Crisis in Ukraine: Daily Briefing – 6 October 2016, 6 PM Kyiv time

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (RNBO) reported that yesterday towards Luhansk, Russian-terrorist forces shelled Ukrainian positions on the Novooleksandrivka-Novozvanivka sector of the front with mortars. Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions at Stanytsia Luhanska and Popasne. Towards Donetsk, Russian-terrorist forces carried out heavy shelling of Ukrainian positions at Pisky. Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions at Avdiyivka, Luhanske village, Novhorodsk and Verkhnotroitske. Towards Mariupol, Russian-terrorist forces fired on Ukrainian positions along the Pavlopil-Shyrokyne sector of the front, Maryinka, Taramchuk and Starohnativka. The RNBO reported that in the last 24 hours, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and one Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action.

Ukraine has summed the Russian consul in Kyiv after Russia detained a Ukrainian journalist in Moscow on “espionage” charges, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Roman Sushchenko, a Paris based correspondent of Ukrinform news agency was detained in Moscow on 30 September. Ukrainian officials in Moscow have been denied access to him, RFE/RL reported. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine said in a statement on 3 Ocotber, “We consider this yet another step in the deliberate policy of the Russian Federation to use Ukrainian citizens as political hostages in Russia’s hybrid aggression against Ukraine.”

A group of Canadian police instructors have arrived in Kyiv as part of the training mission for Ukraine’s National Police. The head of Ukraine’s National Police K. Dekanoidze and Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine R. Waschuk held a briefing today to announce the new phase of the training mission. Canadian instructors will train Ukrainian instructors in several areas of police work. Speaking at the briefing, Waschuk stated, “Polling has shown that trust in Ukrainian police is much higher than it was previously. But every day, police officers are met with new challenges. Canadian police can provide advice – this is the basis of our bilateral initiative.”

The US Mission to the OSCE stated on 4 October, “The United States finds it deeply regrettable that the Russian Federation continues to block the expansion of the geographic scope of the Observer Mission, despite the clear, strong, and continued support from other participating States to do so. We once again must accept an inadequate, limited-scope mission covering just two border checkpoints, which together account for only a few hundred meters of the 2,300 kilometer Ukrainian-Russian border, much of which Ukraine does not control.Due to Russia’s unwarranted restrictions of the border Observer Mission’s work, the Mission will continue to be unable to ascertain the full extent to which Russia is participating in or facilitating the flow of arms, funding, and personnel to support the separatists in eastern Ukraine. We note that Point 4 of the Minsk Protocol delineates a clear role for the OSCE to monitor and verify both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian international border, and to create a security zone in the border areas of Russia and Ukraine. There are strong linkages between ceasefire monitoring and border monitoring, and it is to the detriment of all efforts to resolve the conflict that the OSCE approach to these activities has been impeded by one participating State. The Russian Federation’s repeated refusal to allow expansion of the scope of this mission shows, once again, that it refuses to fulfill its Minsk commitments.”