Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Talk between Putin, Merkel and Hollande: Putin demands lifting of trade blockade from the separatist republics

    On April 4, a telephone conversation took place between three of the four participants in the "Normandy Format" of negotiations regarding the settlement of the situation in the uncontrolled territories of the Donbas. Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande attended. The negotiators discussed the situation in the Donbas, the continuation of the "Minsk process" [another format of negotiations on the same topic], and the "Easter" …

  • Muzhenko’s ex-counselor: No one in the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense can solve the Donbas problem

    The shelling of the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) by separatists in the Donbas does not pursue any strategic interests, as was stated in a commentary for InfoResist by the former adviser to the chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, volunteer Nathan Hazin.

    “All these shellings have no strategic interests. These are not structures, not roads. It's just to keep us tense and alert. The deaths of our soldiers, all this makes you angry, and then someone will break the order and …

  • Prosecutor General of Ukraine: the killer of former Russian Duma MP visited separatist-held Donetsk before committing the crime

    The killer of former State Duma deputy Denis Voronenkov, former National Guard of Ukraine employee Pavel Parshov, visited the territory of the Donbas on March 6 and made contact with pro-Russian separatists. This was stated by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko in an interview with Bild.

    "On March 6, the killer was in the separatist-held territory, namely in Donetsk ... It's forbidden for the National Guard of Ukraine to stay in this area. We searched the apartment where he was …

  • Chief of General Staff of Ukraine: Russia is planning to intensify military action in the Donbas

    Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of the General Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, fears that Russia will intensify military action in the Donbas.

    “No jokes. The developments of the last two weeks demonstrate that Russia is preparing to start intensifying military action in the Donbas,” he wrote on Twitter.

    Muzhenko also wrote on Facebook: “No jokes. Putin’s next manic threatening of Ukraine is taking place, as voiced at the “Arctic: Territory of Dialogue” forum. I believe that …

  • Ukraine lost $13 billion in exports due to loss of the Crimea and war in the Donbas

    Losses in exports from Ukraine due to the war in the Donbas and the annexation of the Crimea by Russia amounted to almost $13 billion over a two-year period, according to a press release by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

    According to the department, the percentage of Ukraine’s total exports from the Crimea and certain regions of Donetsk and Luhansk fell from 26.6% in 2013 to 10.4% in 2015. During this two-year period, exports fell by 70% from the Donetsk region and …

  • Media: Putin's advisor Surkov arrives in Luhansk

    Ukrainian intelligence has no information about the trip of Putin's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, to Luhansk. However, there is information about the arrival of an adviser to Vladimir Putin,Vladislav Surkov, as reported by Ukrainskaya Pravda  with reference to sources in intelligence.

    "According to our information, Surkov arrived in the occupied territories on March 28," the interlocutor clarified. "We do not have information about Peskov's arrival."

    In turn, the representative of the …

  • Who tortured Ukrainian military scouts detained by separatists?

    Author: Dmytro Snegiryov, Head of Prava Sprava public initiative.

    On March 10th, the press office of the Ministry of State Security (MSS) of the Luhansk People’s Republic (MSS LPR) released a video recording of the interrogation of military scouts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian captives said on camera that law enforcement agencies in Ukraine as well as soldiers are engaged in subversive activities in the temporarily annexed territories.

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) …

  • Media reveals that Russia imports more than ten thousand tons of Ukrainian coal from the Donbas daily

    For the period of March 1 to 20, more than three thousand gondola cars loaded with coal crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border. This is evidenced by the statistical data of JSC Russian Railways or JSC RŽD.

    According to the data, 3,400 thousand open-top wagons of coal were sent to Russia from the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions uncontrolled by Ukrainian government during the first twenty days of March.

    This amounts to more than 230,000 tons of anthracite exported to Russia or about ten …

  • Akhmetov warned Yanukovych's son against buying coal from his mines in separatist-held territories of Ukraine

    The remaining anthracite in the uncontrolled territory is illegal, as reported by DTEK (Donbass Fuel and Energy Company).

    The DTEK energy holding company, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, sent an official letter to the company Donbasenergo, controlled by Alexander Yanukovych, cautioning him not to buy coal from the nationalized mines in the separatist-held territories of Ukraine (ORDLO), as stated in the company's press release.

    It is noted that after losing control over enterprises in the ORDLO, …

  • Uncontrolled enclave near the borders of Ukraine: Is it the only way to solve the problem of the Donbas?

    Author: Dmytro Snegiryov, Head of Prava Sprava public initiative.

    Despite the fact that the parties to the armed conflict in the Donbas - Ukraine, ORDLO (separatists-held territories), and Russia - recognize the inefficiency of the Minsk Agreements, and the lack of prospects from the beginning, neither party offers another format, knowing perfectly well that it awaits the same fate.

    At the time, the representative of Ukraine to the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on the …