Contents tagged with Luhansk

  • Ukraine takes 60 prisoners from LPR

    On Wednesday, March 20, Ukraine took 60 prisoners who were serving sentences in correctional facilities in the districts of the Luhansk region under the control of pro-Russian militants, wrote on her Facebook the Ombudsman for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova.

    "Today, in the town of Schastia, we took custody of 60 people, who were held in penitentiary institutions in certain areas of the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region. They will continue serving their sentences in the …

  • Ukrainian Security Service uncovers Russian intelligence group in Donbas

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that it has uncovered a Russian military intelligence group code-named “Sapphire” operating in Luhansk.

    Information about the Sapphire group was disclosed by SBU head of military counterintelligence Serhiy Levchenko during a press briefing. The SBU believes that the intelligence group was established by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

    According to Levchenko, the Sapphire group was involved in preparing and carrying out anti- …

  • Russian militant explains how Russia started war in Donbas

    Without the Russian invasion, there would have been no war in the Donbas, because the local population did not want to be separated from Ukraine. They had neither the human resources nor adequate leaders to stage a full-fledged rebellion, writes the Russian militant Alexander Zhuchkovsky in his book “85 days of Sloviansk”.

    The book states that Russia needed the Donbas in order to divert the world’s attention away from the occupation of Crimea and to further destabilize the situation in Ukraine. …

  • Kyiv denies Austrian pro-Russian journalist entry to Ukraine

    The Head of Ukrainian Bureau of the Austrian television channel ORF, Christian Vershutsu has been banned from entering Ukraine.  According to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU)The reason is the threat he poses to national security.

    “The head of the Ukrainian bureau of the Austrian television channel ORF, Christian Vershutsu, was banned from entering Ukraine for one year. This is reported by my sources in the Ukrainian Security Service,” the first deputy head of the Rada Committee on Freedom …

  • Ukrainian Border Service: pro-Russian militants use laser weapons in Donbas

    The Ukrainian State Border Service reported that Ukrainian border guards once again saw evidence of the use of laser weapons by pro-Russian militants in the Donbas. 

    “Starting 10 pm on February 8th until 4 am on Saturday, in the area of the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint, border guards providing protection to the road corridor recorded light purple beams from the temporarily occupied territory every two to three minutes,” says the message. 

    The State Border Service stated that due to the …

  • Ukrainian General: Kyiv has a plan for liberation of Donbas

    The Lieutenant General of Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence, Vasily Bogdan stated in an interview with the news outlet Fakty that Ukraine has a plan to liberate the territories of the Donbas which are held by the pro-Russian militants, and the country’s leadership hopes this will be achieved without the use of force. 

    “As far as I know, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces prepared a plan for the return of Donbas to Ukraine. A military operation is also being considered. However, …

  • Ukrainian Security Service: Three prisoners handed over to Kyiv in December were recruited by the LPR

    The counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has discovered that three out of the 42 prisoners from Luhansk who were handed over to Ukraine at the start of December had been recruited by the Luhansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) Ministry of State Security. 

    The SBU press service reported that prisoners had been coerced to sign tacit collaboration pledges through threats and psychological pressure. Presumably, they were expected to collect information about the …

  • Ukraine introduces sanctions against Russian archaeologists because of excavations in Crimea

    On December 27th, the Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine Vadym Chernysh stated that Ukraine is imposing sanctions on Russian archaeologists who “illegally carried out excavations” in the annexed Crimea. 

    According to him, this will create a “negative image among organizations that work with them.” 

    “Ukraine applies sanctions not only to Russian politicians and businessmen. The list includes archaeologists who illegally excavated in the …

  • Muzhenko: Russia amassing military equipment along Ukrainian border

    The amount of military equipment which Russia has on the Ukrainian border has recently increased dramatically, said Ukrainian Chief of General Staff Viktor Muzhenko.

    “The nature of the deployment (of Russian military groups and equipment) shows that, in the shortest possible time, the corresponding attack groups could be formed, and the direction of their activity would be Ukraine,” Muzhenko said in a broadcast of ICTV. “This is why we are considering more than one direction – the Luhansk and …

  • Ukraine: Russian military refuses to serve in Donbas

    The command of the Russian armed forces in the Donbas is intensively calling for more and more Russian military. However, they are massively refusing to serve, in particular, due to the unofficial status of their service there, stated the speaker of the Ministry of Defense, Dmytro Hutsulyak, during a briefing, with reference to the information of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

    According to the speaker, since the beginning of November this year, in all …