Main News of Donbas for the week of 16-22 March 2015

On 16 March, in Konstantinovka (Donetsk region), an armored car of Armed Forces of Ukraine ran over a woman with children. As a result of the accident, a 7 year old girl died. She had been with her aunt. The injured woman was delivered to hospital. There was also a baby with the woman in time of theaccident, who was not injured.

At this point, the military prosecutor's office is conducting investigation. On March 17, two soldiers suspected in causing the accident were detained. This accident has sparked riots in Konstantinovka. The crowd burned tires near industrial college, where the Ukrainian military is based. The next day the riots subsided, and people gathered in the place of the accident to commemorate the deceased girl. However, another accident occurred on place of the tragedy. Car hit an old lady crossing the road. The nearby protesters attempted to lynch the driver.

On Tuesday, 17 March, Verkhovna Rada voted for the recognition of a part of Donetsk and Lugansk regions as occupied territories. 280 deputies have voted in favor of the decision №2396. Thus, a special procedure in some areas of Donbas will be introduced after the early local elections. It is noted that the elections will take place only under condition that all illegal armed groups and foreign mercenaries will be withdrawn from Ukraine. The elections have to be observed by the representatives of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, as well as the representatives of other international organizations and foreign governments. The illegal organization "Donetsk People’s Republic" (DPR) has claimed that the Ukrainian Parliament’s decisions contradict provisions of Minsk agreements; they say those decisions are "a game for Europe" and "the usual political statement". In addition, the Head of DPR Alexander Zakharchenko spoke about the need to establish control over all militants’ settlements, where in May last year a so-called referendum had been conducted. "We must occupy all our cities, where a referendum had taken place, and only after that politically cooperate (with Ukraine) as equal partners," - he said.

Also on Monday, March 17, the Verkhovna Rada voted for the amendments to Article 10 of the Law "On special order of local government in some regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," which, inter alia, provides that the special order is implemented by those local governments elected by special election.

In addition, on 17 March, the Chairman of Luhansk Regional State Administration Gennadiy Moskal fired a number of heads of regional utility companies, who had not moved from the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

On 17 March, the railway track was damaged near Volnovakha (Donetsk region) and Popasnaya (Luhansk region) on the territory outside of the Ukrainian military control. In the evening of 19 March, powerful explosion destroyed an old bridge over the river Seversky Donets in the village of Stanitsa Luhanskaya (Luhansk region).

On 20 March, it became known that about one thousand civilians are held hostage by DPR and LPR. "We have a volunteer data base containing about 1,000 names of civilians held hostage by the DPR and LPR. The Security Service of Ukraine is in the process of fruitful cooperation with volunteers to deal with this base. These people are in so-called prisons of DPR and LPR."- was stated by Yuri Tandem, representative of the Interagency center for release of prisoners and hostages at Security Service of Ukraine.

On 20 March, Security Service of Ukraine announced its intention to switch to electronic system of issuing entry and exit permits for citizens in the zone of the antiterrorist operation starting from 25March. Adviser to the head of Security Service of Ukraine Markiyan Lubkivsky noted that gradually paper permits will be withdrawn. "Starting from 25March, we are moving to electronic system," - he said. According to him, the electronic system will save the time and effort presently required to process documents.

On 21 March separatists have issued a statement that most of the food provisions for the population of occupied territories will be imported from Russia.
"Import of food from Russia has reached 736 tons over 16 days of March. Over the period of February it has amounted to 471 ton, in January - 127 tons. At the same time, imports from Ukraine over 16 days of March amounted to 1 million 500 tons. Considering the factor of economic blockade, these figures suggest that by the end of this month the Russian Federation will occupy the first place in terms of products’ supply to DPR, "- said Eugenia Samokhina, who calls herself to be " the Minister of economic Development of DPR".