I Had a Good Day

Essay-from the dailysignal.com
[b]KYIV, Ukraine—You can’t fake courage in a trench war.

The thing is, there’s no escaping the danger. You could die just as easily while walking to the toilet as you could while holding the line under artillery fire. You never know when the shelling will start, or when a sniper has you in his sights.

In the end, your chances of survival usually just depend on good luck and the odds of not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the saying goes—it’s better to be lucky than good.

After more than five years of constant combat in their country’s embattled, eastern Donbas region, some Ukrainian soldiers have learned to simply laugh at the danger and treat the war like a sport. Others grow quiet and gloomy, imagining at every moment how they could die.

“Nobody will feel safe while Russia is waging war against Ukraine in the center of Europe,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly.

An unfolding uproar over a phone conversation two months ago between Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump suddenly has put Ukraine and its 5-year-old resistance of Russian aggression in the foreground of the political landscape.

In Ukraine, some exceptional soldiers are able to see the war for the tragedy it truly is and go on fighting anyway.

In the summer of 2015, while embedded with the Ukrainian regular army in the front-line village of Pisky, I befriended a young soldier named Daniel Kasyanenko who was among this rare breed.

He was only 19, but Daniel had an uncanny ability to put the war in perspective. He understood the toll that combat was taking on his young soul and recognized the war was not black and white.

Yet, Daniel never failed to pull the trigger when he had to. Consequently, the things he had done and seen in war haunted him. He told me the war had “ruined him” and his “understanding of life.” It would have been better to go to war as an old man, he confided.

When I departed the front lines, Daniel and I pledged to stay in touch. We talked about the possibility of his coming to America one day, which was his dream. But a few days after I’d returned to Kyiv, I received a somewhat disjointed text message from Daniel.

He’d been injured by a mortar, he told me, and had what the Ukrainian medics called a “brain contusion,” which probably meant he had a concussion, or, more likely, a traumatic brain injury. In any case, Daniel’s commanders gave him a few weeks’ leave to go back to his hometown of Zaporizhia, only a three-hour car ride from the front lines.

Daniel spent a couple of weeks at home, living with his parents, Marina and Konstantin Kasyanenko. It was a tough time for Daniel’s parents as they tried, over and over, to convince their son that he didn’t have to go back to war.

And the truth is, he didn’t.



Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol in 2014, during the height of the war. (Photos: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
You see, when Russia invaded Ukraine in the summer of 2014, Daniel, like so many Ukrainians of his generation, simply headed for the front and joined the ranks of an irregular militia that had formed to fight the Russian invasion.

These volunteers learned how to be soldiers while in the war, with no formal training. They jokingly called it “natural selection” training.

Daniel, for his part, went straight from living under his parents’ roof to living under Russian artillery and sniper fire. There was no chance for him to become a man before he became a soldier.

Marina Kasyanenko later told me that she would watch her son sleeping while he was home on convalescent leave. He’d changed so much in the few months he’d been away, she remembered.

“He went to war as a boy and came back as a wise old man,” she said.

On the day he left to go back to war, Marina begged her son to stay. “You’re too young,” she told him.

“Mom, I have to go back,” Daniel answered. “I have to go back to my friends. It’s my duty.”

He did. And two weeks later, a mortar killed Daniel during a battle in Pisky.

As I said, he was just 19.

Since Daniel’s death, my wife, Lilly, and I took a trip down to Zaporizhia to meet his parents. I asked Marina if it was OK for me to use her words as a way to tell people about the war, and to help explain what her son had died fighting for.

She replied: “You do what you can to prevent our boys from dying. The whole world must learn the truth about the war in Ukraine.”

So, here it is. Here’s the truth.

The war in Ukraine is not a civil war. It never was. It always has been, and it remains, a Russian invasion.

A Secret

Today, Ukraine is square in the middle of a political firestorm in Washington, D.C.

It’s a bit ironic, and tragic, I must admit, that after more than five years of reporting on the war in Ukraine, it takes a political controversy in Washington to finally draw U.S. media attention to a country in which Europe’s only ongoing land war is being fought.

In Ukraine, I’ve experienced firsthand a type of combat that exceeded in intensity anything I experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan—both as a U.S. Air Force special operations pilot and while on the ground as a war correspondent in those conflicts.

Rocket attacks, heavy artillery, trench warfare, a civilian airliner shot down by a surface-to-air missile—the war in Ukraine is terrifying.

In September 2014, for instance, I watched a tank battle from a hilltop in the coastal city of Mariupol. Yes, a tank battle. In Europe, in our time. It was like something out of a Hollywood movie. Except it wasn’t. It was for real.

The next day, I toured that battlefield. It was Sept. 5, 2014, the day the war’s first cease-fire was signed.



Battle damage in eastern Ukraine. After more than five years, combat is ongoing.
What I saw was a wasteland of destroyed tanks and armored personnel carriers. And lots of dead soldiers, too; their charred, ruined bodies scattered on the ground, frozen in the moments of their deaths like the plaster molds of the dead at Pompeii.

I’d never seen a war like that. But what was even more shocking was that it all felt like a secret. And it still does.

Today, dear reader, as you read these words, Ukrainian troops remain entrenched along a 250-mile-long front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. There, Ukraine’s military continues to fight a static, trench war against a combined force of pro-Russian separatists, foreign mercenaries, and Russian regulars.

One Ukrainian soldier still dies in combat every three days. And civilians are still dying, too. So far, the war has killed more than 13,000 Ukrainians—roughly half that number died after the Minsk II cease-fire went into effect in February 2015.

And with 1.7 million people who still can’t go home due to the conflict, Europe’s only ongoing land war is also the Continent’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

‘Bad News Bears’ of War

The Ukraine conflict began on April 6, 2014, when Russian security agents and Spetsnaz (special forces) troops engineered an uprising that spawned two Russian-backed territories in eastern Ukraine—the Donetsk People’s Republic, or DNR, and the Luhansk People’s Republic, or LNR.

It was a textbook execution of Russia’s hybrid warfare playbook, blending conventional military force with weaponized propaganda and cyberattacks to create confusion, both on the battlefield and deep within an adversary’s home turf.

The preceding February, Ukrainian protesters had braved snipers on Kyiv’s central square during a revolution to overthrow Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s pro-Russian president. At its heart, Ukraine’s 2014 “Revolution of Dignity” was about the country turning away from Russia and its Soviet past, and looking forward to a pro-Western, pro-democratic future.

Yet Russia painted the revolution as a CIA-orchestrated putsch to install a fascist, pro-American government in Kyiv. The Kremlin spun its 2014 seizure of Crimea and the ensuing conflict in the Donbas as grassroots uprisings created and led by disaffected, Russian-speaking Ukrainians who believed the new government in Kyiv was illegitimate.

In the summer of 2014, the combined Russian-separatist army was on the march in eastern Ukraine. There were worries then that Ukraine could be split in two, or that Russia might launch a large-scale invasion. At that time, Ukraine’s regular army had been depleted by decades of corruption and was able to field only about 6,000 combat-ready soldiers.



As a new era of warfare begins, U.S. soldiers have a lot to learn from their Ukrainian counterparts.
Officials advised citizens in Kyiv to use the city’s metro in case of a Russian aerial bombardment or artillery blitz. In cities across Ukraine, spray-painted signs on the sides of buildings pointed to the nearest bomb shelters.

In those early months of the war, with Ukraine’s regular army on its heels, everyday Ukrainians filled the ranks of irregular, civilian combat units. Meanwhile, legions of volunteers collected and delivered supplies to support the front-line troops—often at great risk.

It was a grassroots war effort, underscoring a widespread attitude of self-reliance among Ukrainian citizens who were unwilling to wait for the government to act in a moment of crisis.

By July 2014, Ukraine’s ragtag armed forces (the “Bad News Bears” of war, as I call them) had retaken 23 out of the 36 districts previously under combined Russian-separatist control. With its troops on the march, it looked briefly like Kyiv might be able to take back all the territory it previously had lost to Russia’s proxies.

But then, in August that year, Russia sent into the conflict thousands of its own troops along with weapons and military hardware. Many Ukrainians feared a full-scale Russian invasion was in the works; a sack of the port city of Mariupol looked imminent.

The September 2014 cease-fire arrested the war from escalating to truly catastrophic levels. However, that first cease-fire quickly collapsed. The subsequent, Minsk II cease-fire ultimately froze the conflict along its current front lines.

But the war never ended.

Deadly Stalemate

The status quo stalemate along the trench lines in eastern Ukraine has developed into a volatile standoff. It’s become a long-range battle mainly fought with indirect fire weapons such as mortars and artillery. For the most part, soldiers hardly ever see at whom they’re shooting. Except for the snipers.

I always thought the threat of snipers was the most terrifying part of this war, or any other I’ve covered. Unlike the arbitrary, haphazard threat of artillery, when a sniper shoots at you it’s personal. Someone is specifically looking through a scope, trying to kill you. It’s a very intimate threat.

At some places along Ukraine’s eastern front, no man’s land can be several miles wide. At others, the Ukrainians and their enemies are close enough to shout insults at one another.

In the front-line town of Shyrokyne in 2015, for example, I was on hand when the Ukrainians’ enemies crawled up to their lines in the night and challenged Ukrainian troops to single, unarmed combat.

Altogether, it’s a bizarre conflict, blending modern technology such as drones and electronic warfare with battlefield conditions similar to those of the World War I trenches—albeit, on a much smaller scale.



Shrapnel damage in eastern Ukraine—evidence of the intensity of combat.
When not in the trenches, the Ukrainian troops usually live in the basements of abandoned homes. It’s simply too dangerous to spend much time above ground with the constant shelling and sniper fire.

An artillery war is, above all, an emotionally exhausting type of combat. Every second, in the back of your mind, you’re worried about dying.

And that constant background din of danger was far different than what I experienced on deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as an Air Force pilot, in which I had relatively safe places to return to and decompress between missions.

Thus, one major challenge for the U.S. military in a conflict with a near-peer adversary such as Russia is that we might not have those safe redoubts to which we’ve grown accustomed any more.

Russia has the means to attack U.S. bases in ways insurgent forces in Iraq and Afghanistan never could. American troops simply are not used to living with the kind of constant, unending danger that Ukrainian soldiers have faced in the Donbas war zone’s trenches for more than five years.

‘A Dark Comedy’

Since 2014, Russia has used Ukraine as a testing ground for both its modern conventional and hybrid warfare doctrines, providing a case study for the new kinds of security threats the U.S. and its Western allies can anticipate from so-called near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China.

For that reason, U.S. military aid to Ukraine is not a one-way street. In fact, as U.S. armed forces prepare for a new era of threats and great power competition, they stand to learn a lot from Ukraine’s military.

“It’s a great primer for us to see how Russia is fighting in Ukraine,” U.S. Army Col. Lawrence Ferguson, 10th Special Forces Group commander, told me during an exercise in Poland last year.

“We’ve got a good picture of how they’re going to fight,” Ferguson said. “It’s a standard application of force from the USSR, with modern technology.”

With all the hardships they face, Ukraine’s soldiers have learned to adapt. War has become their way of life. The same goes for those Ukrainian civilians left living within the war zone.

It always amazes me how life goes on in spite of the war. Children still attend school, even amid the daily shelling. Shops and grocery stores remain open. Families still gather together for dinner. In Mariupol, a restaurant run by veterans delivers pizzas to soldiers on the front lines.

One of the most striking examples of this coexistence of normal life with the war was in the front-line town of Lobacheve. A river divides the town, and when I last visited, Ukrainians controlled one side while combined Russian-separatist forces controlled the other.

But there was only one school in town. So, each day, the opposing camps agreed to two short cease-fires during which time the town’s children could take a ferry across the river, going to and from school.



A Ukrainian soldier enjoys a quiet moment in the front-line town of Pisky in eastern Ukraine.
I witnessed one of these bizarre, brief timeouts from the war. It was surreal to watch Ukrainian soldiers casually standing on the riverbank, smoking cigarettes as they waved to their enemies on the other shore.

However, when the truce was over, the snipers came back out, and the soldiers took cover. Like after a water break during a pick-up basketball game, the war was back on.

“War is a dark comedy,” a Ukrainian soldier named Andriy told me with an ironic chuckle as we scrambled for safety.

There’s obviously no love lost between the two camps—even though many Ukrainians have family in Russia and vice versa. In fact, many older Ukrainian soldiers served in the Red Army alongside Russians during the Soviet era. I’ve observed some Ukrainian troops sending Facebook messages to their enemies, who they knew from university or from growing up.

“It’s difficult to make war when the enemy speaks the same language, and they have the same religion,” said Ukrainian soldier and Red Army veteran Oleksandr Derevyanko, 54. “But we have to fight this war, we have no choice. Russia attacked us, and we have to defend our motherland.”

Derevyanko fought in Afghanistan as a Soviet soldier in the 1980s. As is often common among Ukraine’s older soldiers, Derevyanko and I found common ground in our shared recollections of that distant battlefield and what it taught us about war.

“In Afghanistan, I learned that it’s easy to start a war, but hard to finish one,” the old soldier told me.

I couldn’t have said it better.

Sword of Damocles

For Ukraine, the Donbas war remains an existential threat because it could, at any moment, spiral into something much worse. There’s always the chance for an unanticipated escalation. A so-called Franz Ferdinand scenario, as I call it.

Ukraine and Russia have Europe’s two biggest standing land armies in terms of manpower. And they’re shooting at each other every day.

That tenuous status quo has sent shockwaves across Eastern Europe, spurring many countries to prepare for a bigger war. Consequently, the entire military balance of power in Eastern Europe has been upheaved since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014.

Today, the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are among the most rapidly militarizing countries on earth, based on defense spending increases. And Poland has dramatically increased its military spending, too.



A destroyed tank outside the eastern Ukrainian town of Sloviansk.
For its part, NATO is rotating military forces and holding exercises across Eastern Europe at levels unseen since the Cold War. Mutual distrust is increasing—and so is the danger of an accidental conflict as NATO and Russian forces interact more often and with more suspicion.

In 2014, the United States and the European Union levied punitive economic sanctions on Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine. Since then, relations between Russia and the West have hit a post-Cold War nadir.

Using cyberwarfare and an arsenal of weaponized propaganda, Russia has embarked on a hybrid war blitz against Western democracies. Looking back, it’s clear that Ukraine was the opening salvo of Russia’s ongoing war against the American-led, democratic world order.

As U.S. military forces in Europe repaint their desert tan equipment in forest green, there’s a feeling of deja vu among those few troops who can remember the Cold War.

Similarly, as the machine guns rattle and the artillery thunders across the plains of eastern Ukraine, one remembers that just two generations ago this land was the deadliest battlefield of the deadliest war in human history.

Today, the current war in Ukraine is nothing less than a sword of Damocles suspended over Eastern Europe, threatening to spark a larger conflagration.

When the sun goes down on this night, the tracers will cut across the dark sky up and down the front line. War-weary soldiers and civilians will hunker down in trenches and in cellars, staving off the cold and the fear as they have for more than five straight years.

There’s a 1 in 3 chance that a Ukrainian soldier will die tonight at the hands of a Russian weapon. There’s a good chance a civilian will be killed or wounded tonight, too.

The war goes on and on. When and where will it end?

Imagination

The war in Ukraine isn’t just the front line against Russian military aggression. It’s also the front line to defend the spirit and the promise of democracy. Ukrainian soldiers—like Daniel—are fighting our next war so we don’t have to.

“The thought that this has nothing to do with you or will never touch your interests will be fatal,” Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said Wednesday at the U.N.

The American war correspondent Martha Gellhorn once wrote: “Unless they are immediate victims, the majority of mankind behaves as if war was an act of God which could not be prevented; or they behave as if war elsewhere was none of their business. It would be a bitter cosmic joke if we destroy ourselves due to atrophy of the imagination.”

It’s easy to believe that history automatically arcs in the right direction, or that the era of world wars is over. It could never happen again; not in our time, we mistakenly conclude.

But it sure doesn’t feel that way these days in Ukraine, or across Eastern Europe for that matter.



For many Ukrainian soldiers

Russia's War Against Ukraine
Win Or Loss? Zelensky Seeks End To War Without Falling Into Russian Trap

By Illia Ponomarenko . Published Oct. 4. Updated Oct. 4 at 11:57 am


A shadow fell over downtown Kyiv on the evening of Oct. 1 as angry crowds poured onto the central square of Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Hundreds of protesters including far-right activists also rallied near the Presidential Office, fiercely chanting “No to capitulation!”

Earlier, Russian media reported that Ukraine had agreed to accept the so-called Steinmeier Formula — a controversial German proposal to bring the Russian-Ukrainian war in the Donbas to a peaceful end, with local elections and regional autonomy.

To some, it looks like peace at any cost.

Many Ukrainians are lamenting that the formula is a deal with the Kremlin, and offers favorable terms to militants backed by Russia, which started a conflict in 2014 that has now claimed over 13,000 lives including at least 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

What happened in Minsk? Assessments ranged from a key breakthrough towards peace, to high treason, a demeaning surrender committed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The formula got the signatures of former president and Ukrainian envoy to the Minsk negotiations Leonid Kuchma and the Kremlin. But it is Russia and its proxies in Ukraine that are expected to enjoy the outcome of local elections in the occupied Donbas. The notion of broad autonomy is expected to create more questions than answers.

The diplomatic struggle to end the war in Donbas could now be in its endgame. But the formula does not address many key demands on the Ukrainian side. There is still uncertainty over the status of Ukraine’s border with Russia, and the unresolved presence of Russian-armed militants in the region.

To many, it looks as if Kyiv has backed itself into a corner.



Badly defined

The so-called Steinmeier Formula was proposed by Germany’s then-Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2016, to reinvigorate a hopelessly stalled Minsk peace process.

It envisaged holding local elections in Russian-occupied Donbas under Ukrainian law, with the supervision of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Should the OSCE recognize the elections free, fair, and democratic, the “special territorial status” of Donbas envisaged by the Minsk talks would take effect, giving the separatist territorial autonomy inside Ukraine.

According to the 2014 Minsk protocol, autonomy includes the right to have “people’s militia formations” (in fact, their own armed forces), to have cross-border cooperation with Russia, to appoint prosecutors and judges “under special procedure,” to facilitate the use of Russian language in public domains, and to enjoy privileges over state budget allocations.

Ukraine signed the Minsk protocol in 2014–2015 in the wake of disastrous military defeats at Ilovaisk and Debaltseve.

Back in 2016, then-President Petro Poroshenko endorsed the Steinmeier proposal as an acceptable solution to the Minsk stalemate, but ever since then, it saw little daylight — until Oct. 1, 2019.

The wording is ambiguous on whether the Russians would withdraw, if militant forces would disarm and disband and if Ukrainian media, observers and political parties would be allowed into the region. The formula only details the conditions under which the region would gain permanent, broad autonomy.



According to the document, the elections must be held in compliance with Ukrainian law. And at 8 p. m. local time on the election day — presumably immediately after the closing of all polling stations — the currently-occupied Donbas would be provided with a provisional “special territorial status” envisaged by already-existing law approved by the Ukrainian parliament as far back as in September 2014 (as part of the Minsk process) and formally renewed each year since then.

OSCE monitors supervising the polling would then weigh in. If they found the election to be fair and in line with international standards, the provisional law would become permanent.

Critics say the formula legalizes the occupation of the Donbas and turns it into a deadly Trojan horse under Russian control.

The Presidential Administration did not come up with a better solution than holding a chaotic 11-minute-long briefing with Zelensky. The ‘Steinmeier Formula’ letter to the OSCE signed by Kuchma was officially published the following day on Oct. 2.

Zelensky has hope

Zelensky said that the fact that the formula was approved does not mean he gave up on expelling Russian forces from the Donbas.

Speaking during the blitz briefing on Oct. 1, he called the formula “the biggest boogeyman of recent weeks” and said that it was not meant to deal with Ukrainian control of the region or Russian withdrawal before elections.

Zelensky repeatedly stated he would not consent to any elections in the region unless all non-Ukrainian armed forces were gone.

“This means that there can be no elections at machine-gun points,” he said. “If someone is out there, there will be no elections.”

As elections must adhere to Ukrainian law, Kyiv could reclaim its uncontrolled border with Russia, he added. Russia’s withdrawal will be discussed during an upcoming Normandy Four meeting of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France.

The president also said that the provisional law on special territorial status for Donbas would expire after Dec. 31, 2019 and parliament would make new legislation.

“In this new law, no “red lines” will be crossed,” Zelensky said. “Therefore, there can be no capitulation.” He did not specify what the red lines were.

Bohdan Yaremenko, a lawmaker with Zelensky’s party Servant of the People, added some more clarity on Oct. 2, saying that the presidential team sees a total ceasefire, a prisoner exchange, and Ukrainian control over the territory and the border as indispensable preconditions to elections.

“No one has any doubts that this is not the war’s end,” Yaremenko said. “But those steps decided directly by the Russian president can indicate Russia’s readiness to make arrangements. Zelensky is seeking to negotiate an end to Russia’s war under the so-called Steinmeier Formula, advanced by German President Frank Walter-Steinmeier. Under the idea, Ukraine would hold elections and grant limited local autonomy to areas now under Russian control if the Kremlin withdraws its military forces and restores Ukrainian control to the eastern borders. Many questions remain, however, including whether it’s even possible to have democratic elections in the occupied areas under these circumstances. (The Presidential Administration of Ukraine)
Heavy backlash

Nonetheless, the decision drew fierce criticism from Zelensky’s political opponents.

Ex-president Poroshenko, who is currently leading the 27-seat European Solidarity faction, spearheaded the attacks, despite having endorsed the formula since 2016 and claiming that the Minsk process had “no alternatives” throughout his presidency.

In numerous tweets sent starting from Oct. 1, Poroshenko dismissed the proposal as “Putin’s formula” invented in the Kremlin and serving Russia’s interests. He called it legitimizing the Russian occupation of the Donbas and Crimea, and making the Donbas “an anchor blocking Ukraine’s aspirations towards European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”

The backlash intensified as Russian-backed militants on Oct. 2 said that they refused to recognize Zelensky’s lead in the peaceful settlement.

“It will be we who decide the language we speak, what kind of economy we have, how our judicial system will be formed, how our people’s militia will be defending our citizens, and how we will be integrated into Russia,” Donbas militant leaders Denys Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik were quoted as saying by Russian media.

They added that “Kyiv authorities will not get any sort of control over the border (with Russia)” and claimed that they must approve any law on special territorial status.

Popular protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities resumed through Oct. 2, although much of the Ukrainian public appeared to be confused about the poorly explained deal.

According to a poll published by the Rating Group pollster on Oct. 2, as many as 60 percent of Ukrainians hesitated to give their appraisal of the formula, while 23 percent opposed it and only 11 percent endorsed it.



‘No illusions here’

Paris, Berlin and London welcomed the formula, but so did the Kremlin.

Minsk negotiators agreed to launch another round of mutual withdrawal of manpower and weapons near the towns of Petrivske and Zolote in Donbas, and discussed the chances of another big prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

The decision reportedly paved the way for another Normandy Four meeting of France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, likely to take place in Paris sometime in the future.

“We have achieved progress, but many further steps are needed,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Oct. 2 in Berlin. “This doesn’t mean we can lift sanctions (against Russia), but there are preconditions for that.”

The present situation gives few grounds for optimism — even if Kyiv still has some hope.

“The Steinmeier formula has a lot of risk in it for Ukraine,” Michael Carpenter, senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, told the Kyiv Post. “It’s a potentially dangerous move by Ukraine. “But if Ukraine plays its cards right, Zelensky could make this happen in a way that advances Ukraine’s interests.”

“The proof is in the pudding. If you have OSCE monitors, if you have Russian troops withdrawn and if there are no military or paramilitary thugs running around when the elections are held, one could envision that being traded for some enhanced autonomy that would not compromise Ukraine’s sovereignty or the reach of the central government.”

But Carpenter doubts that Russian President Vladimir Putin will comply. “From Putin’s perspective, it’s hard to see how he would agree to that sort of arrangement because it would undercut Russian influence in Ukraine.”

“I think Zelensky is right to test Putin’s mettle, but he has to be very careful. Control of borders and restoration of the rule of law in Russia-occupied Donbas is central to all of this.”



Glen Grant, retired British Army Colonel and former adviser to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, also suggests Zelensky be extremely careful in making deals with the devil: “There is no clarity of what Russia is saying or doing on this issue and there appears little to show for this move,” Grant told the Kyiv Post.

“The facts against Russia are stark. There has been no reduction in attacks in Donbas — in fact, the reverse. There has been no movement on returning Crimea, no improvement in the conditions in the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea. The nuisances from Russia continue worldwide.”

“I hope that there is a clear policy about this agreement that is not just one-sided concessions. Hopefully, the President will not gain tactical success in Donbas for strategic failure later. This is a dangerous game for national survival being played with an evil and cunning opponent who seeks to destroy Ukraine. There must be no illusions here.”

Mattia Nelles, an expert with the Center for Liberal Modernity, a Berlin-based think tank, believes many crucial questions are yet unanswered, “and the devil is in the details.”
“The Formula does not address under which exact circumstances the local elections are to be held and when,” he told the Kyiv Post. “The president stated his interpretation of it by saying that there can be no ‘elections at gunpoint’ but that alone is insufficient. So, will the Ukrainians or the OSCE get control of the border to Russia?”

Nelles said that Zelensky’s drive for peace is laudable but Ukraine should tread carefully. “A return of the occupied Donbas might be a poisonous and extremely costly gift by Russia, if it remains in control of its proxies there. Ukraine now, more than ever, needs allies that check any of such overtures and ensure that Ukraine’s territorial integrity will not be sacrificed so that the some in the West can return to business as usual with the Kremlin.”

Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner contributed to this story.

Russia's War Against Ukraine
Timothy Ash: Will Zelensky sell out on peace, corruption fight?

By Timothy Ash. Published Oct. 2. Updated Oct. 2 at 11:15 amThe Ukrainian leader made a statement to brief the press regarding the just-approved ultimate edition of the so-called Steinmeier Formula regulating a possible local elections in Russian-occupied Donbas as part of the Minsk peace settlement.

Strange evening. I had lots of people telling me Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was about to make a big announcement last night. I had assumed it was something to do with National Bank of Ukraine independence given earlier in the day he had been at the central bank pressing some flesh and trying to reassure officials that he was on their side.

Earlier in the day, the courts had delayed by a week a PrivatBank hearing – my suspicions had it that the trip to the NBU and the Zelensky visit were linked. Zelensky might well have wanted nice photo ops and public relations at the NBU – supporting the International Monetary Fund program and did not want this derailed by anything on the PrivatBank issue. This suggested to some no doubt that there is some kind of control over the courts.

In the end, there was a nothing burger statement from the presidential palace on Zelensky’s visit to the NBU, saying he supports the IMF program but not the firm statement of support for the NBU and its approach on PrivatBank as the central bank had hoped.

I think the NBU and IMF will have been disappointed by this.

But what we did have yesterday was a Zelensky press conference where he seemed to support the Steinmeier approach in Donbas peace talks.

If true this would be a major concession from Kyiv to Moscow as it largely gives what Moscow wants which is autonomy for the Kremlin’s so-called Donbas People’s Republics and Luhansk People’s Republic — the Russian-controlled areas of the eastern Donbas in Ukraine — and a veto in effect on Ukraine’s geopolitical orientation.

It’s a bit like the Swiss Federation approach. I spoke to journalists at the presser and they said Zelensky was very nebulous. Perhaps he was trying to imply he was giving Moscow what Putin wanted, but not quite. Enough perhaps to kick off Normandy Format talks again and keep the Europeans happy – the French at least want to bring Vladimir Putin in from the cold – but not inflame nationalist sentiment at home. And remember that over 10,000 people have died in Ukraine looking up the barrel of a Russian gun. It’s still raw emotions.

Zelensky was nebulous around the Steinmeier plan as this is an explosive issue in Ukraine. Nationalists hate the idea. Indeed, last night demonstrators were on the streets calling this a sellout. It was only a few hundred demonstrators but these have all the potential to be very violent and can build to something much bigger.

Now back to PrivatBank. I have a sneaking suspicion that all this is linked. Notable I think that Zelensky seems reluctant to distance himself from billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and kept Arsen Avakov as minister of interior. Both were known to control nationalist militia groups which were instrumental in pushing back Russian forces in Donbas back in 2015. Likely if Zelensky is set on agreeing to the Steinmeier approach then having Kolomoisky and Avakov on side would be useful.

All well and good but the concern there is Kolomoisky keeps his nationalist guys in check to support the Steinmeier deal and gets Privatbank back as the quid in the pro. The hope for those supporting this approach is that the Europeans look the other way on Privatbank just happy the peace process is moving forward in Ukraine – keeping the IMF program on track.

But Ukraine loses on rule of law, and the Steinmeier plan kills Ukraine’s Western orientation so Putin wins in terms of control over Ukraine. Clearly this suits Trump as well.

Risks are also that we see violent demonstrations in Kyiv still – not sure Kolomoisky or Avakov can stop these entirely albeit they can moderate their size.

Ironic that Zelensky was elected on a platform of delivering peace in the east and fighting corruption. It will be sad if delivering on one of these means selling out on the other.

Is this good news-perhaps Yulia can give us some thoughts when she returns?
Ukraine agrees to ‘Steinmeier Formula,’ green-lights elections in occupied Donbas
Members of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine – Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Oct. 1 agreed to a peace process known as the “Steinmeier Formula,” green-lighting local elections in the Russian-controlled regions of Donbas.

The agreement envisages that the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine get a special self-governing status after they hold local elections. The elections have to take place in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation and be approved by the OSCE.

A key condition for the elections to take place is for the Russian forces and Russian-backed militants to leave the territory and for Ukraine to regain control over the eastern border with Russia, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky

“There will be no elections ‘at the gunpoint’,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 1. “If someone (militants) will be there, there will be no elections.”

The elections in the occupied zone will be monitored by the OSCE and conducted by the Ukrainian Central Election Commission. Ukrainian observers, independent press and political organizations must be permitted to take part in the electoral process.

If the OSCE concludes that the election was fair, the region will receive self-governance instantly.

Zelensky didn’t specify what kind of self-governance the regions will obtain.

Before the election can take place, there must be a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and the Russia-backed militants in the Donbas, according to Zelensky.

The governments of Ukraine and Russia have been widely discussing the so-called “Steinmeier Formula,” a peace plan proposed by the German president back in 2016, for the past several months.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier proposed the formula during his time as German foreign minister, when it became clear that the Minsk peace agreement signed in February 2015, failed.

The formula was simple: hold elections in the occupied territories under Ukrainian legislation and the supervision of OSCE, and if the organization deems these elections free and fair, then the special status of these regions will kick in.

In September, Zelensky planned to discuss the formula during the Normandy Four meeting – leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, yet the meeting never occurred.

Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko, in a comment to Kyiv Post on Sept. 15, said that even though all sides are willing to discuss Steinmeier’s proposals, the level of these talks may be lowered to avoid responsibility.

“The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine will probably sign it,” said Fesenko.

“I don’t see Ukraine as the losing side of such a process. Starting this process is more important. Creating the conditions for such elections would amount for the return of Ukraine’s state apparatus to the currently occupied territories,” said Andreas Umland, senior research fellow at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, in a September comment to Kyiv Post.

Kremlin speaks about "Steinmeier formula," preparations for Normandy summit

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10709079-kremlin-speaks-about-steinmeier-formula-preparations-for-normandy-summit.htmlPeskov stressed Ukraine "has now confirmed" the consent given earlier by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to the "Steinmeier formula." Photo from UNIAN Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has said the "special status" according to the so-called "Steinmeier formula" is intended directly for the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" ("DPR" and "LPR"), while preparations for the summit of the Normandy Four leaders are under way. Read also MP: Ukraine wants better progress in security from Russia before Normandy summit "The preparations are under way, the work on behalf of the presidential aides, the relevant agencies is also ongoing. I will not run ahead – there are no dates yet, they will have to be agreed. These are four heads of state, who, of course, have a very busy schedule. We will inform you as soon as these schedules are coordinated and the dates are set," Peskov told journalists, answering a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposals at the summit and when it may happen, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Russia. In addition, he stressed Ukraine "has now confirmed" the consent earlier given by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to the "Steinmeier formula." "Ukraine agreed with the 'Steinmeier formula' several years ago. President Poroshenko did this. Now this agreement has been confirmed, and this confirmation has been perceived positively," Peskov said. When asked who would be given "special status" under this formula, Peskov answered: "Of course, we are talking about a settlement with the 'LPR' and 'DPR.' Of course, we are talking about these two 'republics.'"

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10709079-kremlin-speaks-about-steinmeier-formula-preparations-for-normandy-summit.html

Former Ukrainian President and Ukraine's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) at the Minsk talks on Donbas Leonid Kuchma has written a letter in response to a request by Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik regarding the harmonization of the text of the implementation of the so-called "Steinmeier formula" in Ukrainian legislation. Read also Zelensky meets with parliamentary factions' leaders to agree on "Steinmeier formula" – MP According to the letter posted by Kuchma's press secretary Darka Olifer, Ukraine agrees to hold snap elections in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The document will be temporarily valid until the final report by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)'s mission is published. "The document [law] comes into force at 20:00 local time on the day of voting at the extraordinary local elections in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are appointed and held in accordance with the Constitution and a special law governing snap elections in the said areas. It will be valid on a temporary basis until the date of the publication of the final report by the OSCE ODIHR Election Observation Mission – in line with established practice of the OSCE/ODIHR – on the general compliance of snap elections with the OSCE standards and international standards for democratic elections, as well as Ukrainian legislation, which provides an answer to the question agreed in the Normandy format, approved by the TCG and sent by Ukraine in its invitation letter and under the OSCE Chairmanship to the ODIHR Director," reads the letter. If the OSCE ODIHR recognizes local elections in the occupied territories as being consistent with international standards and Ukrainian law, the law will be valid permanently. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said the Ukrainian side at Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk had responded to a letter from Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik that the so-called "Steinmeier formula" on the peace settlement in Donbas was "pending approval." "We responded to Mr. Sajdik's letter that we have been in the process of approval of the wording of the 'Steinmeier formula,'" Zelensky said. "The 'Steinmeier formula' should be incorporated in a new law on special status [the law on special provisions of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions], which is not ready yet," Zelensky said.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10706322-document-signed-by-kuchma-in-minsk-posted-on-network-photo.html

Cripes!
An autumn calling up for military service kicked off in Ukraine today, October 1. The draft campaign will last until December 31. In total, 15,200 citizens will be called up for military service, including 9,000 people to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 4,400 to the National Guard, 1,000 to the State Border Guard Service, and 800 people to the State Special Transport Service. The draft age in Ukraine is set at 20-27 years.The length period of service is 18 months, as well as 12 months for those who have higher education (master or specialist degree). Conscript servicemen will not be involved in combat missions in the area of the Joint Forces Operation. After receiving the summons, a conscript must report to the draft office. A person faces administrative or criminal liability for failure to fulfill military duty. For the first violation, he will pay a fine in the amount of five to seven tax-free minimum incomes of citizens (from UAH 85 ($3.48) to UAH 119 ($4.88)), and for repeated violation – 10 to 15 tax-free minimum incomes of citizens (from UAH 170 ($6.97) to UAH 225 ($9.23)). A person may also face criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for up to three years.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/society/10704267-calling-up-for-military-service-kicks-off-in-ukraine.html
Is this just Men or does it include women as well I wonder?

Seems it is just Men
Serhiy Kliavlin has said almost 35,000 men have failed to report for draft in due time. Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, he said during the autumn draft campaign it is planned to call up for military service 634 people out of 37,000 summoned to undergo medical and military. Read also Ukraine's leading party shares plans on military conscription Kliavlin said that, as in previous years, there is a problem of extremely low reporting of draftees in to conscription offices, including of those who enjoy a deferment from draft. He also noted the penalties for failure to report to draft offices are extremely low, at UAH 119 (US$4.93), and even this sum is extremely difficult to recover since the perpetrator must first sign charge papers. The military commissar also said he had hopes for the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to tighten responsibility for men failing to report for tests at draft offices and for evading military service, following the example of tightening the responsibility for those who have debts on child support.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/kiev/10697931-almost-35-000-kyiv-residents-fail-to-report-to-draft-offices-for-physicals.html?utm_source=unian&utm_medium=related_news&utm_campaign=related_news_in_post

October 5th
Ukraine reports 1 KIA, 2 WIA's amid 32 enemy attacks in Donbas on Oct 4 10:11, 05 October 2019 WAR 25 0 Since midnight, Russia-led forces have opened fire on Ukrainian positions three times. Russia's hybrid military forces on October 4 mounted 32 attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another two as wounded in action (WIA). "The armed forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries violated the ceasefire 32 times on October 4. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another two were wounded as a result of enemy shelling. The circumstances are being established by an ad hoc group of Ukraine's military law enforcement service. The Command of the Joint Forces expresses condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said in an update posted on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on October 5. The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, and small arms. Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Zolote, and the villages of Vodiane, Pavlopil, Novohnativka, Novotroyitske, Lebedynske, Bohdanivka, Verkhniotoretske, Novoluhanske, Luhanske, Myronivske, Zaitseve, Krymske, and Novotoshkivske. "Since midnight, Russia-led forces have opened fire on Ukrainian positions three times near Zolote, and the villages of Hnutove and Novohnativka, using 82mm mortars, an automatic grenade launcher, and rifles," the report said.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10709802-ukraine-reports-1-kia-2-wia-s-amid-32-enemy-attacks-in-donbas-on-oct-4.html

The situation in Donbas remains tense .Russia-led troops mounted 23 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, September 28. "The enemy fired on the positions of Joint Forces units, using 120mm and 82mm mortars that are proscribed under the Minsk agreements, as well as grenade launchers of various systems and small arms," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Facebook in a morning update on Sunday, September 29. Read also JFO: Ukrainian soldier fatally wounded amid 24 enemy attacks in Donbas on Sept 27 Since Sunday midnight, the enemy has violated the ceasefire in Donbas three times, using 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and rifles. No Ukrainian army casualties have been reported.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10702242-donbas-war-update-russia-led-troops-attack-ukrainian-positions-over-20-times-on-sept-28.html
Really hope you have been well away from this.i am checking the Kyiv Post for news about students from Kyiv.I hope there isn't any.

U.S. calls on Russia to withdraw troops from Donbas to restore Ukraine's control over border 20:54, 03 October 2019 POLITICS 13 0 Free and fair elections require withdrawing Russian-led forces and illegal armed formations from Ukraine's territory. REUTERS The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has called on the Russian Federation to withdraw its troops and illegal armed formations from the occupied Donbas to restore Ukraine's control over its international border for fair elections in the region.


We welcome progress towards peace in eastern Ukraine and we call for reinstatement of Ukrainian control of its international border. Free and fair elections require withdrawing Russian-led forces and illegal armed formations from Ukraine's territory, and a secure environment. Russia needs to display the political will to make this happen," the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv wrote on Twitter on October 3. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said the Ukrainian side at Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk had responded to a letter from Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik that the so-called "Steinmeier formula" on the peace settlement in Donbas was "pending approval." "We responded to Mr. Sajdik's letter that we have been in the process of approval of the wording of the 'Steinmeier formula,'" Zelensky said. "The 'Steinmeier formula' should be incorporated in a new law on special status [the law on special provisions of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions], which is not ready yet," Zelensky said. According to the president, a new law will be developed by the Parliament in close cooperation and open discussion with the public and no "red line" will be crossed in the new law. At the same time, Zelensky says that local elections in Donbas can only take place under Ukrainian law and only after the troops are withdrawn. As regards the timing of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied territories of Donbas and the prevention of holding the elections before the withdrawal, Zelensky said that it would be discussed during the Normandy summit.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10708368-u-s-calls-on-russia-to-withdraw-troops-from-donbas-to-restore-ukraine-s-control-over-border.html

Ukraine in TCG: "Steinmeier formula" possible only following ceasefire, withdrawal of occupation forces, renewed control over border 23:10, 18 September 2019 POLITICS 1061 0 At the same time, the Ukrainian side has no fundamental objections to the essence of the formula on local elections. (Photo from UNIAN )The implementation of the so-called "Steinmeier formula" is possible after a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupation forces and weapons, providing conditions for the Central Election Commission to operate in Donbas, and regaining control over the occupied part of Ukraine-Russia border in eastern Ukraine, believes the Ukrainian side to the Trilateral Contact Group negotiating in Minsk. "The representative of Ukraine to the TCG noted that the Ukrainian side has no fundamental objections to the essence of the so-called 'Steinmeier formula' on local elections," said Darka Olifer, the press secretary for Ukraine's envoy to the TCG, ex-president Leonid Kuchma. Read also Prystaiko: No one is going to surrender Ukraine, but it's impossible to agree on peace without compromise "However, the implementation of this formula is possible only if the following points have been fulfilled: a complete ceasefire, effective monitoring by the OSCE SMM throughout Ukraine; withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine of armed groups of foreign troops and military equipment, withdrawal of forces and assets along the entire contact line, ensuring operations of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, Ukrainian political parties, mass media and foreign observers, establishing control over the Russian-Ukrainian precinct that is now beyond Ukraine's control, and the implementation of other items provided by Ukrainian and international legislation and Minsk agreements," said Olifer. As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said that he had agreed on the wording of the so-called "Steinmeier formula" to resolve the situation in the occupied part of Donbas.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10690539-ukraine-in-tcg-steinmeier-formula-possible-only-following-ceasefire-withdrawal-of-occupation-forces-renewed-control-over-border.html?utm_source=unian&utm_medium=related_news&utm_campaign=related_news_in_post

President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the 74th United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25 in New York. It was the president’s debut at the assembly.

Zelensky dedicated his 15-minute speech to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“No one can feel safe when there is a war in Ukraine, a war in Europe,” he said.

The United Nations General Assembly holds a yearly general debate in late September, inviting world leaders to give speeches and hold bilateral meetings during the event.

For Zelensky, who took office on May 20, it is also his first official visit to the U.S.

“You all remember your first time (in the UN), when you are an unknown politician trying to draw attention to the problems of your country,” he said to the assembly.

Zelensky began his speech with the story of Vasyl Slipak, a Ukrainian baritone opera singer who was well-known outside Ukraine. Slipak was a frequent performer at the Paris Opera and London’s Royal Opera House.

In 2014, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Slipak volunteered to fight against the Russia-backed militants in eastern Ukraine. In 2016, Slipak was killed in action.

Speaking about Slipak, Zelensky held up a bullet like the one that killed the singer.

“The price of this bullet is $10 – that’s the cost of a human life,” he said. “(Russian backed militants) didn’t just end his career, they ended his life.”

As of 2019, over 13,000 people were killed due to the Russian invasion, and over 1.5 million people were displaced.

“There are thousands of such stories. There are millions of such bullets,” Zelensky said. “Welcome to the 21st century. The age of opportunity. Where instead of ‘being heard’ you have the opportunity to be killed.”

Zelensky mentioned the need to reform international institutions for them to be able to solve international conflicts and expressed his regret that nations and states still use war as a means of solving conflicts.

The president said that Ukraine deliberately gave up nuclear weapons and didn’t expect that the country would ever need them.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine ended up with the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

In 1994, then-President Leonid Kuchma signed the Budapest Memorandum, part of Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The memorandum granted Ukraine security assurances from Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States in return for Kyiv giving up its nuclear stockpile.

Zelensky said he will dedicate his presidency to stopping the war and restoring peace, “but not at the cost of the lives of our people, liberty, or Ukraine’s right to choose its own path.”

**“A strong leader is not the one who sends thousands to die,” said Zelensky. “A strong leader is the one who cherishes each life.”**
*And aside from me-is it right that a university can send its students to face death in a war zone?I think not!*

An openly homosexual Ukrainian veteran of the war in the eastern part of the country says he was beaten up by five people as he was returning home late on September 28. The news of Vasyl Davydenko's beating emerged two days later when fellow gay veteran, Viktor Pylypenko – the first Donbas veteran to have come out – posted a message on his Facebook timeline, RFE/RL reported. Davydenko, 41, told local TSN television on September 30 he believed the assault was because of his sexual orientation. Read also Deputy head of Kyiv Administration attacked late on Tuesday – media As he was approaching the entrance to his building, one of the five men asked if his name was Vasyl. When Davydenko responded in the affirmative, another man said that he "gives intriguing interviews" to the media about his homosexuality and hit him in the genitals. Davydenko then curled up into a fetal position on the ground as the five struck his head and legs and ripped apart a medical corset he was wearing to support his wounded spine. A lawyer by profession, Davydenko first served in the Donbas volunteer battalion during the early stages of the war, which began in April 2014 when Russian-backed separatists began taking over government buildings, and police and Security Service stations. He saw combat in the easternmost region of Luhansk starting in July 2014 and served until the middle of 2015. Davydenko declared his homosexuality about 45 days ago as the second openly gay war veteran. He told TSN TV that his entire family had pro-Russian views and he didn't talk to them. Aside from one relative in the government-controlled part of Ukraine, Davydenko's mother lives in Russian-occupied Crimea and his remaining family members reside in Russia. Love took him to war because his partner, whom he met in February 2014, was already serving on the front, he said. Eventually, Davydenko caught up to his lover in the front-line city of Shchastya, which literally means, "happiness." "We were happy there," Davydenko said. His partner, Arsen, died in battle in the Luhansk region in December 2014. Davydenko said he didn't regret coming out and "other gays shouldn't be afraid of themselves in the first place." In the interview, he said that "nobody can break us because we're stronger."

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/kiev/10704819-gay-veteran-of-donbas-war-attacked-in-kyiv-media.html

Ukraine ready to send 800 specially trained police officers to de-occupied territories in Donbas 20:35, 05 October 2019 WAR 84 0 The police within the framework of the de-occupation strategy are developing a procedure for the functioning of police units in the temporarily occupied territory. About 800 police officers have been trained in Ukraine's Donetsk region to work in the de-occupied territories. Read also Ex-Polish FM says Geneva format of negotiations more suitable for Crimea, Donbas de-occupation The relevant information was announced during the all-Ukrainian scientific and practical round table titled "De-occupation of Donbas: the organizational and legal mechanism for restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine," which took place in Mariupol, according to the Donetsk region police's official website. In particular, the police within the framework of the de-occupation strategy are developing a procedure for the functioning of police units in the temporarily occupied territory, as well as priority measures to ensure public safety and protect the rights of citizens. In this regard, about 800 police officers have already been trained to work in the de-occupied territories, as well as resources have been provided for the uninterrupted operation of units. It is reported the basic principles of the organizational and legal mechanism for restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine were determined during the round table. They will be taken into account during practical measures to resolve the situation in Donbas. I





Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10710120-ukraine-ready-to-send-800-specially-trained-police-officers-to-de-occupied-territories-in-donbas.html

Vadym Prystaiko has said that diplomats will not be able to agree on peace in Donbas without going for compromise. Speaking at a joint meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation and the Committee on Ukraine's Integration with the European Union, Prystaiko said: "No one is going to surrender Ukraine, and every person who is negotiating is not necessarily a traitor. We all might have our own approach on how we are going to free our state. If we had enough Armed Forces, enough Army, strength and economic prowess, no one would have attacked us," an UNIAN correspondent reports. Read also Ukraine's foreign minister "already agreed" to "Steinmeier formula" of Donbas settlement "Our task, the task of diplomats, unfortunately, is to negotiate, which absolutely doesn't give us strength or pleasure, so that we can get out of the situation with the least losses. If you think that diplomats can agree without compromise - it is naive, and unfortunately, that won’t work," Prystaiko emphasized. "The only real allies are the Army and Navy. This old formula actually remains valid. Our task now is to find the art of the possible, how we can minimize our losses, to break free from the clutches of the aggressor and advance as we all decided," added Prystaiko.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10690371-prystaiko-no-one-is-going-to-surrender-ukraine-but-it-s-impossible-to-agree-on-peace-without-compromise.html?utm_source=unian&utm_medium=related_news&utm_campaign=related_news_in_post

Zelensky meets with parliamentary factions' leaders to agree on "Steinmeier formula" – MP 12:16, 02 October 2019 POLITICS 304 0 The president also took part in a meeting of the Servant of the People faction in parliament. REUTERS MP from Ukraine's European Solidarity Party Oleksii Honcharenko has said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with leaders of parliamentary factions to agree on the so-called "Steinmeier formula." "Yes, these consultations have already ended," he told one of Ukrainian TV channels. : "Steinmeier formula" possible only following ceasefire, withdrawal of occupation forces, renewed control over border After that, the president took part in a meeting of the Servant of the People faction in parliament. The meeting took place in the conference hall of the parliament. As UNIAN reported earlier, Zelensky on Tuesday said the Ukrainian side at Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk had responded to a letter from Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik that the so-called "Steinmeier formula" on the peace settlement in Donbas was "pending approval." "We responded to Mr. Sajdik's letter that we have been in the process of approval of the wording of the 'Steinmeier formula,'" Zelensky said. "The 'Steinmeier formula' should be incorporated in a new law on special status [the law on special provisions of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions], which is not ready yet," Zelensky said.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10705857-zelensky-meets-with-parliamentary-factions-leaders-to-agree-on-steinmeier-formula-mp.html?utm_source=unian&utm_medium=related_news&utm_campaign=related_news_in_post

More good news?
Zelensky announces disengagement in new locations in Donbas 20:55, 01 October 2019 WAR 76 0 Zelensky mentioned the withdrawal of troops in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska as a successful example of disengagement in Donbas. President Zelensky announced the next phase of the peace process in Donbas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the disengagement of troops in the village of Petrivske and the town of Zolote in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, after the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk reached the respective agreement on October 1. "Agreements have been reached on the beginning of the withdrawal of troops in Petrivske and Zolote," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent. "I want to reassure local residents – I personally guarantee that you will be protected and the withdrawal of the military will not affect your security."


He mentioned the withdrawal of troops in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska as a successful example of disengagement in Donbas. As UNIAN reported earlier, the disengagement of troops and weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Russia-led forces near the village of Stanytsia Luhanska took place in June 2019. Zelensky said on September 13 that the withdrawal of troops in Petrivske and Zolote would be the next phase of the peace process in Donbas.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10705452-zelensky-announces-disengagement-in-new-locations-in-donbas.html

facebook.com/pg/mva.gov.ua Expert in history and philosopher Mykhailo Minakov says that a possible peace in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, will unlikely satisfy any side, but it will still be better than the ongoing war. Read also Steinmeier Formula to be agreed in writing at Minsk talks before Normandy Four summit – Prystaiko "In general, all issues of sovereignty have the same emotional and rational component. If we want to return Donbas, probably this is one of more or less clear plans yet. Although some steps seem almost utopian. Steinmeier [Frank-Walter Steinmeier was Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2013-2017 and is now serving as President of Germany] himself is no longer part of the negotiation process, [the then President of Ukraine Petro] Poroshenko has withdrawn, and [Germany Chancellor Angela] Merkel is slowly moving away. That is, the new leaders are likely to come to some other formula and other plan. But we must be aware this war is humiliating, shameful, and the peace after this war is likely to be shameful," he told the Ukrainian-registered Apostrophe online media outlet. Minakov notes a long-lasting, stable and "fair" peace may arise only as a result of respect for human rights and in a democratic process. "Imagine that on the one hand we have got an authoritarian Russia and on the other, there is Ukraine that has been fluctuating between autocratic and democratic courses, plus 'Cossack regiments' in uncontrolled territories [in Russia-occupied Donbas]. How to establish a stable democratic peace between such players? In fact, it is almost impossible. So, we are pre-configured for a bad peace. It is rational to prepare for such a peace that everyone will be unhappy with. But it is still better than a shameful war," he added. The Minsk peace agreement on Donbas between Russia and Ukraine was brokered with help of France and Germany in 2015.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10702896-bad-peace-in-donbas-better-than-ongoing-war-historian.html

The Peace formula-Opinions in Kyiv
Oleg Orlov

retiree

“It’s good, people are tired – people are dying. Those who protest (against it) are those who don’t have relatives who died (in the war). Ask those people who have husbands and sons there (fighting). Everything is leading to the war having no end. The war is absolutely unnecessary. The faster it ends the better; we need a peace deal. I don’t know what exactly will be in the eventual peace treaty, but we must have one in place.”
Roman Zaika

university student

“I don’t know yet, we lack information. (Concerning elections,) I think it’s a step back, because we are practically giving these regions to Russia. There is no guarantee that elections there will be conducted fairly, they can be held similarly to those ‘elections’ that were held in Crimea and history will repeat itself.”
Oksana Azarina

university professor(one of yours Yulia?)

“I’m trying to understand it. I think it’s impossible. For this, (Russia) needs to withdraw its soldiers, why would they do that? I support autonomy for Donbas, why can’t they have autonomy, every country has that. In the U.S. every state has its own laws. It’s better than giving up on them or continuing the war, but I don’t think that it’s possible. “
Tatyana Marchenko

university student

“For five years there were no elections there, I think it’s worth a shot.”

The UK is onboard
UK welcomes steps towards peace in eastern Ukraine 10:21, 03 October 2019 POLITICS 26 0 The FCO Minister for Europe calls on Russia to play its part to ensure an end to the conflict in Donbas. REUTERS The United Kingdom welcomes the statements of the governments of Ukraine and Russia underlining their commitment to achieving peace in eastern Ukraine, and welcomes a further disengagement between Ukraine's armed forces and Russian-backed troops. "I welcome this encouraging step forwards in bringing peace to eastern Ukraine and commend President [Volodymyr] Zelensky's clear commitment to finding a diplomatic solution," FCO Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Christopher Pincher said, according to a statement posted on the official website of the UK government.



' The United Kingdom shares the view of the Ukrainian government that local elections in eastern Ukraine can only take place under proper conditions, he said. "These include a comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of foreign troops and unhindered access for international election observers and media," he stressed. "Russia must now play its part to end the conflict by immediately ending its support for the separatists and upholding the commitments it signed up to in the Minsk Agreements," Pincher added. As UNIAN reported earlier, representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE and the self-proclaimed "republics of Donbas" signed the so-called "Steinmeier formula" at a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on October 1. The "Steinmeier formula" is named after Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the then foreign minister of Germany, who is now its president. In 2016, he proposed a simplified version of a peace plan for eastern Ukraine through holding local elections in Russia-occupied districts. And if OSCE observers recognize the voting process free and fair, then a special self-governing status for the territories will be initiated, which will enable Ukraine to retake its eastern border with Russia.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10707096-uk-welcomes-steps-towards-peace-in-eastern-ukraine.html
I didn't know the U.K. government had an official website.Must investigate.

Reuters: France says conditions are met for a top-level meeting on Ukraine 19:54, 02 October 2019 POLITICS 1 0 France welcomes this progress. Paris will host a Normandy summit /France's foreign ministry said on Wednesday significant progress had been made in talks aiming to put an end to the long-running Ukraine crisis, adding the conditions were in place to hold a meeting in Paris soon between leaders of the countries involved. "France welcomes this progress, enabled by intense negotiations held these last few weeks within the so called Normandy format between France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia," a ministry spokeswoman said, Reuters reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier announced that the Ukrainian side at Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk on October 1 had responded to a letter from Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the TCG, Ambassador Martin Sajdik that the so-called "Steinmeier formula" on the peace settlement in Donbas is "pending approval." Read also Zelensky meets with parliamentary factions' leaders to agree on "Steinmeier formula" – MP We responded to Mr. Sajdik's letter that we have been in the process of approval of the wording of the 'Steinmeier formula,'" Zelensky said. "The 'Steinmeier formula' should be incorporated in a new law on special status [the law on special provisions of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions], which is not ready yet," Zelensky said. The current law on Donbas' special status is expiring on December 31, 2019. "And another very important point is that the law on special status of Donbas is in force until December 31, 2019. A new law will be developed by the Parliament in close cooperation and open discussion with the public," he said on October 1. According to the president, no "red line" will be crossed in the new law. "That is why there will be no capitulation," he said. As regards the timing of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied territories of Donbas and the prevention of holding the elections before the withdrawal, Zelensky said that it would be discussed during the Normandy summit.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10706853-reuters-france-says-conditions-are-met-for-a-top-level-meeting-on-ukraine.html

Ukraine's FM announces plans to restore railway communication with occupied Donbas 17:12, 05 October 2019 POLITICS 100 0 As of today, Russian-led forces in Donbas control a part of the railways with which communications were stopped in 2014 due to hostilities. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko has declared the authorities' readiness to restore railway communication with occupied Donbas. During the Savik Shuster's Freedom of Speech TV panel show while discussing the restoration of the bridge in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska, he assured the vehicles would drive across the bridge in a month or a month and a half. Other bridges and new crossing checkpoints will appear later. "Perhaps, a railway communication will appear so that people could comfortably move from one side of the contact line to another one," he said. As of today, Russian-led forces in Donbas control a part of the railways with which communications were stopped in 2014 due to hostilities.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10710003-ukraine-s-fm-announces-plans-to-restore-railway-communication-with-occupied-donbas.html

Temporary bypass bridge almost completed in Stanytsia Luhanska – JCCC 13:11, 02 October 2019 WAR 23 0 The builders are now installing fencing and flooring on the bridge. Photo from the Joint Forces Operation Ukrainian members of the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) in Donbas have announced the completion of a temporary bypass bridge in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska. Read also Temporary bypass bridge to be built while destroyed bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska being repaired The builders are now installing fencing and flooring on the bridge, as well as carrying out roadside clearing, preparation for asphalting the road and the construction of bus stops, the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation wrote on Facebook with reference to the JCCC. The JCCC members emphasize the bypass bridge will work until the destroyed part of the main bridge is restored. At the same time, they announced the preparatory work to restore the destroyed bridge across the Siversky Donets River had been completed.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10705806-temporary-bypass-bridge-almost-completed-in-stanytsia-luhanska-jccc.html

Zelensky, Defense Staff Meet to Discuss Donbas Disengagement

The President of Ukraine met to discuss the ongoing plans for disengagement along parts of the contact line in Donbas


uatv
06.10.2019



Photo President Zelensky Press Office


President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting on security and defense issues. The meeting was attended by Chief of General Staff – Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Khomchak, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Zahorodniuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko and Assistant to the President Andriy Yermak.

The participants discussed the security situation in Donbas, in particular in the area of Zolote and Petrivske where the troops are to be separated.

Zelensky emphasized that the issues of security of Ukrainians, especially of the population in the area of separation, and the achievement of sustainable peace in the east of the country were priorities for him.

Representatives are expected to visit Zolote, Petrivske and Stanytsia Luhanska next week.

They also discussed the construction of a bridge across the Siverskyi Donets near Stanytsia Luhanska, where a temporary crossing for citizens was opened.

Special attention was paid to social security issues of combatants.

Zelensky assured that no privileges for the military who protected the territorial integrity of Ukraine would be abolished. The state budget for the next year should provide for the funding of social security for soldiers.

U.S. officially launches procedure of selling Javelin missile systems to Ukraine 09:00, 04 October 2019 POLITICS 82 0 Prior to that, the sale was approved by the U.S. Department of State. / Army 2nd Lt. Jamie Douglas The United States has officially launched the procedure of selling Javelin missile systems to Ukraine. "The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress on a military sale to Ukraine of Javelin missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost US$39.2 million," Ukraine's Embassy in the United States has reported. Prior to that, the sale was approved by the U.S. Department of State, it said. "Thus, Washington's readiness to implement a project to sell modern lethal weapons to Ukraine as part of the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program has been publicly confirmed at the official level for the first time," it said. Read also Bloomberg: State Department backs $39 mln 'Javelin' package for Ukraine The Ukrainian Embassy says that the first ever purchase of Javelin missiles by Ukraine is "a vivid demonstration of strengthening mutually beneficial defense cooperation between the two nations." According to Reuters, the U.S. State Department has approved the sale of 150 Raytheon Co Javelin missiles and related equipment. This sale is separate from the US$250 million of congressionally authorized military aid to Ukraine. The type of missiles was mentioned in a July 25 call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has prompted a congressional impeachment inquiry against Trump. The sale is to be funded with Ukrainian government funds, not U.S. funds, and was finalized before the leaders' conversation.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10708473-u-s-officially-launches-procedure-of-selling-javelin-missile-systems-to-ukraine.html
More weapons.More death....

Merkel announces prerequisites for top-level summit of Normandy Four leaders – media 20:57, 02 October 2019 POLITICS 5 0 EU sanctions against Russia will not be lifted as certain conditions have not been met. Angela Merkel / REUTERS German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced there are prerequisites for a top-level summit of leaders of the Normandy Four countries (Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia). Merkel said a recent breakthrough in talks paved the way for her to meet the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and France in an attempt to implement the 2015 Minsk accord and end fighting in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, according to Bloomberg. Read also Reuters: France says conditions met for top-level meeting on Ukraine "We've taken a step forward, but many more steps remain ahead of us," Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. A Merkel spokeswoman earlier said the four-way summit would take place in the "near future." Asked about the prospect for lifting EU sanctions against Russia, Merkel said negotiating parties still had much work ahead of them. "What we can say now is not that we can already lift sanctions, rather that the conditions are there" and that leaders can move forward toward a summit in Paris, Merkel said. As was reported, France's foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday that significant progress had been made in talks aiming to put an end to the long-running Ukraine crisis, adding the conditions were in place to hold a meeting in Paris soon between leaders of the countries involved.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/politics/10706898-merkel-announces-prerequisites-for-top-level-summit-of-normandy-four-leaders-media.html

A nice end to the working week (Read that as Uni Week). The Donbas field trip sound interestings and looks to be well planned. The journalist/war correspondent in you must be excited. I love your Papa's reaction...so protective. I am glad you didn't laugh...or let him hear you anyway. Another great well written diary entry.

Russian-led forces have mounted eight attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas since Monday midnight. The armed forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries have violated the ceasefire eight times since the beginning of the current day, September 28. The enemy shelled positions of Joint Forces units, using 82mm mortars proscribed by the Minsk Agreements, as well as cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various systems, and small arms," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation said in an evening update posted on Facebook. Five of the attacks were reported in the Skhid (East) sector: two attacks near the village of Vodiane (82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, a tripod-mounted man-portable antitank gun and small arms); two attacks outside the villages of Novotroyitske and Opytne each (small arms); and one attack near the village of Novomykhailivka (grenade launchers of various systems and small arms). Three attacks were recorded in the Pivnich (North) sector: one attack near the village of Zaitseve (an 82mm mortar and small arms); another attack outside the village of Shumy (an 82mm mortar and an automatic grenade launcher); and one attack near the village of Novozvanivka (a tripod-mounted man-portable antitank gun). According to the update, there have been no casualties among the Ukrainian military since Monday midnight.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10703955-russian-led-forces-mount-eight-attacks-on-ukrainian-positions-in-donbas-since-monday-midnight.html

Hope you haven't run into a riot on your return

Protesters gathered at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv on the evening of Oct. 2, 2019, to protest against the just-approved final edition of the so-called ‘Steinmeier Formula’ that sets the controversial terms of possible local elections in the Russian-occupied Donbas.

Throughout the evening, simultaneous protests took place in the Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, attracting dozens of people who oppose the formula, branding it a capitulation to Russia.
[media=https://www.kyivpost.com/multimedia/photo/kyiv-protesters-rally-against-controversial-steinmeier-formula-photos]

October 3rd -oh dear
+ Home Politics

Escalation in Donbas: Ukrainian soldier wounded amid 30 enemy attacks on Oct 2 09:25, 03 October 2019 WAR 3 0 The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, an anti-tank missile system, grenade launchers of various types, and small arms. Photo from UNIAN Russia's hybrid military forces on October 2 mounted 30 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries violated the ceasefire 30 times on October 2. A Ukrainian soldier was wounded as a result of enemy shelling," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said on Facebook in a morning update on October 3. The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, an anti-tank missile system, grenade launchers of various types, and rifles. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka and Zolote, and the villages of Pavlopil, Novotroyitske, Vodiane, Mykolaivka, Novohnativka, Novohryhorivka, Verkhniotoretske, Krymske, Zaitseve, Katerynivka, Pivdenne, Novoluhanske, Novhorodske, Troyitske, Kriakivka, Khutir Vilniy, and Luhanske.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10707048-escalation-in-donbas-ukrainian-soldier-wounded-amid-30-enemy-attacks-on-oct-2.html

0ctober 3rd -evening
Ukraine reports 21 enemy attacks in Donbas warzone since Thursday midnight 23:50, 03 October 2019 WAR 120 0 There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian soldiers. Photo from UNIAN Russian-led forces have mounted 21 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas since Thursday midnight. Read also U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Denise Natali arrives in Ukraine – Embassy "The enemy fired on the positions of Joint Forces units, using 120mm and 82mm mortars that are proscribed under the Minsk agreements, as well as grenade launchers of various systems and small arms," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Facebook in an evening update on Thursday, October 3. In the area of responsibility of the Skhid [East] operational-tactical grouping, the enemy fired 11 times at the positions of the Joint Forces near the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Novotroyitske (four attacks), Vodiane (two attacks), Novohnativka, Berezove, Pavlopil, and Pyshchevyk. Another 10 attacks were reported in the Pivnich (North) sector near the town of Zolote, and outside the villages of Luhanske and Novoluhanske (three attacks each), as well as Krymske, Troyitske, and Orikhove. According to the update, there have been no casualties among the Ukrainian military since Thursday midnight.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10708434-ukraine-reports-21-enemy-attacks-in-donbas-warzone-since-thursday-midnight.html

Two Ukraine soldiers wounded in Donbas on Oct 5 10:10, 06 October 2019 WAR 6 0 In total, enemy troops mounted 24 attacks on Ukrainian positions on that day. REUTERS One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action and another one sustained a combat-related injury in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, on October 5. Russia-led forces attacked positions of Ukraine's Joint Forces, using 122mm artillery systems prohibited by the Minsk agreements, 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various systems and small arms, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) Headquarters said on Facebook in a morning update on October 6. In total, enemy troops mounted 24 attacks on Ukrainian positions on that day. In addition, in violation of the Minsk agreements, they deliberately attacked the disengagement site in the village of Zolote four times, using an 82mm mortar, as well as from grenade launchers of various systems and rifles. Since Sunday midnight, Russia-led forces have violated the ceasefire three times. During the current day, there have been no Ukrainian army casualties as a result of enemy shelling. If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter Tags: #RussianAggression#DonbasWar

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10710345-two-ukraine-soldiers-wounded-in-donbas-on-oct-5.html

Military aircraft transported across Kerch Strait Bridge to Russia (Photo) 15:17, 01 October 2019 UKRAINE 69 0 The Su-27 fighter aircraft were transported by car from Crimea to Russia's Krasnodar Krai
Military aircraft have been transported across the Kerch Strait Bridge to the Russian Federation.
It became known the Su-27 fighter aircraft were transported by car from Crimea to Russia's Krasnodar Krai. In the comments, netizens suggested the invaders were transporting Ukrainian military equipment seized in Crimea in 2014. According to one of the users, this is evidenced by the number of the aircraft on the photo – the aircraft with such marks were delivered to the airfield in Crimea before 2014.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/society/10704783-military-aircraft-transported-across-kerch-strait-bridge-to-russia-photo.html

Five children aged seven to thirteen have been injured in a hand grenade explosion in a village controlled by the "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR"), eastern Ukraine. The incident was reported in the occupied village of Krasna Zoria (Ukraine's government has recently renamed it Chornohorivka) in Luhansk region's Perevalsky district on Saturday, September 28, according to an "LPR"-controlled news portal. Read also One killed in blast at mine in occupied Donetsk The children reportedly found a cache of ammunition near residential buildings. "While playing, the children accidentally blew up one of the grenades that were found, resulting in all five suffering from injuries of varying severity," the portal said. The victims were taken to hospitals in occupied Luhansk.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10702707-five-children-in-occupied-donbas-wounded-in-hand-grenade-blast.html

I think as long as the student party do not make the news they are okay.Hope it stays that way.

October 2nd -As of 0900 Ukraine time there has been no bulletin on unian.info about overnight events in Donbas.After the announcements of yesterday I hope this means peace has broken out.If something is posted I will put it here.

No more war posts!Our friend must be back by now.We wait patiently😸🐑🏉.

October 1st.Ukrainian soldier wounded amid 19 enemy attacks in Donbas on Sept 30 09:27, 01 October 2019 WAR 12 0 The enemy opened fire from proscribed 122mm artillery systems, 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, an anti-aircraft gun, grenade launchers of various types, and small arms.

Russia's hybrid military forces on September 30 mounted 19 attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded. The armed forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries violated the ceasefire 19 times on September 30. A Ukrainian soldier was wounded as a result of enemy shelling," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said on Facebook in a morning update on October 1.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10704138-ukrainian-soldier-wounded-amid-19-enemy-attacks-in-donbas-on-sept-30.html

facebook.com/24AIDAR Young female member of a materiel support platoon Anastasia Vitovska was killed in Donetsk region on September 27. "Soldier of a materiel support platoon Anastasia Oleksandrivna Vitovska died from multiple shrapnel wounds near the town of Zalizne on September 27," the 24th Aidar separate assault battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote on Facebook. She was only 21, it said. As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's hybrid military forces on September 27 mounted 24 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10703118-young-ukrainian-female-soldier-killed-in-donbas.html

More death
JFO: Ukraine soldier fatally wounded amid 41 enemy attacks in Donbas on Oct 3 09:25, 04 October 2019 WAR 44 0 The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, and small arms. REUTERS Russia's hybrid military forces on October 3 mounted 41 attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as fatally wounded. "The armed forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries violated the ceasefire 41 times on October 3. During an enemy attack in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area, a soldier received a wound incompatible with life," the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said on Facebook in a morning update on October 4. The enemy opened fire from proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers of various types, and small arms. Under attack were Ukrainian positions near the towns of Avdiyivka, Maryinka, Zolote, and Popasna, and the villages of Vodiane, Pavlopil, Pyshchevyk, Pisky, Verkhniotoretske, Berezove, Kamianka, Novohnativka, Luhanske, Krymske, Novoluhanske, Orikhove, Pivdenne, Troyitske, Zaitseve, and Khutir Vilniy. "Since midnight, Russia-led forces have opened fire on Ukrainian positions three times near Pavlopil, Zaitseve, and Krymske, using 82mm mortars, cannons installed on infantry fighting vehicles, and rifles," the report said.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/10708539-jfo-ukraine-soldier-fatally-wounded-amid-41-enemy-attacks-in-donbas-on-oct-3.html
October 4th

Belarus wants to send in a peacekeeping force but the Russians are insisting that the people in the areas they have occupied agree to this.Indeed they seem to be saying it is not them who are carrying out the occupation!!

@TheSirfurryanimalWales I couldn't find that group. I did find one called "I Do Not Support The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine" and you are a group member. Maybe this group should be where your Ukraine updates should go. Just a suggestion. I doubt @Yulianna is aware of this group.

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hWLBkSjsw]

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX9aYahAPf4]

The Testament

Dig my grave and raise my barrow
By the Dnieper-side
In Ukraina, my own land,
A fair land and wide.
I will lie and watch the cornfields,
Listen through the years
To the river voices roaring,
Roaring in my ears.

When I hear the call
Of the racing flood,
Loud with hated blood,
I will leave them all,
Fields and hills; and force my way
Right up to the Throne
Where God sits alone;
Clasp His feet and pray…
But till that day
What is God to me?

Bury me, be done with me,
Rise and break your chain,
Water your new liberty
With blood for rain.
Then, in the mighty family
Of all men that are free,
May be sometimes, very softly
You will speak of me?

— Taras Shevchenko
Translated by E. L. Voynich, London, 1911

The US state department is giving Ukraine $39 million dollars to build some 'javelin' weapons.Its an anti-tank weapon.

Oksana sounds like me in the morning. Except it isn’t as sweet ;)

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WN4YtgixS0]
And I have just discovered there is a group called I Wish Russia would get out of Ukraine.