‘First Let Merkel, Hollande Know’: Lugansk Delivers Ultimatum to Poroshenko

Global Geopolitics

If Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko intends to tighten the Donbass economic blockade, he should make such decisions in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, who brokered the Minsk-II deal together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic said.

On Friday, the Ukrainian parliament introduced a bill to ban trade with the so-called “temporarily occupied territories.”

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The Situation Surrounding Mariinka

SLAVYANGRAD.org

Preamble: This opinion piece was written by its author while the battle for Mariinka was still being fought. Contrary to many assertions that the UAF had retaken the town almost immediately, the NAF have only withdrawn from the positions they seized in Mariinka in the last day or two. The opinions expressed in this piece may well go some way towards explaining the current withdrawal and the air of “phoney war” that surrounded the battle from the beginning. It is for that reason that we have published it below. To round out the discussion, we hope to publish two additional articles on the topic in the near future. [Ed.]

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Original: Respublika
Translated by Alexander Fedotov / Edited by Gracchus Babeuf

The battle for Mariinka very much looks like a provocation

Intensification of fighting in the Donbass may be a temporary aggravation or it may break out into a full-fledged resumption of…

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