Today, another of
the people wounded from Feb. 20th in Maidan died. The death count
reaches 105. Those held responsible for the deaths remains 0.
In the suburbs of
Simferopol (Ak-Mechet), people gathered today with news that a 14-year old
Crimean Tatar boy was severely beaten on the 31 of March 2014. His parents
verified that he was targeted because he was speaking on the phone in his
native language (Tatar). His mother, Asya Myshdayeva told journalists that her
son is very stressed and does not wish to speak with the press. She explained
how he was attacked by two strangers, on his way home from school, who first
insulted him based on his identity: ‘They said, that Crimea—is Russian, not for
the Crimean Tatars. We must get rid of you all.’ News of the incident only
became public today at a neighbourhood meeting (local congress). Residents of
the suburb are demanding police intervene in the matter and work to identify
the attackers. However, the self-proclaimed ‘Crimean police’ deny knowing
anything of the matter. But apparently they will investigate.
The Security Service of
Ukraine (SBU) has detained a Russian citizen who performed the task of an
unnamed intelligence agency in an attempt to destabilize the situation in the
southern regions of Ukraine. Mariya Koleda was born in 1991 and arrived in
Kherson on April 4 of this year. According to her, this is her ninth trip to
Ukraine, each time she had meetings with leaders and activists of pro-Russian
movements in Kherson. Accoridng to SBU, on April
8, Koleda reported to her supervisor in Russia that ‘activists’ have an
‘unlimited quantity’ of improvised explosive devices and that there is an
agreement to obtain firearms for them. She also reported on the preparation of
two subversive groups (7 persons from Kherson and 6 people from Nova Kakhovka)
to participate in riots in Donetsk.
A poll conducted by the Institute for Social Research and
Policy Analysis has published that 65.7% of residents of Donetsk want to live
in a united Ukraine. 18.2% want to become a part of Russia.
In response to 65
people arrested in Kharkiv on suspicion of rioting and unlawfully taking over
government buildings and damaging property, members of the Party of Regions proposed
Bill 4667 be accepted by Parliament: ‘a law of Ukraine to eliminate the
negative consequences of avoiding prosecution and punishment of persons on the
events that took place during peaceful gatherings’.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe (PACE) stripped the Russian delegation of the right to vote until the
end of this year and imposed a number of other sanctions. The tougher sanctions
for Crimea (suspension of the delegation's powers for the same period) were not
supported. The resolution was backed by 145 PACE members, 21 voted against it,
and 22 abstained.
Excerpt from an interview with a US professor of Russian,
currently living in Odessa:
How is the conflict with Russia and the danger of a military
escalation over Eastern Ukraine perceived by ordinary citizens?
They are certainly concerned about it. It's hard for them - and
I would include myself in that category - to know what is really going on. The
Ukrainian channels by and large are promoting one point of view, the Russian
channels locally have been all turned off since March 8, but of course you can
go on the Internet and on your cell phone and see everything you want to and
find out that way. But people are just confused, because there is a lot of
contradictory information. I would say what happens a lot is that people call
other people in Crimea and Donetsk and find out what's going on there. It's a
lot of word of mouth. It is considered more reliable than news media.
How would you describe the general sentiment in the country
towards the West and towards Russia these days?
The events on the Maidan and the change in government in
February have really been seen through two narratives, through two very
distinct interpretations of what happened. In the West of Ukraine and in much
of the centre including Kyiv this is seen as a popular uprising and they see
this change as may be not as an elegant one, but as a legitimate one. Whereas
in the East and South just as many people feel that what happened in February
was illegitimate and illegal. And this narrative continues. Each side blames
the other for everything and blames the respective sponsors of each side,
because people in the Eastern regions of the country see what happened in Kyiv
as promoted by the Western powers and conversely those in the Western regions
see what is happening now in the Eastern regions of the country as promoted by
Moscow. No one is really listening to the local people and asking them what they
want. That is why the idea of referenda has caught on so much as a way of
saying, "Talk to the local people and ask what they want."
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