Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the press service of the Ukrainian leader said.

They discussed the situation in the Donbas and coordinated their positions regarding the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in preparations for the G20 summit in Hamburg and, in particular, the meeting between Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Angela Merkel assured Petro Poroshenko that …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is ready to leave the adoption of pension reform as the main condition for the allocation of the next tranche of the loan to Ukraine. This means that the adoption of land reform will be excluded from the requirements, reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing a source that is close to the negotiations.

According to the news agency, the IMF made this decision in view of the fact that there is no agreement between the Fund and the Ukrainian government with regard …

Russia is entering into two contracts with Egypt: one relating to ship systems for the Mistral helicopter carriers, and the other relating to the Ka-52K helicopters which the ships will be equipped with, Rosoboronexport Director General Alexander Mikheev told Ria Novosti in an interview.

According to him, the Mistral helicopter carriers which Egypt purchased from France need to be retrofitted with additional systems in order to make use of Russian helicopters.

“This will be a separate …

Iran has put the S-300 surface-to-air missile systems into operation, announced by General Amir Farzad Esmaili, commander of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, as reported by TASS.

The commander announced that the S-300 have been “placed on combat duty and are operational”, but did not specify in which region the systems were deployed. The general also spoke of the preparation and testing of the Iranian-developed Bavar 373 missile system towards the middle of March 2018. According to the him, …

The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Hrytsak, states that as part of the Ukraine-NATO trust fund for cyber security, Ukraine has received technical equipment and software worth a million euros.

According to him, in the near future this equipment will be installed "as directed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".

The Deputy Secretary General of NATO for new security challenges, Sorin Ducaru, said that training will be provided for Ukrainian experts, as well as technical support …

Since the beginning of the year, the State Border Guard Service has banned entry into Ukraine for 70 artists, including those who, bypassing Ukrainian legislation, visited the Russian-annexed Crimea, as indicated by a representative of the Ukrainian State Border Guard, Oleh Slobodyan, Krym.Realii reports. The Service specified that the list will be expanding.

"We hope that we will have more information about certain artists. I remind you that we have a stop list on the website to which we have …

The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague accepted the claim of the Ukrnafta Oil Company against the Russian Federation in cases of loss of the network of gas stations in the occupied Crimea, the court stated.

According to the court’s statement, a claim of another Ukrainian oil company Stabil is being considered in parallel with Ukrnafta’s claim. Both cases were initiated by the plaintiffs on June 3, 2015.

The companies based their claims on Russia’s violation of the terms of the …

The next tranche of the loan from the International Monetary Fund for Ukraine will be postponed because parliament will not have time to consider all necessary reforms before the summer holidays, stated Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to Groysman, the pension reform is on schedule and steps are being taken to create an anti-corruption court. However, a bill on land reform will not be submitted on time. This will delay the payment of the …