Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Herashchenko: Separatists threaten Ukrainian detainees with up to 30 years imprisonment

    Pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region transferred the Ukrainian hostages to jail and threatened them with up to 30 years of imprisonment, as written on Facebook by the President's Humanitarian Envoy at the Minsk peace talks regarding the War in Donbas, Iryna Herashchenko.

    "The prisoners are still in jail, even in the worst conditions, because they were transferred to a pre-trial detention center and threatened with up to a 30-year imprisonment," Herashchenko said.

    "In April, when the …

  • So-called Luhansk People's Republic postpones local elections

    The head of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky, has announced the decision to postpone the local elections in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region. The elections were to be held on July 24 and have been postponed to November 6, reports the Luhansk separatist websites.

    The date of the local elections has been repeatedly postponed by the Luhansk and Donetsk separatists.

    Recently, a representative of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis …

  • Ukrainian Defense Minister: Tensions continue to rise in the Donbas

    Ukraine has noticed an upward trend in tensions in the military-controlled region of Donbas, where “weapons, ammunition and military equipment are being supplied daily”. Interfax-Ukraine reported that this was said by Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Stepan Poltorak, in his speech at the opening of the active phase of the Ukrainian-American exercises in Odessa.

    “These exercises are being held at a time when the situation in eastern Ukraine is deteriorating. However, they are an important …

  • Three Ukrainian border guards in the Donbas suffer retina burns after being shot with laser weapons

    Three Ukrainian border guards at the Marinka checkpoint have suffered retina burns of varying severity while conducting terrain surveillance using optical equipment. The Ukrainian State Border Service suspects that prohibited special purpose laser weapons were used against them.

    "The nature of the burns and preliminary medical diagnosis leads to the conclusion that it's possible that the enemy used high-power light emitters, which could be the so called ‘dazzling lasers,’" the State Border …

  • So-called Luhansk People's Republic to organize tours to the war zone

    Luhansk authorities plan to develop tourist routes in the hostile areas in the Donbas. This was said by the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) Head of the Department of Tourism of the Ministry of Family, Youth, Sports and Tourism, Svetlana Didkovskaya.

    “We have students who write a large number of scientific papers every year. We want to develop and offer tours titled ‘'Places of military glory of LPR',” Didkovskaya said at a briefing.

    According to her, the development of the tours …

  • UN: Elections should be held in the Donbas only after the issue of human rights has been resolved

    The Donbas elections should be held when the human rights issues are resolved and not just when the technical and political aspects are organized, as stated by the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Šimonović, said during an interview with Novoye Vremya.

    “If you want to hold free and fair elections, you must ensure that there is freedom of expression and media, as well as freedom of assembly and association. This is not happening now,” Šimonović said.

    He also stressed the …

  • Russia's UN Ambassador: Ukraine is preparing an offensive in the Donbas

    In a letter to the President of the United Nations Security Council, Koro Bessho, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, addressed the UN, demanding that they “influence Kiev to prevent the disastrous development of events,” referring to the situation in Ukraine.

    Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN has traditionally accused Ukraine of violating the Minsk agreements and spoke about the alleged impending military operations by the Ukrainian Armed Forces …

  • Marchuk: Ukraine's losses in the Donbas have increased due to the use of drones by Russian-backed separatists

    The use of long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to correct artillery fire is one of the reasons why Ukrainian losses are increasing in the Donbas.

    The Ukrainian special representative in one of the subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and former Defense Minister of Ukraine, Yevhen Marchuk, said this on channel 112, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

    “They have already begun to use long-range UAVs, which correct even …

  • So-called Donetsk People's Republic seizes plant owned by Russian company

    According to a statement on its website, the Russian mining and metals company Mechel has received an order from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) introducing temporary administrative control over the Donetsk Electrometallurgical Plant (DEMZ) property, located in the occupied territory.

    The order is dated June 25 and is signed by the DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko. It says that a new company, Yuzivka Metallurgical Plant, should be established on the premises of the …

  • So-called Donetsk People's Republic postpones elections

    The so-called Donetsk People's Republic will postpone elections until October 30th. They were initially scheduled for July 24th.

    "The elections will be postponed until the 30th of October, 2016 as a result of Kiev's failure to adhere to the Minsk agreements. The decree will be signed in the coming days. We hope that the Western partners of Kiev will force them to vote on the Electoral Act this year, which will be coordinated with us," the leader of the so-called DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, …