Ukraine General

Yep, that video clip was obviously from Thailand, and has nothing to do with Ukraine at all. Please remove it from the thread.

I just found this video... maidan riot police, no weapons. Are attacked with a hand grenade.

Watch at own risk (no gore however).

http://youtu.be/j7f3HKQ1i30?list=UUGasNCvV96gooDwbqYUHJbg

Dude look at the street signs, the riot shields etc. FPDR

oh well... thats embarrasing. shouldnt post anything at 5am...

(BBC) Snap elections for parliament

President Petro Poroshenko called the poll as he aims to cement a new direction for the country after the ousting of pro-Russian leaders earlier this year.

He also made a surprise visit to the restive Donbass region, the site of a continuing pro-Russian insurgency.

About 3m people in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Donbass will not take part in the vote.

Voting - Partial Voting - Not Voting

(HRW) Dispatches: Memo to Russia on Ukraine Cluster Munitions

On October 23, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, said on the ministry’s Twitter account that the Ukrainian government’s use of cluster munitions showed the “barbaric nature of Kiev’s punitive operation,†the Kremlin’s term for the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

As evidence he cited a recent Human Rights Watch report that I helped research. We found evidence of cluster munition use in 12 locations. For some of these attacks, in particular several attacks on Donetsk in early October, we gathered significant evidence that Ukrainian armed forces were responsible.

But there are also serious allegations that pro-Russian rebel forces, and possibly Russia itself, have used cluster munitions in eastern Ukraine. All parties to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine have access to the same weapons, so it is not always possible to draw definitive conclusions with respect to specific attacks.

Today:

(Reuters) Ukraine leader wins pro-West mandate but wary of Russia

Pro-Western parties will dominate Ukraine's parliament after an election handed President Petro Poroshenko a mandate to end a separatist conflict and steer the country further out of Russia's orbit into Europe's mainstream.

Those far rightist neo nazis Ukrainians made an overwhelming score...oh wait, nope...

Svoboda party 4.66%

Those guys had no political future anyway they are only good in hating jews and russians, i don't even think they should have participated! gangs can't rule.

The fashists in Kiev...turned out that there are far less of them than some people thought....

(Council of Europe) Crimea: “Stop attacks on miniorities and journalists and disband self-defence forces,†says Nils Muižnieks

“All cases of serious human rights violations that have occurred in Crimea since February 2014, including the recent cases of abductions, must be effectively investigated and those responsible held accountable,†he said, releasing a report on his mission to Kyiv, Moscow and Simferopol carried out from 7 to 12 September 2014. It is the first ‘in situ’ assessment by an international institution of the human rights situation in Crimea since March 2014.

The commissioner’s report highlights specific cases of deaths and missing persons, including the death of Reshat Ametov and three missing local civil society activists, Leonid Korzh, Timur Shaimardanov, and Seiran Zinedinov.

Today:

(BBC) Russia to recognise rebel vote in Donetsk and Luhansk

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions "will be important to legitimise the authorities there".

But Ukraine and Western governments say the elections should not go ahead. They accuse Russia of arming the rebels.

(Radio Free Europe) Chechnya War Pic Passed Off As Ukraine Atrocity By Hackers, Russian TV

A day before the October 26 parliamentary elections in Ukraine, hackers accessed electronic billboards in Kyiv and broadcast gruesome images of what they portrayed as civilian carnage wrought by Ukrainian forces battling pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

Russian state-owned Channel One television then aired a report on the stunt, describing the photographs as “horrifying images of the events in Donbas,†a reference to the Donetsk and Luhansk areas where separatists control of swaths of land.

(BBC Monitoring) Darth Vaders run for parliament

On the lol side of the elections, Darth Vader wasn't allowed to vote cause he refused to show his face :don 14: The dark side of the force isn't what it used to be anymore :lookaround:

(Reuters) MH17 investigators still awaiting U.S., Russian intelligence reports

Dutch prosecutors are still awaiting U.S. intelligence reports on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 but American laws on passing on such information to criminal investigations are complicating the process, the Dutch government said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have also said they plan to ask Russian authorities for radar data supposedly in Russian possession that shows a Ukrainian fighter was in the vicinity of the airliner, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday.

(The Moscow Times) Fewer Russians Ready to Re-Elect Putin, Poll Shows

President Vladimir Putin's rating has fallen for the first time this year, a poll by the Levada Center showed Tuesday.

While a poll in August showed that 57 percent of respondents would vote for Putin if there were a presidential election the following weekend, a new poll conducted on Sept. 26-29 revealed that 49 percent would now vote for his re-election.

A news nobody cares about :

(BBC) Ukraine crisis: Russia to recognise rebel vote in Donetsk and Luhansk

A news nobody cares about :

(BBC) Ukraine crisis: Russia to recognise rebel vote in Donetsk and Luhansk

Well not much of a suprise, Putin recognized the Crimean vote that he rigged...

Putin Wants To Invade Ukraine Soon Because Of His Falling Health

According to New York Post report, Putin is allegedly being treated for cancer and that is why he is in a hurry to invade Ukraine.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/570841/20141027/russia-putin-ukraine-eu-usa-west-moscow.htm

Poland to move thousands of troops east, defense minister says

"..because of this “situation of threat we would like those units in the east of Poland to be more efficient.â€

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/27/poland-to-move-thousands-of-troops-east-defense-mi/

(BBC) Russia must not back separatist vote - US

At a news conference in the Canadian city of Ottawa, Mr Kerry said the Ukrainian people had made a bold and clear choice for democracy when they voted in a parliamentary election last Sunday.

Turning to the planned rebel-run polls in the east, he said: "This would be a clear violation of the commitments made by both Russia and the separatists that it backs in the Minsk agreements.

(Reuters) EU, U.N. condemn Ukraine rebels' election plans

In separate statements on Wednesday, two days after Russia said it would recognize the rebel ballots, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the EU's foreign affairs service said the voting would undermine last month's outline peace deal struck in Minsk between Kiev and Moscow.

Regarding the video: Is there really only 1 main opposition (which is old old oligarch system)?

And if what the solder at ~4min is true, the votes from that region get nullified if they get attacked - so theoretically, anyone not wanting the suspected result to happen can stage an attacki and the votes dont count, as i doubt there would be a re-election... And who could tell if a masked men shooting in the air with a rifle and then vanishing is separatist or non separatist. Then blame the other side of staging the attack. Terribly convenient tool if you ask me.

(AL Jazeera) Rebels film Russian actor firing machine gun at Ukraine

Mikhail Porechenkov was reportedly (link is external) visiting pro-Russian separatists in war-torn Donetsk on a "humanitarian mission". The video, released (link is external) by the rebels' Novorossia TV (link is external), shows the actor, dressed in "press" gear firing the gun from the Donetsk airport. It has received more than one million views since being uploaded on Wednesday.

(AL Jazeera) Rebels film Russian actor firing machine gun at Ukraine

This is ridiculous.

(AL Jazeera) Rebels film Russian actor firing machine gun at Ukraine

BTW the rounds he fires are not blanks as he said later, you can check the bullets later in the video.

Just another Russian actor that wanted to support the pro-Russian. Which is fine to me, everyone can support whatever they want, there was even a north-american NBA player, Dennis Rodman, that supported the North Korean dictatorship.

What is sad is that he dress like a journalist, which is obviously against Geneva conventions. And probably will put in danger the journalist that work in the region.

You have to be a special kind of stupid to go there to raise morale, wear a Press outfit, and then shoot a MG in front of a camera. And yes, those were not blanks.

Doubt he really fired at Ukrainian positions. You can't be on the front lines, fire at someone, and then, not expecting return fire, calmly take a group photo as a souvenir.

Doubt he really fired at Ukrainian positions. You can't be on the front lines, fire at someone, and then, not expecting return fire, calmly take a group photo as a souvenir.

Yes you can. Some MG fire is really not worth the trouble for the Ukrainians to stick their heads out.

BTW the rounds he fires are not blanks as he said later, you can check the bullets later in the video.

Looks like he is using armor piercing/incendiary ammo (two red bands and a black tip).

(OSCE) Abuse of press insignia unacceptable, says OSCE Representative following incident in eastern Ukraine

“This is a deplorable and shameful abuse of press insignia. It puts journalists in conflict zones at grave risk and it is detrimental to all efforts made to protect members of the mediaâ€, Mijatović said.

“Journalists’ safety is paramount and press insignias are one of the few measures they can take to ensure their safety in conflict zones.â€

(Reuters) Russian media watchdog blasts radio station over Ukraine coverage

The warning issued to Ekho Moskvy is seen as putting further pressure on Russian media, which have experienced a series of restrictions in the 14 years of Putin's rule. If a second warning is issued within a year, the station can be shut down.

(Bloomberg) Ruble’s Two-Minute Rally Shows Russia Guessed Wrong

That’s how long the ruble rallied after policy makers surprised investors by ratcheting up the benchmark interest rate 1.5 percentage points to 9.5 percent this afternoon. After that, it was right back to declines for the world’s worst-performing currency, with losses swelling to as much as 3.6 percent against the dollar, the biggest drop in three years.

(Reuters) Europe won't recognize vote in eastern Ukraine, Merkel tells Putin

"The German government will not recognize these illegitimate elections," Merkel's spokesman said. European leaders were united on this issue and had agreed on this at a summit last week in Brussels.

They now have their own fake OSCE.

(DNR) International observers from ASCE will evaluate the campaign in DNR