Daily Ukraine Crisis Updates – May 22, 2014

Commentary | May 22, 2014

EWI offers a daily situation report on Ukraine.

Internal Security News

  • Ukrainian border guards thwarted an attempt by “several groups of armed militants carrying weapons and ammunition from the Russian Federation to break through the state border of Ukraine.” The groups attempted to enter Ukraine at the border of the Krasnodonsky region of Lugansk Oblast.
  • Ukraine's largest bank announced that militants affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have hijacked 15 cash-in-transit vehicles since early May.

Diplomacy News

  • Russian Deputy ambassador Alexander Kramarenko was due to meet British Foreign Office officials in London to “ask for clarification” regarding a statement allegedly made by the Prince of Wales in which he likened Russian President Putin’s actions in Crimea to those of Hitler. A spokesman for the Russian embassy in London called the alleged remark “outrageous” and “propaganda against Russia.”
  • (ITAR-TASS) Australia’s sanctions against Russia will not be unanswered, the Russian Foreign Ministry pledged. “We have been repeatedly saying that Russia does not accept attempts to speak to it in the language of sanctions,” the ministry said.
  • The Russian Ministry of Culture demanded the return of a Scythian gold collection on loan to a museum in the Netherlands since February, stating that a failure to return it could be considered “embezzlement.” The Netherlands does not recognize Crimea's unification with Russia, which took place after the opening of the exhibition, and the question arose as to whom the collection should be returned to once the exhibition closes in August. Ukraine previously requested that the gold be returned to Kiev.

International Observation News

Governance News