Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing – 9 February 2016, 7PM Kyiv time

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) reported at 12:30 PMKyiv time that yesterday towards Luhansk, Russian-terrorist forces shelled Ukrainian positions at Troitske. Towards Donetsk, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions along the entire sector of the front. Towards Mariupol, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions at Krasnohorivka, Maryinka and Hnutove with mortars and small arms. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that yesterday Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions a total of 45 times. The RNBO reported that in the last 24 hours no Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in action

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On 8 February, on the order of Russian President V. Putin, Russian armed forces in Rostov oblast, Russia, (Southern Military District of the Russian Federation) began snap combat readiness exercises involving 8500 troops, over 900 military vehicles, 200 airplanes and 50 ships. The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) O. Turchynov stated, “All of these military exercises are taking place in close vicinity to the eastern border of our country. Moreover, within the context of the snap combat readiness exercises of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, on the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblast training of the so-called 1st and 2nd army corps are taking place. This once again shows that these occupation units are an integral part of the Russian armed forces. In summary, we can state that the armed forces of Russia, together with the 1st and 2nd army corps and other units of the occupying forces deployed on territory temporarily not under the control of Ukrainian authorities, are undertaking active preparation to conduct aggressive military actions, which is a direct threat to our country.”

Ukraine’s Finance Minister N. Jaresko stated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has put funding to Ukraine on hold until it is clear whether the current government survives the political crisis that began with the resignation of Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade A. Abromavicius on 3 February, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Jaresko stated that the IMF “is not political, but they will wait until it becomes clear who the executive authorities are and whether these authorities will take the responsibility to fulfill the conditions under which they have already provided us with $6.7 billion.They can provide [aid] to another government, but another government must take the responsibility and commitment that we took on a year ago,” RFE/RL reported.

The EU’s External Action Service East Stratcom Task Force published its fourteenth weekly Russian disinformation review. “The main aim of this product is to raise the awareness about Russian disinformation campaign. And the way to achieve this goal is by providing the experts in this field, journalists, academics, officials, politicians, and anyone interested in disinformation with some real time data about the number of disinformation attacks, the number of countries targeted, the latest disinformation trends in different countries, the daily basis of this campaign, and about the coordination of the disinformation spread among many countries.” The weekly Disinformation Reviews are accessible at http://eeas.europa.eu/euvsdisinfo/