A Lenin statue bites the dust in Odesa:
Ukraine Reports First Military Death Of 2015
KIEV, Jan 2 (Reuters) -- Ukraine on Friday reported its first military death of 2015 in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists, saying a soldier had been killed and five others wounded in attacks by the rebels.
"In the past 24 hours one Ukrainian serviceman has been killed and another five have been injured because of provocative actions (by separatists)," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told a news briefing.
More than 4,700 people were killed in 2014 in the conflict, which has provoked the worst crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the Cold War.
Lysenko gave no details of the circumstances of the attack which killed the soldier but he said there had been frequent shelling and mortar attacks by separatists in areas of eastern Ukraine, including around the international airport in the big industrial city of Donetsk.
He said Ukrainian forces were in general abiding by the terms of a shaky ceasefire agreed in September and were only replying when they came under fire.
"In general, our servicemen are not giving in to provocations and are not opening fire," he said.
There was no confirmation of the reported attacks by the separatists themselves.
Ukrainian authorities and separatists exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war last week as part of a 12-point plan to end the conflict. On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is preparing to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin and the leaders of France and Germany on Jan. 15 in Kazakhstan.
Poroshenko, who has acknowledged that Kiev lacks the military means to take back lost territory by force, warned Ukrainians in a New Year's message on Thursday that they should be braced for a year that would "not be easy".
The crisis blew up after street protests in Kiev overthrew a Moscow-backed president last February and a pro-Western leadership took over, committed to integrating the former Soviet republic into the European mainstream.
This set Kiev and the Western governments backing it at variance with Russia, Ukraine's former Soviet overlord, which wants to keep Ukraine within its political and economic orbit.
A Russian official says Bandera marches tread "Nazi path":
A senior Russian diplomat has lashed out at Ukraine over nationalist marches marking the birthday of controversial World War II anti-Soviet insurgent Stepan Bandera.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, said on Twitter on January 2 that "the torch marches in Ukraine are a demonstration of the continuation of movement along the path of the Nazis!"
He added: "And this is in the center of civilized Europe!"
A Ukrainian historian takes Oliver Stone to task in this open letter:
In so far as French secret agents were involved with the leaders of the American rebellion of 1776, some of whom were Masons, does that fact override the influence of enlightenment ideals and the interests and grievances of those who fought King George’s army? Did the presence of French spies and Masons in Philadelphia New York and Boston mean George Washington was part of a foreign plot? Does the British government’s support for Greek nationalists in the 1820s mean their anti-Turkish revolt was merely a British plot? In so far as Spanish, French and German agents supported Irish leaders in their wars against the English government, does that mean that those who fought British troops in the name of Irish independence were dupes in foreign plots? Was the 1916 Easter Rising really a failed German plot? In so far as German intelligence supported and financed the Bolsheviks in 1917-1918, does that mean the Russian revolution was simply a German plot and that those opposed to the tsar had no legitimate interests or grievances? Did covert Russian and Chinese support for Vietnam mean a sizeable proportion of the Vietnamese people had no legitimate grievances against French or American rule and that their decades long war against those governments was merely a KGB plot?
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council:
Ukrainian TV under fire for airing Russian concert:
Ukraine's biggest television channel is under fire after broadcasting a New Year's Eve concert featuring Russian singers who have publicly supported separatists in eastern Ukraine.
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has called on the National Council on Television and Radio to immediately consider stripping the channel, Inter, of its license.
Turchynov accused Inter of "acting against the Ukrainian state" by showcasing Russian singers "who have mocked our country by supporting terrorists and welcoming the seizure of Crimea and the Donbas."
One of the acts in the concert ridiculed Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
Ukraine's minister of information policy, Yuriy Stets, said he planned to introduce a bill under which Russian performers will be barred from Ukrainian broadcasts.
The New Year's Eve concert was recorded in Moscow and featured Iosif Kobzon, a prominent crooner and ruling-party Russian parliament deputy who has been declared persona non grata in Ukraine, along with singers Valeria, Oleg Gazmanov, and Nikolai Baskov.
Russia has introduced duties on Ukrainian goods entering Crimea:
Russian authorities in annexed Crimea say all goods brought to the peninsula from the Ukrainian mainland are now subject to customs declaration and duties.
Following its annexation by Russia in March, the Russian authorities had declared a "transition period" during which goods from the Ukrainian mainland could travel freely into the peninsula. That period ended on January 1.
The region's customs service said in a statement that all imports from Ukraine must now be declared "in writing or electronic forms using the customs declaration and paying customs duties" into the Russian budget.
There are concerns the new customs duties will further raise prices in Crimea.
Russia annexed Crimea after deploying troops across the Black Sea peninsula and carrying out an independence referendum that has been condemned by Kyiv, the United States, the EU, and others around the world as illegal.