Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Savchenko met with separatists in the Donbas

    Speaking at a PACE session, Verkhovna Rada MP and former prisoner Nadiya Savchenko stated that she was recently in separatist-held territory and met with the people who had held her captive for two years.

    “For those who want to understand and know what is happening in the Donbas, in the occupied territory where I was held pretty recently, I met with people who quite recently held me captive—these people realized what Russia is and what they’re dealing with,” she said.

    According to Savchenko, …

  • French President about the Donbas: First elections, then border control

    French President François Hollande warned about the possibility of the conflict in the Donbas turning “frozen” if the Minsk agreements are not implemented. He made this assertion when answering questions at the plenary meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

    Hollande stressed that he believes the implementation of the Minsk agreements is the only way to solve the conflict. He also noted that the priority is to hold local elections, rather than return control of the …

  • Ukrainian Defense Ministry: Armed Forces of Ukraine will not unilaterally withdraw troops from Donbas

    Ukraine will not unilaterally withdraw troops from the demarcation line in accordance with the framework agreement. This was said on the 112 Ukraine TV channel by the Deputy Head of the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Defense, Serhiy Halushko.

    "It is not just unilateral actions on our part. There is a control mechanism, and our intelligence sees what the enemy is doing. If we see that their party does not do something, or is trying to deceive us, then our units will not …

  • Ukrainian MoD: Withdrawal of troops from Stanytsia Luhanska delayed indefinitely due to separatist attacks

    The Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed that the withdrawal of forces and weapons in Stanytsia Luhanska scheduled for today has been postponed indefinitely. The statement was made by Andriy Lysenko, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, during a briefing.

    The withdrawal of troops and weapons was broken due to the shelling from separatists, which is a violation of the framework agreement.

    “Taking into account the systematic violations of the ceasefire and inability of the …

  • Ukraine's Samopomich party complained to the General Prosecutor’s office about the disengagement of forces in eastern Ukraine

    The Samopomich (“self-reliance”) Party has submitted a criminal complaint to the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s with respect to the Minsk agreements and disengaging of the forces in a number of areas in the Donbas, as reported on the party’s website.

    "We saw a number of violations of the Ukrainian Constitution and the Criminal Code at the time the Minsk Agreements were signed. That’s why we also turn to the General Prosecutor’s Office with a claim regarding the crime under article 353, “ …

  • Ukrainian MP Lubinets: Mariupol is under threat from Russia because of Minsk-2

    As a result of the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the contact line, Mariupol will be under threat of invasion by pro-Russian fighters, member of parliament Dmytro Lubinets, from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, stated at a briefing.

    He noted that, according to the agreements reached in Minsk, one of the areas for withdrawal is the village of Petrivske in the Starobeshivsky district in the Donetsk region.

    “Petrivske – a base area for the villages of Bohdanivka, Starohnativka and further on to …

  • Former DPR commander explained how Russia finances separatist republics

    Russia is financing separatists in eastern Ukraine and paying salaries and pensions to residents of the Donbas, the former Donetsk commander, Alexander Khodakovsky, told Reuters.

    The former Ukrainian special forces soldier switched to the side of the separatists in the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014. According to him, he was the commander of hundreds of armed fighters and held high positions within the leadership of the so-called DPR.

    Replying to a question concerning …

  • Kyiv sets out conditions for extending the withdrawal of weapons in the Donbas

    Daria Olifer, Press Secretary to Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, reported that implementing the framework decision in the Donbas will continue under two conditions.

    “Ukraine has consistently fulfilled its commitments on implementing this decision and the whole range of Minsk Agreements. That is why it will be continued. The withdrawal of weapons from Petrovske will take place on the 7th of October and the withdrawal of weapons from Stanytsia Luhanska …

  • NATO will continue its policy of pressuring Moscow to implement agreements in Ukraine

    The Deputy Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Alexander Vershbow, stated that NATO intends to keep pressure on Moscow until it begins to implement previously undertaken obligations on the Ukrainian issue, European Pravda reported. According to Vershbow, the security situation in the Euro-Atlantic region has significantly deteriorated due to annexation of the Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the subsequent participation of Russian servicemen in the Donbas.

    Meanwhile, …

  • The names of those responsible for downing of MH17 will be released by the end of the year

    The names of those who “played an active role” in the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash will be announced by no later than the beginning of 2017. This statement was made by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in an interview with the country’s ABC media company, which was published on the 2nd of October.

    Bishop stated that the investigation revealed the identities of approximately 100 people who were actively involved in the transportation of Buk air defense systems from Russia to the …