Minsk peace talks on Ukraine end without any agreement.

All ye tankmen, watch this and take note: How *not* to ford a river and take a 90deg turn ;) https://t.co/6OND35riLl

— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 4, 2015

Minsk peace talks on Ukraine end without any agreement. (UAE).

Another round of peace talks on Ukraine, ending without any agreements. Representatives from Russia, Ukraine, east Ukraine militants and Europe's OSCE watchdog debated long into the night at this hotel in the Belarusian capital Minsk on Monday.

Four main themes were discussed - based around security, the economy, politics and humanitarian issues. In particular, the demilitarization of the Azov Sea coastal village of Shyrokyne and the extension of a buffer zone along other parts of the front line.

Martin Sajdik, OSCE representative at talks: "Work is being conducted, as you know, on the agreement on the pullback of tanks and artillery - calibre of up to 100mm and mortars of a calibre of up to 120mm. This work will continue tomorrow."

Plans to create a buffer zone east of Mariupol have angered a proportion of local residents and Ukrainian fighters. They argue Russian-backed militant units would launch a fresh advance along the coastline, if Ukrainian forces were to give up land in line with any political agreement.

Diplomat talk of a largely-held ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has not mirrored along parts of the front line, where Ukrainian troops and joint Russian-separatist forces blame each other for launching attacks. Read the full story here.

Important if true ===> Lukashenko: No intervention in Ukraine from Belarusian territory http://t.co/NR72gvMYbP

— John Schindler (@20committee) August 4, 2015

Russian DPR/LPR units now openly talking about their readiness to begin offensive for the "complete liberation of Donetsk & Luhansk regions"

— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 4, 2015

You've seen already. But worth remembering this is only one of many Russian (hybrid) forces depots in occupied Donbas pic.twitter.com/84qsiChZao

— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 4, 2015

Somewhere in Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Ukraine, 3 or 4 August 2015 https://t.co/sWlShyO7UQ #PutinAtWar pic.twitter.com/QFHNl7XixM

— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 4, 2015

Source (not original source, but for these particular photos via so-called "DPR armed forces") https://t.co/Gfvh4lRG8J

— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 4, 2015

'Flexibility' - Two Russian Bear bombers enter U.S. Air defense zone; Obama 'admin' doesn't react.

'Flexibility' - Two Russian Bear bombers enter U.S. Air defense zone; Obama 'admin' doesn't react. (FB).

Two Russian nuclear-capable bombers intruded into the U.S. air defense zone near Alaska last week in the latest saber rattling by Moscow, defense officials said.

The Tu-95 Bear H bombers flew into the Alaska zone on April 22. But unlike most earlier incursions, no U.S. interceptor jets were dispatched to shadow them, said defense officials familiar with the latest U.S.-Russian aerial encounter.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), declined to confirm the incursion. But he said no jets were dispatched last week to intercept intruding aircraft.

The incident was the first Russian bomber incursion of a U.S. or Canadian air defense zone this year. Officials said it likely signals the start of Russia’s long-range aviation spring training cycle. Further aerial incursions are expected.

Last year, U.S. and Canadian jets intercepted Russian bombers on at least six occasions, and intruding Russian long-range aircraft were detected on 10 occasions, Davis said.

Despite remaining in international airspace, “we believe that if the Russian military filed flight plans and self-identified—by ‘squawking and talking’—the overall safety of flight would be enhanced,” Davis said.

These flights often enter the U.S. or Canadian [air defense identification zone], but have not entered U.S. or Canadian sovereign airspace,” he said, adding that the flights are legal since the ADIZ is not sovereign airspace. Hmmmmm.......Once it becomes a 'habit' you become sloppy, that's when they get you! Read the full story here.

Russian Bal missile system successfully passes first firing drill in Primorye.

Russian Bal missile system successfully passes first firing drill in Primorye. (RBTH).

The Pacific Fleet's coast guard brigade has successfully used a Bal missile system in a firing drill. The system entered service with the brigade late last year, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported.

"The missile launches were carried out by over 400 personnel and involved about 20 pieces of combat and auxiliary gear," the Eastern Military District's press service said in a statement, received by Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.

"The missiles were fired at a sea target in compliance with the set standards," the statement says.

Before the launch the crew accomplished a 200-kilometer long march across Southern Primorye from its base. "The personnel deployed the system hastily at an unprepared position and launched a missile at a sea target in compliance with the set standards. Naval aircraft and controller ships involved in the firing drill confirmed that the target had been hit," the press release says.

Earlier, TASS had reported that the Bal-E CMS “consists of a self-propelled command control and communications centre, self-propelled launchers, a transport and reloader machine and communications vehicle, a total of- up to 11 special vehicles.” It added that the system “is capable of hitting targets at ranges up to 120 kilometers at any time and under any weather conditions.”

The Bal-E CMS is usually equipped with KH-35 anti-ship missiles, which have fully autonomous after-launch missile guidance. The Bal-E can single fire or conduct salvo fires of up to 32 missiles at any one time. Each Bal-E missile system is equipped with 64 missiles.

Distinguished Law Professor: "My advice to Vladimir Putin, cut off all gas supplies to Europe."

 Distinguished Law Professor: "My advice to Vladimir Putin, cut off all gas supplies to Europe."(RN).

Russia will do everything possible to end the bloodshed in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Thursday in his address to the heads of political parties. 

The only reasonable reaction in light of the crisis in Ukraine and West-imposed sanctions  is to completely cut off energy deliveries to Europe, be it through Ukraine, or North Stream, says Francis Boyle, distinguished Professor of Law, in an interview to radio Voice of Russia.

Meanwhile, Russia has embarked on the humanitarian mission, approved by the Red Cross last week. 280 aid-loaded Russian Kamaz trucks are now heading to the Ukrainian border. The move may bring about different scenarios, though. The most favorable one for Europe seems to be that of Ukrainians shelling the convoy, which could be a pretext for a new war, the expert argues.

“Russian humanitarian relief convoy heading to the border of Ukraine could well be fired upon by Ukrainian forces. And at that point anything could happen.”

Mr. Boyle says “his advice to Vladimir Putin” would be to trump the European sanctions by cutting off all gas supplies to Europe “completely and immediately”. 

He expresses certainty the move is well justified on the grounds of article 1 of the Genocide Convention, which Russia, Ukraine and all of Europe are all parties of.

Mr. Boyle says this requires all the states involved “to undertake, to prevent and to punish genocide”. At this point President Putin would have excellent legal ground to cut all the gas supplies to Ukraine and Europe, and thus stop the fall of Donetsk and Luhansk, he adds.

The fall of the predominantly Russian speaking cities would lead straight to an egregious massacre of their Russian-speaking residents, which must be stopped once and for all.

Cutting off gas supplies to Europe would be completely lawful, Mr. Boyle argues, citing his personal experience, as he worked in former Yugoslavia and stood on guard of the Bosnians’ interests in the 1992-1995 war.

“I was a lawyer for Bosnia Herzegovina during the war, I argued their case for genocide in a war court. I won two war court orders against Yugoslavia, to cease acts of genocide against Bosnia. I am currently the attorney of record for the mothers of Srebrenica, many of the women who survived that massacre.”

Mr. Boyle points to the examples of Karadžić  and Mladić, who are currently on trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide. “This is exactly what Ukraine is doing to Donetsk and Luhansk,” he states.

He says there’s no time to waste and Russia has by all means to respond in light of the latest wave of sanctions imposed on the country.

“I think President Putin should undertake this step immediately first to prevent the fall and massacre in Donetsk and Luhansk, and then second, who knows what will happen when that humanitarian relief convoy arrives at the border? It’s a thousand kilometers, maybe two days at best, and the Ukrainians could start shelling it.”

Professor Boyle says Europe is aiding and abetting Ukraine to commit genocide against the Russian speakers in Ukraine “in violation of article three paragraph E of the Genocide Convention “Complicit in genocide”.

”The only way to “bring Europe to senses” and stop the Donbass siege is to cut off gas supplies, he reiterates.

By vilifying President Putin the western world is apparently looking forward to waging a new war, and the chances are it will happen, says the expert. If the convoy is shot at and Putin is thus forced to send the troops to Ukraine, this is an appropriate scenario for the EU, and NATO forces will shortly start “pouring into Ukraine”. “There’s no question about that, they are already arrayed all around Ukraine”.

Mr. Boyle finds the case similar to what they [the US] did to Saddam Hussein when it pushed him into invading Kuwait, while President Bush Senior used this as a pretext to place 500,000 troops on the Iraqi territory. “They want to soccer President Putin into invading, or entering, Ukraine, however you want to call it, with military forces”. Russia will thus fall into the trap, he says.

Violence in eastern Ukraine has intensified in the recent time, with the UN saying some 2,086 people have been killed since the conflict began in mid-April. There has also been a surge in the number of Ukrainian refugees who continue to flee to Russia. As of August 11, they numbered more than 51,000 people. According to the UN, about 730,000 have chose to leave their homes and head for Russia since early 2014.

BREAKING Ukraine sanctions on Russia to include ban on energy transit.

BREAKING Ukraine sanctions on Russia to include ban on energy transit.(RT).

Ukraine’s Parliament has approved the first reading of an anti-Russian sanctions package that includes 29 measures that are said to be “an efficient reaction to potential threats to national interests and security.”

The bill proposed by the government was passed with 243 votes in favor.

All the amendments could be adopted and go through on a second reading on Tuesday, said Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Last week Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk introduced a bill to parliament sanctioning Russia that included a ban on all transit through its territory.

READ MORE: Ukraine may block all transit from Russia in a sanction row - PM

The bill contained 26 restrictions on Russia, but the most controversial was a ban on energy transit. Yatsenyuk hopes this will help halt his country’s dependence on Russian gas, but the EU might be hurt the hardest.

Europe gets about 15 percent of its gas requirements from Russia, with the Baltic States, Finland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic a hundred percent dependent on Russian supplies.

Gerhard Roiss, chief executive of the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, said on Tuesday that Ukraine stopping transit of Russian gas was an unrealistic scenario.

Experts suggest that ending transit through Ukraine could mean more support for Russia’s South Stream project which has been under EU scrutiny. The European Commission wants project leader Russia’s Gazprom to comply with anti-monopoly legislation.

On Monday Ukraine’s gas monopolist Naftogaz said it would need to sign new transit contracts with companies not on the sanctions list.

The talk was about European firms needing to buy gas from Gazprom at the Russia-Ukraine border, and then transport it via Ukraine, a Naftogaz spokesman explained to RBC.

A search for alternative routes to get Russian gas should also give a boost to another gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine – Nord Stream. Currently it is working at half capacity and a Ukraine transit ban could be the catalyst to have it fully working.

Ukraine imports nearly 50 percent of its natural gas from Russia, which in 2013 amounted to 27.7 billion cubic meters.

In June Gazprom, Russia’s national gas company announced it was stopping deliveries to Ukraine for the ‘chronic’ failure to pay its multi-billion dollar gas bill, but would continue to ship 180 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe.Hmmm....As i said many times before it's going to be a cold Russian Winter.

If #Ukraine stops the flow to #Europe via #Russia gas pipelines, well, it's an act of war. So hopefully it knows what it's doing. #cdnpoli
— Rock Solid Politics (@BradCabana) August 12, 2014

Related Update:

European Commission to Discuss Idea of Buying Gas on Border With Russia, Ukraine

'Defaulter Of Gas Bills' Ukraine threatens to stop the transit of gas to Europe.

'Defaulter Of Gas Bills' Ukraine threatens to stop the transit of gas to Europe.(unzensuriert).[GoogleTranslate].

The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has threatened to stop the transit of gas between Russia and the European Union. 

Thus, the head of government is pouring oil on the fire again the current conflict in Eastern Europe.

Experts on the Russian side see in Jazenjuks announcements a "trick", as the Prime Minister would have to know that for a boycott of transit gas supplies between Russia and the EU at the end of the Ukraine would look like a big loser.

Igor Morozov, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council was compared with the Voice of Russia a clear evaluation to Jazenjuks verbal blackmail from:

Kiev currently plugged into an extremely complex political and economic situation and why the West must keep in mind that Ukraine which does not eat bread for nothing again.

Therefore, the Ukrainian authorities are willing to make the economic relations with Russia destroyed, and explain, they do everything what the West wants, give us money, we shall issue debt and loans granted us.

Russia warns EU against the double game of Ukraine

In particular, the role Jazenjuks, the holding, the Russian side for one of the main war-mongers in Kiev, you want to expose to the West. So Yatsenyuk recently had one . whipped "war tax" by the Kiev Parliament Vice-Chief of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, Vladimir Dschabarow, is even more explicit words and warns the EU before the double game of Ukraine:

I hope that Jazenjuks Western partners and directors make it clear that the transit of Russian gas to Europe is even vital. [...] The Ukraine must understand that the Ukrainian gas transport system ceases to exist forever, the authorities in Kiev should carry out their threats to disrupt the flow of gas to Europe, contends. Jazenjuks statement is a blatant stupidity. Because the freezing Europe will clearly not be able to help Ukraine. The Europeans should think about whether it is worthwhile to follow in the wake of Washington, when this runs counter to their national interests.

FPO: Ukraine wants to bring Europe cold winter

Sharp criticism of the Ukrainian threats also exerts the liberal National Council member Gerhard Deimek. "This threat is also a blow against the West The Ukraine seems to forget that they would break international agreements." Deimek refers to the Energy Charter Treaty . "We always heard of Vladimir Putin's gas weapon. Yet it is the EU allies in Ukraine, which are apparently willing to Europe to bring a cold winter," said Deimek.Hmmm.....As i said in many previous posts: "This will blow up come Autumn! If i were Putin i would start thinking about a 'Russian Winter Offensive"

"CHANGE" - Russian nuclear-capable bombers 'tested' US air defenses 16 times in last 10 days.

"CHANGE" - Russian nuclear-capable bombers 'tested' US air defenses 16 times in last 10 days.(RT).

“Over the past week, NORAD has visually identified Russian aircraft operating in and around the US air defense identification zones,” said Maj. Beth Smith, spokeswoman for US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Smith sought to downplay the incursions that she called “a spike in activity,” telling the Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz that the flights were assessed as routine training missions and exercises.

But an unnamed defense official familiar with the incursion reports disagreed with Smith’s assessment. “These are not just training missions,” the official told Gertz, saying that Russian strategic nuclear forces appear to be “trying to test our air defense reactions, or our command and control systems.”

NORAD scrambled fighter jets several times when Russian strategic aircraft flew along US ADIZs. The planes included a mix of Tu-95 Bear H heavy bombers and Tu-142 Bear F maritime reconnaissance aircraft, as well as one IL-20 intelligence collection aircraft, Smith said.

The bomber flights took place mainly along the Alaskan air defense identification zone that covers the Aleutian Islands and the continental part of the state, and one incursion involved entry into Canada’s air defense zone, she added.


“Such aerial bravado has been rare since the fall of the Soviet Union,” News.com.au wrote. “Until now.”

“And it all appears to be a direct result of the cooling of relations between the West and Russia over the invasion of Crimea and the shooting-down of MH17,” the Australian News Corp site added.

During the Cold War, Soviet bombers sought to trigger US air defenses as preparation for a potential nuclear conflict.

The recent spike in activity after a surface-to-air missile brought down the Malaysia Airlines plane is not the first time Russian military planes were detected in US ADIZs this summer.

On June 9, a pair of Tu-95 Bear H aircraft maintained by Russia came close to US airspace during practice bombing while four of the planes were conducting bombing runs near Alaska, a NORAD spokesman told Gertz.

“After tracking the bombers as they flew eastward, two of the four Bears turned around and headed west toward the Russian Far East,” he wrote of the June incident. “The remaining two nuclear-capable bombers then flew southeast and around 9:30 P.M. entered the US northern air defense zone off the coast of Northern California.”

Those two aircraft, Gertz added, made it within 50 miles of the coast before turning around after a US F-15 intercepted them.


Russian aircraft have also made incursions into other countries’ airspace this year. In June, the UK’s Royal Air Force scrambled Typhoon fighter jets to intercept four flights of aircraft in the airspace around the Baltic states. The planes included advanced Tu-22M Backfire bombers, Su-27 Flanker interceptors, an A-50 Mainstay radar aircraft and a transport aircraft, News.com.au wrote.

Russian-owned Tu-95 bombers skirted UK airspace and have come close to US property in both Guam and California, The Aviationist reported in May.