Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: Russia is supplying separatists with weapons and armor

    The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute or SIPRI recently released a report about weapons supplied to armed groups. The report stated that Russia has been supplying the separatists in Eastern Ukraine with heavy weaponry.

    According to the Institute, in 2012-2016 the number of weapons supplied to armed groups worldwide amounted to 0.02% of the total world weapons market. The report notes that during this period, Russia supplied arms to 50 countries, particularly the separatists in …

  • Participants of the Donbas blockade meet with Prime Minister Groysman

    On the 20th of February, participants in the blockade of trade with the territories of the Donbas not controlled by Ukraine accepted Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman’s invitation and came to the negotiation table in the hope of resolving the conflict caused by the blockade.

    The conflict between the authorities of Ukraine and war veterans in Eastern Ukraine arose after war veterans blocked several railway crossings at the end of January 2017. They are demanding the release of Ukrainian …

  • OSCE: Conflict in the Donbas is main source of instability in Europe

    OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said that the conflict in eastern Ukraine remains the main source of instability and tension in Europe.

    "The crisis in Ukraine and around it continues to be a major source of tension and instability in Europe, unfortunately. It has meant a return of geopolitics to the agenda of the OSCE, and it is a challenge to our model of cooperation," he said on Tuesday during an open Cabinet-level debate on the topic of "Maintaining international Peace and Security: …

  • Ukrainian MFA: 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed in the Donbas

    Since the beginning of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine (20 February 2014), more than 9,800 Ukrainians have been killed and approximately 23,000 more injured, the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported. Over the three-year period of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, almost 1.8 million people have become internally displaced.

    “The Russian-Ukrainian border, which has a length of 409.7 kilometers still remains beyond the control of the Ukrainian Government,” the …

  • Poroshenko: Putin is creating an 'Aleppo' in the Donbas

    In an interview with the newspaper Bild, President Petro Poroshenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of creating of a Ukrainian ‘Aleppo’ in the Donbas, where Poroshenko claims separatists are deliberately attacking civilians.

    "The situation in some parts of eastern Ukraine is dramatic. We have clear evidence that civilians are deliberately being attacked. Putin is creating a Ukrainian Aleppo there," he said.

    According to him, Ukraine has tried many agreements, but Moscow does not …

  • Semenchenko promises to block trade with Russia too

    MP Semen Semenchenko stated that participants in the blockade of the railway traffic to the separatist-controlled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk intend to blockade the traffic between Ukraine and Russia, Interfax Ukraine reports.

    “We plan to extend it along the railway lines along which products from Russia are brought to us. It will be harder to do this along the motorways. There you need more people, and there is a higher likelihood of provocation,” the MP said.

    According to him, there is …

  • UNICEF: One millon children require urgent humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine

    According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, the number of children requiring urgent humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine has double over the last year, reaching one million, TASS reported.

    UNICEF stated that the increase “is due to the continued fighting and the steady deterioration of life in eastern Ukraine, where some 1.7 million people have been internally displaced, and many families have lost their incomes, social benefits and access to …

  • Separatist republics want to start humanitarian assistance program for areas of the Donbas controlled by Kyiv

    Heads of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitskiy released through official channels, a statement on the start of a “humanitarian assistance program” in Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are under the control of Kyiv.

    In their statement the separatists accused the Ukrainian authorities of “the tyranny of civil-military dictatorial administrations,” ”atrocities of the National Guard battalions,” and the “deployment of the Ukrainian armed forces’ personnel and …

  • Peskov: Zakharchenko's statement about the Donbas were a result of 'tense emotional situation' in the region

    The statements by the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Alexander Zakharchenko, about the possibility of capturing the Donbas by military means were made as a result of emotional tensions in the region, which were provoked by Kyiv, as expressed by a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Friday, February 17th, Lenta.ru reports. He stressed that this position is not in line with the Minsk Agreements.

    "On the other hand, perhaps it really is, unfortunately, the emotional …

  • Poroshenko discusses countering 'ongoing Russian aggression' with Tillerson

    President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko spoke over phone with U.S. Secretary of Rex Tillerson. The official spokesman for the President of Ukraine, Press Secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko, wrote about the content of the talk on his Facebook page.

    As stated in the message, the telephone conversation was held while Poroshenko was attending the annual Security Conference in Munich. Topics of conversation, according to the spokesman, included combating "ongoing Russian aggression" as well as the …