Protest against Russian aggression was held in Vilnius

Today, a protest against Russian aggression and occupation of Crimea was organized at the Russian embassy in Vilnius. In the words of one of the participants, MP Mantas Adomėnas, “it is shameful when historical memory and symbols of military achievements (Ribbon of St. George and the like) are used to feed hatred against the countries that finally liberated themselves from the Soviet slavery.

The country, which is still living on the scraps of imperialistic revanchism, has lost the right to talk about its “liberating” role in World War II, especially when after crossing the Lithuanian border the Soviet army became a murderous and destructive occupier, engaged in war crimes and genocide. That is why the 9th of May should not be celebrated in Lithuania”.

People came to the protest with Ukrainian, Lithuanian, US flags and NATO symbols. Some also had posters with slogans directed against Russian policy and military actions in Ukraine, asking why criminals and torturers deserve higher pensions from Kremlin (a recent decision by Vladimir Putin).

The center of Mariupol is in blood

From Euromaidanpr Facebook

The clashes between the Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian terrorists have been going on since today’s morning, May 09, 2014. The building of the local police administration has been burnt completely. The terrorists have kidnapped the head of Police of Mariupol, Valeriy Androshchuk.

Pro-Russian snipers killed the commander of Dnipropetrovsk brigade of territorial protection, Sergey Demydenko. When he was already killed, the terrorists cut his ears and put out his eyes.

The commander of the military unit of National Guard, Sergey Savynskiy was severely injured.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Internal Affiars, Arsen Avakov, reports that up to 20 terrorists were annihilated. Four terrorists were taken captive.

Dmitry Tymchuk’s Military Blog: Summary – May 8, 2014

Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

I apologize for posting our summary a little earlier today, for organizational reasons. Hopefully, nothing bad will happen by the end of today. If something good happens–please.

The bad news:

1. In Luhansk and Donetsk, the pro-Russian clowns, who loudly announced themselves as ‘National Councils’ (although ‘alcoholic interest clubs’ or ‘Putin’s money fan clubs’ would be more appropriate) have nevertheless decided to hold their show named ‘referendum on independence’ in these Regions.

Tonight, good people burned to hell over a million prepared blank forms in the printing shops of Donbass. But Moscow has money in bulk. They will print out more.

In general, after the upcoming exacerbation on May 9, [people] should prepare for events after May 11, when this very ‘referendum’ is scheduled. This scenario is known from [events in] Crimea: just under 100% of the population will ‘vote’ for ‘independence’ and Uncle Vova [diminutive for Vladimir Putin] will tend to the ‘protection of people’s will’ thereafter.

If we don’t stop this separatist circus now, it will be much more difficult to do it later.

2. An armored ‘Tiger’ vehicle broke through the border checkpoint from Russia–a ‘gift’ to separatism from [controversial Russian politician, Vladimir] Zhirinovsky. Then, it traveled through Luhansk.

What an outrageous occurrence. But here, I’d like to share our common alarming observations in general.

Yes, the overall reliability of the Ukrainian-Russian border protection in Luhansk and Donetsk Regions is questionable. On the one hand, nobody has cancelled corruption. But a far greater problem is that the border control officers do not have significant forces and capabilities to cope with large extremist groups or, as in this case, with armored vehicles, on their own.

This is–the task for other law enforcement agencies, which should reinforce the ‘border guards.’ If there is no cooperation, then we won’t be able to resolve the border issue.

3. Today, Putin has gathered the Presidents of his satellite countries from the Collective Security Treaty Organization–Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. He decided to show them the ‘Potemkin’ exercises of the Russian troops. They rolled out serious weaponry–a heavy flame thrower system TOS-1. Gave the command to open fire.

And… pshik… zilch. Nothing happened.

If I were a Russian, I would be concerned by the fact that their miracle leader who only has tanchiki [diminutive for tanks] in mind also has a nuclear button. If this maniac, preparing to fight with the whole world, decides to use it, there will be no Urals anymore. Moscow Region will cease to exist, too. For the arms of valiant Russian warriors do not grow out of the same place that all normal people’s arms grow.

The bad thing about this is that Putin doesn’t intend to impress the world with high-tech, efficient farming or Russian culture. This insane individual can do nothing else but rattle a saber. Even if it doesn’t always perform.

The good news:

1. The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Andrey Parubiy has announced that yesterday’s statement by Putin to postpone the ‘referendum’ by Ukrainian separatists–is a political scam.

The Ukrainian government is well aware that Putin’s words are lies backed by nothing else except nefarious plans to lull Kiev’s alertness. And this means that the anti-terrorist operation [ATO] will continue for as long as Ukrainian terrorists don’t rest. In detention center or on the long-suffering land of Donbass.

It’s obvious there is nothing good about Putin’s lie. But the fact that the Ukrainian government doesn’t believe in it, and is ready to continue to save Ukraine–is a definite plus.

2. By lunchtime today, we ended the monitoring of regional preparation for possible provocations that may take place tomorrow, May 9. If the overall forecast is not very reassuring, then it at least gives us hope.

Yes, there are a lot of weaknesses. But in general, the security forces and local authorities have taken measures to ensure that a tragedy like the events in Odessa on May 2 won’t be repeated.

Of course, we can’t make any promises. And we don’t expect that Victory Day will go smoothly. We must be ready for anything–especially those of us in Donbass.

3. On the eve of Victory Day, Russian social media broadcast information that in the Alexander Garden in the Kremlin, the only stele dedicated to the Hero cities in the heart of Moscow that remained without flowers–was the stele of Kiev.

Just a couple of hours after this message, the stele of the Hero city of Kiev was inundated with flowers.

There are adequate people still left in Moscow. Thank you to them. After all, Victory Day is our common holiday. And we, the IR group, would like to congratulate all of you, my brothers and sisters, with it!

And [a couple of words] for the future. We defeated Hitler’s Nazism, and we will defeat Putin’s Nazism.

May 8,2014 Lithuanian media round-up

On May 8th Lithuanian Parliament adopted a resolution for faster ratification of EU association agreement with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In this resolution members of the Lithuanian Parliament also condemned continuous  attempts of Russia to split territorial integrity of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia states through escalation of internal conflicts and provocations of separatism in order to deter these countries from independent choice of direction in political and economical integration. (Lithuanian Parliament Press Office, BNS, ELTA, 15min, The News radio, unofficial translation)

Petras Auštrevičius, Deputy Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament and Kazys Starkevičius, member of the Lithuanian Parliament on May 10-11th will take part in meetings with the Volodomyr Lytvyn, Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defence Policy, Ruslan Koshulynskyi, Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, members of the Group for Interparliamentary Relations with the Republic of Lithuania. Petras Auštrevičius and Kazys Starkevičius will also take part in meetings with Dmitry Tymchuk (‘Information Resistance’ group), Vitali Klitschko, Leader of the UDAR Party, Mykola Katerynchuk, Leader of the European Party of Ukraine, Ambassador Jan Tombinski, Head of the EU Delegation, Petro Poroshenko, candidate in Ukraine’s presidential elections, and Yuriy Tereshchenko, Acting Director General of ‘Ukroboronprom’. (Lithuanian Parliament Press Office, BNS, ELTA, 15min.lt)

On May 8th, initiated by Lithuania and Ukraine, informational event for OSCE delegations, dedicated to address human rights violation in Crimea took place in Vienna. Giedrius Čekuolis, Lithuania’s Ambassador to the OSCE, stressed that human rights of national minorities, especially Crimean Tatars, situation in Crimea after annexation only got worse. Mustafa Dzhemilev, Leader of Crimean Tatars, which also participated in the event as a guest, expressed his concern that ‘Crimean Tatars are threatened due to their principal position about territorial integrity of Ukraine, boycott of referendum and are called extremists by pro-russian Crimea government.’ (Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs information, ELTA, 15min.lt)

Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, and Lubomír Zaorálek, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, refused to attend the Victory Day reception in Russian Embassy in Prague. (delfi.lt, 15min.lt)

On May 7th Jerome Vacher, IMF Resident Representative in Ukraine, said that ‘mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will come to Ukraine at the end of June or at the beginning of July to evaluate state’s economical situation.’ (delfi.lt).

Victoria Siumar, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, in an interview to 15min.lt said that ‘Russia is preparing false referendums in Donetsk and Luhansk on Sunday and there’s a threat that Russia can try to repeat Crimean scenario and try to bring its army into Eastern Ukraine.’ (15min.lt)

Garry Kasparov, chess player and Russian opposition activist warned that ‘grievous days are coming to the world if the Head of Russia won’t be stopped.’ Garry Kasparov also thinks that Russian army isn’t so modern and powerful as Putin says (lrytas.lt). Read more in Lithuania Tribune: http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/67849/kasparov-in-vilnius-western-countries-start-to-realize-putin-will-not-stop-in-ukraine-201467849/.

Official statement of ‘Right Sector’ concerned the celebration of the 9th of May

Source: Euromaidanpr Facebook

Taking into consideration those facts, that we constantly obtain different information concerned provocations from the side of pro-Russian separatists and other criminal elements which are planned for the 9th of May to make the situation unstable, we officially inform as follows:

‘Right Sector’  does not plan and will not implement any actions during the celebration of 9th of May, but the safeguard of public legal meetings with veterans of war in those places, which have already applied to us for the assistance.


– “Right Sector” Has no enemies among Ukrainian population with regard of their social status, religion or age. Moreover – among veterans of World War II.
– We consider the 9th of May as the day of honor of all people died during World War II and offer to all divisions of the ‘Right Sector’ to honor those heroes by the minute of silence.
– All any violation towards Ukrainian people, celebrating the date of 9th of May in peaceful way will be considered by us as illegal.
– All information about any misuse of the symbolic or the name of ‘Right Sector’ should be transferred to the state force organizations.
– We demand from state force organizations to locate and block any illegal groups.
– We emphasize that usage of any symbols or the official name of ‘Right Sector’ during the celebration of 9th of May by any pro-Russian group will be considered as illegal.

Dmitry Tymchuk’s Military Blog: Summary – 7th of May, 2014

Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine
The bad news:

1. The closer we get to May 9, the more alarming are the signals we receive of the impending activation of the pro-Russian extremists. Although they can hardly be called passive now.

What’s worse, against this backdrop Putin has begun his next game. ‘Tipping off’ separatists to postpone the referendum, his near-willingness to recognize the Presidential elections in Ukraine–it’s like the guy’s been replaced.

But the Head of the Kremlin’s lie about the alleged withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border does not allow for delusions. No one is withdrawing troops. This means that the soothing and nearly peaceful statements by Putin–are likely a show for the most gullible.

We don’t yet understand the reasoning behind this game. But it is clear that we shouldn’t relax. Quite the contrary.

2. The geography of extremist danger keeps on growing.

Today, we have included Zaporizhya Region in the ‘red’ zone (with the threat of extremism at 5 or higher on a 10-point scale), whereas the previously assessed threat was at 4 points.

However, the threat in Kharkov region went down–it dropped from the ‘red’ to the ‘yellow’ zone. So, they cancel each other out. We will present the infographic tomorrow.

3. Today at a press conference, the head of the Anti-terrorist Center at the SBU  Vasyl Krutov announced that during the ATO, 14 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, and 66 servicemen were injured.

We have slightly different data, but it doesn’t matter. What really matters is that every day of confrontation is paid for by human lives.

These fallen guys from the special forces are Heroes. Vechnaya Pamyat (Memory eternal) for them.

The good news:

1. Today we ran a small monitoring mission to prepare the region for possible provocations on Victory Day [May 9].

The situation is better than you might expect. Not the most optimistic picture, however, in Donetsk and Luhansk only.

Especially positive are Kharkov and the southern regions (primarily Odessa and Mykolaiv, and Kherson to a lesser extent). Here, very powerful measures have been taken to counter the threat both by security forces and local authorities. (I am not talking about Dnipropetrovsk­–here the local authorities have initially shown themselves to be up to the mark.)

For example, ‘Kyiv-1’, a special police battalion formed by volunteers arrived in Odessa today. The Defense Ministry conducts activities along its chain of command–I think we will be able to report about them tomorrow.

2. The anti-terrorist operation. Today, we finally got the full information needed to complete the puzzles. We received full confirmation of our fears about the reasons for the apparent lack of effectiveness of the ATO.

Our previous claims to the leadership of the ATO and interactions between the special forces were fully justified. The positive is in the fact that we saw some serious, ongoing work from the “top” to eliminate the problem.

The main problem lies in staff. Our generals have grown used to their comfy office chairs, they are unable to make decisions and fear liability, with a panic. The good news is that there are still adequate people amongst them. Despite the delays, they are still being assigned to key positions.

I think that today, in this grim and joyless environment for Ukraine, a new generation of Ukrainian law enforcers is being born. Commanders and leaders who are ready to take responsibility, and soldiers who are ready to defend their country and its people–not in words but in deeds.

Unfortunately, this birth is payable with blood.

3. As a result of the separatist attack on the bus carrying the ‘Azov’ police battalion, the ‘Minister of Defense’ of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor Kakidzyanov was captured.

Is it just me or are Donbass extremists truly idiots? Is this how they famously ‘attack’, to immediately give up their main ‘commander’? And if their ‘Defense Minister’ is such a unique individual, what should we expect from their ‘soldiers’?  What a dumb ‘army’, to be honest with you.

4. The SBU reported that in Odessa the existence of a Conversion Center was discovered that funded the riots on May 2. As expected, Yanukovych’s ‘Family’ bears responsibility for the financing.

In general, it’s not a big secret: the more the channels which finance extremists are blocked, the more chances there are to succeed in the fight against them. Without money, there will be no terror under the Russian flag. And Mr. Putin and his ilk can tightly roll up and stick their ideas of ​​’Russian World’ wherever they earlier stuck norms of international law.

Source: Dmitry Tymchuk FB

May 7, 2014 Lithuanian media round-up

On May 7th Mustafa Dzemilev, Leader of the Crimean Tatars, was awarded Solidarity Prize by Poland for respect of civil rights and liberties in Ukraine, especially in Tatar community. (vz.lt, delfi.lt)

Ukraine, during official events dedicated to the anniversary of the ending of WWII, will use European instead of Russian symbols. The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory is calling for the media and civil community to use the red poppy flower as a Ukrainian symbol of traditional celebration of victory over Nazism and the end of World War II in Europe. (lrytas.lt)

On May 7th Ukraine from International Monetary Fund (IMF) got 3,19 billion US dollars as the first part of emergency aid package. (vz.lt, delfi.lt, lrytas.lt, 15min.lt)

Danylo Lubkivski, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, in an interview to ru.delfi.lt stressed that in Eastern Ukraine acts Russian saboteurs and agents and that must be called terrorism. He also expressed his gratitude to Lithuanians for their solidarity to Ukraine people. (delfi.lt)

Loreta Graužinienė, Speaker of Lithuanian Parliament, on a News radio said that ‘to the use of so-called St. George ribbons in the Ukrainian crisis context, should be viewed with a higher degree of responsibility’. Read more in Lithuania Tribune:
http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/67670/public-transport-should-be-free-of-st-george-ribbons-seimas-speaker-201467670/.

Pat Cox, the former President of the European Parliament, in an interview to BNS said that ‘a Cold War has already started between the Western world and Russia, and Western sanctions probably will not alter the behaviour of Russian President Vladimir Putin’ (delfi.lt, 15min.lt). Read more in Lithuania Tribune:
http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/67680/pat-cox-russian-lies-implanted-in-many-good-peoples-mind-as-truth-201467680/.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky in an interview to Lietuvos rytas said that ‘if the Russian invasion to Ukraine would be not stopped, the Baltic or the Balkan countries could be the next target‘ (delfi.lt, 15min.lt). Read more in Lithuania Tribune: http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/67672/khodorkovsky-baltic-states-may-be-next-target-if-russia-not-stopped-201467672/.

Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, in his official Twitter said that ‘Further steps in destabilising Ukraine will call for additional sanctions. The EU is ready to take decisions, if needed’.(vz.lt)