The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by third parties and significant caution regarding security considerations*. The SMM observed continuing ceasefire violations at and around Donetsk airport and Shyrokyne.

European Union leaders are due to begin a tense summit on Thursday evening with their counterparts from Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus, 18 months after the last meeting triggered the crisis in Ukraine.

Roundup of Novorossia for May 21-22, 2015
1. The situation over the last day in the DPR and the LPR.
2. The Red Cross and the OSCE to go to Donetsk airport to take out the bodies.
3. 12 people detained in Kiev after the mass riots.
4. If Ukraine does not return the debt, Russia will appeal to court.
5. Human Rights Watch does not criticize Kyiv for the derogation in the field of human rights.

The foreign mercenaries have been spotted on the premises of a children’s hospital in the city of Dzerzhinsk

Armenia and Belarus refused to sign a joint declaration of the EU-Eastern Partnership summit as long as the text called Crimea's reunification with Russia an "illegal annexation," Reuters reported, citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

"If Kiev doesn’t think these regions are part of Ukraine, let it state its position overtly then," Valentina Matviyenko said

The attempts to carry out reforms in Ukraine are "coming apart at the seams" and the Kiev authorities do not seem to be up to the task, a German MP said.

The Ukrainian parliament has backed a decree allowing the country to rescind its commitments outlined in a number of international agreements

On May 14, Right Sector leader Dmitry Yarosh submitted to the Ukrainian parliament a bill on the Ukrainian volunteer corps. Earlier, he said there is mutual understanding between country’s security forces and the volunteer corps on cooperation.

Out of 15 criteria which the EU formulates for each country seeking a visa-free regime with EU, Georgia has met 7 while Ukraine has met only 2

The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday has approved a legislative act on the country’s regression on human rights violations in eastern Ukraine and has instructed the Foreign Ministry to inform the United Nations.