Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” have issued parallel announcements today (September 4) about their mutual willingness to sign a ceasefire agreement tomorrow (September 5), subject to certain conditions that seem to be at hand. Russian President Vladimir Putin seems... MORE

The secessionist “Luhansk People’s Republic’s” (LPR) leadership is experiencing even greater turmoil, compared with that of the adjacent “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) in Ukraine’s east. On August 14 the “head (glava) of the republic,” Valery Bolotov, returned to Luhansk after a Moscow visit and announced... MORE

On August 14–15, the “Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) government” and its military command underwent another recasting—the second within one week, while Ukrainian forces tighten the ring around the city of Donetsk. Colonel Igor Strelkov/Girkin, a hero to Russia’s nationalist public, has now been stripped of... MORE

The newly-installed “prime minister of the Donetsk people’s republic (DPR),” Aleksandr Zakharchenko, was apparently asked to convey a reassuring message to Russia’s public in anticipation of a Ukrainian siege of the city of Donetsk. Following six weeks of military reverses and shrinkage of “DPR’s” territory,... MORE

The titular “prime minister of the Donetsk people’s republic,” Aleksandr Boroday, returned from a week-long Moscow visit to usher in another reorganization of “DPR’s” hierarchy. This time, the reshuffle has to do with “DPR’s” preparations for a possible siege of the city of Donetsk by... MORE

Building a giant version of Transnistria in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (Donbas) is Russia’s current policy, but it was not its start-off option. It became a fall-back plan when Moscow’s even more ambitious “Novorossiya” project failed (at least temporarily) in the other six provinces... MORE

Western diplomacy seems about to revert to pressuring Ukraine into a disadvantageous armistice and negotiations with Russia’s protégés in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.” This could become the basis for creating a Transnistria-type Russian protectorate, frozen in place and time on Ukraine’s territory (see... MORE

On August 1, at Moscow’s Poklonnaya Hill military memorial, President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a monument to Russian soldiers who fought in the First World War. On the hundredth anniversary of that war’s outbreak, the Kremlin has decided retroactively to honor those soldiers as heroes, and... MORE

Intercepts of Moscow-Donetsk telephone conversations, made public by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), reveal pessimism and demoralization on the part of at least some of the secessionist “republic’s” leadership. On July 28, the SBU released audio recordings with transcripts of two telephone conversations, both initiated from... MORE

Read Part One here.      On the ground in Ukraine’s east, the most significant Russia-backed separatist field commanders continue operating autonomously from Igor Girkin/Strelkov—the self-proclaimed military leader of the pro-Russia rebel forces and “defense minister” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic [“DPR”].” They basically “coordinate,” taking... MORE