seen precious little Western leadership when it comes to confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin[…] Even in the face of plans to send Poland heavy weapons in 2016 while beefing up Baltic defenses and organizing more frequent and larger NATO exercises, the fact remains that Russia—if it chose to do so—could occupy the Baltic states in two days, as Gen. Peter Pavel, the incoming chairman of NATO’s Defense Committee, recently warned. In other words, NATO’s conventional deterrent is still dramatically insufficient. […] Baltic governments may feel reassured by Western announcements to date, but the people themselves do not; in one opinion survey, for example, Estonians said they felt abandoned rather than reassured. Furthermore, in 1994, the US and British governments signed an agreement with Ukraine to protect its security and inviolability, a pact we abandoned the minute it was challenged. That encouraged Putin to believe he could invade Ukraine with impunity; even Russian media outlets expect a new offensive soon. This is clearly not leadership—whether from the front, behind, or anywhere else. […]Unfortunately, President Obama has not learned this lesson. He and his top policymakers simply do not take the Russian threat seriously—and the idea that we can somehow elicit Moscow’s cooperation in the Middle East while Putin himself stokes the fires of war by allowing Russian terrorists to travel from Russia to Syria, is incredible. How, ultimately, can we be partners with a revanchist and terrorist-sponsoring state whose mantra is new rules or no rules?” The full article is available at 4http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/in-the-face-of-russian-aggression-in-ukraine-a-new-us-agenda-for-europe?utm_content=buffer0c0fc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
