The Latest Breaking News from Donbas

Intense negotiations over the past several days seem to indicate that there might be a diplomatic way out of Ukraine’s Donbas crisis. After yesterday’s Normandy format talks between Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany in Berlin, all sides emphasised that, despite the lack of a breakthrough, discussions will continue.

Russian provocation teams claim two 20-strong units of UK-trained Polish-speaking troops are stationed in Donbas, in the latest apparent attempt to fabricate a threat of attack from Ukraine

Destruction of homes in a small village near frontlines in Donbas raises fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

While some Russians believe the West is aggravating the situation, most want an urgent diplomatic resolution.

Around 126,000 Russian combat troops are gathered close to the Ukraine border, along with 30,000 pro-Moscow separatists in contested Donbas. Nato is bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region

While preparing for a trip to Russia in late December 2021, I was half-joking to friends that my return to the UK could well be delayed either by COVID or a Russian invasion of Ukraine. The threat of an imminent war was permeating the western media by that stage, so…

I won’t pretend to be a foreign policy expert and have no idea if Russia intends to invade Ukraine (again, that is. It annexed Crimea and supported proxy forces in the eastern Donbas region in 2014.)

Nato’s treatment of Russia almost guaranteed a chauvinistic reflex. The way forward is to implement the Minsk settlement, says the Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Jan. 19, 2022, that he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine, and cautioned Russian president Vladimir Putin that he “will regret having done it,” following months of building tension.