Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Media: Putin’s aide Surkov responsible for LPR and DPR might resign

    Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov, who is in charge of the Ukrainian direction and cooperation with the self-proclaimed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, may leave his post as a result of reshuffle in Putin’s administration, RBC news agency reports, citing several sources.

    The sources provided different reasons for Surkov’s possible resignation. This may be due to the fact that "the strategy in the Ukrainian direction overall has reached a deadlock, the Minsk …

  • Ukraine submits proof of Russian involvement in the shelling of Mariupol to International Court of Justice in Hague

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has handed over proof of the involvement of Russian military personnel in artillery shelling of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast on January 24, 2015 to the International Court of Justice in The Hague,as stated at a briefing by SBU Chairman Vasyl Hrytsak.

    "As of today, these materials have been transferred to the UN International Court and sent to 184 Ukrainian institutions abroad," he said.

    In addition, evidence about the participation of the Russian army in …

  • USAID to give Ukraine $125 million for the development of Donbas economy

    The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will allocate $125 million to Ukraine for the development of Donbas, the organization’s Ukrainian branch stated on Facebook.

    According to the statement, the new assistance will be announced during a press conference in Sloviansk by the Assistant Administrator and Chief of Staff for USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, Brock Bierman; U.S. State Department Special Envoy for Ukraine, Kurt Volker; and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie …

  • Merkel condemns violations of the ceasefire in the Donbas

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed deep concern about the repeated violations of ceasefire in the east of Ukraine during the visit to the Italian town of Assisi .

    “Ukraine concerns us, and in the ‘Normandy Format’ that unites Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, we try to get the Minsk Agreements implemented. But ceasefire is violated every day; people are dying every day,” she said.

    Merkel arrived in Assisi to receive the Franciscan order’s “Lamp of Peace” award for seeking the …

  • US Representative for Ukraine Volker to visit Donbas next week

    US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker will visit eastern Ukraine next week, according to his message on Twitter. "Next week I will visit the east of Ukraine to see the situation on the ground and learn about the humanitarian crisis in the Donbas," he wrote.

    This will be Volker's seventh visit to Ukraine in the last eight months of his term as a special representative. Last time, he visited Ukraine in January. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said …

  • SBU detains Deputy of LPR People’s Council who came to collect Ukrainian pension

    Officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), who take part in the military operation in the Donbas, detained the Deputy of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the Luhansk region, the press-service of the SBU reports.

    According to the SBU, a resident of the city of Khrustalny (before – Krasnyi Luch) in the Luhansk region, joined illegal armed groups where he was elected a deputy of the so-called People’s Council.

    “Operatives of the special service documented that the perpetrator …

  • Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs promises to develop plan for return of Donbas by summer

    The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs is working on a plan to regain control over the Donbas, which should be ready this summer, reported the Ministry’s press service, citing the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov.

    "We should have this document in our hands by the summer. It will cover two parts: preparatory and practical. The main purpose of the plan is to liberate the temporarily occupied territories, restore the constitutional order of Ukraine, [and] protect the …

  • A former LPR fighter was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment in Belarus

    The Mogilev Court of Belarus sentenced a citizen of Belarus, a former fighter of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) to two years’ imprisonment, reported the Court’s press service.

    On May 4, the Court found the man guilty of crimes outlined in Article 1 p. 361-3 of the Criminal Code of Belarus: participation in an armed formation or armed conflict, military actions, recruitment or preparation of people for such participation in a foreign country.

    In 2016, the unnamed citizen repeatedly …

  • Volker: if not for the Russian troops there would be no need for a military operation in Donbas

    US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said in an interview with Voice of America that he is convinced there is no internal conflict in the Donbas.

    "There is no internal conflict; there are no grounds for civil war; there are no reasons for military operations except for the presence of Russian troops," he said.

    Answering a question on whether there is a real chance to end the war given current circumstances, Volker said: " I think, yes, there is, if President Putin wants. I think …

  • Ukrainian President provides the number of Russian soldiers in Donbas

    According to Kyiv, up to 50% of the militants fighting against the Ukrainian army in the Donbas are Russian citizens, as stated by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in an interview with the television channel CBS News.

    "We have confirmed figures that in different times they had from 10,000 to 2,500 Russian regular troops in the occupied territory," Poroshenko said, as noted in a statement released by the President of Ukraine’s Press Office.

    "Plus they have almost 50 thousand troops, so- …