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Ukraine’s Fight With Russia Is ‘America’s War, Too,’ Poroshenko Says

Ukraine’s Fight With Russia Is ‘America’s War, Too,’ Poroshenko Says

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s new president thanked the United States for showing solidarity with the people of Ukraine, but warned that greater tests lie ahead, telling Congress that his nation’s fight against Russian aggression “is America’s war, too.”

Petro Poroshenko, addressing a joint meeting of Congress at the start of a daylong visit to Washington on Thursday, called incursions into Ukrainian territory by Russia “one of the worst setbacks for the cause of democracy in the world in years.” He asked for additional political and logistical help, and for the United States to give his country a special non-allied partner status in NATO.

“Democracies must support each other,” Poroshenko said. “They must show solidarity in the face of aggression and adversity. Otherwise they will be eliminated one by one.”

Elected president of Ukraine in May following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and as fighting escalated against Russian-backed separatists in the east, Poroshenko acknowledged fears of “a new Cold War” but said that it must not be accepted “as an inevitability.”

Even as he warned that the “imperialistic mindset” of the former Soviet Union persisted today in Vladimir Putin, Poroshenko said he stood ready to work with Russia to sustain the recent cease-fire agreement. But he said he would never agree to “Ukraine’s dismemberment,” calling the annexation of Crimea one of the “most cynical acts of treachery in the modern era.”

“We will never obey or bend to the aggressor,” he said. “We are ready to fight. But we are a people of peace.”

Poroshenko is set to meet with President Obama later Thursday at the White House. His visit comes as the United States has been consumed by the new threat posed by Islamic State militants.
Poroshenko acknowledged that Americans are weary of conflict after a decade of war, but said this was a moment in history “whose importance cannot be measured solely in percentages of GDP growth.”

“Values come first — this is the truth the West would remind Ukraine of over the last years. Now it is Ukraine’s turn to remind the West of this truth,” he said.

Poroshenko was greeted warmly by members of Congress, and his speech was interrupted repeatedly by standing ovations. He broke from his prepared text at the start of speech, saying it was “impossible to imagine what I am feeling right now.” The famously sentimental House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) also teared up as Poroshenko hailed the ties between the two nations.

He concluded his speech by linking the well-recognized New Hampshire state motto, “Live free or die,” to the spirit of his nation’s own clashes: ” ‘Live free’ must be the message Ukraine and America send to the world, while standing together in this time of enormous challenge.”

AFP Photo

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MH17 Pierced By ‘High-Energy Objects,’ Investigators Into Crash Find

MH17 Pierced By ‘High-Energy Objects,’ Investigators Into Crash Find

By Dpa Correspondents, dpa

AMSTERDAM — Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 broke up in the air probably after being hit “by a large number of high-energy objects,” a preliminary Dutch report on the crash showed on Tuesday.
Images of the MH17 wreckage show that it was pierced in numerous places from the outside, causing the Boeing 777 to break up in flight July 17 over eastern Ukraine, the report said.

The Dutch Safety Board, which is leading the multination investigation, said it found no evidence that the crash resulted from a technical problem or crew error.

The report did not assign blame for the crash, but the United States and Ukraine accuse pro-Russian separatist rebels of downing the jet with a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile system.

The MH17 damage outlined by the investigators would be consistent with a strike from a missile from a Buk system, which detonate before hitting a target to maximize damage and improve the missile’s chances of destroying it.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the report backed his country’s view that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and called on the international community to find and punish the perpetrators of the attack.

Separatist rebels said, however, that the Dutch crash report confirmed their conviction that Ukraine shot down the airliner.

“It is obvious that this was a provocation carried out by the Ukrainian armed forces to discredit Russia and the insurgency,” separatist commander Miroslav Rudenko told Russia’s Interfax news agency from the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

All 298 people on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed. A majority of the passengers were Dutch.

The Dutch Safety Board has not had access to the crash site, which is in an area that has seen fighting between Ukraine government forces and the rebels. It relied on photographs taken during short visits to the site by Ukrainian and Malaysian investigators, data from MH17’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, air traffic control communications, satellite images, and radar information to issue its preliminary findings.

“The initial results of the investigation point towards an external cause of the MH17 crash,” said Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the Dutch Safety Board. “More research will be necessary to determine the cause with greater precision.”

The board said it expected to release a final report by the first anniversary of the crash.

It said it plans to visit the crash site if it is safe to do so, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak demanded that investigators be allowed to return.

The plane crashed near Hrabove village in the Donetsk region, an area controlled by the rebels, who restricted investigators’ access to the site.

“It is of the utmost importance that the investigation teams gain full and unfettered access to the crash site in order to recover all human remains, complete their investigation, and establish the truth,” Najib said.

However, his defense minister, Hishammudddin Hussein, said the crash site is “currently volatile and inaccessible” after meeting Tuesday with senior military officials in Kiev.

Malaysia was among the nations contributing to the investigation. They also include Ukraine, Australia, Russia, Britain, and the United States.

The initial inquiry found the plane “broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside.”

The jet’s black boxes and its communications with air traffic controllers showed no emergency or technical problems but that the flight was operating normally until “it ended abruptly.”

The investigators said they believe the damage the plane sustained caused it to break up in-flight because its wreckage was scattered over a large area. Its communications with air traffic control also suddenly halted, it disappeared from radar, and the recording of data on its black boxes ended abruptly, the report said.

Before the report was issued, the remains of two more Malaysian victims of the crash were returned Tuesday to Kuala Lumpur, Najib said.

So far, 34 bodies of the 43 Malaysian victims have been repatriated from Amsterdam, where all the bodies were being examined by international forensics experts.

The other victims were 193 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, 10 Britons, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos, a Canadian, and a New Zealander.

AFP Photo/Genya Savilov

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Russian Forces Near Ukraine ‘More Lethal’ Than Ever: United States

Russian Forces Near Ukraine ‘More Lethal’ Than Ever: United States

Washington (AFP) — Russian forces deployed near Ukraine’s eastern border are “more lethal” than before and heavily armed with artillery and air defense weaponry, the Pentagon said Thursday.

“The force that we see arrayed on the border is exceptionally capable, probably more capable, more lethal than anything that we’ve seen up until now,” spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters, saying there were more than 10,000 Russian troops in place.

AFP Photo/Anatolii Stepanov

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Russian Aid Convoy Stops Before Border With Ukraine

Russian Aid Convoy Stops Before Border With Ukraine

By Nikolaus Von Twickel, dpa

MOSCOW — A massive Russian aid convoy bound for civilians in eastern Ukraine stopped just short of the border on Thursday, while Kiev accused Moscow of acting unilaterally and sent its own aid convoy to the embattled region.

The almost 280 trucks carrying 2,000 tons of food and medicine were parked on a field near the Russian town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a European Pressphoto Agency photographer said.

Kamensk-Shakhtinsky is located some 100 kilometres east of Luhansk, where more than 200,000 people have been cut off from access to water and electricity for 12 days.

It is some 50 kilometres from the Izvarino border post, which is being held by pro-Russian separatists, who also control much of the ensuing road to Luhansk.

Ukraine insists that the convoy can enter the country only after being inspected by its officials and representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should do the distribution.

Both the ICRC and the OSCE said Thursday that Moscow and Kiev must reach an agreement over the convoy before they can become involved.

ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Swiss news agency sda that the organization was seeking security guarantees from all sides and that it still needs a detailed inventory of the cargo.

An OSCE spokeswoman said that the security watchdog would help only once the Red Cross takes charge, and once Kiev, Moscow, and the Red Cross reach a deal.

Ukraine, which fears the convoy is a pretext for an invasion, initially insisted that Russia hand over the goods to the Red Cross before the border and that the vehicles then pass into government-held territory near the city of Kharkiv.

Kiev complained that Russia was sending aid uncoordinated to a conflict that it had fomented itself.

“Ukraine has not asked Russia for aid. Rather, Ukraine has asked Russia to take away its terrorists, mercenaries, stop sponsoring the fighters, and start recognizing Ukraine’s sovereignty,” said Iryna Herashchenko, an aide to President Petro Poroshenko.

The government in Kiev sent a convoy of its own to Luhansk. Nineteen lorries left Kiev on Thursday, Herashchenko said, adding that a total of 71 vehicles would bring 773 tons of food to the Luhansk region.

Luhansk authorities said many civilians had been killed in artillery fire on Wednesday, but exact casualty figures were not yet available. They said that more than 500 civilians fled the city that day.

The leader of the pro-Russian separatists in the city, Valery Bolotov, resigned unexpectedly on Thursday. He told reporters in Luhansk that he would temporarily step down until he fully recovers from an injury.

Bolotov survived an assassination attempt in April.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, promised that Moscow will do everything to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine.

“The country has sunk into bloody chaos, in a fratricidal conflict,” Putin told Russian lawmakers in Crimea, according to Russian news agencies.

“We will do our best to end this conflict as soon as possible so that the bloodletting in Ukraine ends,” he said.

At the same time, Putin also threatened to terminate international agreements and withdraw Moscow’s participation in international organizations such as the European Court of Human Rights, should they threaten Russia’s national interest.

AFP Photo/Vladimir Baryshev

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