Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Kyiv: Russia forces citizenship on LPR and DPR militants

    The Ukrainian Defense Ministry claims that the Russian command has ordered the militants fighting for the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR) to obtain Russian citizenship.

    “The Russian command has instructed the personnel of units 1 (Donetsk) and 2 (Luhansk) of the Russian Armed Forces Army Corps that it is mandatory for all soldiers to obtain Russian citizenship,” said Ukrainian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk.

    Citing intelligence information, Motuzyanyk …

  • Estonia intends to call for additional sanctions against Russia

    Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu intends to call for additional sanctions against Russia because of the illegal issuance of Russian passports to the residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine, reports the Estonian new outlet Eesti Paevaleht.

    Reinsalu plans to propose additional sanctions at the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the EU countries on Monday, May 13.

    "Russia is a nuclear country that has used its force against neighboring countries twice in the last decade. …

  • Ukraine calls on foreign partners to expand sanctions against Russia in response to 'passport aggression in Donbas'

    Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin, sent a letter to Ukraine’s foreign partners requesting that sanctions again the Russian Federation be expanded because of the distribution of Russian passports to residents of the Donbas. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ekaterina Zelenko issued the statement during a briefing according to RBC-Ukraine.

    “I brought the document. This is a letter from Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin to the heads of foreign policy ministries in the EU, …

  • Kyiv: Ukraine will not recognize Russian passports issued to residents of DPR and LPR

    Kyiv considers invalid the Russian passports which, according to Putin’s decree, can be issued to residents of a number of south-eastern regions in Ukraine through a simplified procedure.

    According to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, passports will not be considered valid for crossing the state border and when used on the territory of Ukraine. The prime minister also promised to contact partner countries so that “fake” documents such as these would be declared invalid for use on their …

  • Georgian minister on Russian passport aggression in Donbas: Kremlin used same methods in Georgia

    Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, Georgian Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, said that the methods Russia has been using in Ukraine are similar to those it used in Georgia in the past, especially introducing a simplified procedure for the acquisition of Russian citizenship.

    “Effectively, the Russian president has repeated in Ukraine what happened at the end of the 90s and start of the 2000s in Georgia: he has started to issue Russian passports to the population of the temporarily occupied …

  • Medvedchuk: Zelensky could have Ukrainian prisoners in Donbas released within 5 days

    Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the Ukrainian political party “Opposition Platform – For Life” and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, told 112 Ukraine in an interview that since May 2018 he has not been involved in the humanitarian subgroup for the Donbas.

    Medvedchuk said that the day before the last prisoner exchange (27 December 2017), President Petro Poroshenko have him a guarantee that the next stage of the exchange would be done in the format “all candidates for all …

  • Ukrainian soldier disappears in Donbas clash

    A Ukrainian soldier disappeared during a recent clash with pro-Russian militants near Mykolaivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade announced on Sunday, without specifying an exact date for the incident.

    “Today it was learned that the body of a Ukrainian soldier could be in the morgue of one of the cities in the occupied territory. We are currently taking all possible measures to identify the deceased person and, if the information is confirmed, bring back our brother’ …

  • Zelensky claims he prepares several possible responses to Russia’s passport aggression

    Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky said that he is working on several possible responses to Russia’s initiative to issue passports to residents of the occupied parts of the Donbas.

    “We are preparing. Let’s just say we have several approaches. In this regard, we need to be creative, we need to be quick, clever, what we are – young. And so for now we will make preparations, and later we will show you,” Zelensky told reporters when asked whether he had any suggestions for parliament …

  • Zelensky's military adviser: Ukraine will win back Donbas in five years

    In an interview with the news agency Apostrophe, Ivan Aparshyn, adviser to Ukraine’s President-elect Vladimir Zelensky on issues of security and defense said that Kyiv could win back the Donbas within five years.

    “Regarding the return of Crimea and the Donbas. If the Donbas is a goal for five years, then the territory of Crimea is a more distant goal.”

    While discussing the situation, Aparshyn noted that he does not believe these territories can be returned through military means. According to …

  • Ukrainian oligarch Kolomoisky: there is a civil war going on in Donbas

    Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky sees the war in the Donbas as a civil conflict in which “Ukrainians are at war with Ukrainians”.

     “This is an internal civil conflict, what is so hard to understand about that? Thank God, it has not spread to the entire territory. But it is in its hot phase in the Donbas and cold phase in the rest of the country. In the cold phase, there is hatred between people which manifest itself in heated actions like the murder of social activists,” said Kolomoisky in …