The territory under Ukrainian control
On April 17th activists toppled Vladimir Lenin monument on the central square of Kramatorsk (the Donetsk Region). The monument was hooked with a rope and taken off the pedestal during a meeting devoted to the year’s anniversary since the last pro-Ukrainian rally in 2014 before the town was occupied. Donetsk City Administration said that the incident was the act of “vandalism”. In connection with this the police of Slavyansk, which is a neighbouring town, put a strong guard around the local Lenin monument.
At night on April, 22nd another Lenin monument, which was situated in the old part of the town, got toppled in Kramatorsk. Serhiy Kornienko, head of local “Svoboda” (political party) department, who initiated toppling Lenin monument on the central square of the town on April 17th, was also the coordinator and doer of the demolition of this monument. According to his words, thus he put into effect the law about “de-communization of Ukraine”.
829.373 people were displaced from the ATO zone to other parts of Ukraine. This information was presented by the Press Service of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Today in Donbas, Ukraine controls 35 mines located on its territory out of 95 ones. The rest are on the territory controlled by thmilitants. Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry said that at the briefing.
Volodymyr Rzhavskyi, Donetsk regional administration chairman’s counselor resigned on April 20th. He said that he resigned because “the Head of Donetsk regional state administration does not support pro-Ukrainian and state position Of Ukrainian President”. The decision was made at the meeting of Cabinet of Ministers. Before that, Arsen Avakov, Minister of the Interior had intended to raise the question about Oleksandr Kykhtenko’s resignation. In the commentary of his decision, he called O. Kykhtenko “a collaborationist”.
At the meeting of the government, Oleksandr Kykhtenko, Head of Donetsk military and civil administration said that 3.5 billion hryvnias are needed to restore the Donetsk region.
He said, “More than 12 thousand objects are destroyed”, including 9 thousand residential houses. He also added that more than 5 thousand businesses which are working on the occupied territory of the Donetsk region have been reregistered on the territories controlled by Ukraine.
“During 2014, 19 mln hryvnias were paid as taxes, with 52 per cent of them by businesses located on the territory which is not controlled by Ukraine. This is official data provided by fiscal service”.
The occupied territory
“DPR” illegal organization claims that the information of the Ukrainian Military Prosecutor’s Office about the losses of the Ukrainian Military Forces in “Illovaysk pot” does not correspond to the real numbers, Lilia Rodionova, the representative of the so-called “DPR comission on prisoners of war” says. According to her calculations, the death toll for the Ukrainian soldiers in that area was not 459 people, but twice as many. Rodioniva claims that the Prosecutor’s Office estimates the casualties by the number of the bodies of the Ukrainian soldiers which were recognized, but the DNA expertise of the remains of the bodies of Ukrainian military, who perished near Illovaysk, is still in progress.
Dmytro Tymchuk, MP, reports that militants turned Luhansk into a big military camp.
“There are six big military units, the total number of which is 5.5.-6 thousand people. Among them there are Russian Armed Forces servicemen who are disguised as “militants”, Russian mercenaries and local militants”, says Tymchuk. According to his words, about 3 thousand militants more were noticed in the villages around Luhansk.
On April 18, militants shot at the car of Mykola Kovalyev, director of the state-owned “Shakhterskantratsyt”. M. Kovalyev and his wife perished. The accident took place on “Rostov-Donetsk” highway between the towns of Zugres and Khartsizsk, near “Vodostroy” check point. The reason of shooting is not known. “Shakhterskantratsit”, a coal-mining business is on the occupied territory; it has not been reregistered.
Illegal armed “DPR” organization leader Oleksandr Zakharchenko does not consider demilitarization terms of some parts of Donbas acceptable.
At the moment, the village of Shyrokyne which is located between Mariupol, controlled by Ukraine, and Novoazovsk, controlled by “DPR” militants, is one of the tensest sections of the contact line.
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