The Parliamentary hearings on the issue of internally displaced people from the occupied Donbas region took place in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 17th of February. The representatives of state authorities, local authorities, human rights organizations and the public participated in the meeting. The issue surrounding the reasonability of blocking the occupied territories was raised among others at the Parliamentary hearings.

As stated by the head of the Crimean Human …

On the 17th of February, the Prosecutor in the Railway Court of Ekaterinburg City in Russia requested a year of community service for Catherine Volgozheninova.  The Prosecutor also requested a deduction of 10% of her earnings in the state income.  She is accused of extremism and reposting extremist content on the social network site Vkontakte.  Volgozheninova is a store clerk and a single mother.

The Prosecutor explained that Volgozheninova received this lenient sentence as she has a small …

2.5 million Ukrainians affected by the conflict in the Donbas region will receive humanitarian assistance in 2016.

Agencies of the United Nations (UN), together with the Ukrainian government, have requested that donors donate $298 million to finance the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2016.  This was reported by the UN News Center.

“Over nearly two years, the affected people, mainly the elderly and families with children, are trying to cope with the consequences of the conflict in …

The Commissioner of the President for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donetsk and Lugansk regions and Ukraine’s representative to the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine-Russia-OSCE), Iryna Herashchenko, stated at a press conference on the 17th of February that 127 Ukrainians are held captive by militants.

“Currently, we have 137 Ukrainians, who are illegally held captive. Ten of them are held in Russian prisons,” the Ukrainian news quoted her as saying. …

Finland advocates full implementation of the Minsk Agreements. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Timo Soini, during his working visit to Ukraine on February 17th at a meeting with Pavel Klimkin.

During the meeting of the Ministers, the Finnish side assured the Ukrainians that they would continue to adhere to the EU's common positions. However, the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements will be a precondition for the lifting of sanctions against Russia.

In …

Lawyer Mark Feygin believes that it is the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who prohibits Dzhemilev from entering Crimea. In January 2016, the Simferopol Court arrested the ex-leader of the Crimean Tatars in absentia.

Mark Feygin, a lawyer of the former chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, said the lawsuit was filed against the FSB. According to his statement on Twitter, it's the FSB who prohibits Dzhemilev entry into Crimea, and therefore (from the …

The Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East has supported the initiative of the Deputies of the State Duma.  The latter was asked to develop a federal target program on the voluntary resettlement of persons who were forced to leave Ukraine for territories of Siberia and the Far East.  On the 16th of February, Izvestia reported that more than 50,000 employment opportunities will be created for Ukrainians in the Far East Federal District by 2020.

The preferential mode of stay of …

According to official sources, large-scale military exercises were scheduled to be carried out on in Crimea, and Russia continues to transfer military equipment to the occupied Peninsula.

During the last week a dozen military aircraft (IL-76) of the Russian Armed Forces were transferred to the peninsula, as stated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).  14 helicopters and one battalion tactical group of the Russian Army were transferred as well.

According to the Ukrainian officials, on the …