U.S. To Deploy F-22 Fighter Jets To Reassure East European Allies
The United States will deploy F-22 fighter jets to Europe soon to support Eastern European members of the NATO alliance unnerved by Russia's intervention in Ukraine, Air Force Secretary Deborah James said on August 24.
It would be the first deployment of the F-22 to Europe outside air shows.
The Air Force has already been using radar-evading F-22s to carry out some attacks against Islamic State sites, the first real combat air strikes by the jets.
"Russia's military activity in the Ukraine continues to be of great concern to us and to our European allies," James told a news conference at the Pentagon. "For the Air Force, an F-22 deployment is certainly on the strong side of the coin."
Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh James said the F-22's inaugural deployment in Europe would allow U.S. forces to train with NATO partners across Europe, testing the ability of the jets to communicate and fight together with the Eurofighter and other advanced warplanes.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Verdict Expected In Case Of Ukrainian Filmmaker Charged With Terrorism
A Russian court is expected to deliver its verdict on August 25 in the high-profile case of an acclaimed Ukrainian film director accused of masterminding terrorist attacks in Crimea.
Oleh Sentsov, who opposed Russia's March 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, was arrested in May of that year on suspicion of planning the fire-bombings of pro-Russian organizations in Crimea.
Last week, prosecutors asked the North Caucasus District Military Court to sentence the acclaimed film director to 23 years in prison for allegedly organizing a terrorist group, planning terrorist attacks, and illegally acquiring explosives.
The 39-year-old director denies all charges against him, saying they are politically motivated, and told the court on August 19 that a "trial by occupiers cannot be fair by definition."
Read more here.
Two men and a woman were arrested on August 24 in Crimea for taking a photo with a Ukrainian flag. Two men were sentenced that same day -- one was given 15 days in jail and the other received a fine of 1000 rubles.
“As they were photographing themselves with a Ukrainian flag the police came and arrested all three for using obscene language," said the mother of one of the men.
The court ruled that the men had violated public order, according to local human rights activists.
“The woman’s hearing is postponed until August 25, as one of the witnesses after being warned about the [penalty] for false testimony, claimed she had not seen anything and was merely told about the incident,” explained an unnamed activist.
At the moment Ukraine has officially registered 1,449,245 internally displaced people from the Donbas region and annexed Crimea, says Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy.
In 10 days the number of internally displaced people grew by over 10,000.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
An excerpt:
The war in Ukraine, we are often told, is a “civil war” involving “rebels” fighting the central government in Kiev. Such restrictive, inaccurate terms greatly misrepresent the conflict, which has already killed over 6,500 and displaced at least 1.4m Ukrainians.
Too often, the crisis is talked about as if it’s entirely internal to Ukraine, a domestic affair presumably brought on by language politics, identity clashes and historical grievances. Best, therefore, to leave it alone. Wrong.
Ukraine is waging a war of self-defence against an international aggressor – the Russian Federation – whose conduct threatens our collective security. This war is now 18 months old, and we should know better by now.
Ukraine clashes kill five despite new EU push for peace
Kiev, Aug 25, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels on Tuesday reported the deaths of five people in clashes in the east that raged despite a new EU push to end one of Europe's bloodiest conflicts in decades.
A spokesman for the army in Kiev said four servicemen were killed and 12 injured in mortar fire exchanges across the eastern separatist province of Donetsk.
"The situation is getting worse," Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a daily press briefing. "The rebels' attacks have intensified."
Pro-Russian militia commander Eduard Basurin told AFP that Ukrainian shells had killed one civilian and wounded another 12 in the rebels' de facto capital of Donetsk and their nearby stronghold of Gorlivka.
The continuing violence brings to nearly 6,900 the number of people killed since Ukraine's industrial east was overrun by pro-Kremlin gunmen and what Kiev believes are Russian troops.
Moscow denies sparking the uprising in reprisal for the February 2014 unseating of a Russian-backed president by a pro-Western leadership that is seeking future membership in the European Union and possibly NATO.
But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in an address marking 24 years of post-Soviet independence on Monday that 9,000 Russian servicemen were among the 40,000 fighters of the separatist force.
The US State Department on Monday also insisted that it was "the combined Russian separatist forces, and not Ukrainian forces, who are initiating aggressive activities" that resumed with renewed vigour earlier this month.
The unceasing fighting has left in shambles a six-month armistice that the heads of Germany and France helped negotiate in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
Poroshenko met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande for crisis talks that notably did not include Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The two EU heads of state still see the Minsk deal as the only solution to a conflict that has shattered Moscow's relations with most Western powers and renewed fears of Russia's invasion of former communist eastern European states.
"Everything must be done so the ceasefire can become a reality," Merkel said heading into Monday's meeting with Poroshenko and Hollande.