Despite the harsh resolution passed on the Ukrainian issue on January 27, Russia is exerting serious pressure on PACE deputies. For instance, the Russians lobbied lifting most limitations from the Russian Federation, including two most important ones – on excluding Russia from voting in the body and depriving them from the possibility to participate in the work of PACE governing bodies. This proposal overcame Ukrainian delegations\u2019 insistence on keeping the existing level of sanctions by 3 votes at monitoring committee The final decision on this issue will be made on Wednesday evening in the debating chamber. Contrary to their official position, the Chairman of the European People\u2019s Party in the PACE, Pedro Agramunt, voted to lift sanctions.\u00a0 The second biggest socialist group in the PACE, according to the sources, also decided to support lifting of sanctions introduced against the Russian Federation.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
WAR. ACTIONS IN THE ATO ZONE.<\/b><\/p>\n
The ATO headquarters stated that pro-Russian forces are attacking in three directions. The situation in the Debaltseve direction<\/a> is the hardest one of the three. Volunteers said that Debaltsevo is being shelled from all sides.<\/p>\n The Daily Best newspaper writes that Vladimir Putin is conducting the war in Ukraine on three fronts<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Donetsk, Luhansk, and Mariupol. Debaltsevo town may be surrounded, the periodical writes. Ukrainian ATO forces may face the danger of being cut off from reinforcements. The President\u2019s advisor, Yuriy Biryukov, made public the information of the first report on execution of the 4th wave of drafting plan, according to which drafting is the weakest in Western regions of Ukraine<\/a>. The advisor\u2019s rather emotional post Facebook drew a lot of criticism. In particular, Borys Filatov wrote that Biryukov should be deprived of his account \u201cWork with people locally, dear friend. Together with Your First<\/i> [i.e., the president Poroshenko]”,\u00a0 he wrote.\u00a0Filatov also gave an interview to Censor.NET<\/a> in which he criticized the president\u2019s personnel practices and said that the head of the President\u2019s Administration Borys Lozhkin has not picked up the phone for four days in succession.<\/p>\n The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported on the destruction of six militants\u2019 aircrafts<\/a>\u00a0and four helicopters by Ukrainian armed forces.<\/p>\n PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF THE CRISIS<\/b><\/p>\n PACE passed a resolution on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and IDPs by a majority of votes<\/a>. 140 out of 155 present deputies voted for and only 7 against. Russian deputies spoke against the resolution. The text was considerably amended during hearing, with several clauses containing severe criticism of Russia added, after which the document changed from a purely humanitarian one into the description of the conflict details laying the responsibility for its escalation on the Russian Federation. In particular, PACE\u00a0urged Russia not to finance militants in Ukraine<\/a>. This clause calls upon Russia \u201cto refrain from the destabilization of Ukraine and stop financing and providing military support to illegal armed groups (the interim version of the resolution also mentioned financing of the terrorism, but later this phrase was removed).<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>The resolution calls upon Russia to release the Ukrainian MP Nadiya Savchenko<\/a> as well as all the other \u201cprisoners of war\u201d in a separate clause. According to the PACE resolution, they are illegaly kept<\/a> in Russian prisons. A paragraph on \u201cso-called humanitarian convoys\u201d was considerably amended. PACE states that such actions of the Russian Federation violate international law and in reality these trucks are not humanitarian convoys.<\/p>\n It is noteworthy that the PACE is considering\u00a0the issue of the Russian delegation tomorrow<\/a>. Mass-media state that the Russian delegation managed to lobby\u00a0key sanctions against Russia excluded from the draft of the resolution<\/a>. As compared to 2014, the suggestion is as follows: to return the right to vote at the Assembly\u2019s sessions, right to participate in all PACE governing bodies, right to vote at the meetings of all governing committees and other PACE agencies. The source of “Evropeyska Pravda” periodical at PACE said\u00a0 that the chairman of the European People\u2019s Party group Pedro Agramunt<\/a>, contrary to the official position, voted to lift sanctions at the closed meeting on Monitoring committee.<\/p>\n Jose-Manuel Barrozu said in his interview that the Ukrainian problem requires not only financial, but also political investments, which implies the constant presence of the topic of Ukraine in the world media. Barrozu noted that at present public attention to Ukrainian problems is volatile, and thus there is danger of people ceasing to pay attention to Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n The White House informs that the USA President Barak Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on the necessity to bring Russia to justice<\/a> for its support of separatists and failure to fulfill its commitments on the peaceful agreement.<\/p>\n The Financial Times writes that the \u201cjunk loan rating\u201d of Russia from S&P\u00a0demonstrates the drastic deterioration of economic situation in the country<\/a>. Experts predict painful economic contraction in Russia this year and the IMF forecast a 3% reduction in economic output with a 1% reduction in 2016.<\/p>\n RBK news agency with reference to Bloomberg reported that the ministers of foreign affairs of the EU states during their meeting on January 29\u00a0are going to consider extending export prohibitions on certain industries of the Russian economy<\/a>, list of Russian companies and banks who are prohibited to attract funds to the EU and prohibition for Russia to use SWIFT system.<\/p>\n ACTIVITY OF THE PARLIAMENT. FORMATION OF THE GOVERNMENT<\/b><\/p>\n On January 27, the Ukrainian Rada made the first step towards the recognition of the DPR and LPR as terrorist organizations. It also recognized Russia as an aggressor state. Polish newspaper Gazeta Woborcza writes that\u00a0the decision of the parliament to officially recognize Russia as an aggressor state<\/a>\u00a0was caused by several reasons: to unite people and urge the West to be more resolute. “The world has to do it as well. Russia destroyed the world order, it is financing terrorists, it armed them and is leading their armed assaults against civilians”<\/i>,\u00a0 the article says.\u00a0 The chairman of “Maidan Inozamnykh Sprav” fund, diplomat Bohdan Yaremenko believes that passing of the Law on terrorist organizations by the parliament means that at last the Ukrainian authorities started responding adequately to the events in the east of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n REFORMS<\/b><\/p>\n Philosopher Henri Bernard Levy and financier George Soros in an opinion-editorial for The New York Times\u00a0urged western countries to help\u00a0 Ukraine with financial investment as soon as possible<\/a>. A 15 billion dollar investment is needed to save Ukraine. The article also contains criticism of reforms implemented in Ukraine.\u00a0\u201cThe present-day Ukraine can not be but compared to Georgia of 2004. When Mikhail Saakashvili became a president of Georgia, he immediately replaced hateful road traffic police check points which were used to accept bribes from drivers. The society notices change to the better at once. Unfortunately, Ukraine has not found such a model project so far. They are planning to reform Kyiv police, but to obtain a driver\u2019s license you still have to give a bribe”<\/i>, the<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>authors write.<\/p>\n STABILIZATION OF ECONOMIC SITUATION<\/b><\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf this strongpoint surrenders, terrorists\u2019 front will be united and Donetsk city will be captured totally, which will enable the terrorists move towards their new aims”<\/i>,\u00a0 the article writes. The author also wrote that Mariupol is important not only for the possibility to create an overland passage to Crimea, but for its economic potential (it produces 70 % of all the steel in the region).<\/p>\n