• Serious threats of military escalation remain in Eastern Ukraine

    The conflict area in Donbass continues to be heavily militarized, and the threat of conflict escalation remains, the First Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Jan Eliasson, said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Dec 11.

    "The conflict area remains heavily militarized. We see that a serious threat of escalation remains there," he said. According to Eliasson, most of the items of the "Minsk agreement" have not been achieved. And this situation jeopardizes the political process in …

  • Yanukovich among world’s most corrupt officials, says online poll

    Online voters suggest that former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich, is the third most corrupt official in the world. Transparency International, the NGO who organized the poll, published a preliminary list of the 15 most corrupt officials and organizations in the world, though votes will continue to be cast for another two months.

    On December 11th, the third day of open internet voting, Yanukovich took third place on the list. Polling began December 9th, and will continue until February …

  • UN Urges Rebel Leaders to allow Humanitarian Organizations in Donbas Region

    In his address to the UN Security Council on December 11th, the Director of Operations for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, John Ging, called on the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region to allow free access to humanitarian missions in the area.

    According to Ging, there are currently only two international humanitarian organizations that are allowed to operate in the regions of Eastern Ukraine that are controlled by pro-Russian separatists, the AFP …

  • Ukrainian prisoners still held by Donbass militants

    The Donbass region separatists are still holding 131 people hostage. Yari Tandit, advisor to the chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), told Radio Freedom that they can only confirm the fate of 57 of those people. “We are looking for information on the places in which the remaining 74 hostages are situated,” said Tandit.

    On December 8th, Irina Gerashchenko reported that the insurgents of Donbass are still holding 140 Ukrainian prisoners. She is the chairman of the Parliamentary …

  • Poroshenko Criticizes Results of Ukrainian Fight against Corruption

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delivered a warning against "calming" reports on the first stage of anti-corruption actions. He claimed that the results of current efforts to fight corruption were unsatisfactory and that more decisive steps would be required at the start of next year.

    "We have to prove that the system, carefully crafted during the entire year of 2015, finally works for Ukraine and is able to bring good results," Poroshenko said during the second meeting of the National …