31 January 2017 - Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Ertugrul Apakan today called for the immediate cessation of fighting in the Avdiivka-Yasynuvata-Donetsk airport area in eastern Ukraine “Escalation in the area is of grave concern with the civilian population greatly suffering,” the Chief Monitor said is unacceptable and the protection of civilians must be paramount,” he added  Apakan said that the SMM has reported on civilian casualties and observed damage to civilian homes and infrastructure that there had been damage to the water filtration plant in Yasynuvata upon which thousands of people on both sides of the contact line depend for heating The Avdiivka-Yasynuvata-Donetsk airport triangle has long been a focus of fighting The latest developments – with the OSCE SMM recording thousands of ceasefire violations on a daily basis including the use of proscribed weapons – constitute a serious deterioration and a violation of the Minsk agreements Apakan called on the sides to immediately cease fire and withdraw such weapons beyond agreed lines He urged the sides to prioritise the protection of the civilian population The Chief Monitor added it was imperative that the OSCE SMM be given immediate safe and unhindered access to the affected area in order to allow for verification of compliance with the sides’ obligations on ceasefire and withdrawal of weapons Prevent and Protect civilian populations from disaster risks in conflict-affected areas industrial and ecological hazards present in conflict-affected areas also pose a significant risk to the life and health of millions and to the resilience of essential service delivery systems chemical spills: these are yet another aspect of daily reality in Eastern Ukraine either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content Moscow has started issuing Russian citizenship to Ukrainians remaining in the destroyed Donetsk city of Avdiivka following Kyiv's retreat from the strategic settlement The first Ukrainian residents of Avdiivka have "received Russian Federation citizenship," said Dmytro Shevchenko the Moscow-installed official heading up the Donetsk city of Yasynuvata according to Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment via email Ukraine pulled its troops from Avdiivka after more than four months of bitter fighting earlier this month Russia had been slowly advancing around the small city since October but Ukraine had managed to keep a vital supply route from the west of Avdiivka in play "Our soldiers honorably fulfilled their military duty, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units [and] inflicted significant losses on the enemy in manpower and equipment," Ukraine's army chief The withdrawal of Ukrainian troops was a significant blow to Kyiv just ahead of the second anniversary of all-out war in the country Capturing Avdiivka was a strategic and symbolic victory for Moscow Russian troops raising flags in the former Ukrainian stronghold that weathered a decade on the frontlines Avdiivka had a pre-war popular population of approximately 30,000 residents but the vast majority were evacuated from the settlement before Ukrainian troops pulled back from Avdiivka In the weeks leading up to the fall of Avdiivka said around 940 residents remained in the settlement But hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers are thought to have been left behind during Ukraine's retreat from Avdiivka Experts and Ukrainian officials have frequently described methods of "Russification" of Ukrainians living in Moscow-controlled territories including offering or forcing Russian citizenship on Ukrainian residents an investigation by several Western media networks found Ukrainians could not access services like healthcare without accepting Russian citizenship "Pensions are not provided without Russian passports food is not provided without Russian passports and medical services are out of the question," one Ukrainian refugee "Russian authorities coerce occupied populations to accept Russian passports by conditioning essential healthcare and other services on the possession of such passports," the U.S.-based think tank "The Kremlin uses this forced passportization to claim that occupied populations 'willingly' accept Russian citizenship and that Russia's claims to the occupied areas are incontrovertible and irreversible," the think tank said the Kremlin has worked to make Russian citizenship easy to access across Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine including the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions Senior Russian officials often claim Ukraine is a historically Russian territory Kyiv has in turn announced measures to safeguard the "national identity of Ukrainians" living in Russia. Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all by INNA VARENYTSIA and LORI HINNANT | Associated Press In trenches dusted with snow and tinged with soot men search for enough cellphone signal to hear the latest from the distant capitals that will decide their fate These Ukrainians are far from the Russian ships headed to a naval exercise off the coast of Ireland from the American-built fighter jets streaming to the Baltics and from the U.S aircraft carrier steadily sailing the Mediterranean The soldiers in Zolote 4 have been defending against Russian encroachment for years They are just a few hundred meters from pro-Russia separatist fighters who are on the other side of a checkpoint that no one can safely cross The soldiers assume that's where the snipers are "all of a sudden they opened up with grenade launchers and firearms One mortar shell flew over and fell in the field behind us Two more hit between ours and the next position And that's how it is around here," said Oleh Surhov a Ukrainian soldier who fled Crimea in 2014 after the Russians seized the peninsula He joined the fight soon after he evacuated his wife children and grandchildren to western Ukraine Zolote 1 through 5 got their names decades ago during the Soviet era — the name means "Golden" — when they were labeled as units of the local coal mining operation Now 1 through 4 are in Ukraine and 5 sits less than a kilometer (half-mile) away The sense of waiting for someone else's decisions has also infected the nearby village of Katerynivka which bears the scars of eight years of shelling which are heated by rough wood stoves whose warmth draws nearly as many dogs and cats as soldiers The luckiest trench cats get taken back by soldiers when they rotate off the front it is as likely as not to strike first in eastern Ukraine where the pro-Russia separatists have been in control since 2014 and thousands more are going into position for what Russia says are military exercises on Ukraine's border to the north with Belarus Moscow denies it is planning an assault, but the United States and its NATO allies are preparing for a possible war bolstering their presence in the Baltics and putting 8,500 American troops on higher alert for potential deployment to Europe have sent multiple planeloads of weapons to Ukraine Ukrainian officials have accepted the help but found themselves on the sidelines of several rounds of high-stakes diplomacy that so far have not yielded a breakthrough "Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said early this month after one such meeting to a videoconference about Ukraine to discuss U.S ideas on how to respond to Russia's demands "We have shared those ideas with our European allies and partners We are incorporating that feedback into the written response," U.S Ukraine wasn't invited to the videoconference. And Ukraine's president was left to fume on Twitter last week when Biden mused aloud about how to respond to a "minor incursion." Ukrainian and Russian diplomats are scheduled to meet Wednesday in Paris to discuss the prospects for a stalled 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine If Ukraine sometimes seems to be an afterthought for the powerful countries deciding its fate the country's east is even farther from the centers of power a separatist area in the eastern Donetsk region little has changed since the fighting in 2014 Concrete block buildings have only crumbled further in the years since they were shelled and no one has come to tow away the cars hastily abandoned under gunfire a local man who refused to give his last name He estimated Ukrainian troops were about a kilometer (half-mile) away and he wanted them gone so people could decide their own fates "If they would completely leave and liberate" the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine I think nobody wants (to be a part of) Ukraine here," he said believed those decisions were in someone else's hands With his face hidden behind a camouflage balaclava and an assault rifle slung over his shoulder "Hunter" looks like other separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine What distinguishes him from his brothers in arms in the Vostok (East) battalion an irregular pro-Russian militia fighting government forces I joined an independence movement," said Hunter Hunter walks out of a trench near the town of Yasynuvata Using his "nom de guerre" and refusing to reveal his real name he described himself as a veteran of the American military without a job in the United States He did not explain the reasons for his commitment to helping the rebels in which more than 3,000 people have been killed since mid-April has attracted foreign volunteer fighters from Europe and elsewhere on both sides but more often among the ragtag rebel units A small compass and large hunting knife in a sheath hung on his belt He looked straight at me through a balaclava where the West and Russia have taken opposing sides in a separatist war with the pro-Russians in the East I had heard a few weeks before that the pro-Russian Vostok battalion had an American siding with the insurgents Our team had repeatedly tried to get permission to do a story about him but we hadn’t had any success I finally met the right people to allow me access on the condition that I would only take still pictures and not film him “I’ve come to make a photo story about you My name is Hunter; I can’t tell you any more than that.” I was chatting to Hunter when an insurgent commander told us it was time to go In the back of the jeep I sat between Hunter and another journalist The commander drove through muddy fields on the edge of a small town called Yasynuvata Hunter told me he knew the area because he’d recently dug trenches here surrounded by trenches and bunkers on all sides The Ukrainian army couldn’t have been more than 1.5 km away – too far for a sniper I hoped that both sides would respect the recently agreed ceasefire how come an American is fighting on this side Don’t you guys support Ukraine and the government?” That’s what I was interested in most of all “But that doesn’t mean I agree with what my government says I think the majority of veterans don’t support the government I simply understood what was going on here and decided to come and help these people in their fight.” “I think their demand to secede from Ukraine is completely legitimate A few months later I managed to come and since then I’m here.” Though the rebels arrested me straight away,” he said “Several groups questioned me; they wanted to make sure I’d really come to fight on their side and that my story added up The next day they gave me a rifle and I joined the Vostok battalion.” but I’m learning slowly and lots of the young guys here speak English.” “Are they surprised when they see you?” I asked ‘What’s up dude?’ The older ones look at me a bit suspiciously.” I asked Hunter if he would mind me photographing him next to the flag He told me he wouldn’t want anyone to think that he was fighting for the Russian government that flag is almost identical to our Confederate flag in the small base they didn’t have the Novorossiya flag but they found the flag of their battalion I asked him: “You’re sure you’re not just a Russian with an American passport?” My family came to America from Western Europe about 200 years ago and we’ve been there ever since.” “I’m just an average American who lives an average life.” “So you watch average TV shows and eat average fast food?” I joked with him referring to the international fast-food restaurant chain “It’s just a shame you can only get them in urban areas.” Hunter holds his rifle as he walks through a field He walks in a field with his fellow rebels Hunter walks in a field with his fellow rebels He holds his battalion flag with another battalion member Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Vladimir Putin vows to make Russia self-sufficient power in face of west and warns of ‘problems’ with neighbouring Finland Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to make Russia a “sovereign self-sufficient” power in the face of the west In a campaign speech he accused the west of unsuccessfully trying to “sow internal troubles” in Russia Putin also warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined Nato earlier this year Russia plans to reorganise military divisions to station more troops in its north-west region But Putin dismissed US president Joe Biden’s claims that Russia could attack a Nato country as “nonsense” It came after Biden said Putin would not stop at Ukraine if it secures victory as he pleaded with Republican lawmakers to authorise further aid to Kyiv Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Washington DC last week has yet to bear fruit as Biden called lack of Congressional support for aid a “Christmas gift” to Russia Biden has requested $61.4bn (£48.4bn) in further aid to Ukraine but Republicans in the US Congress have rejected the proposals Russia is not interested in extending the Black Sea grain deal The deal led to 33m tonnes of grain leave Ukraine’s ports before it collapsed in July Ukraine claims Russia has suffered almost 350,000 troops dying or being injured The figure is higher than the 315,000 estimated by US intelligence but even that represents a significant toll for Moscow Ukraine continued its use of ‘memetic warfare’ as the defence ministry posted a video of two Russian tanks being destroyed with guitar music and the caption “WELCOME TO UKRAINE.” Scholars have tracked the use of memes to try and grab control of the war narrative An intelligence report from the UK Ministry of Defence said Russia is likely to deploy “electoral fraud and voter intimidation” when elections take place in occupied Ukrainian territories Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will vote in March’s presidential elections but they are expected to not be “free or fair” It comes as Vladimir Putin was confirmed to be running for president again as an independent candidate in Russia after two decades in power Russian news agencies reported the news on Saturday Russia continued to batter Ukrainian targets with mortars overnight Sumy in the north and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east hit with artillery Russian rocket forces have loaded a new Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo at the Kozelsk base south-west of Moscow The missiles are capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads More than a year after the Russians retreated from Izium, the Ukrainian city is wracked by suspicion and distrust about collaborators. Read Shaun Walker’s Observer dispatch from a city still in ruins here. Lorry blockades are continuing at the Polish-Ukrainian border. Polish drivers say Ukraine is undercutting them as about 2,150 Ukrainian lorries remain stuck in Poland unable to return. the death toll from the Ukraine conflict doubled last week from 1,129 on July 26 to 2,086 on Aug Heavy shelling between the Ukrainian military forces and pro-Russian separatists continues Residents in and around the major cities of Donetsk and Luhansk find their lives interrupted as the military tries to regain control of two of its largest cities The heaviest recent fighting was seen around the Avdiivka area where the Russians consistently sought to advance to the rear of the defending Ukrainian force The Russian attacks concentrated on the Ukrainians’ northern wing along the railway line between the coke-chemical complex and the ruins of the village of Stepove The Ukrainian 47th Mechanised Brigade led an effective counterattack in the area Meanwhile the Russians moved forward a few hundred metres in the industrial zone near the Yasynuvata-2 railway station and thus overcame the last unconquered section of the fortifications at Avdiivka along the 2014 demarcation line The battle for this town also involves the efforts both sides have been making to push back the enemy’s forces and resources to neighbouring sections of the frontline Ukrainian troops attacked east of the village of Pivdenne towards Horlivka For their part the Russians made small advances in and around Marinka Fighting continues along the lower reaches of the Dnieper where Ukrainian naval infantry are holding a bridgehead in the village of Krynky Their attempts to capture similar bridgeheads near the villages of Poyma and Pishchanivka have so far been unsuccessful The Ukrainians have an advantage in artillery and drones in the area which allows them to repel counterattacks by the numerically superior invading forces The Russians are trying to offset this advantage through the intensive use of aerial guided bombs and thermobaric missiles launched from TOS-1A ‘Solntsepyok’ systems (one such launcher was destroyed near Krynky a few days ago) The invading troops have taken the initiative south of Bakhmut where they pushed the Ukrainians out of several positions near Klishchiivka the key hills overlooking this village remain in the defenders’ hands The Russians are also continuing to press the Ukrainian positions north of Bakhmut along the Khromove-Bohdanivka section the Russians attacked Ukraine with 38 Shahed 136/131 drones; the Ukrainian Air Force Command claims to have shot down 29 of them The targets of the attacks were Kyiv city and Kyiv resulting in 2000 households being temporarily cut off from electricity Attacks on central Ukraine also continued the following night with Ukrainian anti-aircraft defences claiming to have shot down 15 of the 20 drones; meanwhile on the night of 20–21 November the Russians used 10 drones (some of which reached the area of Kovel in Volyn oblast) and one Iskander-K missile the invaders used four S-300 missiles to strike ground targets in Donetsk oblast According to a communiqué from the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office one of the missiles hit a hospital in the town of Selydove US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv together with General Christopher Cavoli; they met President Volodymyr Zelensky and defence minister Rustem Umierov they discussed the current operations the Ukrainian side is conducting and the short and medium-term goals and objectives of their military operations It was also announced that the 17th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group will be held later this week the Pentagon unveiled details of a $100m military support package for Kyiv to be sourced entirely from the US Army’s stockpile This package will include one HIMARS system launcher with ammunition TOW and Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and AT-4 grenade launchers more than 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition demolition munitions for obstacle clearing in a statement to the British newspaper The Sun President Zelensky claimed that Russia was taking steps to remove him from office before the end of the year he indicated that the Kremlin had prepared a plan for a destabilisation operation codenamed ‘Maidan 3’ to bring about a change of power in Ukraine using “all [possible] tools” Zelensky warned senior military officers not to get involved in politics as this threatens national unity He stressed that “if a military man decides to get involved in politics but he should not [then] be involved in conducting combat operations” President Zelensky dismissed Tetiana Ostashchenko from her position as head of the Medical Service of the Ukrainian Armed Forces formerly head of the Main Military Clinical Hospital in Kyiv Defence minister Umierov justified the personnel reshuffle by saying that the time had come to rapidly improve the medical support for soldiers; this includes ensuring supplies of high-quality pharmaceuticals and medical equipment the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dismissed the head of the State Special Communications Service the National Anti-Corruption Bureau reported that they were suspected of embezzling 62 million hryvnias (about $1.7 million) which had been earmarked for the purchase of computer equipment intended to launch a protected data registry the head of the press service of the government’s Prisoner of War Coordination Staff indicated that the Russian side had ‘frozen’ negotiations on the exchange of POWs The last such exchange took place in August when 22 servicemen were returned to Ukraine He added that the Russians had withdrawn from the exchanges to give the impression that they are not taking place because of the Ukrainian side’s reluctance; the Russian plan is to create discontent among the families of the Ukrainian prisoners deputy defence minister Yuriy Dzhyhir said it would be necessary to review the legitimacy of combat allowance payments to those fighting at the front The soldiers’ complaints have been caused by manipulations in granting allowances to those who are serving only intermittently in the combat zone the Ukrainian defence ministry signed its second consecutive contract with an external company to handle military recruitment; Work.ua will provide its services free of charge Deputy defence minister Natalia Kalmykova indicated that the armed forces are currently in need of civilian specialists such as drivers the press service of the Ukrainian defence ministry reported that there are more than 62,000 women serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces among whom 43,479 have the status of combatant and more than 7000 hold the rank of officer The communiqué stressed that there are no restrictions on female military personnel serving in the Ukrainian army: this applies to all positions Reuters reported that the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Georgia S which was carrying a cargo of wheat from the port of Pivdennyi (Odesa oblast) Biuletyn Informacji Publicznej is his American accent - and English is the only language he knows "I don't want anybody to think I fight for the Russian government here," he said adding that he was in eastern Ukraine to "help" the population demanding a clean break from Kiev Apparently keen to show their cause has attracted support from abroad the rebels drove him to the interview in the car of one of the Vostok battalion's leaders The United States has sided with Kiev in the nearly six-month-old conflict between forces loyal to the government and the separatists in mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine although Moscow denies providing the rebels with arms and troops Making light of his lack of Russian-language skills Hunter said: "It's not in-depth discussion or sophisticated conversations but Hunter spoke beside rebel trenches in Yasynuvata a town north of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and a strategic rail hub that has suffered heavy fighting and changed hands several times during the conflict The Ukrainian forces' positions are less than two km (one mile) away Hunter said he had joined the rebel ranks in mid-August but was initially detained and interrogated on suspicion of being a spy because the rebels see the United States as a geopolitical rival for Russia and their own enemy in a Cold War-style standoff over Ukraine Hunter said used to vote Republican but had become as disillusioned with that party as he was with the Democratic Party of President Barack Obama He did not appear homesick but misses his favorite burgers Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser A crucial bridge on the road between the occupied cities of Horlivka and Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region was destroyed. Footage of the aftermath is being shared online, according to the Telegram channels "News of Donbas" and "Typical Donetsk." The so-called mayor of the occupied city of Yasynuvata claimed that Ukrainian forces allegedly destroyed the bridge the Ukrainian command has not yet commented on the situation The published online footage shows that the bridge on the road between Horlivka and Yasynuvata is destroyed Explosions and gunfire can be heard in the video It's worth noting that the occupiers used this short route for relatively quick travel from the temporarily occupied Horlivka to the occupied Donetsk where occupiers have recently intensified attacks Russian occupiers have intensified their offensive near Avdiivka The epicenters of the fighting also include Bakhmut and the Kupiansk-Lyman line Occupiers are also heavily shelling Avdiivka and neighboring settlements Defense forces note that the Russians are trying to encircle the city Our defenders repelled about 20 attacks in the Avdiivka direction on the last day Why the enemy is storming the "gateway to Donetsk" and why Avdiivka is essential for the occupiers - in the material by RBC-Ukraine {{gallery.imageDetails.images.0.description}} This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.