The ban on the supply of Ukrainian goods to Crimea has resulted in corruption schemes along the administrative border with the peninsula.  This was reported to Krim.Realii by the head of a human rights group, Olga Skrypnyk.  This ban was imposed by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1035 which details “restrictions of some goods and services in the annexed Crimea and out of the annexed Crimea.”

According to Skrypnyk, the scheme entails the use of illicit means to collect …

Russian oppositionist Garry Kasparov declared that candidates of opposition parties should not run in Duma elections in Crimea. He wrote about it on his Facebook page.

"The participation of opposition parties from the annexed territory in the elections looks bad from both political and moral points of view.  Whatever the 'oppositionists' say in their defense, they wittingly or unwittingly help Putin to give a veneer of legitimacy to the criminal seizure of the territory of a neighboring state", …

According to Mikhail Samus, an expert at the Ukrainian Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS), several European countries continue to have active arms deals with Russia despite the EU’s sanctions banning such activities.

In an interview with Krym.Realii, Samus claimed that Italy, despite the direct prohibition of the supply of arms and military equipment to Russia, continues to supply Iveco LMV “Lynx” light armored vehicles to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"The …

The Stockholm Arbitration Court has taken a claims complaint made by the largest bank in Ukraine, PivatBank, under consideration.  The bank claims to have lost assets worth nearly 1 billion dollars caused by the annexation of Crimea.  This was reported by the Chairman of PrivatBank, Dmitry Dubilet.“We have gone through all of the procedures and the Stockholm Arbitration Court has taken our complaint under consideration.  The entire amount in our complaint is 1 billion dollars.  This amount …

Imports of trucks from foreign countries has decreased by 65.9% to 20,100 units while truck imports from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries have decreased by 9.3% to 2,400 units.

Imports of passenger cars to Russia from non-CIS countries has decreased in 2015 by 49.9% to 336,400 units.  These imports from CIS countries have decreased by 58.6% to 13,500 units.  This data was published on the website of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) of Russia on the 5th of February. …

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for increasing the supply of German military equipment to Ukraine.

"We are open to this possibility and we support this because it concerns the security situation in Europe," the President said, answering the question of whether Ukraine needs more weapons from Germany.

Poroshenko, however, did not specify whether he seeks lethal or non-lethal equipment, but he did note that a resolution to the conflict …

According to Ukrainian intelligence, hundreds of Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine after the Minsk Agreements were signed. 

According to the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vadim Skibitskiy, from January to September of 2015, 627 soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were killed in eastern Ukraine. In addition, 2,155 soldiers were injured.

Skibitskiy stated in an interview, " …

The Belarusian Army has begun military exercises along its southern border with Ukraine.

“The Armed Forces of the Belarus Republic are carrying out, under the command of military staff, exercises of the missile forces and artillery within the territory adjacent to Ukraine, in the Brest and Gomel regions,” the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus reported.

"The peculiarity of the maneuverer is the significant scale of its implementation as well as the combined …