Police Shoot Over Heads of Protesters; NSDC Supports Poroshenko’s Call for Freight Ban on Russia-Backed Separatist Territories

Russia-backed militants attacked Ukrainian positions 46 times in the past day, Liga.net reported, citing the ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation] evening dispatch. No casualties were reported throughout the day.

Earlier in its morning dispatch, the ATO cited 106 attacks; 6 soldiers wounded, and one soldier concussed.

Avdeyevka remained under intense attack over night with grenade-launchers, mortars and a tank. Grenade-launchers and mortars were fired on Zaytsevo, Opytnoye, the Butovka mine, Luganskoye, Troitskoye and Kamenki; 122-mm mortars were fired on Luganskoye. 

Throughout the day on the Donetsk line, mortar-launchers, grenade-launchers and small arms were used to attack Avdeyevka, Troitskoye and Luganskoye. A tank also fired on Avdeyevka as did snipers.

On the Lugansk line, militants used grenade-launchers near Novozvanovka. 

During the day on the Mariupol line, most shelling was on Shirokino and Vodyanoye, where militants used machine guns, a BMP and anti-aircraft systems.

Near Gnutovo, militants used grenade-launchers and a BMP near Novogrigoryevka. Heavy machine guns were fired on Maryinka.

The Mariupol city cite reported that four private homes on Vinogradnaya street were damaged in shelling from Russia-backed militants, and shells fell in their gardens.

A major fire also broke out at a styrofoam factory in Mariupol; the cause was not yet determined.

Protesters lead by Andrei Dyakonov, an equipment supplier at the Mariupol port  have demonstrated against the blockade, which is harming business as pre-payments for deliveries are not being made, 0629.com.ua, the Mariupol city site reports. The protesters have scuffled with blockade supporters. 0629.com.ua reports that Dyakonov has a past criminal conviction.

This caused damage to the Makeyevka-Avdeyevka Coke Factory power line and left Avdeyevka without electricity again as we reported yesterday.

The Donetsk Filter Station, which supplies water to Avdeyevka, Yasinovataya and Donetsk was forced to halt again. The JCCC urged its Russian counterparts in the JCCC to put pressure on separatists to ensure the power and water supply for civilians in the Donbass. Authorities hope to begin repairs March 16.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick 

Police opened fire over the heads of about 50 protesters in an auto convoy at a checkpoint in the town of Konstantinovka (Kostiantynivka) as clashes broke out again today between law-enforcers and activists who want to stop trade with the Russia-backed separatist-controlled territories, Gordonua.com reported.

The confrontation in Konstantinovka, about 73 kilometers to the north of Donetsk began at about 14:30 when the protesters refused to submit to a document check, Liga.net reported.

Police had not wanted to allow the activists into the ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation] or war zone as they did not have local license plates, said Gordonua.com.

Activist Dmytro Kravchenko uploaded a video to his Facebook page showing a soldier facing an angry, shouting mob and then firing a warning shot.

Laura Litvineko, a blockade supporter posted on her Facebook page (translation by The Interpreter):

But as the police were outnumbered and were unwilling to use more force as an MP was present, activists were able to push aside a police car and pass through the checkpoint.

Zoryan Shkiryak, advisor to the Interior Ministry, accused the blockaders of a “provocation” in Konstantinovka and of using swear language and attacking police with tear gas who were just doing their job, Gordonua.com reported.

Yesterday, as we reported, police arrested 45 blockaders in Slavyansk and on March 13, they Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and Special Weapons and Tactics troops broke up the blockade at the Krivoy Torets (Kryvy Torets) railway station in the village of Scherbynivka, Interfax reported.

 

 

Poroshenko Gets Support for Proposal to Impose Blockade on Donbass 

While police were breaking up the blockades, in fact, the government was essentially making them official policy.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) held an emergency session today to support President Petro Poroshenko’s proposal to halt temporarily all trains and trucks, except humanitarian vehicles, from passage through the line of contact between Ukrainian-controlled territory and the territory currently occupied by Russia-backed separatists, Gordonua.com reported in extensive coverage of the decision.

In a speech at the NSDC, Poroshenko explained the reasoning behind his decision:

Until a few weeks ago, many plants in the separatist-occupied areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions had continued to pay their taxes on profits to Ukraine, not to separatist coffers, and had continued to deliver raw material and goods to the rest of Ukraine, said Poroshenko. Now those links are broken as the separatists have responded to the unofficial blockade begun by ATO veterans, which cost them revenue, by seizing the remaining Ukrainian plants and selling their coal to Russia, not Ukraine.

Said Poroshenko, regarding the coal mines and plants in the Donbass: 

For this reason, Kiev maintained economic ties with the Donbass and officially condemned and discouraged the blockade informally put into effect by ATO veterans in December 2016.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister said the blockade had already cost Ukraine $3.5 billion, that plants were forced to buy coal from Russia, and 75,000 people in the mining industry could lose their jobs, Liga.net reported. Reserves of anthracite coal were dwindling and could not be replaced quickly with imports.

In an exclusive interview with Gordonua.com, Poroshenko explained that the blockaders actually made things worse for Ukraine because they  and cut off the last links Ukraine was hoping to use as a basis to eventually restore the territory. He blamed the protesters from leaving talks which the government had tried to conduct with them, and implied Russia had exploited them: 

The radicalism of the blockaders alienated both local residents and Ukraine’s European partners, Poroshenko added.

But now Poroshenko is essentially forced to put a blockade not only of railroads but of truck routes into effect until the separatists relinquish the factories they’ve seized. 

Sanctions against Russian banks are now also being contemplated, Gordonua.com reported; the National Bank and the SBU were assigned to do a feasibility study and within a day, Ekaterina Rozhkova, deputy head of the National Bank proposed a ban on any financial operations with Russian capital and said she hoped that “financial institutions with Russian capital will be removed from the Ukrainian market in a ‘civilized fashion'”.

Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the NSDC, told the press after the meeting that the blockade was being instituted “until implementation of points 1 and 2 of the complex of measures to fulfill the Minsk agreements of February 12, 2015, and until the return of the seized factories to Ukrainian jurisdiction.”

Turchynov referenced the ceasefires under the Minsk accords and efforts to pull back heavy armor and weapons which have failed with the escalation of fighting in recent weeks.

Arsen Avakov, Interior Minister, said the ban on trade would not affect private trips of individuals between the territories, but only freight.

 

Police Brought into Parliament to Speak About Clashes with Blockaders; Deputy Speaker Closes Session 

The clash of blockaders with police and the disputes around them led to an incident in the Ukrainska Rada or national parliament today when Vice Speaker Oskana Syroid closed the session after some MPS brought in police chiefs who are not MPs to speak about the arrests of 45 protesters at the checkpoint in Slavyansk.

While Yury Bereza from the Popular Front was speaking, people in camouflage uniforms arrived and “took over the parliament” as some witnesses claimed. 

Yuriy Holuban, a colonel in the National Police, was brought to the podium to recount the incident that led to the arrest of the 45 demonstrators, including MP Volodymyr Parsyuk in Slavyansk.

Speaking at first in broken Ukrainian and then in Russian, he complained about Parasyuk’s actions at the checkpoint, noting that he and his fellow police were following orders not to allow people into the ATO zone, and in the clashes, some of his men were wounded, including some seriously.

Volodymyr Parasyuk, who is an MP but not a member of any faction, was accused by police of pushing law-enforcers, insulting them, and tearing the masks off some officers who refused to allow activists to pass through a checkpoint.

President Petro Poroshenko condemned Parasyuk’s actions, captured in a video, as “disgraceful”.

A video was also uploaded of police opening fire. Parasyuk said seven of his supporters were detained, his sister was beaten, and his father was hospitalized due to the use of tear gas by police.

He later said Gerashchenko, an MP from the Popular Front and former Interior Ministry advisor had invited him to speak.

But Vice Speaker Syroid based her decision to cut off the debate on a parliamentary regulation that requires a vote of 150 or more deputies to allow a non-MP like Holuban to speak at a session.

Aleksandr Khodakovsky, head of the Russia-backed separatist Vostok Battalion added fat to the fire regarding this incident by telling the press that Holuban, the police colonel brought in to speak in parliament, was a former fighter in his battalion who had fought against Ukraine, but then had taken a job in a commercial enterprise, ultimately winding up working in the police.

“And now he fights with [former Donbas Battalion head and blockade supporter Semyon] Semyonchenko” and is “dispersing his ‘brothers’ now already in the ranks of the Ukrainian police,” he said.

“We’ll figure he’s been sent in for diversionary work to the ranks of the enemy,” added Khodakovsky, implying that Holuban was working for Moscow — the side he himself is on.

The NSDC’s decision to support President Poroshenko’s call for an official blockade should likely see the end of protests in recent months that have been among the most severe clashes between police and demonstrators since the Maidan protests in 2014. 

But extent of the damage for Ukraine of the forcing of Poroshenko’s hand in this manner and the loss of the Donbas industries for Ukraine have yet to be seen. 

Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, who owns a number of coal mines and plants in the Donbass, says he has lost control of his companies in the region.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick