In this report a model for the tectonic evolution of the Sarmatian Shield (Ukraine, Belarussia and part of Russia) is developed, in order to explain the location and orientation of the Devonian Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets palaeorift, which is transsecting the Sarmatian Shield and to derive a genetic model for the rift-hosted mercury-antimony deposits. It is shown that the tectonic framework of the shield was mainly built up during the Early Proterozoic. Plate marginal processes dominated during this period, and a number of WNW-ESE striking transfer zones were active on the shield. The largest of these transfer zones, which is probably located in the substratum of the Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets palaeorift, experienced a dextral strike slip displacement of about 150 km during the beginning of the Early Proterozoic, causing the present asymmetric distribution of the Archean terrains of the shield. During the Karelian (2.5 to 2.1 Ga) a series of elongated, N-S to NW-SE trending depressions were formed on the shield, which host large banded iron-formations (BIFs). One of them, the Krivoy Rog-Kremenchug basin, is described in detail. The iron basins were generated in a tensional regime. The WNW-ESE transfers probably caused a segmentation of the basins in a series of subbasins, as can be seen in a longitudinal cross-section of the Krivoy Rog-Kremenchug basin. During the Sveconfennian Orogeny (2.0 to 1.8 Ga), the basins were closed and overthrusted. Analysis of aeromagnetic data shows that the Krivoy Rog-Kremenchug basin was sinistrally offset along the WNW-ESE faults at at least three locations by several kilometers during this orogenic period. During the Middle Riphean period (approximately 1.4 to 1.0 Ga) the East European Platform was characterized by a number of very large scale rift zones. Controversy exists to which extent the Sarmatian Shield was affected by these rifting processes. During the Devonian, the Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets rift was formed. The rift follows the trend of the Precambrian WNW-ESE transfer zones and is possibly located on top of the largest one. These transfer zones were relatively weak zones, and were therefore favourable for reactivation in a tensional regime. Three mechanisms causing the formation of the rift are proposed: subduction of a fragment of the Proto-Tethys south of the shield, causing back-arc tension, sinistral strike slip along the Tornquist-Teisseyre lineament, causing a component of (sinistral) transtension on the faults in the substratum of the rift, together with tension caused by a possible mantle diapir in the eastern part of the Donets segment of the rift. The Precambrian N-S trending structures were reactivated as transfers to the rift. One of the largest of these is the Kharkov-Donets lineament, which is the structural boundary between the Dniepr and the Donets segments of the rift. Seismic sections indicate that the rift is asymmetric, and is controlled by gently (20 to 30 degrees) dipping, throughgoing shearzones. The asymmetry seems to change along the strike of the rift, across the Kharkov-Donets lineament. In the Carboniferous the active rifting ceased and the rift underwent a more gentle subsidence (post-rift sag phase). During the Permian the rift was inverted, due to compression caused by the approaching Variscan fold- and thrust belt beneath the present Black Sea (the Scythian foldbelt), together with a component of transpression caused by dextral strike slip movements along the Tornquist-Teisseyre lineament. The compression was accompanied by dextral movements along the marginal faults of the rift and faults in the rift substratum. This caused the formation of en-echelon domes in the rift domain. Due to the dextral transpression, tensional regimes persisted locally in NNE-SSW trending transfers. A model is developed in which mercury-antimony bearing, mantle derived, material moved up through these 'relaxed' transfers, and precipitated during postÂPennian remobilization in the en-echelon domes.