Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Ukrainian Security Service prevents assassination of judge contracted by Russian intelligence agency

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims to have prevented the contract killing of a former judge from the Luhansk province ordered by the Russian intelligence agency.

    According to the department, the Russian intelligence agency hired a Ukrainian who had served prison time in separatist controlled Donbas territory in order to commit the act of terror. With their assistance, he was released from prison and agreed to engage in sabotage and reconnaissance activity in Ukraine, and to carry out …

  • Ukrainian Security Service identifies Russian officers who trained PMC Wagner mercenaries

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has identified 26 Russian officers who have been "sent" to serve as combat training instructors for PMC Wagner since 2014, as stated during a briefing by SBU Head Vasyl Hrytsak, the SBU Press Service reports.

    According to Hrytsak, Russian military personnel conducted exercises for “Putin’s private army" that included tactical, fire, engineering and artillery training, as well as training for tank crews, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel …

  • French and German Foreign Ministers expect Russia’s 'constructive contribution' to resolving the crisis in the Donbas

    Germany and France expect Vladimir Putin’s "constructive participation in resolving international conflicts." Russia should help resolve the crises in Syria and Ukraine, as well as other problems, Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas stated during a meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Berlin on Monday, May 7, Radio Liberty reported. According to the German ambassador, Berlin and Paris are interested in dialogue with Moscow and expect from it "constructive contribution …

  • Media: Cossacks who broke up rally against Putin’s inauguration had fought in Donbas

    The Cossacks who dispersed the recent protest in Moscow previously fought on behalf of the separatists in Ukraine, Novaya Gazeta reports.

    According to reporters, the “Crimean Cossack Regiment” is part of the Union of Cossack Forces in Russia and Abroad, which is headed by Nikolai Dyakonov.

    Dyakonov and his subordinates are known to have extensive combat experience even from before the Ukraine-Russian conflict.

    “After the ‘Crimean Spring’, Dyakonov’s Cossacks went to fight in the Donbas. …

  • Ukrainian Security Service will submit evidence of shelling of Mariupol by Russian soldiers to UN court

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has decided to submit to the International Court of Justice evidence of the involvement of Russian servicemen in the shelling of Mariupol in the Donetsk region on January 24, 2015.

    This was announced at a briefing by the head of the Security Service, Vasyl Hrytsak.

    On the website of the SBU, information was published about the involvement of Russian military personnel in the shelling of the Vostochny neighborhood in Mariupol. In particular, it has been …

  • Ukrainian Armed Forces suffer casualties in an ambush in the Donbas

    On Sunday, May 6, Ukrainian military were ambushed by the separatists and triggered a land mine. One soldier was killed and two more were injured, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) posted on Facebook.

    "On May 6, during a patrol of the defended area, a group of servicemen from a mechanized battalion operating in the Horlivka area was ambushed. An unknown explosive device was installed on the patrol route. As a result of the explosion, one soldier was killed and two wounded," …

  • US forbids Ukraine from using Javelin missile systems in Donbas

    The U.S. imposed restrictions on the use of Javelin anti-tank missile systems in the Donbas, which Washington supplied to Ukraine, as stated by Georgiy Tuka, the deputy minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons of Ukraine, on the Pryamoy channel.

    According to him, one of the terms of the contract to supply the missile systems was “not to use these complexes directly on the contact line.”

    At the same time, Tuka stressed that the ban can be canceled “at …

  • Ukrainian military capture a separatist soldier in the Donbas

    The press service of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation reports that on May 5, 2018, during a raid, one of the units of 25 Separate Motorized Infantry Battalions of 54th Separate Mechanized Brigades of the United Forces captured a separatist soldier. The captured militant is a member of the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Motorized Rifle Brigade of Russian forces. The detainee has been already turned over to the officers of the Security Service of Ukraine.

    Servicemen that participated in the raid …

  • Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs accuses Russia of using laser weapons in Donbas

    During a recent briefing, Arsen Avakov, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, accused Russia of using a new “laser weapon” that affects the eye’s retinas, 112 Ukraine reports.

      “Today we are giving awards to two servicemen. One of these soldiers has been hit by a new weapon of the Russian aggressors—a laser weapon that affects the retina of a soldier’s eyes,” Avakov stated

    Avakov noted that this new weapon is especially dangerous for border guards, as they constantly look through …

  • Russia blocks expansion of OSCE mission to entire Donbas border

    The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses its disappointment that the Russian Federation remains the only OSCE member that "aggressively blocks" the expansion of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) mandate to cover the entire stretch of the border adjacent to the separatist controlled territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

    The Ministry released a statement detailing its position in response to a decision by the OSCE Permanent Council to extend the mandate of the OSCE SMM at …