(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 7, 2015) President Vladimir Putin in February turned down an offer from his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko to “take the Donbass” – the area in the country’s east that is currently partly controlled by pro-Russian insurgents – and asked Poroshenko whether he was “out of his mind,” Forbes magazine reported Monday. […]
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The Ukrainian authorities intend to spend about UAH 1 billion on the fortification work on the demarcation line in Donbas, deputy commander of the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) Colonel Valentyn Fedychev said on Wednesday, the press service of Donetsk Regional Military and Civil Administration reported. Interfax-Ukraine: Fortification work on demarcation line in Donbas to cost UAH 1 bln – ATO deputy […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Spinella – March 23, 2015) Only 7 percent of the survey’s 1,600 respondents said they personally know someone who has gone to fight in east Ukraine as a volunteer. Sixty-five percent of Russians are supportive of their countrymen who are volunteering to fight alongside the rebels of eastern Ukraine, a recent survey by state pollster […]
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MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) – The administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) believes that Kyiv is only imitating peaceful intentions on Donbas and is actually trying to disrupt the realization of the Minsk agreements. Andrei Purgin speaker of the DPR People’s Council, told Interfax the amendments to the law on the special status of Donbas submitted by Ukrainian […]
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(Interfax – March 14, 2015) One third of Ukrainian citizens think the Ukrainian leadership must make all necessary concessions in order to stop the bloodshed in Donbass, and more than 20 percent said no concessions were possible, according to a poll conducted by the GfK Ukraine pollster. Twenty-one percent of respondents, polled recently, said Ukraine could give special temporary status […]
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(Interfax – March 9, 2015) Ukraine is considering the political proposals made by the unrecognized Donbass republics, according to the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic envoy Vladislav Deinego. “Progress is visible. We have had our position heard and received information that our proposals are being considered,” Deinego said at a press conference on Monday, broadcast by the Rossiya 24 television station. […]
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(Interfax – March 4, 2015) The conflict in southeastern Ukraine may lead to the existence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics as independent states, such as Transdniestria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, 38 percent of 1,600 Russians polled in 134 populated localities in 46 regions on February 20-23, reported sociologists. The percentage has grown since September of last year […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – March 2, 2015) The ceasefire in East Ukraine’s Donbas region between Ukraine government forces and Russian-backed separatist rebels is fragile but holding. Both sides reported some clashes but no fatalities on February 28 and March 1, and claimed to have withdrawn their heavy weaponry, though this is as yet […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Lossan, RBTH – March 2, 2015) The war in Ukraine is impeding attempts to improve the business climate in Russia, according to the head of the Moscow State University Department of Economics, Alexander Auzan. The Russian authorities therefore have to invest in infrastructure projects in order to overcome the crisis, say analysts. […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Yulia Gorbunova – February 19, 2015) Yulia Gorbunova is Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Moscow Daily life in the Donbass region can be described as follows: ‘If there is a Ukrainian flag, there is life. If there isn’t – you are on your own.’ Donetsk: ‘Did they come to an agreement?’ Sergey, my driver, asked anxiously as soon […]
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DONETSK. Feb 24 (Interfax) – A visit of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers to the Donetsk airport is yet to be approved as Ukraine has not provided security guarantees, the Donbas militia said. “The Red Cross filed an enquiry with the Ukrainian side this morning about security guarantees in the Donetsk airport for the period of retrieval […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – bne IntelliNews – Feb. 18, 2015) Russian-backed rebels in East Ukraine’s Donbas region look set to take the town of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire agreement entering into force on February 15. Debaltseve is a local road and rail hub that forms a Ukraine-held salient jutting into rebel-held territory, which rebels have fought to encircle […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov – January 26, 2015) The author is the editor in chief of Russia in Global Affairs and chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a non-governmental think tank. Despair reigns in the Donbass. The military activity with its resulting victims and heavy material losses will not […]
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KYIV. Jan 23 (Interfax) – Head of the Luhansk region state administration Hennadiy Moskal has asked the so-called “guerrillas” who blew up a coal train at the Krasna Mohyla station not to stage acts of sabotage on the Kyiv-controlled part of the Luhansk region. “A lion’s share of electric power for populated localities on our territory is generated by the […]
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BERLIN. Jan 22 (Interfax) – Foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, the countries of the “Normandy format”, have supported the need to urgently withdraw heavy weapons from the line of engagement defined by the September 16, 2014 Minsk agreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “The most important decision that was adopted today was outlined in a joint […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Veronika Silchenko – DONETSK, Ukraine – January 20, 2015) Despair and a bitter sense of having been abandoned by both Russia and Ukraine reign among residents of the rebellious Ukrainian city of Donetsk after two weeks of renewed heavy shelling between pro-Russian separatists and the central government in Kiev amid a tattered cease-fire. “They want […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax) – Moscow is concerned about the Kyiv authorities’ steps toward turning a separating line in the southeastern part of Ukraine into a line of blockade against Donbas, Russia’s envoy to the OSCE Andrei Kelin said. “I want to stress that we absolutely don’t view this [separating] line as some borderline. We are really concerned by the […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 12 (Interfax) – Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, believes the Ukrainian military are deliberately targeting the Zasyadko mine. “The Ukrainian military generally opens random fire on the residential sector. But they are specifically targeting the Zasyadko mine,” Zakharchenko was quoted by the Donetsk News Agency as saying. Zakharchenko recalled that shelling had caused […]
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(RFE/RL – January 2, 2015) Thousands have fled eastern Ukraine since the conflict erupted in April. Some have since returned. Other people chose to stay and tough it out. From teachers to pensioners to families with children, residents of rebel-held towns are struggling to get on with their lives amid the chaos and uncertainty. RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service continues to publish […]
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KYIV. Dec 9 (Interfax) – The ceasefire regime declared in the army operation zone on December 9 will last indefinitely, Ukrainian General Staff Chief – Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Viktor Muzhenko said. “Seeking to implement the peace plan we are introducing a ceasefire regime, the so-called regime of silence, at 10 a.m. on December 9,” the General Staff […]
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BASEL. Dec 5 (Interfax) – There is information that foreign forces have pushed for Kyiv’s economic siege on southeastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “I really do not want to suspect anyone but there is information that such an aggressive treatment of the aforementioned territories has been encouraged from abroad,” Lavrov said at a press conference on Friday […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – November 21, 2014) Russian national Igor Strelkov, a former commander of pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine, has claimed “personal responsibility” for unleashing the conflict across the border, in which 4,300 people have been killed since April. “I was the one who pulled the firing trigger of this war,” Strelkov said in an […]
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KYIV. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The United States Vice President Joe Biden has said that the U.S. is prepared to put more pressure on Russia if it does not honor its obligation to settle the situation in southeastern Ukraine and continues escalation. Russia will pay an even bigger price and will be isolated, if these things continue further, Biden told […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 17, 2014) Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has ordered all state institutions to withdraw from the rebel-held Donbass and to stop paying salaries and pensions from the state budget to residents of the region. In a decree signed on November 15, Poroshenko ordered the National Bank of Ukraine to cut off all banking services […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) – The administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic is calm about the statement made by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who said the elections in the DPR are to be conducted in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. “Our position remains unchanged. We will not allow any Ukrainian elections on our territory. As for Barroso, we […]
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MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov has inked a law on special status of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and sent it to President Petro Poroshenko for signing, the Verkhovna Rada said on its website on Tuesday. The parliament approved the law introducing self-administration in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Concorde Capital – October 8, 2014) More than 49% of the residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (collectively known as Donbas) want to remain in the Ukrainian state, compared to 42% who are opposed, according to a poll released on Oct. 7 that was conducted by the Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Fund and the […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Alexandr Litoy – October 2, 2014) Alexandr Litoy is a Moscow-based journalist, specialising in socio-political issues and extremism among the youth. He began his career at Novaya Gazeta, has worked with RBC Holdings and is currently a freelance journalist. The Donbas separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army with the help of volunteers from all over the world […]
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KYIV. Sept 28 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said progress has been made in talks with the militia on ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. A joint group, comprised of representatives of the Ukrainian military, the militia and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, are assessing the situation and holding talks to create conditions for implementing the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – September 9, 2014) The borders of the territory in Donbas receiving a “special status” under the terms of a ceasefire between Russian-backed rebels and Kyiv are under dispute, according to conflicting statements made by Yury Lutsenko, advisor to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, and self-proclaimed first deputy prime minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” Andriy […]
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DONETSK. Sept 9 (Interfax) – Residents of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka claim that the explosion of a shell launched from Ukrainian army positions destroyed a stretch of railway on Tuesday. “The Ukrainian troops ruined a stretch of railway. There was a commuter train going from our station, from Avdiidka to Krasnoarmeisk. Now there is no service on the stretch. […]
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KYIV. Aug 18 (Interfax) – Ensuring the impenetrability of the border with Russia is one of conditions for achieving a bilateral ceasefire in south-eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said. “We said yesterday in Berlin that everyone should do everything that depends on them in order to block the border, to stop gunfire on our territory and so that […]
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