Thousands of people gathered in Kiev’s main square on Sunday to protest against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s deal with Moscow to grant autonomy to Ukraine’s pro-Russian, rebel-held east in efforts to end a five-year conflict.
In the first breakthrough towards a peace deal in years, envoys from Moscow and Kiev agreed at talks on Tuesday to an election schedule for the Donbass region and on legislation giving it special status.
Ukraine also agreed to call back its forces from the contact line with separatist fighters.
But for many Ukrainians, these measures represent a huge betrayal by Mr Zelenskiy, who took power in April after a landslide election win.
The war in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 13,000 people since April 2014.
“This is the beginning of the full capitulation of Ukraine,” said "Roman", 53, who fought in Donbass as a volunteer.
Politician Yana Zinkevych, who belongs to the previous president Petro Poroshenko’s party European Solidarity, was among those who addressed the rally.
“These are the things that protect Russia’s interests and not ours," Mr Zinkevych told the crowd. "We have to fight and prevent its implementation."
Last week’s deal opened the way for a resumption of top-level peace talks to end the conflict.
Mr Zelenskiy said last week that he would discuss a peace deal for Donbass in coming talks with Russia, Germany and France.
He said any elections in Donbass would be held only after any Russian troops had left. Russia denies having troops there.
As things stand, Mr Zelenskiy’s party, Servant of the People, which holds a majority of 251 seats in the Ukrainian Parliament, is still short of the 300 votes needed to change the constitution and give autonomy to Donbass.
“We heard that the Parliament must vote for some special status of those territories,” said Inna Sovsun, an MP for the opposition Golos (Voice) party.
"We will do our best so that the Parliament does not support any special status.
“The only formula that we are ready to accept is the formula that was written in our Constitution, the formula for which thousands of people died. This is the formula of a united sovereign Ukraine.”
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The advice provided in our columns does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only. Readers are encouraged to seek independent legal advice.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
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Specs
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Torque: 1075Nm
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
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On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Roll of honour 2019-2020
Dubai Rugby Sevens
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Runners up: Bahrain
West Asia Premiership
Winners: Bahrain
Runners up: UAE Premiership
UAE Premiership
Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes
UAE Division One
Winners: Abu Dhabi Saracens
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes II
UAE Division Two
Winners: Barrelhouse
Runners up: RAK Rugby
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
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BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Arcade Fire
(Columbia Records)
Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
