Ukraine waging war with Russia ----Poroshenko

By -
Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko sparked fresh Kremlin fury on Wednesday by warning that his crisis-torn country was fighting a "real war" against Russian aggressors that could escalate at any time.
The pro-Western leader said the weekend capture of two purported Russian special forces members proved that the separatist uprising in the industrial east of Ukraine was a guise for a Moscow-orchestrated campaign aimed at breaking up his ex-Soviet state, according to AFP.
"This is not a fight with Russian-backed separatists, this is a real war with Russia," the 49-year-old Ukrainian leader told the BBC.
"The fact that we captured... Russian regular special forces soldiers (is) strong evidence of that."
Ukraine's military on Tuesday showed off two wounded Russians who had been taken prisoner during a firefight in Lugansk -- a blue-collar region that together with neighbouring Donetsk revolted against Kiev's shift toward the West 13 months ago.
The men testified during a taped interrogation that they entered the war zone nearly two months ago as part of a 200-strong reconnaissance unit from the Russian army's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
A Ukrainian Security Service spokesman said the suspects have been charged with involvement in "terrorist activity" and given a chance to phone their relatives back home.
Moscow acknowledges the presence of Russian "volunteers" and off-duty servicemen in Ukraine but rejects charges that they are there under orders from President Vladimir Putin's generals.
But two Russian opposition activists investigating the deaths of three other GRU members said they had found fresh graves that showed they died on active duty in Ukraine.
Kiev's detention and display before world media on Tuesday of the two soldiers captured in Lugansk has outraged the Kremlin and threatened to cement Putin's resolve to keep Kiev within Moscow's orbit for years.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said flatly that the "Kremlin does not agree" with what the Ukrainian leader told the BBC.
"First of all, one has to understand that unfortunately, Kiev is waging war against its own citizens," Russian news agencies quoted Peskov as saying.
"They are the ones coming under fire and they are the ones dying," said Peskov. "We should probably be talking about that first."
The comments were followed a few hours later by a Ukrainian cabinet decision to suspend all sales of military and advanced aerospace equipment to Russia that began under the terms of a landmark agreement signed in 1993.
Ukraine supplied Zenit rockets for Russia's lucrative commercial and strategic military satellite launches.
It also built boosters that propelled Russian Proton cargo-hauling rockets to the International Space Station.
- Russia 'preparing an offensive' -
The United Nations believes the more than year-long conflict has claimed at least 6,250 lives and driven more than a million people from their homes.
A second truce agreement Poroshenko struck with Putin with the help of the leaders of Germany and France in February has thus far failed to take complete hold.
Ukraine has lost at least eight servicemen since Monday in clashes across both of its renegade provinces.
Kiev blamed the violence on a new infusion of Russian troops, but agreed to hold a new round of ceasefire and political settlement talks with rebel representatives in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on Friday.
Such talks have previously achieved little besides keeping all-out warfare from breaking out once again across the devastated region -- a possibility that Poroshenko said was all too real.
"I believe they are preparing an offensive and I think we should be ready," the Ukrainian president said.
He added that he lacked "trust" in Putin but had no choice but to seek an understanding with the Kremlin strongman.
"I doubt the release of my territory (from Russian forces) could happen by military means," Poroshenko said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UBTH @50: Obaseki hails institution’s role in strengthening Edo healthcare

By -
Image
(Nigeria) Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has commended the staff and management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and hard work in providing high-quality healthcare services to the people of Edo State and Nigeria in the past fifty years. Obaseki, at a dinner organized in honour of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, reassured the government’s continuous partnership and collaboration with the federal government-owned health institution to strengthen the health system and ensure quality health delivery to Edo people. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Philip Shaibu, reeled out the gains of the government’s reforms in the health sector, commending the medical centre for bolstering the government’s efforts at transforming Edo State into a health hub. He said, "We came into a wilderness where you have to cut a part for yourself and fix it. We held...
Read more

Osun: S'Court ruling affirmed power resides with the people - Diri

By -
Image
*Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri (Nigeria) Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has said the ruling of the country’s apex court on the Osun State governorship election was an affirmation that power in a democracy resided with the people. Governor Diri, while congratulating Senator Ademola Adeleke in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, on Wednesday, expressed joy that the Supreme Court sealed the mandate freely given to the governor by the Osun people. The Bayelsa governor also said the verdict reflected the current mood of the country where those whose stock-in-trade is to promote electoral violence and subvert the will of the people have no place in our electoral system. He expressed the hope that introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, will instil more confidence in the electoral process, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deepen Nigeria’s democracy by also introducing electronic votin...
Read more

NBC has no powers to impose fine on broadcast stations --Court

By -
Image
(Nigeria) The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been restrained by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country. Trial judge in the matter, Justice James Omotosho also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on March 1, 2019, on each of 45 broadcast stations. The court made the orders in its judgment a suit by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, MRA, which had sued the NBC. Justice Omotosho held that the NBC, not being a court of law, had no power to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations. The court further held that the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law. He said the court would not sit idle and watch a body imposing fine arbitrarily without recourse to the law. He said that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and at...
Read more