Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Herashchenko: Ukraine is conducting international negotiations on peacekeeping mission in the Donbas

    Ukraine intends to bring its position in line with partnering countries before submitting a resolution on promoting the peacekeeping mission in the Donbas, and is currently negotiating on this topic, according to the First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Iryna Herashchenko.

    "The issue is not the submission date for the resolution. It could have been submitted three years ago. The question is that the …

  • Kyiv: the presence of Russians at the OSCE mission has doubled in one year

    The number of representatives of the Russian Federation and countries friendly to it that are part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has increased significantly over the past year, notes Iryna Herashchenko, the First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group.

    "Very often in the mission there are representatives of those countries that have special sentiments towards Moscow, and sometimes they do not …

  • U.S. Secretary of Defense believes weapons sent to Ukraine will not cause escalation in Donbas

    At a press conference in Kyiv, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that there is no need to fear an escalation in the Donbas in the event that America provides weapons to Ukraine, as reported by Voice of America.

    “Defense weapons do not provoke anyone unless you are the aggressor. And Ukraine is clearly not an aggressor, since military operations are taking place in its territory,” he said.

    Luke Coffey, director of the conservative research group Allison Center for Foreign Policy …

  • Former US ambassador to Russia: the US sanctions are effective but did not change the situation with Ukraine

    US sanctions against Russia did not lead to a drastic change in the situation in Ukraine, said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper former US Ambassador to Russia, John Tefft.

    In his opinion, the imposed sanctions proved to be effective against Russia. "And the Russian president, together with a number of other Russian Federation officials, acknowledged this," he emphasized. "But did these sanctions lead to a drastic change in the situation in Ukraine? Obviously not."

    Nevertheless, …

  • Kremlin: the deployment of UN monitors on the Russian border violates the Minsk agreements

    Moscow believes that the Ukraine’s insistence on the need to place the UN peacekeeping mission primarily on the Russian-Ukrainian border violates the sequence of the stages of the Minsk agreement, as stated by the official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

    "Immediately after the introduction of the Russian draft resolution, it was distorted in much of Ukrainian mass media, and presented completely differently," Zakharova said. “One of the serious problems in the …

  • SBU: the DPR ‘representative office’ in France was opened by politicians sponsored by the Kremlin

    Marginal French politicians and experts financed by the Kremlin took part in the opening of a fake "representative office" of the separatist DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) in Marseilles, as reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on their Facebook page. The report notes that the SBU knows well the identities of five French citizens who attended the opening ceremony of the DPR center in Marseilles.

    "Huber Fayyar, the chairman of the center, together with like-minded people Christian …

  • US Department of Defense and Department of State officially recommend the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine

    A decision on the provision of lethal weapons support to Ukraine is now at the White House. Joseph Dunford, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, announced this during a Senate hearing, reports Radio Liberty. At the same time, he did not name a deadline for the adoption of the decision by the White House.

    “The US Department of Defense and State Department have officially recommended the provision of lethal weapons to Ukraine,” noted Senator Roger Wicker during the …

  • Volker: Russian proposal on peacekeepers in Donbas will further divide Ukraine

    The deployment of UN peacekeepers in the Donbas under the Russian scenario is unacceptable, as this option will further divide the country. However, Russia is already ready for negotiations, as expressed by the US Special Representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, in an interview with Voice of America.

    "I believe that the fundamental goals of US policy are clear, as are Ukraine's goals, and they are to restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, as well as ensure the security …

  • Russia threatens with escalation in the Donbas, if deliveries of American weapons are made to Ukraine

    The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned the United States against arms supplies to Ukraine.

    "This decision will be tantamount to trying to put oil on the fire. I think, even in the American administration, many people are aware of this. That is why such supplies have not been implemented so far, although the conflict arose long ago," Mikhail Ulyanov, Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference. 

    "If now the …

  • Separatist DPR opens its ‘representative office’ in France

    Separatists of the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) announced the official opening of their representative office in Marseille, France, which took place on September 25th.

    According to Radio Liberty, on September 21st, a representative of Europe and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the so-called representation of separatists from eastern Ukraine in France is not officially recognized by the authorities of the country and has no diplomatic status. The French Foreign Ministry …