UN: 230,000 people have fled Ukraine fighting

[bemildred]

Source: AFP, dpa, Reuters

On Friday, UNHCR spokesman Dan McNorton said that almost 100,000 people had fled Ukraine's conflict zones for other regions within the country, and about 130,000 had crossed the eastern border into Russia.

"They are mainly from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions," McNorton said, referring to the two regions under separatist control. "Those are figures that have risen in recent weeks."

McNorton said the numbers came from research on July 18, the most current data available. Ukraine's military and pro-Russia separatists have been engaged in fighting for several months; both sides have been accused of failing to keep civilians out of the firing line.

"There are a variety of security concerns and a variety of reasons for people making the decision to leave their homes," McNorton said, citing fears of getting caught in the crossfire as a popular concern.

Read more: http://www.dw.de/un-230000-people-have-fled-ukraine-fighting/a-17808913?maca=en-rss-en-eu-2092-rdf

[Igel]

1. Yeah.

Alchevsk and Stakhanov recently became bases of operations for the rebels, with the surrounding of Luhansk and the fall of Lysychansk and Popasna.

People have already down two things.

They've asked the commanders to leave, or at the very least put anything that could be a target outside the town. The LPR says they've complied with the latter request, but photos of tanks in town still surface.

The locals have fled to every transportation point possible. They've heard what's happened in Donets'k and Luhans'k. In Donets'k the train station was shut down and there's a curfew. It's not unnoticed that their nifty new "police" force has a couple hundred late model cars; they didn't buy them. In Luhans'k, there's a ban on transportation until midnight today, apart from public transportation. Public transportation's not running.

The rebels are partly hoist on their own rhetoric: They abandon a city when it's surrounded or nearly surrounded and they've been battered for days, and always have the same excuse: We left because we wanted to spare the peaceful people of the town from the dangers of fighting. Then they head to a new town, set up camp, and after weeks of battles and destruction of civilian infrastructure decide to leave lest any civilians get hurt. Then they head to a new town, set up camp ...

Same problem as in Gaza. Stick to unpopulated areas and you'll have your butt handed to you in a sling in short order. Go to the populated areas and suddenly you get to claim that the bullet that misses you and kills the person next to you is part of a war crime, while you have to admit you're in the populated area precisely because there's infrastructure to hide behind and hold hostage, and civilians to hide behind and hold hostage.

Plus the infrastructure is nice. Better to be in a building and able to raid the local markets than it is to be living under a tree and living on nuts and bark.

[bemildred]

2. Ukraine political gridlock on view as government falls, premier resigns

he Ukrainian government collapsed and the popular prime minister resigned Thursday, highlighting the political gridlock gripping the country struggling with a pro-Russia insurgency, a hostile neighbor and one of the weakest economies in Europe.

The resignation of Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, considered a rising star in Ukrainian politics, came as U.S. officials cited evidence they said showed that Russia was firing artillery across the border into Ukrainian territory.

A pro-Europe party led by former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who is currently mayor of Kiev, and a far-right party with a few seats withdrew from the governing coalition with the Fatherland party, causing it to fall.

In an emotional speech announcing his resignation, Yatsenyuk told lawmakers that legislative gridlock was hampering the country in areas that included the war effort against separatists in the east and economic stabilization.

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-ukraine-prime-minister-resigns-20140724-story.html

[Schlomo Morgenstern]

3. PUTIN: Stop killing people.

The Ukrainians removed a guy from office that they did not like. He was corrupt and unpopular.
After they removed him from office, they showed his home - in a country as poor as the Ukraine, he had built a palace, a single door cost over $100,000.00

But Putin liked him.
So he sent weapons.
He sent rockets.
He sent thugs.
He put his army on the border with the Ukraine.
He put his rockets on the border with the Ukraine.

Then they killed 300 innocent people.
Mostly Dutch tourists - his daughter, Maria, happens to live in Holland with a Dutch man.
Ukrainians found out where she lived and she fled Holland - she is probably now safely in a gilded cage in Russia under daddy's protection.
I hope that thug is proud of himself.
Warmongers should suffer first from their evil deeds. Killing people is never the answer.

[IMG][/IMG]
Bad Vlad.