Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Ukrainian court sentences Brazilian mercenary to 13 years in prison

    The Brazilian citizen Rafael Lusvarghi, who fought against the Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, the Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office announced.

    The verdict was given by the Pavlohrad District Court in the Dnipropetrovsk province.

    “After listening to the parties’ arguments, the court found the accused guilty according to part 1 2583 and part 2 article 260 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and sentenced him to 13 years of imprisonment with the …

  • US strategic drone conducts reconnaissance flight over eastern Ukraine

    On May 1, the United States Air Force strategic unmanned aerial vehicle RQ-4B Global Hawk conducted long reconnaissance flight along the demarcation line in Donbas, reported Interfax with reference to the Western aviation resources data.

    The drone with the tail number 10-2048 flew from the Sicilian airbase Sigonella and for five hours cruised along the demarcation line in the airspace controlled by Ukraine at an altitude of about 16 thousand meters.

    At the same time, in line with the mission …

  • Russia tests orbital jamming system in Donbas

    The Russian military is testing the Tirada-2 orbital jamming system in the Donbas. The presence of this modern electronic warfare system in eastern Ukraine was announced on 16 March 2019 in a report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM). At the time, the system had not yet been officially adopted into Russia’s armament.

    According to volunteers from the international investigation community InformNapalm, this system’s presence in the Donbas indicates not only that Russia is testing its …

  • Kremlin publishes decree on simplified issuance of Russian passports to Ukrainians

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree regarding the simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship and passports for migrants from the Crimea and the Donbas.

    According to the document published on the official Kremlin website, the simplified procedure will apply to Ukrainian citizens as well as their children, spouses and parents, and stateless persons who were born and permanently resided in the Crimea and Sevastopol, but left these territories before March 18, 2014. …

  • Ukraine calls on international community not to recognize Russian passports issued to Donbas residents

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has strongly objected to the centers in Russia where Russian passports are now being issued to Ukrainian citizens residing in the territories which are not under Ukraine’s control, and has urged the international community not to recognize such documents.

    “Ukraine asks its international partners not to recognize and not to accept documents issued by the Russian Federation to citizens of Ukraine who reside in the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of …

  • Kremlin has not yet decided if new Russian citizens living in Donbas will pay taxes

    The relevant departments will implement the decree on issuing Russian passports to residents of the Donbas, said Press Secretary for the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, as reported by TASS.

    When asked whether Putin has a detailed plan for implementing his decree, Peskov replied: “It is not the president’s plan. Relevant departments within the Ministry of Internal Affairs that deal with issuing passports, as well as other departments, will take charge of the process.”

    He was also unable to …

  • Putin invites Zelensky to return Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship

    ​Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that the elected President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, return Ukrainian citizenship to Mikheil Saakashvili.

    "As for freedoms, it would be better to start not from Russia or Russians, but, let's say, from Georgians, or former Georgians. For example, it would be fair to restore the Ukrainian citizenship to a person who used to be Georgian in the past and now considers himself a Ukrainian, I mean Mikheil Nikolayevich Saakashvili ", quoted Putin TASS …

  • Russia begins opening passport issuance centers to service LPR and DPR residents

    In the Russian city of Novoshakhtinsk (Rostov Oblast), a Russian passport center has been opened to service the residents of the territory of the Luhansk region which is under control of pro-Russian militants. It will be able to receive up to 200 applications a day, said the representative of the Main Migration Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kirill Alzinov, as quoted by Russia’s Interfax.

     “As the number of requests grows, we will increase the number of centers,” …

  • Putin: Russia and Ukraine could agree on joint citizenship

    Commenting on journalists’ questions about Russia's plans to issue passports to the Ukrainian citizens and the response of the elected president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again called the Ukrainians and Russians one nation and stated the need for common citizenship.  

    “I have said many times that Ukrainians and Russians are brotherly nations. Moreover, I believe that this is one nation with their own cultural, linguistic, historical features, but in …

  • Germany develops action plan for de-escalation in Donbas

    The parliamentary Free Democratic Party unanimously supported the document “Peace in Ukraine needs a new impulse” which will be presented to the Bundestag in 2 weeks, reported the German publication Bild.

    “The government must recognize the political realities and accept our additional action plan as an opportunity to break the deadlock,” the document says.

    Bild published several of the 12 provisions in the document. In particular, the German government needs to draw up an additional action …