![](/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/region-europe.jpg)
Latest Articles about Europe's East
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Donetsk_Airport_fighting_-_EDM_January_22__2015.jpeg)
Ukrainian Military Is Pushed Back in Heavy Fighting
The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France met this week in Berlin in the so-called “Normandy format” to seek ways to scale down the recent upsurge in military violence in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas (which encompasses the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces).... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/coal_mine.jpg)
War in Eastern Ukraine Causing Coal Shortages, Electrical Blackouts
The unrest and ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine seriously impacts coal supplies and thermal power electricity generation in the rest of the country. On December 28, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry to halt rolling power blackouts, adding that... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Dmitry_Soin_-_EDM_January_20__2015.jpg)
Encouraged by Initial Russian Moves in Ukraine, Transnistria Now Fears for Its Future
No one was more encouraged by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military moves in Donbas (eastern Ukrainian region encompassing the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces) than the leaders of Transnistria. This breakaway Slavic-dominated region in northeastern Moldova viewed Moscow’s actions as opening the way to the... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fighting_at_Donetsk_Airport_-_EDM_January_20__2015.jpg)
Putin Sets Military Trap for Poroshenko
The collapse of the nominal ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, marked by an escalation of military operations around Donetsk airport, has resulted in a fresh diplomatic confrontation between Moscow and Kyiv. Both sides blame each other for the increased violence, while the Kremlin claims that this... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Leonid_Reshetnikov_-_EDM_January_20__2015.jpg)
Analyst Provides Insider View of Russian Government Think Tank
The revelations of Alexander Sytnik, who recently left his position as a senior fellow at the Russian Institute for Strategic Research, a government-funded think tank, provides a rare glimpse into the inner mechanisms of policymaking in Russia. In his personal account of the run-up to... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Aleksei_Mozgovoy.jpg)
Armed Formations in the Secessionist ‘Luhansk Republic’ (Part Four)
*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. *To read Part Three, please click here. Local ataman (historically, a Cossack leader) rule proliferates in the power vacuum of the “Luhansk People’s republic” (LPR). Russian forces seized this area from... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Pavel_Dryomov.jpg)
Armed Formations in the Secessionist ‘Luhansk Republic’ (Part Three)
*To read Part One, please click here. *To read Part Two, please click here. Outside Luhansk City and its environs, the “Luhansk People’s Republic’s” (LPR) territory is splintered into de facto fiefdoms and portions of no man’s land. Each fiefdom has its own ataman (leader)... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nikolai_Kozitsyn_-_EDM_January_15__2015.jpg)
Armed Formations in the Secessionist ‘Luhansk Republic’ (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Russia is building secessionist proto-states on parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (collectively known as the Donbas region). This effort is advancing with relative ease in the “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) but is faltering in the “Luhansk... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Vladimir_Putin_-_EDM_January_15__2015.jpg)
With Talks Fruitless, Fighting in Ukraine Intensifies
The falling ruble, two-digit inflation and obvious signs of a pending financial and economic meltdown apparently have not influenced Russia’s assertive foreign and defense policies. A proposed summit in Astana between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in the so-called “Normandy format,” initially... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nursultan_Nazarbayev_visiting_Ukraine__December_22.jpg)
Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Ukraine Diplomacy
On January 9, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Walter Steinmeier in Berlin in order to discuss the crisis in Ukraine and to propose hosting a heads of state meeting in Astana between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia,... MORE