• Russia dissatisfied with exchange between Ukraine and Croatia on best practices for the integration of occupied territories

    The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that Croatia's plans to share its experience of peaceful reintegration of occupied territories with Ukraine will not contribute to the settlement of the conflict in the Donbas. The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Information and Press stated this in comments connected with statements on the revitalization of the Croatian working group on cooperation with Ukraine.

    "We have paid attention to the statements made at the level of the heads of …

  • Ukraine initiates criminal investigation into export and sales of coal from the Donbas

    The Main Military Prosecutor's office of Ukraine opened a criminal case in connection with the export and sale abroad of coal mined in the separatist-held territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the press secretary of the Prosecutor General Office, Larisa Sargan wrote on her Facebook page on Saturday.

    "A number of websites posted materials from which it becomes clear that under the general guidance of [businessman Sergei] Kurchenko, in 2017, government officials and other employees of …

  • UNICEF: 750,000 children in Donbas could be cut off from drinking water

    Almost 750,000 children in Eastern Ukraine could be cut off from clean drinking water as a result of military actions in areas where important facilities of civil infrastructure are located, a representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said, as reported by the UN News Center.

    “Nearly 3 million people in eastern Ukraine rely on water infrastructure that is now in the line of fire. We expect more families will be cut off from safe drinking water, putting children at severe risk of disease, …

  • Long-term support plan for Ukraine to be presented at Eastern Partnership Summit

    A long-term plan of support for Ukraine (the so-called “Marshall Plan for Ukraine”) will be presented at the Eastern Partnership Summit in November, Lithuanian MP Andrius Kubilius told the newspaper Segodnya in an interview.

    “We will present the ‘Marshall Plan for Ukraine’ at the Eastern Partnership Summit in November, where, we hope, mention of this document will appear in the final declaration of the summit,” he said.

    “We are working towards there being not only a declaration, but also real …

  • Media: thousands of Russian soldiers are currently stationed in the Donbas

    The total number of military personnel from the Russian Armed Forces who are active in the separatist-held territories of Eastern Ukraine is currently 5-6 thousand, wrote journalist and military expert Yuriy Butusov on ZN.UA news website.

    “Nominally assigned to the command posts, the local separatists carry out, in the best case, the functions of students and ‘advisers’, or are otherwise ‘talking heads’ for propaganda. Russian mercenaries are the linchpins in all the military subdivisions of …