Official greetings of the DPR head Alexander Zakharchenko on City Day in Donetsk:

“Dear compatriots! Dear residents of Donetsk, the Hero City and the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic!

I heartily congratulate on our holiday - City Day, which we celebrate it as the capital of an independent state for the first time. Today, all progressive mankind sees Donetsk personifying the struggle against the fascist threat gaining momentum around the world.

Supported by Western governments and the NATO military machine, Ukraine inflicted hard and terrible blows on Donetsk. When Donetsk loudly said “no” to the Nazi Euromaidan putsch on the Maidan, the mad Ukrainian government put our beloved city to a severe trial. They threw combat aircraft, heavy artillery, and armoured vehicles against our peaceful and prosperous city, with its great labour traditions.

Day after day, month after month, they subjected Donetsk to inhuman shelling and bombing. However, our young capital stood, and a new country - the Donetsk Peope's Republic - stood about it.

The valiant defenders of our heroic city repulsed the attack of the Ukrainian aggressors and foreign mercenaries, inflicting terrible losses, forcing the enemy to stop at the gates of Donetsk, which became a fortress for the army of the invaders. Unfortunately, this victory came at a dear cost. The brutal Ukrainian attacks killed or wounded thousands of innocent people in Donetsk - women, the elderly, and children. Our beautiful and lovingly built city suffered unprecedented destruction. They destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, churches, and deliberately destroyed industrial infrastructure.

However, I’m confident that with hard work and courage, along with our indomitable spirit and love for our hometown, the people of Donetsk will not only restore our city, we’d soon begin a new era of development in the capital of Donbass.

Dear Donetsk residents, with all my heart I want to wish you all good health and success in all undertakings, happiness, and a peaceful sky over your head! To the Feast, our Great City!

To the feast, Donetsk, unconquered capital of the Donetsk People's Republic!

The head of the Donetsk People's Republic
 
Alexander Zakharchenko”

Source: Truth about situation in Ukraine 31-08-2015

Kiev Defies Minsk Accords, Resists Western Demands for Donbass Self-Rule

France and Germany are pressing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ensure partial self-rule for the country’s independence-minded east before the upcoming local election there, Ukrainian media reported on Saturday.

Poroshenko refuses to comply, citing legal, political and organizational hurdles preventing the implementation of the law, which would grant broader autonomy to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Kiev-based Weekly Mirror newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources in the government.

In keeping with the provisions of the Minsk accords, reached in February 2015, President Poroshenko agreed to grant a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.

Article 4 of the 13-point Minsk Protocol outlined the modalities of conducting local elections in particular districts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions and their future status.

Article 11 described decentralization of particular districts of Donetsk and Lugansk regions and their special status as the key elements of the proposed constitutional reform in Ukraine.

On August 24, President Poroshenko met in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

Briefing the media after the talks, Angela Merkel said that  the three leaders had gathered in Berlin to endorse the Misk-2 accords, which she described as pivotal to a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.

Addressing members of his Solidarity bloc shortly before the August 24 trip to Berlin, Petro Poroshenko said that the proposed constitutional reforms ruled out any federalization or other special statuses for any part of Ukraine.

 
Source: Sputnik News 30-08-2015

Donetsk Republic Leader Warns of Ukrainian Army Offensive on Election Day

Alexander Zakharchenko said that Kiev might set out on an offensive to disrupt local elections in the Donetsk People's Republic in October.

DONETSK (Sputnik) — The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) confirmed on Saturday the east Ukrainian breakaway region would go ahead with local elections in October, and warned that Kiev might launch a military offensive to disrupt the vote.

"I’d say that local elections in the DPR are a threat to [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko’s regime," DPR’s Alexander Zakharchenko told RIA Novosti. "As for attempts to disrupt the elections, the only way for the junta to do that is through military force."

Mayoral and district governor elections in the DPR are scheduled for October 18. The vote will be held a week before the nationwide Ukrainian elections on October 25.

Zakharchenko said the Donetsk republic would not take part in those because Kiev had been reluctant to discuss the terms of the vote with the DPR as required by the multilateral ceasefire agreement of February 2015.

The DPR leader accused Ukrainian lawmakers of passing a local elections law without discussing it with the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which were to be granted a special status.

Under the Minsk ceasefire deal, agreed on by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany in mid-February, Ukrainian authorities were to adopt electoral and constitutional reforms aimed at devolving power to regions, including in Donbass, before the end of 2015.

Source: Sputnik News 29-08-2015

‘The US is Fully Prepared to Fight Putin - to the Last Ukrainian’

With no clear endpoint of the ongoing Ukrainian war in sight, the West seems to realize that something is definitely wrong there; a former advisor on Eastern European policy to the US State Department has written an analysis of what went wrong in the conflict, while still claiming that the conflict is in fact “a battle with President Putin”.

The first reason for the foot-dragging in Ukraine, according to an article Paul J. Saunders wrote for the US bimonthly magazine The National Interest, is the low involvement of the European states in the conflict.

“Perhaps most striking in the Ukraine crisis is the extent to which Western leaders and politicians and pundits agree that ‘Putin must be stopped’ while expecting someone else to do the work. NATO’s new ‘front line’ states in Central Europe appear eager for the United States to arm Ukraine, but reluctant to become too involved themselves (or, for that matter, to increase their defense budgets commensurately with the threat they describe),” the article says.

Thus it reprimands America’s European allies for not allocating enough for the ongoing fight.

“Western European governments want the United States to take the lead, but don’t want to follow Washington into anything too costly, and the European Union is providing Ukraine with less than one percent of the assistance it has committed to Greece.”

However, Washington itself seems to be not so eager to spend much on the cause.

“Do the “hawks” seeking to force the administration to spend $60 million — roughly equivalent to the proposed 2016 budget for Washington DC’s public libraries — and like-minded Europeans think that minimal commitments like this will do the job? After spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fight non-state adversaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, with military capabilities considerably inferior to Russia’s, US and European assistance to Ukraine is either a fig leaf or a very small down payment,” it states.

“If the United States is to make confronting Russia an organizing principle of its foreign policy, it will require an extended national commitment that will be unsustainable without broad public support (and difficult to pursue without virtually nonexistent European public support).”

“If $60 million is all that America as a nation is willing to spend to defend Ukraine, we would be better off admitting this to ourselves sooner rather than later. A half-hearted policy (or, for that matter, a 5 percent–hearted policy) to confront Moscow will likely produce outcomes demonstrably worse than a settlement — better to get the most advantages possible negotiated terms than to set up ourselves and the NATO alliance for a high-profile defeat.”

The second fundamental question about the US policy toward Russia and Ukraine, it says, is a moral one.

“If the United States is not willing to make a commitment to defending Ukraine sufficient to ensure success, how can we encourage Ukrainians to fight and die in a conflict with a very powerful neighbor and with no clear endpoint?”

The article therefore concludes that the Americans, including senior officials in the Obama administration are “fully prepared to fight Putin – to the last Ukrainian, or to the last dollar”, but it seems to be not enough to avoid a “high-profile defeat.”

 
Source: Sputnik News 28-08-2015

Merkel Throws a "Merkel" - She Meets Poroshenko and Dithers

• Inconclusive meeting in Berlin reinforces impression of a weak and indecisive Chancellor
• Merkel may have (or may have not) told Poroshenko not to launch an offensive, but didn't put pressure on him to enact political aspects of Minsk II 

Alexander Mercouris

The much anticipated meeting between Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko in Berlin has come and gone, attracting surprisingly little international media attention - an interesting fact in itself.

The meeting took place against the background of a steady deterioration in the situation in the Donbass, with growing fears the Ukrainians were about to launch another offensive.

Poroshenko is supposed to have called the meeting. Presumably he did so in the hope of getting support from Merkel and Hollande.

However if Poroshenko was looking for resounding statements of support, he didn’t get them.  

Whilst we do not know what was said in private, publicly Merkel and Hollande reaffirmed their support for Minsk II and demanded that its terms be strictly complied with.  

Since it is now no longer contested that it is the Ukrainians who are failing to carry out Minsk II, this could be interpreted as an implied rebuke of the Ukrainians.

Perhaps more significant is that the meeting ended without the usual overblown condemnations of Putin and of Russia - blaming him and Russia for the deterioration of the situation.  

Instead Merkel said that “after hearing what the Ukrainian side had to say”, she would “consult with the Russian 
leadership to hear what they had to say”.

This, and some commentary that has appeared recently in the Western media worrying that the West is in the process of abandoning Ukraine, suggests that - as the Russians demanded prior to the meeting - Merkel warned Poroshenko against any further military action.  

It may not be a coincidence that following the meeting Ukrainian shelling of the Donbass is reported to have died down.

None of this means an imminent end to the conflict.

Merkel may have warned Poroshenko off an offensive. However there is not the slightest evidence she put any pressure on him to compromise.

As for her vainglorious comment about hearing what both sides have to say, that makes her sound less like a diplomat and more like a judge. Both sides must wonder by what right Merkel judges them?

German youth slang has invented a new verb - “merkeln” (‘to merkel”) - apparently meaning “being indecisive, or failing to have an opinion on something”.  

According to surveys this verb is the most popular recent addition to German youth slang. It shows the extent to which the point we repeatedly make - that Merkel is a weak and indecisive leader - has now become accepted in Germany itself. 

This verb describes exactly Merkel’s behaviour at the summit.  

She appears to have acted to stop the Ukrainians launching an offensive she knows they would lose, which would force her into more negotiations like the ones that took place in February in Moscow and Minsk, which might expose her to more criticism, which she doesn’t want. 

At the same time she refuses to do anything to resolve the conflict, which is the ultimate cause of the crisis, because that too would expose her to criticism she doesn’t want.  

Instead she acts to put the crisis on the back burner, perpetuating a status quo that suits her but no-one else, and which everyone knows is unsustainable.

Merkel’s strange mixture of vanity and weakness has played a key role in creating the Ukrainian crisis.  

It is also playing a key role in prolonging it.

Based on what has come out of the summit in Berlin, nothing has changed.

Source: Russia Insider 27-08-2015