The US Department of Defense has notified the Congress that it intends to stop the purchase of Russian MI-17 helicopters for its mission in Afghanistan, stating that it plans to purchase helicopters manufactured in the US.

The decision was made public by Senator Chris Murphy.

“I will never understand why the US government sends over the money of the American taxpayers to Russia paying for the purchase of the helicopters for Afghanistan while Russia supports Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria …

Ukrainian Ambassador to the US, Valeriy Chaly, stated that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko intends to visit Washington next year shortly after the inauguration of the new US president, Donald Trump, Krym.Realii reported.

Chaly noted that they will try to arrange it so Poroshenko will travel to Washington as early as February, and if a meeting can be arranged, it “will be a big victory for Ukraine.”

According to the ambassador, arranging such a meeting is ambitious, but not unrealistic. …

Over the last three days, air strikes by the Syrian and Russian air forces on the Syrian opposition in Aleppo have taken 106 civilian lives. This was reported by the Turkish Anadolu news agency citing representatives of the Syrian Civil Defense.

According to the sources of the agency, 200 civilians were injured as a result of these air strikes.

“The Russian and Syrian air force have been carrying air raids targeting the eastern parts of Aleppo,” Najib al-Ansari, an Aleppo-based civil defense …

Switzerland has expanded its list of people who will not be able to bypass the US and EU sanctions imposed because of aggression by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, according to the Swiss state secretariat for economic affairs.

The names of six people who were recently elected as deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the Crimea and Sevastopol were added to the list.

“On November 17, 2016, the Federal Department of Economics, Education and Research (EAER) amended the list …

Belarus is ready to take control over the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Donbas and organize local elections on the territories not controlled by Ukraine, as stated by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, during a conversation with the media and bloggers from Russia, Tut.by reports.

"I spoke with Putin and told him that whatever the cost, we need to come up with something to begin the resolution process ... There will be no winners in this war. The longer the conflict lasts, the …

The number of bombings and shootings in the Donbas is now the highest since the beginning of the year, according to the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the OSCE.

“Last week the amount of ceasefire violations documented by the OSCE-SMM was 160% greater than what had been documented before. It is the largest number of attacks since the beginning of the year,” said the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE-SMM to Ukraine, Alexander Hug, at a briefing, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

He also …

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is frustrated with the progress of the meetings with the United States about Syria in Geneva. According to him, there have been results, but everything is being hampered by the inability to distinguish the terrorists from the opposition. This was said by the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry on air with the Russian television station Russia 24, RIA Novosti reports.

“The meetings are producing results, but everything is held back by the very …

The Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (RTCL) decided on Wednesday, November 17th, to stop the rebroadcast of the Russian TV channel RTR Planeta for three months in response to the incitement to war, strife and ethnic hatred. This sanction was applied by RTCL after violations were recorded for the third time this year, Delfi reports. This decision will become effective as of Monday, November 21st, and will be enforced until the 21st of February.

The last violation was recorded by the …