Just days after the Kremlin-backed militants’ oldest hostage – Ihor Kozlovsky - spent his second – 63rd – birthday in captivity, militant leader Alexander Zakharchenko has put forward new restrictions on hostage exchange, as well as other direct infringements of the Minsk Agreement

For the second time in a month, Russian media have produced fake news stories about ‘terrorists’ after a prominent lawyer the first time and civic activists on both occasions were detained in Russian-occupied Crimea. The report on Feb 21 even used entirely false video footage

Militants from the self-declared ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DNR] have taken another Ukrainian - Valery Nedosekin - prisoner, accusing him of ‘spying’ for the Ukrainian Security Service by reporting military movements and posting photos of military equipment on Twitter

The problem with fighting fake news from Russia is that it often comes from top officials in Moscow like Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister. Lavrov’s latest distortion of the facts came in an interview given to Izvestia on Feb 10, and was refuted that same day, though that, of course, was ignored by the Russian media which repeated his lie.

The violent killing of Mikhail Tolstykh or ‘Givi’, one of the most identifiable militants involved in the Kremlin-backed fighting in Donbas was predictably, but not very credibly, attributed by the militant leadership to Ukrainian military saboteurs.

The latest trial in an EU country of a person accused of fighting for Kremlin-backed militants in Eastern Ukraine began on Feb 1 in Riga. Artem Skripnik, a 26-year-old Latvian citizen, faces a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment if convicted

A Russian political analyst suspects that the Kremlin has initiated the shelling of Avdiivka and resulting deaths in order to secure a better deal with the USA, one that will enable it to keep destabilizing Ukraine, while freeing itself of sanctions

Temperatures have dropped far below freezing in Ukraine. Without water, electricity, or heat, the lives of thousands of people are at stake. Combined Russian-separatist forces must halt their attack on Avdiivka.

2 years after 13 people were killed when a bus near Volnovakha was shelled from a militant-controlled area, relatives of the victims have filed an application against both Russia and Ukraine over the bombing and the failure by the Ukrainian authorities to carry out a proper investigation.

The General Court of the European Union has rejected an appeal against the continuation of the sanctions imposed against a Russian state-owned anti-aircraft missile producer which has been actively surplying missile launchers and other weaponry used in the military conflict in Donbas

Despite Vladimir Putin’s continued denials of Russia’s involvement in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, a growing body of evidence casts doubts on his claims

Russia’s abduction of Nadiya Savchenko and many other Ukrainians it is holding prisoner has always been denied. This could soon change, and not for the better, with new so-called ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation now legalizing state abductions from outside Russia.

Open-source investigator Bellingcat says Russia launched "systematic" artillery and other barrages against Ukraine in 2014 that were "essentially an act of war" against its smaller neighbour.

Vladimir Radyuk has information of crucial importance about Russia’s active role in the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. This is one reason why he must not be forcibly returned to Russia. The torture he would almost certainly face at the hands of the Russian FSB is another.

Dmitry Utkin, otherwise known as ’Wagner’, whose highly trained Russian fighters are known to have been involved in Russia’s invasion of Crimea, in the conflict in Donbas and in Syria, was one of Putin’s guests at a Kremlin reception to mark ’Heroes of the Fatherland Day’

At least one Russian neo-Nazi believed guilty of war crimes in Donbas has for the second year in a row taken part in a Russian camp training children and young people how to fight and kill.

Kremlin-backed militants claim that they have arrested 6 people responsible for the explosion that killed Arseny Pavlov [‘Motorola’], the Russian mercenary wanted by Ukraine for war crimes in Donbas

Although 35-year-old Vladimir Polyakov’s lawyer has condemned the imminent trial as ‘political’, this was not the view of the Estonian courts who agreed to his extradition, and the charges are almost the same as those brought in the United Kingdom against Ben Stimson for his activities in Donbas

Ukrainian hackers claim to have broken into a second e-mail account linked to Vladislav Surkov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, releasing documents they say add to mounting evidence of the Kremlin meddling in Kyiv’s affairs

RUH8 is part of a Ukrainian "hacktivist" collective that includes four hacker groups: CyberHunta, Falcons Flame, Trinity, and RUH8. When working together, they call themselves the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance. Their declared enemy is the Kremlin, and their avowed mission is to expose its meddling in Ukraine and ultimately to destroy Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.