The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), Aleksandr Zakharchenko, gave a lengthy interview to Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency yesterday.
In what will doubtless be seen as a provocative act by Ukraine’s Communists, who are holding rallies to mark International Workers’ Day, fighters from the Aidar volunteer battalion have pulled down a bust of Lenin in the village of Nizhnetyoploye in the Lugansk region.
The leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), Petro Symonenko, fled a KPU rally in Kiev today after being confronted by anti-communist activists and showered with kefir yoghurt.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reports that President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has denied the claim made yesterday by Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko that Putin had “agreed with the possibility of the deployment of contingent of peacekeepers to the Donbass.”
Leviy Bereg reports that Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian military’s Anti-Terrorism Operation (ATO), has announced at a briefing today that two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another two wounded yesterday.
LifeNews, a pro-Kremlin TV station which cooperates close with law-enforcement and intelligence (as we recently re-confirmed), reports that the minister of state security of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) has expelled seven staff members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) supposedly for “espionage”.
Last week, The Moscow Times commented on a report released by the Russian state statistics agency which clearly documented the extent of the problems in Russia’s economy:
A group of former world leaders called “The Elders” is visiting Moscow today and has met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin, Russian and Western correspondents in Moscow reported.
Ukrainska Pravda reports that Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, has issued a statement with Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of the SBU, on the standoff between the Ukrainian authorities and Praviy Sector.
The Russian spacecraft Progress M-27M has begun to spiral out of control and the Russian Mission Control at Korolyov has given up efforts to communicate with the ship, RIA Novosti reported.
