Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Poll: Almost 30% of Ukrainians think it is necessary to continue the war in the Donbas

    Almost a third of Ukrainians (29.9%) believe that it is necessary to continue the war in the Donbas until Ukraine has fully regained control over the entire region, as indicated by data from a survey by the Razumkov Center.

    At the same time 22.6% of respondents supported providing a special autonomous status to the territories not controlled by Kiev and 21.5% would support their separation from Ukraine.

    As noted by sociologists, in comparison with data from March of 2015, the share of those …

  • OSCE calls on both sides in Ukraine to open Horlivka-Donetsk route for civilian transport

    As was stated by the Deputy Chief Monitor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Alexander Hug, all parties associated with the conflict in the Donbas region should reroute in the direction of Yasinovataya and withdraw their troops from the line of contact. Only after this can the Donetsk-Horlivka route be opened for civilian transport.

    "We observed intensive fighting on this territory. Civilians using this route would …

  • More than 100 people suspected of attempting to create illegally armed groups in Donetsk since January

    The Ukrainian National Police of the Donetsk region continue to document the activities of separatists groups - members of the illegally armed groups which occupied a part of the Donbas region, the head of the Regional Department of the National Police, Vyacheslav Abroskin, said.

    "In 2016, eight people among those detained in 2015, were sentenced to imprisonment. Since the beginning of 2016, 102 people are alleged to have been participants or supporters of illegally armed groups as per Article …

  • Ukrainian MP: The Ukrainian Army would be able to free the Donbas in two weeks

    Ukrainian MP and head of the Center for Military and Political Research, Dmitry Tymchuk, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine would be able to free the Donbas from pro-Russian separatists in two weeks.

    "The Ukrainian army is a real force, which, if not in a few days, then in a couple of weeks, would be able to free the Donbass. The militants only hope is Russia, that Putin will send in troops," Tymchuk said during the broadcast of the talk show "The Right to Rule" on the 1 + 1 TV channel. …

  • UN finds a large number of foreign citizens fighting on the side of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine

    A large number of foreigners have been in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine for various reasons and with different motives. Human rights expert Patricia Arias, a member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries said at a briefing in Kiev that the representatives of the organization came to that conclusion as a result of their visit to Ukraine, as reported by Ukrinform.

    "Motivation for taking part in the armed conflict in Ukraine is diverse. The Working Group received information …

  • Finland allocates half a million euros for humanitarian aid to Ukraine

    The Ambassador of Ukraine to Finland, Andriy Olefirov, wrote on Twitter that Finland announced the allocation of half a million euros for humanitarian aid to Ukraine. "Today the government of Finland has announced the allocation of the next tranche of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 500 thousand euros," Olefirov wrote.

    Recently, the European Commission allocated a new humanitarian package worth 20 million euros to help people affected by the conflict in eastern Ukraine. …

  • Ukrainian Intelligence reports 13 separatist casualties in one day in the Donbas

    The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (MDI) reported that on March 16th, six pro-Russian separatists were killed and seven were injured. 

    The MDI also stated that from March 10th to March 15th, the bodies of 60 militants fighting under the flags of the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine were transported from Dyakovo in Ukraine to Kuibyshevo in the Rostov region of Russia.  

    In addition, the Directorate noted that military equipment transfers from …

  • So-called Donetsk People's Republic begins mass distribution of passports

    The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has begun to issue its own passports to the population in the separatist areas of the Donetsk region. The leader of the self-proclaimed state and rebel group, of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, called this an important step towards state building, as quoted by Interfax.

    According to Zakharchenko, who was one of the first to get the DPR issued document, passports will initially be issued to young people (including 34, …

  • Russian Foreign Ministry: Ukraine is preparing to return the Donbas using military means

    The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that Ukrainian authorities are preparing for a power struggle to secure the return of the Donbas, according to the State Secretary and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Grigory Karasin, as stated in an interview with TASS.

    According to him, "those activities carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the vicinity of the contact line, including the rotation of the military and the strengthening of military components, are …

  • Bezsmertnyi: Ukraine distributed 34 billion hryvnia in welfare to the breakaway regions in 2015

    In 2015 Ukraine distributed a total of 34 billion hryvnia ($1.2 billion)  in the form of pensions and other welfare benefits to the inhabitants of the occupied parts of the Donbass region. The representative of Ukraine in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Roman Bezsmertnyi, reported this data on Radio Freedom.

    According to Bezsmertnyi, the budget funds work on the Russian economy. "500 billion is the country's budget and 34 billion went nowhere, in the 'hole'. In the end, …