Ukrainian court extends detention for 2 Russian servicemen
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call for the creation of an global antiterrorism coalition was hypocritical, and his words are “double-tongued”.
“I think everyone in this Hall clearly understands [the] real motives of Russia’s veto on MH17 Tribunal”, he said.
“Ukrzaliznytsya is not handling cargo and (rail) cars operated by Russia’s freight railway operator Freight One or its daughter company”, Ukrzaliznytsya said in a statement.
Trade between Russia and Ukraine is coming close to zero, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
Russian Federation used its veto twice to trump Ukraine-related resolutions: to block condemnation of its February 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea province and to block an investigation of the shooting down of Malaysian Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine last July, killing all 298 aboard.
Ukraine is set to join the Council as a non-permanent member for a two year term beginning in January 1, 2016.
The Ukrainian president said that assigning Russian Federation a place at the UN Security Council (UNSC) as a successor to the USSR was a “questionable procedure.”
But both Kyiv and its Western allies fear Putin’s main ambition now is to create a “frozen conflict” that keeps Ukraine’s cash-strapped leadership off balance and ultimately dependent on Moscow’s good will.
The Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, comprising of the two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, has been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russians and the Ukrainian army since Kyiv’s military operation started in April 2014 in a bid to crush pro-Russia protests there.
“I am a prisoner of war and a hostage who has been abducted”, Savchenko told the court in a dramatic speech, saying separatist rebels captured her in eastern Ukraine and told her they would “sell” her to Russian Federation.
Mr Poroshenko’s remarks appear especially prescient given recent Russian military air strikes in northern Syria – performed with the express permission of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who has been waging war on his own people for more than four years.
Domestically, Poroshenko has faced declining approval ratings with a survey earlier in September by Kyiv’s worldwide Institute of Sociology showing that only 27 percent of people would vote for him versus 35 percent in March. “It is not achievable where aggressive ideologies advocating suppression of a few nations by other nations reign and key human rights and freedoms are violated,” he said.
“How can you call for an anti-terrorist coalition when you are encouraging terrorisim on your doorstep?”
“Ukraine aspires to have peace and prosperity and together with partner states exerts maximum efforts to settle the conflict by peaceful diplomatic means,” he said.