Ukraine

DONETSK, November 18. /TASS/: The plan providing for the "deportation of the Donbass people" developed by the team of incumbent Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky widely publicized in Ukraine came as no surprise to the leadership of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), DPR Head Denis Pushilin said in a statement.

KIEV, November 14. /TASS/: Ukraine is not planning to arrange a bilateral meeting between President Vladimir Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before the Normandy Four summit, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said on Thursday.

"We are not planning a bilateral meeting with Putin," Pristaiko told a joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg.

KIEV, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The troop pullback process in the area of Petrivske village in eastern Ukraine was completed, the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) spokesperson Oleksander Shtupun said on Monday.

"The third day of the actual process of personnel, weapons and military equipment pullback finished today at noon. Now the verification is carried out by the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and searching and eliminating of the explosives should start tomorrow according to the schedule," Shtupun told Ukrainian media.

DONETSK, November 10. /TASS/: Ukraine’s forces opened fire from small arms on Sunday morning at an area of disengaging forces and hardware in Petrovskoye, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s mission to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center said.

"Today at 9.46 a.m. Ukraine’s forces shelled from small arms the village of Petrovskoye," the mission said.

The fire was opened from the Bogdanovka village controlled by Kiev.

DONETSK, November 9. /TASS/: Ukraine and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have started the disengagement of forces along the line of contact in the Petrovskoye area.

"The DPR mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) welcomes the start of disengagement of equipment and forces beyond the disengagement section reported by the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission," the JCCC said.

PETRIVSKE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels began withdrawing from a village in the disputed Donbass region on Saturday, one of a series of measures that could pave the way for a summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.

Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed fighters in the eastern region has killed more than 13,000 since 2014, with both sides accusing each other of violating a ceasefire that was agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk in 2015.

DONETSK, November 3. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) have violated the ceasefire 13 times during the past day, having launched more than 142 projectiles on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), head of the DPR group in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) Ruslan Yakubov said on Sunday.

"Over the past day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) violated the ceasefire 13 times," the Donetsk news agency quoted him as saying. "The total number of projectiles used by the UAF is 142."

KIEV, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said the doors of the alliance are open for those who wish to join, including Ukraine.

"As a sovereign state, Ukraine has the right to choose its security systems. NATO membership is the decision of the members of the NATO Alliance and those who want to join it. The spheres of influence are a thing of the past," he told the Ukrainian Parliament.

KIEV (Reuters) - Denmark’s decision to approve the Nord Stream 2 pipeline strengthens Russia and weakens Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.

The United States and several eastern European, Nordic and Baltic countries have expressed concern that the Gazprom-led (GAZP.MM) 1,230km (765 mile) pipeline from Russia to Germany will increase Europe’s reliance on Russian gas.

KIEV, October 29. /TASS/: Ukraine will close the air and sea space off the coast of its Kherson Region on October 31-November 4 to hold live-fire drills with its surface-to-air missile systems, the Ukrainian Air Force Command announced on Tuesday.