An active roll-call of staff has started in the Latvian National Armed Forces, as well as strengthened surveillance of the Latvian border and airspace. The reason for this is the high activity from the Russian army in the vicinity of the Baltic States, Delfi reports, referring to the Ministry of Defense of Latvia.

Over the past three days, planes from the Russian Air Force were identified near the border of Latvia: Su-24 tactical bombers, Su-27 multipurpose fighters, as well as an An-26 …

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Moscow has long shown a “strategic patience” towards Washington, but now there have been fundamental changes in relations between Russia and the U.S., RIA Novosti reported.

During an interview with Channel One, Lavrov was asked to comment on whether the U.S. had missed an opportunity to improve relations with Russia.

“This is, in my opinion, a fact,” Lavrov responded.

“We have, to be honest, for a long time we have shown the Americans ‘ …

Representatives from the Syrian opposition have called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Russia for the use of high-tech weapons, including the bunker-buster bombs that it uses against the civilian population in eastern Aleppo, a senior member of the opposition Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC), Bassma Kodmani, said.

“The EU should immediately introduce targeted sanctions against Russian officials and companies that are directly involved in the uncontrolled attacks …

The first armored vehicle equipped with autopilot has been tested and is ready to join the ranks of the Ukrainian military equipment, reported the press-service of the manufacturer, Ukrainian factory KrAz.

The first Ukrainian unmanned vehicle was created from the KrAZ Spartan armored vehicle and equipped with autopilot. The autopilot sensors include thermal imaging with automatic targeting systems, all-sky camera, front and rear radar for detecting obstacles, a rangefinder and a capacitive …

Ukraine is developing a Grom-2 (Thunder) system which will be “a close analogue” to the Russian Iskander. This was reported by the LIGA.News Ukrainian agency.

“This system,in fact, is a close analogue to the Russian Iskander. It is being created through the efforts of the state-owned enterprise Pivdenmash,” the news agency said.

The initially planned maximum firing range was 300 km, with the possibility of extending it to 500 km. However, currently th system is being designed with the ability …

The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Danylyuk said that 60-70% of the employees of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine will be laid off. He made this statement during his speech on Friday at the Kennan Institute in Washington. In his opinion, this is an example set by his agency for the whole country, which "needs the renewal of the entire apparatus of the state civil service."

"One example is the State Fiscal Service,'' Danylyuk said. ''There, I believe 60-70% of people will have to …

The Chairman of the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Norbert Röttgen, stated that Russia must be held accountable for military crimes in Syria and confirmed the possibility of sanctions against Moscow, as reported by Suddeutsche Zeitung.

"The absence of sanctions for horrible military crimes would be scandalous,” he said. Röttgen also stressed that the new sanctions will have an impact on Russian policy, although it might not happen immediately. He also criticized other European …

According to the Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE, Volodymyr Ariev, if Russia is allowed back into the Parliamentary Assembly without restrictions, the majority of the Ukrainian delegation will pursue a demarche, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.

"And we can be not the only one who will make a démarche. There are some quite well-known politicians, who told us they do not want to remain in the Assembly under such conditions," Ariev said.

He noted that the PACE leadership in general …