Ukraine Day 1008: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
The ATO wrote on its Facebook page at 18:00 that fighting was reduced today with only 7 attacks.
On the Mariupol line, Russia-backed militants fired on Krasnogorovka from a tank and mortar-launchers were used on Shirokino and Gnutovo; a BTR and heavy machine guns were fired on Maryinka.
No casualties were reported today.
A possible reason for the lull in fighting today could be the fact that President Vladimir Putin was expected to meet with US President Barack Obama on the margins of the APEC summit in Lima; the two leaders had a brief discussionabout Ukraine, where Obama called on Putin to fulfill the Minsk accord, Reuters reported.
Journalist Yuri Bender has been traveling through southeastern Ukraine reporting on the effects of the war on villages there. See his Twitter feed.
As we reported earlier, much attention was devoted today in both Ukrainian and Russian media to protest marches and actions to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Maidan Revolution.
Ukrainska Pravda reported that there were some clashes between demonstrators and police this evening when some protesters brought tires to burn and police took them away. Nevertheless, a few tires were burned.
Translation: At the Stela now.
Analyst Mikhail Savva wrote on his Facebook page that some of the demonstrators headed toward the office of Viktor Medvedchuk, an oligarch who is seen as a pro-Russian symbol. But they ended up throwing rocks at the window not of Medvedchuk’s office, but a beauty parlor that was on the next floor down. They also broke the windows of a Sberbank office:
“There were slightly less people filming the ‘destruction onf Medvedchuk’s office’ as there were demonstrators. The ‘destruction’ of the pro-Russian headquarters made the impression on me of something for show. As they say on the film credits, there were no injuries. The most interesting thing is that Medvedchuk’s office didn’t suffer. The owner of the ruined beauty parlor arrived and was distraught, the police are at work.”
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Three years ago today, the first protests began on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev, after President Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for signing the Association Agreement with the European Union.
Three years ago we ran this headline:
Ukraine Suspends Preparations for EU Association Agreement
The Ukrainian government suspended preparations for signing the Association Agreement today after a vote in parliament failed to achieve a sufficient majority to pass legislation that would allow the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad.
Many voices had been pushing Yanukovych to sign the association deal with the EU, and he had indicated that he was interested in doing so. Right before the deadline, however, Yanukovych traveled to Russia, where his caravan became “lost” en route to a meeting with Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's President "Lost En Route" to Moscow?
In another chapter of Ukraine's economic and ideological struggle between Europe and Russia, the east and the west, Ukraine's president Viktor Yanukovych "got lost" on his way to have meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. There remains a debate, however, as to whether Yanukovych was secretly negotiating with Putin, or whether he was being snubbed by the Kremlin.
When Yanukovych abruptly announced that he would not sign the association agreement, large protests broke out and the crowds refused to leave Maidan.
After months of demonstrations, Yanukovych deployed Berkut riot police to violently disperse protesters and employed even more brutal means to quell dissent during the winter, including the abduction, torture and killing of activists, and, in the final days before he fled to Russia, snipers. Over a hundred protesters and activists were killed.
A permanent memorial to the dead was unveiled today, Liga.net and other Ukrainian media reported.
Relatives of the more than 100 demonstrators killed by government troops on Maidan Square came to pay their respects, laying flowers near a cross devoted to the “Heavenly Hundred” as the fallen are known.
See photo essay by Andriy Gudzenko for Liga.net.
Today was also a day of protests by Azov Battalion, a far-right group notorious for its Nazi regalia and extremist statements.
Ukrainska Pravda reported that Azov and its political party, the National Corps, staged a march in Kiev on Bankovaya, the office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
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Translation: Azov placed a memorial to the general prosecutors who had “buried the Maidan case.”
The reference is to the fact that Yanukovych’s forces who shot and killed protesters were not brought to trial; some of them have fled Ukraine.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, Pierre Vaux and James Miller