RU-UKR blockade/crisis update

12-1-18  

Ukraine resists Kremlin blockade

“If the blockade continues another week, real damage will be done,” said Marina Pereshevalevo, a trade union leader in the port.  “I’ve worked here 32 years and it breaks my heart.” 

  Pressure has been building in the region since the outbreak of the war in 2014.  The port lost several key customers, especially coal mines, and a mainline railway when local territory fell to Russian-backed separatist forces.  As a result the port is operating below half capacity.  If before the port handled a wide range of exports – coal, metal, grain, clay – now metal products from Mariupol’s three metal plants account for the vast majority (75 per cent) of its goods. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-azov-port-maripul-moscow-putin-poroshenko-economy-crisis-a8662046.html

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12-1-2018    8:30 p.m. UKR time    German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Russia must allow ships access to Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait, which separates the Russian mainland from the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Merkel spoke to reporters Saturday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires after holding a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

6:25 p.m.  UKR time  Ukraine's president says Russia is building up land forces and weapons along its border with Ukraine as tensions between the two countries flares in the wake of a recent naval clash in the Black Sea.

President Petro Poroshenko says Russia has deployed "more than 80,000 troops, 1,400 artillery and multiple rocket launch systems, 900 tanks, 2,300 armored combat vehicles, 500 aircraft and 300 helicopters" along their border.  He spoke Saturday said at an Ukrainian military event. 

These numbers, which have not been verified, would account for the vast majority of men and hardware assigned to Russia's Western Military District.   https://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/the-latest-ukraine-huge-russian-military-buildup-on-border/1632172749
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10-31-2018  

Military Counterintelligence Agency of Ukrainian SBU Security Service collected evidence of multiple cases of the Russian FSB Federal Security Service and "DPR/LPR" security operatives recruiting relatives of the Ukrainian military.

"Our agents have revealed that the wives of three officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had been recruited as they were visiting their parents in the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The women were subjected to psychological pressure, threatened with an entry/exit ban, jail time, and persecution of their parents. As a result, they provided written consent to confidential cooperation and selected codenames," the SBU's press center said in a statement, Censor.NET reports citing UNIAN.   https://censor.net.ua/en/news/3094285/sbu_says_russian_secret_services_attempt_to_recruit_wives_of_ukrainian_servicemenSource: https://censor.net.ua/en/n3094285