Contents tagged with Donbas
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Former U.S. Secretary of Defense: Ukraine should not abandon the Crimea and the Donbas
Ukraine must uphold the principle of its territorial integrity. The idea of neutrality as a compromise to resolve the conflict with Russia is wrong, says Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense in 2006-2011 who also headed the CIA in 1991-1993.
"It would be wrong to talk about the neutrality of Ukraine. Ukraine should never give up its position. The Crimea is a part of Ukraine, and they should never abandon the Donbas as it is a part of Ukraine, too." He said this in an interview with Interfax- …
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Lavrov: We are ready to allow armed OSCE observers in the Donbas
Russia agreed to providing the OSCE observers with small arms in the Donbas although it believes that having an armed police mission in the region contradicts the Minsk Agreements, as stated by the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, Interfax reports.
"We are ready to increase the number of monitors at the contact line and weapons storage facilities, to have this presence around-the-clock, and to give observers the ability to carry their personal small arms," Lavrov said. …
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Herashchenko: We will not exchange Crimea for the Donbas
Responding to the statement of Nadiya Savchenko, who said that the only peaceful way to return the Donbas is to give up the Crimea, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Herashchenko, stated that no MP and no political force will be able to impose a discussion on the surrender of Ukrainian territories.
“We will not exchange the occupied Crimea for the Donbas. We will not give up on the Donbas. We will fight tooth and nail for every inch of Ukrainian territory. We will fight …
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Ukrainian forces advanced 20 kilometers towards Debaltseve over the last year
During the last year, the soldiers of the 54th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces and the contract soldiers of the Podolyanina Wolves special forces unit of the Pravy Sector, which is a part of the Ukrainian military, who are deployed along the Svitlodarsk Salient, advanced by almost 20 kilometers towards Debaltseve.
The information has been confirmed by the Ukrainian volunteer activist Yuriy Mysyagin on his Facebook page.
“Our positions on Svitlodarsk Salient are …
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister and OSCE head discuss expanding Special Monitoring Mission in the Donbas
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, and the Acting Chairman of the OSCE, the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Integration, Sebastian Kurz, discussed the strengthening of the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE in the Donbas.
“We talked about the importance of strengthening the mission both in terms of its personnel and in a technical sense,” Klimkin stated at a joint press conference with Kurz in Kyiv. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister also noted that after the …
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Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine announced plans to 'return' the Donbas in 2017
The Ukrainian Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, urged border guards to prepare for the "de-occupation of the Donbas" as soon as this year.
"In 2017, our goal is to attain the internationally recognized State border in the Donetsk Basin, and in the future, of the Crimea, as well. This process will involve the police, guards, and judicial authorities, but the border guards will be the first to act," he said, according to UNIAN.
According to the head of the Interior Ministry, the border guards …
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Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk: Separatists are blocking the exchange of prisoners
On January 16, this year's first meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in the Donbas was held in Minsk. Iryna Herashchenko, Member of the Ukrainian humanitarian subgroup said that representatives of separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk (ORDLO) are blocking the release of the hostages. The separatists have apparently stepped up attempts to exclude her from the negotiating process.
On her Facebook page Iryna Herashchenko wrote, "Despite the call of …
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Separatists plan to jam Ukrainian radio signals
According to the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples’ Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, the beginning broadcasts of Ukrainian radio in the territory of the Donetsk region is not controlled by separatists, as he stated at a press-conference.
"Yes, I know about this problem. There is this station in Chasiv Yar which will broadcast to our territory. For today, if you turn on TV, you can catch any wave including in Ukrainian language. Basically, we have lived with Ukrainian broadcasting …
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Ukrainian official predicts that the liberation of the Donbas will begin in the fall
The Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced people, George Tuka, stated on Espreso.TV that the liberation of the occupied territories of the Donbas from separatists and Russian servicemen will start in autumn 2017, Ukrinform reported.
Tuka noted that the issue of the liberation of the Crimea and the Donbas from Russian occupation should be separated from each other because, according to him, it will take much more time to return the annexed peninsula. …
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Ukrainian official: The armed conflict in Ukraine can flare up again
A new phase of an armed conflict is going to flare up in Ukraine sooner or later, according to a Ukrainian political expert of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Olga Aivazovska, at a briefing with journalist.
“What is happening in the media with regards to the narrative that Ukraine has to accept the loss of the Crimea... is not the way to achieve peace. It can only delay the crisis or the new phase of the armed conflict, which will start sooner or later. Ukrainian society cannot easily …