In this interview Captain Paul Barril, ex-GIGN officer and counter-terrorism expert, who was allegedly making plans for a visit to Donetsk to meet its leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, makes some shocking claims about the latter’s murder (translated from the French).
Russian-American actor Peter Von Berg (of the FX series The Americans) goes on a journey from his home in NYC to the Donetsk People’s Republic to explore the gap between the image proffered in the American media and the reality as experienced by the people who live there. This film is essential watching
Eduard Aleksandrovich Basurin Deputy Defense Minister and defense spokesman of the Donetsk People’s Republic has just made an announcement that Ukraine forces in the night took control of the Donetsk water treatment plant. He “urges world leaders to strongly condemn the Poroshenko regime and make the Ukrainian president to bring order to his army”
by Theo Russell, from Global Reasearch According to figures obtained from the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) authorities, since the February 2015 Minsk II agreement over 3,600 civilians have died in the republic due to shelling, sniper and other attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The DPR, along with the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), broke away from Ukraine in May 2014 following ‘status referendums’, and on 24 May the two separatist republics signed an agreement creating a confederation, Novorossiya, but the region is more widely known as the Donbass. After the February 2014 coup in Kiev, an ‘Anti-Maidan’ movement rapidly grew in the largely Russian-speaking Donbass, Odessa and Crimea regions, which sought to prevent the far-right groups which hijacked in the ‘Euromaidan’ protests entering their towns and cities. Their fears were confirmed by the Odessa Trade Union House fire on 2 May 2014, in which at least 50 Anti-Maidan supporters died when the building was surrounded by a far-right mob and petrol-bombed. There are reports of civilian casualties caused by Ukrainian strikes on the rebel …
by Christopher Black, via Defend Democracy For 17 months, since the Minsk Agreements were signed in February 2015 to try to bring peace to the eastern Ukraine the Kiev regime, and its neo-Nazi and NATO allies, have been preparing for a new offensive against the east Ukraine republics. On July 22nd the Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin stated in a letter to the UN Security Council that “a relapse of large-scale military operations in eastern Ukraine may bury the process of peace settlement there.” He then called on Kiev’s allies to pressure Kiev to back off its war preparations which include the continuous shelling of civilian areas by Ukraine heavy and medium artillery and constant probing attacks by Ukraine and foreign units over the past spring and summer months. The commander of the Donetsk Republic forces stated in a communiqué on July 22 that the region along the contact line between the two sides was shelled 3,566 times in one week alone ending on the date of the communiqué and confirmed the information set out in …
In light of the concern over the fate of the Jews residing in Donetsk, I paid a special visit to the Jewish community there at the end of April 2015 in a trip to Donetsk organized by Europa Objektiv, a German-Russian NGO whose goal is to provide journalists and writers with a closer view of the situation on the ground. At the thriving Jewish community center in Donetsk, a city ravaged by war and bombing, I had the opportunity to interview Rabbi Ari Schwartz, the dedicated rabbi of the community and a native of Odessa.
A two pronged campaign of heavy-handed harrassment, obstruction, demonization and intimidation by government and radicals stretching over 15 months couldn’t silence the paper or its chief editor, Igor Guzhva, until a deal was struck with the oligarch owner of the paper to change course and get rid of Guzhva, who was hit with an avalanche of financial violations charges as revenge.
by Systematic As shelling went on nearby, Yuri Dulumbaji was set to perform with the Donetsk National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Credit Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times 1. General situation It’s stable, the city is alive. It’s very clean, decorated, roads are being repaired, you see fresh surfaces everywhere, utility crews are working around the clock, you can see educational institutions advertised everywhere, also ads for important city events and happenings. Maybe not a million roses are blooming, but definitely 500 thousand. Problems: they are shelling Kievskiy and Petrovskiy subdivisions without pity, Tekstilshchik is also being hit, Oktyabrskiy is being ground into dirt, so in those parts people aren’t living, they are surviving. 2. Education All schools, kindergartens, universities, and technical schools are working. So are arts palaces, the soccer academy, etc. The language of instruction remains the same as before, if a school was a Ukrainian-language one, it remains that way right now. Any talk about a language problem is a lie and provocation. Graduates are receiving DPR certificates and get …
by Vaska Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) resumed shelling the Donetsk Airport area the evening of May 18, continuing the barrage through the night of May 18-19. The first salvos came from UAF positions in Peski; subsequent ones from the direction of Novobakhmutovka, shelling the Spartak settlement and the First Square district of Donetsk. Slavyangrad.org reports further: At 20:58 Ukrainian forces started the shelling of the area of the Putilovka mine. The Kievsky district has also been hit. Heavy howitzer artillery could be heard. Large shells were incoming with a frequency of 2-3 minutes. Donetsk faced some of the most massive shelling in a long time since approximately 23:00. The shelling was very audible in the areas of Smolyanochka and Pakhar. Very serious shelling of the Donetsk Airport and the surrounding area came from Opytnoye—the ground shook and window panes vibrated. The start of shelling came unusually early yesterday, in the two preceding days the bombardments started exactly at midnight. Voroshilovsky, Tekstilshik, Leninsky, Buddenovsky districts, and the rest of Donetsk shook with the blast waves of explosions. …
