Minsk agreements signed in February 2015 is a dead-end road unless Russia doesn’t observe them. Bilateral negotiations on Donbas between Ukraine and Russia should be initiated instead.
Militants in Donbas are practicing marine landing operations in Mariupol direction, according to Vadym Skybytskyi, a representative of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Radio Svoboda reports.
The Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak dismissed the volunteer and photographer Dmytro Muravskyi who used to chair the coordination center in the Department of Communications and Press of the Ministry and was the Minister’s adviser.
Ukrainians marked the second anniversary of the ‘Ilovaisk tragedy’ on Sofiyska Ploshcha in Kyiv, the event was attended by over a hundred mothers and widows of the killed servicemen, volunteer fighters, and activists.
Pro-Russian militants in the occupied parts of Donbas have thousands of heavy weapons more than in 2014, the Office of Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the Deputy Prime Minister on European and Euroatlantic Integration, reports.
Six miners were hospitalized after an explosion at Pokrovske mine in Donetsk oblast, the press service of the National Police in Donetsk oblast reports.
The Normandy format of talks on the Donbas conflict will be revived soon, President Poroshenko highlighted during a meeting with Ukrainian diplomats on August 24.
On August 21, illegal military formations from the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk oblast shelled Solodke village of Marinka district of Donetsk oblast for 15 minutes from 122mm artillery.
Aerial reconnaissance experts from the ‘Sisters of Victory’ foundation will use drones to drop flyers for Ukrainian Independence Day in the occupied cities, 5 Kanal reports.
Militants from the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (‘DNR’) shot at the monitoring group from the Ukrainian side of the Joint Center on Control and Coordination (JCCC).
Head of the self-proclaimed ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ Igor Plotnitsky said that he was ready to discuss a POW exchange with Batkivshchyna MP and former prisoner Nadiya Savchenko, “if Kyiv authorizes her to do so,” RIA Novosti reports.
Another militant has been released from criminal responsibility as part of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) ‘Your Loved Ones Are Waiting’ program, the Service’s press service reports.
Martial law and next wave of mobilization may be announced in case of serious escalation of hostilities, President Poroshenko said on August 18 when meeting soldiers. Ukrainian troops are ready to repel possible Russian provocations, he asserted.
Volodymyr Fomichev, an employee of civic organization Centre.UA, who was captured by militants of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), was jailed for two years, Hromadske informs on Thursday, August 18.
Officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a militant of the ‘Vostok’ terrorist group of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, the SBU press service reported on August 16.