11 French MPs did not simply breach Ukrainian law and international sanctions through their visit to Crimea this weekend. They also took part in a shameful propaganda show, denying flagrant human rights violations under Russian occupation and slandering Crimean Tatars who have been abducted, and very likely murdered.

Donald Trump did not just call on a hostile state to hack a presidential candidate’s emails on Wednesday. He also said that, if elected US President, he would consider removing the sanctions against that same nation for its aggression against Ukraine and recognize Crimea, which Russia invaded and is occupying, as Russian territory

If the results of a recent survey can be trusted, less than one in five residents of areas under the control of the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DNR] identify themselves as ‘citizens’ of this unrecognized creation. The result is even lower than the level of support which the militants themselves inadvertently revealed, and then ‘adjusted’, but it can certainly not be dismissed as insignificant.

Paris-Kharkiv, 19 July 2016. After a three-day seminar on documenting human rights violations held for Ukrainian lawyers and human rights defenders in Kharkiv from 4 to 6 July 2016, our organisations express their concern on the prevalent climate of impunity for crimes committed since the beginning of the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine.

New FSB interrogations only confirm the need for the advice just issued by the Crimean Human Rights Group for Ukrainians wanting to avoid being arrested for ‘extremist’ views such as Crimea is Ukraine.

The new UK Prime Minister doubtless had her reasons for giving leading Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson a cabinet post. Making him Foreign Secretary, however, defies any comprehension. It is especially difficult not to view this as an affront to all those currently facing persecution in Russian-occupied Crimea given his extraordinary attempt to blame Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on the EU

If you believe the media, ‘Bulgaria’ has endorsed the demand of local Ukrainian Bulgarians and called on Ukraine to create a Bulgarian autonomy. This comes just weeks after Romanians were also reported to be demanding autonomy. Ukraine, in short, is falling apart, and Crimea and Donbas were just the beginning.

Rights activists have gathered vital evidence of direct shelling and military intervention from Russia in 2014 which they intend to pass to the International Criminal Court. The material will help victims defend their rights in international courts and also to refute the ongoing attempts to present the fighting in Donbas as a ‘civil war’.

There was something obscenely ironic about Kremlin officials and surrogates cheering the results of the Brexit referendum, given that a similar democratic exercise could never take place in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The Kremlin-backed militants of the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DNR] have congratulated Britons on voting to leave the European Union, and compared Brexit to their ‘referendum’ in 2014.

Britain’s parliament is not legally obliged to heed this referendum. It probably will, but should not claim that this is “the voice of the people” when those who will suffer most and the longest had no voice and certain politicians and media misinformed their readers about the critical facts

A fictitious ‘Assembly of Romanians of Bukovyna’ is for the second year running reported to be demanding greater autonomy for ethnic Romanians and complaining that the rights of minorities are violated in Ukraine

Sowing distrust and disbelief in Europe and its institutions is the main aim of Russian propaganda in the Czech Republic, according to a new study.

What conceivable arguments could there be against an armed OSCE mission helping to ensure peace in Donbas? When there are none, except the lack of any intention to stop the war, you bring out “tens of thousands” of protesters, on fear of losing their jobs if they don’t appear. Judging by a report from Deutsche Welle, such stunts may even work.

Vladislav Grib, recently appointed a personal representative to the OSCE’s Chairperson-in-Office was directly involved in rubberstamping the scam ‘referendum’ used by Russia to try to justify its invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 - an event never recognized by the OSCE or international community

Moscow is reaching out to EU states to undermine the bloc’s unity in hopes of encouraging them to use their power of veto to ultimately end or dilute the sanctions regime, which requires unanimous renewal every six months.

Details of how Russia’s Novorossiya project arose and ultimately fell have been hard to come by, but Aleksandr, a Moscow businessman had a front-row seat as an insider in Crimea and agreed to tell RFE/RL what became of the dream he still cherishes, despite the disenchantment of his months in Crimea

Russia’s ban on veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemiliev entering his native Crimea, now under Russian occupation, has, as expected, been upheld. Change a word here and there and the justification under the current Russian regime for persecuting Dzhemiliev become almost identical to that used by the Soviet Union for holding him in political labour camps for 15 years.

Former Donetsk resident Nadia Zaslavska spoke to Dmitry Volchek from RFE/RL’s Russian Service about why the conflict in eastern Ukraine drove her from the city even though she had spent many happy years living there.

Can lies that kill and distortion of events that have led to mass human rights violations be protected by the right to freedom of speech? Swedish TV SVT seems to think that they can since it has, despite strong protest, decided to broadcast Paul Moreira’s ‘Masks of the Revolution’ which gravely misrepresents Euromaidan, a tragedy in Odesa and Russia’s annexation of Crimea