Ukraine just banned a decades-old historical bestseller about the Red Army's heroic defense of Stalingrad. Author Antony Beevor is flabbergasted.
Historian Beevor Bemused At Ukraine Ban On Best-Selling 'Stalingrad'
British historian and best-selling author Antony Beevor says he is dumbfounded at Ukrainian authorities' decision to ban the import of a Russian translation of his award-winning account of a major tipping point in World War II.
"I must say, this sounds absolutely astonishing," he told RFE/RL on January 17 in response to Ukraine's refusal to allow the import of 30,000 copies of his book Stalingrad. "There's certainly nothing inherently anti-Ukrainian in the book at all."
The State Committee for State TV and Radio Broadcasting announced the ban on a Russian translation of Stalingrad along with 24 other books, mostly by Russian authors, including crime novelist Boris Akunin, historian Boris Sokolov, and ultraconservative Russian Orthodox priest Vsevolod Chaplin.
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Hmm
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
From our news desk:
Kyiv Says Two Government Soldiers Killed In Eastern Ukraine
Ukraine's military says two of its soldiers were killed and five wounded after an explosive device damaged a military vehicle in the eastern part of the country, where the conflict with Russia-backed separatists persists despite a longstanding cease-fire deal.
In a separate statement on January 17, the Defense Ministry said two other soldiers were wounded as the separatists violated the cease-fire three times in the previous 24 hours using machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars.
The separatists, meanwhile, claimed Ukrainian government forces violated the cease-fire seven times, using the same array of weaponry.
Since April 2014, more than 10,300 people have been killed by fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who control parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed aimed at resolving the conflict -- have failed to hold.
A new cease-fire agreement was reached in late 2017 and was meant to begin on December 23, but both sides have accused each other of cease-fire violations since then.
With reporting by Interfax and TASS
This has raised a few eyebrows (via Interfax Ukraine):
The State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine has refused to issue permits for import to Ukraine of 25 books published in Russia in 2015-2017 on the basis of a negative conclusion by the expert council on the analysis and evaluation of printed products.
The list of products banned to be sold in Ukraine, which was approved on January 10 this year, includes Antony Beevor's "Stalingrad," two books by Boris Akunin from the series "History of the Russian State," "Lenin's Daughter - A Look at History" by Edvard Radzinsky...
You can read Interfax's report n English here.