• Prisoners in Ukraine won’t be exchanged before 2016

    A prisoner exchange between the Ukrainian government and the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) won’t happen before the New Year, despite the fact that the two sides agreed on the need carry out an such an exchange during a video conference on November 24th.

    At the time, both parties agreed on the need to complete this process by late 2015, according to Daria Olifer, spokeswoman for Leonid Kuchma, Kiev’s envoy to the negotiations. “First, the exchange should take place for the most …

  • Ukrainian Ambassador: UN needs to address conflict in Ukraine

    According to Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the UN has done very little to solve the Ukrainian conflict. During an interview with European Truth, the new ambassador, appointed two weeks ago,  stressed that he will put forth every effort necessary to make the international community pay more attention to the situation in Ukraine.

    "For example, look at the role of the UN Secretary General in resolving our conflict.  Frankly, it is close to zero," Yelchenko said. …

  • Russians who fought in Donbass want veteran status

    The "Donbass Volunteers Union" hopes that during the next session of the Russian State Duma their members will be granted the status of combat veterans, reports TASS.

    "We are applying all efforts to assign the Donbass conflict parties a status of war veterans.  We prepared an appeal to MPs and hope that the Duma will respond to this during the new session,” the Head of the Union, Andrey Pinchuk, said.  He went on to stress that “volunteers” need to be provided with medical assistance.

    The …

  • Vishnevsky: The Kremlin wants to keep the situation in eastern Ukraine unresolved

    For Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the main reasons for starting the war in the Donbas region was the ease with which Russian Special Forces were able to occupy and annex the Crimean peninsula in early 2014. This opinion was expressed by Russian opposition leader Boris Vishnevsky in an interview with Apostrophe.

    "The hypothesis that seems plausible to me is that Vladimir Putin doesn't consider Ukraine to be a state, and it's possible that he seriously considered a scenario in which a …

  • Herashchenko: 140 Ukrainians Held by Donbas Militants

    Militants of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) are holding 140 Ukrainian prisoners, many of whom are sick or wounded. This information was posted on the Facebook of the Commissioner of the President for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Iryna Herashchenko.

    "We presented the full information on all our efforts to release the hostages—according to SBU the number is 140 Ukrainians—among whom are many people …