![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EDM_draft_banner2.jpg)
Latest articles from Vladimir Socor
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Azov.jpg)
Russian Forces Target Three Key Objects in Ukraine’s East
Beyond the newly imposed partition lines, Russian regular and irregular forces are incessantly attacking Ukrainian positions in the Debaltseve salient, the Donetsk airport, and around Mariupil on the Azov Sea. Capturing these positions—a centrally located rail and road transport hub, the international airport, and the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Donetsk_airport_shelled_-_EDM_October_9__2014.jpg)
Russia Subverting Armistice in Ukraine
Russia is using the ceasefire as an opportunity to cement and expand its military presence, directly as well as through the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” (DPR, LPR). Following the September 5 and September 19–20 armistice agreements, Russian regular and proxy forces have re-captured considerable... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Novorossiya_flag_waving_in_Donetsk_-_EDM_October_9__2014.jpg)
Moscow’s Cold War Against Ukraine Undiminished After the Armistice
The ceasefire agreements, signed on September 5 and 19–20, have, in no sense, halted Russia’s multi-dimensional war against Ukraine. This includes a still-“hot” military conflict and a “cold” propaganda war. Nor could these agreements stop Russia from prosecuting the conflict in the absence of effective... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Putin-Ukraine.jpg)
Putin Suggests Own Terms for a Dialogue With Ukraine
Addressing an international investment forum in Moscow yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted an unusually restrained tone toward Ukraine. In effect, Putin seems to suggest a framework for political dialogue toward stabilizing Russia-Ukraine relations (kremlin.ru, Interfax, October 2). Putin’s salient propositions are: 1) “It is... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Ukraine_army_in_Donetsk_-_EDM_October_1__2014.jpg)
Russian Military Presence Enforces Division of Ukraine’s Donbas
The armistice, slowly taking hold in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (collectively known as the Donbas region), basically consigns parts of those territories to Russia’s military and political control, both directly and through local proxies. Facing Russia one-on-one, on the battlefield as well as in... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ukrainian_military_-_EDM_September_24__2014.jpg)
Political Implications of the Russia (‘Donetsk/Luhansk’)–Ukraine Armistice
The shape of any political settlement will depend on whether Russian troops and paramilitary personnel with their weaponry are evacuated from what is legally Ukraine’s territory, or remain deployed there. Point 9 of the September 20 memorandum is unfulfillable as formulated (and it is hard... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Minsk_talks_-_EDM_September_24__2014.jpg)
Armistice Opens Way to Russian Partition of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk Provinces
On September 20 in Minsk, negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)—which together constitute the Tripartite Contact Group—as well as the Russia-installed Donetsk and Luhansk leaders finalized an agreement on the main elements of an armistice in the ongoing... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ukrainian_leaders_01.jpg)
Ukrainian Leaders Walk Away From Law on Self-Administration in Occupied Territories
Utter confusion surrounds Ukraine’s just-adopted law on the “special procedure of local self-administration in individual districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.” Pursuant to the September 5 ceasefire protocol, President Petro Poroshenko initiated this law, his administration drafted it, and the parliament adopted it on... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Yatsenyuk_and_Poroshenko_-_Part_2_02.jpg)
Ukraine Grants More Powers to Localities in Russian-Controlled Territory (Part Two)
Ukraine’s law on the “special procedure of local self-administration in individual districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces” (Ukraiynska Pravda, September 16; see Part One of this article) seeks to retain at least some means of influence and avenues of dialogue between Kyiv and local... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Ukraine_Law_-_Part_1.jpg)
Ukraine Grants More Powers to Localities in Russian-Controlled Territory (Part One)
On September 16, the Ukrainian parliament approved a “Law on the special procedure of local self-administration in individual districts in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces” (Russian version’s terminology: poryadok, samo-upravlenie, raiony). Those two provinces of Ukraine are now, de facto, partitioned into Russian-controlled and Ukrainian-controlled... MORE