As Kyiv halts plans to sign an association agreement with the EU, strange events are happening here in Donetsk. Journalists here, namely those of online news site Novosti Donbassa, have found themselves to be leading characters of sorts in a true political thriller, complete with surveillance, chases, threats and manipulations. (Editor’s note: Oleksiy Matsuka is chief editor of Novosti Donbassa.)

Vitaliy Sizov, a

Novosti Donbassa journalist and head of the investigative journalism project Donetskaya Pravda, was the first to

notice the surveillance. A few weeks after the start of the Donteskaya Pravda

project he noticed that several unknown persons had taken a peculiar interest

in him.