Ukraine Approves Special Status for East as Truce Strains By Daryna Krasnolutska, Ilya Arkhipov and Volodymyr Verbyany Sep 16, 2014 3:40 AM PT 134 Comments Email Print Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Save Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Destroyed military equipment from a recent battle stands outside of the battered city... Read More Ukraine’s parliament approved a law giving special status to the country’s two easternmost regions while a cease-fire, now in its 11th day, came under threat as some separatists called for the resumption of fighting. The parliament in Kiev approved the special status bill and an amnesty law envisaged in the cease-fire agreement, Deputy Speaker Ruslan Koshulynskiy said by phone today. Under the measure, certain areas within the regions will hold early local elections on Dec. 7, enjoy a special economic and investment regime and have the right to use Russian as a second official language. The situation in Donetsk remains “tense” after one civilian was killed today and the city council reported an intensive military operations in two of its districts. The clashes are throwing the Sept. 5 cease-fire into further doubt. The U.S. and other NATO allies began military exercises yesterday in Ukraine, which says Russia has about 25,000 troops along the border and more than 3,000 soldiers inside the country. The government in Moscow denies involvement in the conflict. The drills have “the potential to lead to a destabilization of the situation,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a phone interview. “The truce is very fragile. It is just the start of the settlement. Russia consistently continues to do all it can to help promote the resolution of Ukraine’s internal crisis.” Photographer: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images People walk in a market gallery destroyed by shelling in the Kievsky district in... Read More ‘Offensive Tactics’ Pro-Russian rebels earlier today suggested combining the forces in Luhansk and Donetsk and switching “to offensive tactics,” according to their address to separatist leaders posted on the Donetsk separatists’ website. The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives, according to the United Nations, and clashes have occurred daily since a truce took effect on Sept. 5. Luhansk rebel leader Igor Plotnitskiy said that while there was some small-scale shooting from Ukrainian troops, the situation on the whole remained calm, state-controlled RIA Novosti reported. Nonetheless, the rebels remain combat ready, the Russian news service said. The U.S. is participating in an annual training exercise in Ukraine with 14 other nations, according to a statement from Navy Captain Greg Hicks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command. The two-week field training exercise, which won’t use live ammunition, was planned before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Hicks said. About 1,300 military personnel from NATO members the U.S., the U.K., Poland, Germany and Canada as well as Georgia and other countries, will take part in the exercise with Ukrainian forces near Yavoriv, Hicks said. The exercise, dubbed Rapid Trident, in western Ukraine bordering Poland, is taking place about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from the fighting in east Ukraine.

By Daryna Krasnolutska, Ilya Arkhipov and Volodymyr Verbyany  

Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Destroyed military equipment from a recent battle stands outside of the battered city... Read More

Ukraine’s parliament approved a law giving special status to the country’s two easternmost regions while a cease-fire, now in its 11th day, came under threat as some separatists called for the resumption of fighting.
The parliament in Kiev approved the special status bill and an amnesty law envisaged in the cease-fire agreement, Deputy Speaker Ruslan Koshulynskiy said by phone today. Under the measure, certain areas within the regions will hold early local elections on Dec. 7, enjoy a special economic and investment regime and have the right to use Russian as a second official language.
The situation in Donetsk remains “tense” after one civilian was killed today and the city council reported an intensive military operations in two of its
districts. The clashes are throwing the Sept. 5 cease-fire into further doubt. The U.S. and other NATO allies began military exercises yesterday in Ukraine, which says Russia has about 25,000 troops along the border and more than 3,000 soldiers inside the country. The government in Moscow denies involvement in the conflict.
The drills have “the potential to lead to a destabilization of the situation,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a phone interview. “The truce is very fragile. It is just the start of the settlement. Russia consistently continues to do all it can to help promote the resolution of Ukraine’s internal crisis.”

Photographer: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images

People walk in a market gallery destroyed by shelling in the Kievsky district in... Read More

‘Offensive Tactics’

Pro-Russian rebels earlier today suggested combining the forces in Luhansk and Donetsk and switching “to offensive tactics,” according to their address to separatist leaders posted on the Donetsk separatists’ website.
The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives, according to the United Nations, and clashes have occurred daily since a truce took effect on Sept. 5.
Luhansk rebel leader Igor Plotnitskiy said that while there was some small-scale shooting from Ukrainian troops, the situation on the whole remained calm, state-controlled RIA Novosti reported. Nonetheless, the rebels remain combat ready, the Russian news service said.
The U.S. is participating in an annual training exercise in Ukraine with 14 other nations, according to a statement from Navy Captain Greg Hicks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command.
The two-week field training exercise, which won’t use live ammunition, was planned before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Hicks said. About 1,300 military personnel from NATO members the U.S., the U.K., Poland, Germany and Canada as well as Georgia and other countries, will take part in the exercise with Ukrainian forces near Yavoriv, Hicks said.
The exercise, dubbed Rapid Trident, in western Ukraine bordering Poland, is taking place about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from the fighting in east Ukraine.