Contents tagged with War in Ukraine

  • PACE: Russia Awaits New Sanctions

    The powers of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will continue to be suspended because of the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas region.

    State Duma deputies representing Russia at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) could receive a cold reception from some of their European colleagues during the opening of the winter session. It will begin its work on January 25th in Strasbourg. According to a source in the …

  • Obama: Ukraine is slipping away from Russia's orbit

    During his eighth and final State of the Union Address, US President Barack Obama made two brief mentions of Ukraine, a topic that had been an integral part of his foreign policy assessment during his annual address last year.

    One comment addressed the ailing Russian economy and the Kremlin's inisistence on providing military aid to separatists in eastern Ukraine and President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

    "Even as their economy contracts, Russia is pouring resources to prop up Ukraine …

  • EU Council to Discuss Situation in Ukraine

    On January 18th, at the meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, the Council of the European Union will discuss the situation in Ukraine, reported the Council's press service. A discussion on the current situation in Syria and Iraq will also be on the agenda.

    At the end of last year, the leaders of the "Normandy Four" (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) held talks over the phone and agreed to extend the validity of the Minsk Agreements into 2016. They also arranged another meeting of …

  • Ceasefire broken in Donetsk; holds in Luhansk

    Andrei Lysenko, the spokesperson of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine on issues related to hostilities in the Donbas region, reported on January 9th that there were no losses or injuries among Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.

    According to the report, in the Luhansk region the ceasefire continues to hold but in the Donetsk region near Svetlodarsk opposing forces fired repeatedly at Ukrainian forces simultaneously from several directions to the south from Luhanskoye. The Ukrainians …

  • Poland to station 3 brigades along eastern border

    Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz stated that the Polish Defense Ministry plans to station three brigades along the eastern border of the country in 2016. Poland shares its eastern border with Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.

    “We have already started work on the creation of three defensive brigades along the eastern border of the country. These brigades will be an integral part of the Polish Armed Forces. They will become the fifth type of Polish Armed Forces,” Polish Radio quoted …

  • Ukrainian intelligence determines location of 57 prisoners in Donbas

    An Adviser to the Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), Yuri Tandit, stated that illegally armed groups hold about 140 Ukrainian citizens as prisoners, and the SSU has found the exact location of 57 of them. “We know the exact location of 57 people. We have seen traces of others, there are almost 140 hostages in Ukraine. We hope that Russia, as a participant of the Minsk Agreements, will do everything in its power to accelerate the exchange of prisoners,” Yuri Tandit said.

    Tandit …

  • Bellingcat: 20 Russian Soldiers Involved In Downing of MH17

    The founder of the Bellingcat group of experts, Eliot Higgins, announced that the company has further narrowed the list of people thought to be involved in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Twenty Russian servicemen are included on the newest version of the list. In an interview with the Dutch magazine NOS, Higgins stated that the Bellingcat report with the names and pictures of suspects was handed over to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Netherlands.

    The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed …

  • Russian Spy Chief Dies

    According to a statement released by the Interfax news agency, Colonel General Igor Sergun, the director of GRU (Russia’s military intelligence agency) unexpectedly died on Sunday at the age of 58.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu did not specify the cause of death and offered no additional details.

    Igor Sergun joined the Soviet military in 1973, in 1984 he joined military intelligence and became chief of the GRU in 2011.

    Last year the US and European Union added Sergun to the sanction …

  • OSCE Informed Of Pro-Russian Separatists' Weapons Violations

    The General Intelligence Directorate reported that Ukraine has informed the representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine about the placement of prohibited weapons in the regions of three settlements: Lobachyov, Bezymyannoye and Jubileynoye.

    “The situation in the ATO zone remains challenging. Pro-Russian militants shelled Ukrainian positions 20 times using small arms and grenade launchers,” the report said. Intelligence officers noted that they provided information about …

  • Waszczykowski: War in Donbas one of the main threats to Poland

    The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Witold Waszczykowski, stated in a radio interview that the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, is one of the main threats for Poland in 2016. “It wasn’t Poland that created the ice age, nor was it responsible for attacking other countries and it was not us who sent little green men to other countries in order to take away part of their territory,” Waszczykowski said.

    “Therefore, if we are talking about problems, they …