• Crimea is not meeting Russia’s conscription quotas for contract servicemen

    The Military Registration and Enlistment office of the annexed Crimea, under the authority of the Kremlin, was ordered to recruit 1,400 contractors to serve in the Armed Forces of Russia, as reported on the Crimean website, Kryminform, citing the head of the Department of Training and Conscription, Vadim Meshalkin.

    "We received an order for 1,400 contracted soldiers. So far, about 650 people have expressed their desire to serve...Documents submitted for the remainder are under consideration,” …

  • More than 500 conscripts from Crimea will serve in the territory of Russia

    About 500 conscripts from the annexed Crimea will be sent for military service in the Russian Federation, as stated by the military commissioner of the Crimea controlled by the Kremlin, Oleg Yermilov, as reported by Krym.Realii.

    "We will send [for military service] about 500 people who will serve in different types of armed forces," he said.

    Yermilov added that the recruits will be sent mainly to the Moscow and Rostov regions of Russia.The transfer of conscripts will take place after November …

  • Ukraine asks Poland to stop buying coal from LPR separatists

    Poland must stop buying coal from the occupied Donbas, said Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Ihor Nasalyk.

    “This is not at all partnership-like, and we hope that the Polish government will react to this situation,” Nasalyk said on Wednesday during a meeting with a Polish business in Warsaw, Ukrinform reports.

    According to the minister, the origin of the coal can easily be tested with chemical indicators. Nasalyk reiterated that Ukraine does not use anthracite coal from the …

  • Ukrainian Parliament publishes draft bill on integration of Donbas

    The main highlights of the new Presidential bill on the Donbas were published on the web site of the Verkhovna Rada.

    The purpose of the Bill is stated to be “the liberation of the territory of the Donbas”.

    The word "aggression" and its derivatives occur 42 times in the text of the Bill. At the same time, the Bill does not call Russia an "aggressor country." Nevertheless, the authors directly declare that it is the Russian Federation that has been carrying out armed aggression on the territory …

  • US Representative for Ukraine Volker and Putin’s Aide Surkov to meet on October 7 in Serbia

    US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker will meet with Vladislav Surkov, aide to the Russian president and curator of the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic), on October 7 in Serbia.

    This was reported by Interfax, citing Alexey Chesnakov, director of the Russian Center for Political Conjuncture.

    “The second meeting is planned for October 7 in Serbia,” Chesnakov said.

    Volker was appointed as the US Special Representative for Ukraine …