RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports that soldiers at pro-Kyiv "Checkpoint 31" on the Bahmutka highway received an "ultimatum" this morning demanding that they surrender their weapons and vacate that and other checkpoints.
The warning was delivered by a local taxi driver "under a white flag."
There has been no official comment on the situation from Ukrainian government sources.
Checkpoint 31 was a fallback position for Ukrainian troops after Checkpoint 32 was lost to pro-Russian fighters.
It was the scene of this video report late last week by our correspondent Levko Stek:
Don't miss the bonus takeaway! Great breakdown by @GKates:
Five Takeaways From Eastern Ukraine's Separatist Vote
From our newsroom:
NATO's top military commander, U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, has said the elections held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine do not correspond with a September 5 peace plan and will not improve the situation.
Breedlove, speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon on November 3, said Russia continues to resupply the pro-Moscow separatists in Ukraine, and estimated that some 250-300 Russian forces are still operating inside Ukraine.
He said the troops have no combat role and are mostly involved in training.
Breedlove said that the truce agreed by Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists on September 5 as part of a peace plan remains "a cease-fire in name only."
He noted what he called a trend toward the hardening of the line of demarcation between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists, saying it "has become more defined."
At the same time, he said, the border between Ukraine and Russia has become "completely porous," allowing for the unhindered movement by the pro-Russian forces.
Registering a cow for the separatist voting.
For Politico on the "Cossack People's Republic of Stakhanov":
A few doors down from the kitchen is the smoke-filled nerve center of Commander Pavel Dremov’s military operation. Dremov is a 37-year old former bricklayer who has emerged as the savior of Stakhanov, a hitherto-forgotten mining town in the northwest corner of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. What is interesting is that the commander has styled himself in complete opposition to his fellow separatists in Luhansk and what he calls its “shady businessmen,” who deal “money, power, and ceasefires with the Kiev ‘junta.’” Dremov has offered Stakhanov citizens an alternative vision—a new, socialist, neo-Soviet “Cossack” republic that works for the people, especially the poor and elderly. And, as goes without saying, one that ignores any talk of a ceasefire deal.
Via our correspondent in Brussels, Rikard Jozwiak, here's EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn speaking about yesterday's votes:
"From our point [of view] it is always about the integrity of the Ukrainian state, and in that respect, once again, we cannot accept this election; and it's always up to the political authorities to decide about how democratic decisions come together and here the Ukrainian government was crystal clear: They don't accept this election and therefore also not the outcome."