A police raid at the home and workplace of a Justice Ministry official who leads the nation's lustration campaign has called into question the Ukrainian government's commitment to cleansing the nation's political life of top officials from the ousted regime of Viktor Yanukovych and Communist Party members.

Tetiana Kozachenko, head of the lustration department of the Justice Ministry, said that police broke into her apartment and searched her ministry office on April 21. They were looking for a letter reportedly signed by Deputy Justice Minister Natalia Sevostianova to spare a top Fiscal Service official from lustration. The letter turned out to be a fake.

Kozachenko said she was the one who discovered the fraudulent letter in the first place, during her inspection of the Fiscal Service staff. There were no searches at the homes of others, including Sevostianova, whose signature is on the forged letter. Police found nothing during the search, according to Kozachenko.

But lawmakers and public activists criticized the search and the authorities, including President Petro Poroshenko, for interfering with the political cleansing process.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/critics-fear-officials-trying-to-sabotage-lustration-drive-386996.html

Senior European Union officials travel to Kiev on Monday for their first formal Ukraine summit since the crisis with Russia broke last spring. The top priority for the talks has been unspoken: stemming an erosion of trust between Kiev and its Western neighbors.

While Ukraine and the EU have deepened ties over the past year in the face of what both consider to be Russian aggression in Ukraine’s east, tensions that already lay under the surface have grown more prominent since February’s cease-fire agreement in Minsk, known as Minsk 2, which has at least for now quieted Kiev’s fighting with pro-Moscow separatists.

On the European side, there are sharpened concerns that Ukraine’s commitments to internal change—economic and political—haven’t been followed through. They fear this will, over time, intensify Kiev’s economic woes and possibly stoke tensions with Russia again.

Ukrainian officials are clear about their frustrations with the 28-nation bloc. The failure to advance toward visa-free access, open divisions within the EU over maintaining its sanctions on Russia and uncertainties about the EU’s determination to forge ahead with a bilateral trade pact in the face of Russian opposition are creating doubts about Europe’s commitment to Kiev.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-ukraine-ties-fray-as-crisis-lingers-on-1429823349?tesla=y

"Some officials say the bloc’s nightmare scenario remains possible: Failed reforms and renewed conflict in the east precipitate a fresh financial crisis in Kiev that leaves EU loans worth more than €3 billion ($3.22 billion) unpaid and Ukraine’s pro-EU parties diminished.

There is another more immediate concern. In late March, Thornbjorn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, which is advising the Ukrainian government on constitutional reforms, told reporters he remains concerned about differences in Kiev over the extent to which power should be decentralized.

Mr. Poroshenko has said he won’t accept Russian demands to “federalize” the country, which he warns would be tantamount to dividing up Ukraine. He said he will push his own version of autonomy for eastern provinces."

As with the situation in Yemen, it is hard to see this evolving into anything orderly any time soon, let alone into something that might someday pay back all those loans, or be able to govern. At least ISIS is not carving out a branch of the caliphate in Ukraine, yet.

One of the last American combat units stationed in Europe is asking the government for bigger guns amid rising tensions over Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The 2nd Cavalry Regiment is requesting that 81 of its 8-wheel-drive Stryker infantry carrier vehicles be equipped with 30-mm automatic cannons -- double the caliber of the 12.7-mm guns they already carry, the military news website Breaking Defense reports.

The House Armed Services committee is already setting aside money for the upgrade, which the Army approved Wednesday, according to a memo obtained by the website.

The upgraded cannons would give the Strykers added firepower against other light-armored vehicles.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/04/27/us-troops-in-europe-request-bigger-guns-amid-tensions-russia.html

Growing tensions between the West and Russia and between the United States and China go well beyond competing interests in a rustbelt in eastern Ukraine or over uninhabited rocks in the South China Sea. Fundamentally, they are about whether Russia and China will acquire sphere of influences in their neighborhood. Russia seeks special influence in the former Soviet Union and China is looking to make its nine-dash line in the South China Sea a reality.

For almost a quarter of a century, the United States has said it opposes a return to a spheres-of-influence order of the kind that existed in the Cold War or prior to World War II. In fact, in 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry even formally repudiated the Monroe Doctrine. Successive presidents have endorsed a Europe “whole and free” and the principle that states should get to decide their own foreign relations. This policy had real consequences, in Europe especially—since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO has expanded from sixteen countries to twenty-eight and the European Union from eleven to twenty-eight.

However, it was relatively easy to oppose a return to spheres of influence when no other major power was actively trying to reconstitute it. Now, Russia is using hybrid warfare to seize territory in Europe, and China is using land-reclamation tactics in the South China Sea. While Russia and China are very different actors, these strategies of territorial expansion present the United States with a particularly thorny problem. U.S. rhetoric is consistent—it opposes a return to a spheres-of-influence order—but it is unclear what this means. So far in Europe, it involves imposing costs on Russia for seizing territory in Ukraine, but not stopping it from doing so or reversing it after the fact. In Asia, it means diplomatic efforts on maritime security, but nothing to punish or stop China’s strategy of changing the facts on the ocean.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/china-russia-vs-america-great-power-revisionism-back-12733

I recently returned from a reporting tour to the war zone of eastern Ukraine. I traveled to Donetsk city and region with a media tour group organized by concerned citizens in Russia and Germany.

My first published report of our visit appeared on April 21. One of my travel colleagues and the other Canadian on the tour, Halyna Mokrushyna, has just published her first report. Like me, she will be writing much more on the visit.

We issued a press release on April 21 announcing our visit and findings. The release went to mainstream and alternative media across Canada, inviting them to interview us. We wrote invitations directly to some CBC programs and have encouraged invitations for us to speak at academic institutions and public forums.

Our trip coincided with Canada's decision announced on April 14 to send 200 soldiers to western Ukraine. They will join soldiers from the U.S. and U.K. in backing the ruthless war that the government in Kyiv has waged during the past year in the east of the country. Canada's decision should send alarm bells ringing for Canadians, if the larger picture of the war has not already done so.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/roger-annis/2015/04/%E2%80%8Breturn-donbas-cracks-begin-to-show-canadas-support-war-ukraine?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rabble-news+%28rabble.ca+-+News+for+the+rest+of+us%29

(Reuters) - Swedish defence company Saab said on Monday there was growing interest for its Gripen fighter jet from countries spread across Russia's European flank, amid rising tensions rise over Ukraine.

Czech Republic and Hungary already operate 14 Gripens each under leases, and a senior Saab executive said he was open to more such deals as others with limited budgets seek more modern air power.

"Even if they don't expect a Russian intervention, there are more tensions and air policing becomes necessary, so if you only have a few MiG-21s you would like to have a more robust system," deputy chief executive Lennart Sindahl said in an interview.

Leasing generates significant support deals, he said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/saab-gripen-idUSL8N0XO2RK20150427?rpc=401

A number of recent critical articles in the Times of Malta regarding Russia’s role in international affairs, including that in the Ukrainian crisis and the reunification with Crimea, compelled me to try to introduce to readers how our country views the current situation inthe world.

The year 2015 is a remarkable one, as we are set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the victory in the World War II, which was unprecedented by its scale and turned into a great tragedy for the peoples of the whole world.

Both Russia and Malta had their role to play in achieving a common victory at the cost of many lives of their citizens. In the case of Russia alone total casualties reached as many as 27 million people. We do not divide the victory over fascism, which was won by the Allies, but it is quite clear that the USSR made a major contribution to the liberation of Europe in 1945.

One would hope that after two large-scale wars and then the Cold War the world would finally embark on a road to mutually beneficial partnership and peaceful sustainable development. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150428/opinion/The-Russian-viewpoint.565875

Ukraine said its troops came under rebel attack with Grad rockets for the first time since March and Germany’s foreign minister warned the situation is deteriorating as a decision looms on extending sanctions against Russia.

The intensity of clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists has “increased significantly” in the past 24 hours, with one soldier killed and 14 wounded, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told reporters in Kiev on Tuesday. Rebels in turn blamed Ukraine for multiple cease-fire violations, including artillery bombardments.

“Unfortunately, in recent days, the situation regressed a little, in the context of an intensification of the conflict, in two or three locations in Ukraine,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Belgrade. “The whole process of implementation must speed up significantly as the decision on sanctions is due in a few months.”

The flareup is casting a pall over efforts to end the crisis more than two months after a truce was signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Both sides were required to withdraw heavy weaponry behind buffer zones under the terms of the Minsk deal. The yearlong conflict pitting the government in Kiev against pro-Russian insurgents has killed more than 6,100 people in eastern Ukraine and devastated the country’s economy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-28/ukraine-says-rocket-attacks-resume-as-germany-warns-on-sanctions

HELSINKI — The Finnish military says it has dropped depth charges onto a suspected submarine in the sea outside Helsinki after twice detecting the presence of a foreign object in the area.

The navy's maritime operations chief, Olavi Jantunen, says they could not identify the "underwater object" but had begun an investigation, which could take weeks.

Parliamentary defense committee spokesman Jussi Niinisto said Tuesday that the military occasionally detects such activity but described the use of depth charges as unusual.

The intrusion comes in the wake of a lengthy hunt for a foreign submarine in Swedish waters in October following increased military activity in the Baltic Sea region.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/28/world/europe/ap-eu-finland-submarine-search-.html

What if the Ukrainian government resumes the war noone wants to pay for – not the US, the European Union, Poland, Canada, least of all Kiev?

Public statements by Ukrainian and international officials identify two payment deadlines for war, and for peace. The first falls on May 31, Natalie Jaresko, the US minister of Ukrainian Finance, has told the London Times, when $15.3 billion in sovereign bond debt must be written off “through lower interest rates, longer payment terms, and in some cases, a cut in the sum owed.” The second deadline falls a month later, at the end of June, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must decide whether the government in Kiev has met the conditions required for payment of $1.5 billion, the second instalment of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) which commenced just six weeks ago. A default on May 31 will make inevitable a delay in IMF loan disbursement in June. The combination will halt the European Union promise to start a new €1.8 billion in Macro Financial Assistance (MFA).

Russian sources believe that unless Kiev starts a new military offensive in the Donbass within days, when cross-border Russian action can be blamed, creditor governments pressured into paying and bondholders into conceding losses, there won’t be enough cash later on to pay for troops, machines and ammunition.

“We have done everything possible to get to peace”, Jaresko told the Times on March 29. “Russia seems to have a much grander plan here. They are trying to ensure we are a failed state.”

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/04/john-helmer-ukraine-readies-war-no-one-wants-pay.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Russian authorities have seized several assets at a candy factory owned by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Russian city of Lipetsk.

Poroshenko's company, Roshen, said on April 28 that Russian officials are "deliberately taking all possible steps to prevent the company from selling its assets in Russia."

Poroshenko promised ahead of his election in May to sell Roshen.

Oleg Kazakov, the Lipetsk factory's deputy head, said on April 28 that production would continue at the factory despite the seizure.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-poroshenko-roshen-assets-seized-russia/26984668.html

The United States and Japan oppose Russia's aggression against Ukraine, U.S. President Barack Obama said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.

"We are two global partners that stand together for security and human dignity around the world – opposing Russia's aggression against Ukraine, providing relief to innocent civilians threatened by ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], combating Ebola and promoting global health, and now offering help to the people of Nepal, who are in our prayers today," Obama told journalists.

Earlier, speaking at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, Obama said: "We're leading in dealing with Ebola in West Africa and in opposing Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17."

http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/263329.html

Ukraine's ongoing conflict with Russia has left the country facing years of recession as the country struggles to break ties with Moscow and implement structural reforms, the World Bank has warned.

The Washington-based organisation cut its 2015 growth forecast to -7.5pc, following a contraction of 6.8pc in 2014. Last October, it forecast that the Ukrainian economy would shrink by 1pc this year, while the International Monetary Fund has forecast a contraction of 5.5pc this year.

"Given the situation in the east, we expect gross domestic product (GDP) to continue contracting sharply especially during the first half of the year," the World Bank said in its latest healthcheck of the economy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11570683/Ukraines-conflict-with-Russia-leaves-economy-in-ruins.html

Alexander Zakharchenko is the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, which is not recognized by the international community. In a rare interview, he says his greatest hope is that Moscow will annex his territory just as it did Crimea.



The meeting takes place in an inconspicuous building on a commercial street in downtown Donetsk. There is no sign to indicate who resides behind the door where guards armed with automatic rifles are posted. After a brief walk up the stairs to the second floor, a man in a blue sweater whose right leg is wrapped in a bandage, sits behind a desk in a study. Two months ago, a sniper's bullet slammed into his lower leg. The incident occurred during fighting over the Ukrainian town of Debaltseve, which in February fell to the separatists who now control Donetsk.

The man at the desk is Alexander Zakharchenko, the "leader," head of government and commander-in-chief of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. He has the rank of major. After the separatists' victory in Debaltseve, the neighboring Luhansk rebel republic even awarded him the rank of general. Zakharchenko is a wanted man in the rest of Ukraine, where he is charged with establishing a terrorist organization. His name also appears on US and EU sanctions lists, which prevents him from traveling to the West. The fact that his office on University Street in Donetsk is so inconspicuous is a precaution. The head of the separatist republic has already survived one assassination attempt. As a result, he is unwilling to move to the former governor's administration building, where the government is now headquartered. The tall, exposed building on Pushkin Boulevard would be an easy target in an air strike.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-donetsk-separatist-leader-on-hopes-for-annexation-a-1031270.html#ref=rss