Contents tagged with Donbas
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Ukraine’s muftis and rabbis to Donbas residents: lay down your weapons
Ahead of his inauguration, Ukraine’s President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has held a meeting with a number of prominent religious leaders. During the meeting, Ukrainian priests, mullahs and rabbis recorded a joint video message to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas who have declared autonomy in Luhansk and in Donetsk.
In the video, the religious figures highlight the need to be filled with love, to set aside weapons, and to engage in peaceful dialog.
The clip begins with a statement by …
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Zelensky does not intend to change Ukraine's course to NATO
Adviser on the Defense of a newly elected President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Ivan Aparshin outlined the priorities and political course of the new head of state, including in relations with Russia.
On the air of Hromadske television Aparshin called the conflict in the Donbas as the "war with Russia" and promised that Zelensky won't change the attitude to this situation.
Besides, one of the main priorities under the new leadership will remain Ukraine's accession to NATO, as well as the …
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Kyiv: Russian passports will be issued primarily to ‘power structures’ of LPR and DPR militants
Russian passports in LPR and DPR will be issued primarily to representatives of the "power structures" of militants, said the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for European Integration Anatolii Petrenko.
"We have reasons to believe that first of all passports will be issued to the so-called "power structures" of the occupation administrations. Therefore, both de facto and de jure, the use of weapons in the illegally occupied territories will be carried out by citizens of the Russian …
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Former Ukrainian Joint Forces commander: Russia has more than 70,000 regular troops in Crimea and Donbas
There are nearly 75,000 Russian career soldiers in Crimea and the Donbas, Serhiy Nayev, former commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces, told TSN in an interview.
“In Crimea there are 40,000 Russian soldiers, and 35,000 in the Donbas, where Russians hold all the leading military positions and are part of the so-called precision divisions. The special divisions and instructors are also from Russia. There are generally between 2,100 and 2,300 of them there. In the ‘army ranks’, there are around 11,000 …
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Kyiv: Russia forces citizenship on LPR and DPR militants
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claims that the Russian command has ordered the militants fighting for the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR) to obtain Russian citizenship.
“The Russian command has instructed the personnel of units 1 (Donetsk) and 2 (Luhansk) of the Russian Armed Forces Army Corps that it is mandatory for all soldiers to obtain Russian citizenship,” said Ukrainian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk.
Citing intelligence information, Motuzyanyk …
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Estonia intends to call for additional sanctions against Russia
Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu intends to call for additional sanctions against Russia because of the illegal issuance of Russian passports to the residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine, reports the Estonian new outlet Eesti Paevaleht.
Reinsalu plans to propose additional sanctions at the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the EU countries on Monday, May 13.
"Russia is a nuclear country that has used its force against neighboring countries twice in the last decade. …
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Ukraine calls on foreign partners to expand sanctions against Russia in response to 'passport aggression in Donbas'
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, sent a letter to Ukraine’s foreign partners requesting that sanctions again the Russian Federation be expanded because of the distribution of Russian passports to residents of the Donbas. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ekaterina Zelenko issued the statement during a briefing according to RBC-Ukraine.
“I brought the document. This is a letter from Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin to the heads of foreign policy ministries in the EU, …
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Kyiv: Ukraine will not recognize Russian passports issued to residents of DPR and LPR
Kyiv considers invalid the Russian passports which, according to Putin’s decree, can be issued to residents of a number of south-eastern regions in Ukraine through a simplified procedure.
According to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, passports will not be considered valid for crossing the state border and when used on the territory of Ukraine. The prime minister also promised to contact partner countries so that “fake” documents such as these would be declared invalid for use on their …
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Georgian minister on Russian passport aggression in Donbas: Kremlin used same methods in Georgia
Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Georgian Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, said that the methods Russia has been using in Ukraine are similar to those it used in Georgia in the past, especially introducing a simplified procedure for the acquisition of Russian citizenship.
“Effectively, the Russian president has repeated in Ukraine what happened at the end of the 90s and start of the 2000s in Georgia: he has started to issue Russian passports to the population of the temporarily occupied …
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Medvedchuk: Zelensky could have Ukrainian prisoners in Donbas released within 5 days
Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Ukrainian political party “Opposition Platform – For Life” and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, told 112 Ukraine in an interview that since May 2018 he has not been involved in the humanitarian subgroup for the Donbas.
Medvedchuk said that the day before the last prisoner exchange (27 December 2017), President Petro Poroshenko have him a guarantee that the next stage of the exchange would be done in the format “all candidates for all …