(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 2, 2015) Many people, horrified by the actions of pro-Moscow forces in Crimea and the Donbas or unwilling to continue to resist Russian aggression, have concluded that the rest of Ukraine would be better off without those two regions and could move forward by sacrificing them to Vladimir Putin. “If only […]
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Ukraine’s parliament took a first step toward granting powers to rebel regions. But deadly clashes in the capital show the depth of resistance to such changes.
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, August 31, 2015) Denis Pushilin [Ukrainian: Denys Pushylin], plenipotentiary representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR/DNR], considers the first reading of draft constitutional amendments passed by the Supreme Council to be Ukraine’s internal affair which has little to do with the Minsk Agreement but which could be an interim step towards constitutional reform harmonized with […]
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DONETSK. Aug 26 (Interfax) – The Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has observed 30 incidents of shelling from the Ukrainian side over the past day, a ministry representative said on Wednesday. “The Ukrainian army has committed 30 ceasefire violations over the past day. Some 113 82mm and 120mm mines, 85 152mm artillery shells and 15 tank […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Irina Reznik, Stepan Kravchenko – August 19, 2015) Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who’s formed a government-in-exile to try to regain power, said his country is ripe for more regime change. Amid economic crisis and conflict in the country’s east, Ukrainians are disillusioned with the pro-European policies of President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy […]
» Read moreMOSCOW. Aug 13 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Armed Forces have fired heavy weapons against the town of Horlivka, the Donetsk news agency reported on Thursday, citing the information and analytical department of the town’s administration. “The shelling began at 10:30 p.m. Some heavy [weapons] were fired. Shells dropped near the village of Oksenivka,” it said. According to the local authorities, […]
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LUHANSK. Aug 7 (Interfax) – The leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky, has said that the local government elections scheduled for November 1, 2015, will be held regardless of Kyiv’s stance on the matter. “We declared them [the elections] and we will hold them whether Ukraine wants it or not,” he told members of the LPR […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – July 28, 2015) f you believe all the talk out there lately, Vladimir Putin is not only duplicitous and hypocritical — he’s also been pretty damn busy lately. Busy cutting secret deals with the same Europeans and Americans he has been vilifying for years. And if you believe the rumors, the Europeans and Americans have […]
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(RIA Novosti – August 1, 2015) Documents provided by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which have been mentioned by the foreign mass media and which allegedly contain information about development of a “dirty nuclear bomb” by members of the militia, are Kiev’s “yet another lie” and attempt to discredit the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), RIA Novosti (part of […]
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DONETSK. July 31 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian Armed Forces have violated the ceasefire on 47 occasions in the past 24 hours, the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has said. “Fifty artillery shells with 152mm and 122mm calibers, 51 tank shells and 198 mines with 82mm and 120mm calibers have been fired against the territory of Donbas. […]
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(Voice of America – Mark Snowiss – July 24, 2015) Ukraine’s former intelligence chief says Russia is financing and organizing training camps from within Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern provinces in order to destabilize the country. “Up to 30 camps in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea are training subversive groups, providing them with weapons and sending them on missions throughout Ukraine,” said Valentyn […]
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(Interfax – July 19, 2015) The special status of Donbass should lie at the core of the peaceful dialogue. By renouncing it Kiev once again imitates the negotiating process on its own part, envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) to the Minsk talks Vladislav Deinego told Interfax on Sunday. “In compliance with the Complex of Measures the special […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 20, 2015) It’s rare that official representatives of the U.S. visit foreign parliaments to persuade lawmakers to vote a certain way on some piece of legislation. Yet last week, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to Kiev and did just that, as the Ukrainian parliament prepared to vote on amendments to […]
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(Interfax – July 10, 2015) The process of peaceful settlement in Ukraine is having difficulties because Kyiv has no wish to hold talks with Donbas, but chances of success are higher than chances of failure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a news conference in Ufa on July 10. “It does seem to me that to a certain extent the […]
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DONETSK. July 2 (Interfax) – Leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Zakharchenko has ordered that local elections across the DPR be held on October 18, 2015 in accordance with the Minsk agreements. Zakharchenko’s relevant statement was circulated by the Donetsk news agency on Thursday. “In today’s situation, which emerged through Kyiv’s fault, the Donetsk People’s Republic has to […]
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KYIV. June 4 (Interfax) – The Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE/SMM) has published a separate report concerning the fighting that erupted near the town of Maryinka in the Donetsk region on Wednesday morning. Between 10:00 p.m. on June 2 and 5:30 a.m. on June 3, SMM observers working in the area controlled […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 12, Issue 95 – Pavel Felgenhauer – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – April 21, 2015) Summer is the best time for major offensive military action in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk provinces) of eastern Ukraine. In the spring and autumn, long periods of bad weather turn unpaved roads and plains into a mud quagmire (Rasputitsa), […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 26, 2015) Standing in front of a small Moscow church last September, President Vladimir Putin told journalists that he had lit candles inside for people who had been injured or given up their lives defending Novorossia. The historical term, meaning “New Russia,” was first used by the president last April and […]
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(Interfax – DONETSK, May 26, 2015) The Ukrainian army has deployed a Tochka-U tactical missile system in the Kramatorsk area, Eduard Basurin, a senior official of the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has said. “A Tochka-U system has been tracked down near the town of Kramatorsk. It is possible that the Ukrainian authorities may stage an […]
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The armed forces of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics” (“LNR” and “DNR”) have accumulated significant reserves of heavy weapons. According to deputy commander of the Anti-Terrorist Operation, Col. Valentyn Fedychev, as of 8 April 2015 Russia’s hybrid army in Donbas has 700 tanks, over 1 100 ACVs, 600 artillery systems, and 380 MRLS, as reported by news.liga.net
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“They’ve made the center look nicer than the outskirts, because only the rich come there. They don’t care about the outskirts where the poorer people live, some even still in bomb shelters,” a woman told the Kyiv Post.
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Our comparative project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation examines post-Maidan attitudes in Ukraine, as well as in Crimea now annexed to Russia, and in the Russian-supported de facto states of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria. In December 2014, we organized simultaneous public opinion surveys in these regions and surveyed …
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The beautiful weather stands in sharp contrast to the desperation rising in Donetsk, a place that neither Russia nor Ukraine seem to really want anymore. And some Ukrainians, as they wait by the hundreds daily to clear the last Ukrainian checkpoint before entering separatist-controlled territory, feel unwanted.
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 13, 2015) The warning given by US Secretary of State John Kerry to official Kiev not to try to capture Donetsk airport by force attests to the fact that Washington’s efforts for Ukrainian settlement are starting to have future, according to deputy director of the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mariya Zakharova. […]
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(Interfax – May 11, 2015) The leadership of the [self-proclaimed] Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] has admitted the possibility of assuming a broad autonomy status, but without any harm to the interests of the self-proclaimed republic. “We agree to the broadest autonomy without harm to our interests. If Kiev does not adhere to the Minsk agreements, the DPR will be forced […]
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Concern is rising over the situation in eastern Ukraine, with reports of increased shelling across the line of contact and rising casualties, as well as of Russia arming and organizing separatist forces while assembling regular army units along the Ukraine-Russia border. Tension is up, but the most likely prospect is continuation of a no war/no peace situation … a frozen […]
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DONETSK. April 20 (Interfax) – Four people were killed in hostilities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in the period of April 11-17, DPR Ombudsperson Darya Morozova said. She posted her weekly socioeconomic report for the DPR on her website on Monday. Morozova quoted official statistics from the DPR Health Ministry and forensic medicine authorities to say that the […]
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(Voice of America – voanews.com – Adam Bailes – DEBALTSEVE, UKRAINE – March 25, 2015) Broken tanks sit on the edge of Debaltseve, remnants of retreating Ukrainian government forces. Hundreds of buildings lie in ruin. Heavy shelling and GRAD rockets pounded this strategic eastern Ukraine town for weeks as the military tried to fight off advancing Russian-backed separatists. The separatists […]
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[“Fragile truce brings limited respite to war-weary people of eastern Ukraine: The population of eastern Ukraine faces a humanitarian crisis with an acute lack of basic amenities and mental health problems taking a heavy toll” – The Guardian – Clár Ní Chonghaile -March 25, 2015] The Guardian reports on the humanitarian impact of conflict in eastern Ukraine. Just over a month after […]
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DONETSK. March 19 (Interfax) – Thirty-five railroad bridges have been blown up in the hostilities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). “Ukraine continues to wage a railroad war on the DPR. The Yasynuvata-Skotovata railroad is the only stretch connecting the DPR to Ukraine. It has been bombed over 30 times,” DPR Transport Minister Semyon Kuzmenko told reporters on Thursday. […]
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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 13, 2015) The defence ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) says that it is local residents who account for the majority of the members of the Donbass militia, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 13 March. “I shall tell you the following: 70 per cent of the volunteers are residents of the Donetsk People’s […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Donetsk – March 12, 2015) A line of fresh flower-heaped graves marks the northern edge of Donetsk’s Scheglovskoe cemetery, where 33 coal miners killed in a pit blast on March 4 lie. Only 50 metres away stands a pithead of the massive Zasyadko mine, where the men met their deaths. The […]
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DONETSK. March 10 (Interfax) – The Donbas militia has presented three lists of approximately 2,000 captives planned to be exchanged with Ukraine. “The first list is comprised of the names of about 220 soldiers, the second of another 800, and the third list contains the names of civilians, 900 people, ombudsman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Darya Morozova […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – February 26, 2015) As the latest blast in a recent string of mysterious bombings in eastern Ukraine claimed another victim Wednesday, experts warned that there would be more to come – and they could spread the conflict further from the front lines. A Donetsk grocery store became the latest scene of carnage […]
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ROSTOV-ON-DON. Feb 26 (Interfax) – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has accused Kyiv of increasing the economic blockade on the region in defiance of the latest peace accords. “In defiance of the Minsk agreements, Ukraine is intensifying the economic blockade on the DPR. Humanitarian aid is the only opportunity for people to get food today,” DPR envoy Denis Pushilin […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Feb 25 (Interfax) – The central government in Kyiv must ensure energy supplies to Donetsk and Luhansk under the Minsk agreements, which were reflected in a resolution of the United Nations Security Council and have now become an international legal document, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. “We mentioned the Minsk agreements which were not only signed in Minsk […]
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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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KHARTSYZSK. Feb 24 (Interfax) – Eduard Basurin of the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has denied claims that militia forces are preparing an offensive on Mariupol. “We have no new hardware in the Mariupol area. No offensive is being planned,” Basurin told reporters on Tuesday.
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DONETSK. Feb 20 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian army has yet to begin the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact consistent with the Minsk deal, the command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) army said. “The DPR Defense Ministry does not have information about the pullout of Ukrainian heavy armaments from the line of contact,” Eduard Basurin […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – January 20, 2015) Donetsk Airport has become a dystopian ruin, with its runways so cratered, only a helicopter could land. Yet both sides in the fight over it keep claiming to control it. Ukrainians consider it a symbol of their military resurgence since last summer’s painful defeats. Instead, it is coming to embody […]
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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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(Interfax – January 19, 2015) The text of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s message to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was published on Sunday night. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax about the message earlier. “The latest events in southeastern Ukraine – the resumed bombardments of populated areas in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk – give us a deep sense […]
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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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MOSCOW. Jan 8 (Interfax) – The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s humanitarian convoy has crossed into Ukraine and headed for Donetsk and Luhansk, deputy head of the ministry’s National Crisis Management Center Oleg Voronov said. “Customs of the Matveyev Kurgan and Donetsk checkpoints in the Rostov region have cleared the humanitarian cargo. More than 60 trucks are moving towards Donetsk and […]
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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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(Interfax – December 5, 2014) The administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) says it is ready for negotiations with Ukraine on economic issues, but a political union is impossible. “The issue of giving Donbas autonomous status as part of Ukraine is out of date. We are now saying that a political union with Ukraine is impossible. However, we […]
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KYIV. Dec 1 (Interfax) – The leaders of a joint center for control and coordination of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine have travelled to the Donetsk Airport where the situation has aggravated over the past 24 hours. “This morning, Ukrainian and Russian leaders from the joint center have travelled to the area. The Ukrainian side is represented by Lt. Gen. […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 25, 2014) The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] has suggested that a mixed Russian-European peacekeeping contingent should be sent to eastern Ukraine. “We urge the United Nations to send a mixed peacekeeping contingent including Russian and European peacekeepers,” the deputy speaker of the supreme council of the DPR, Denys Pushylin [Denis Pushilin], told […]
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