The Chairwomen of the National Bank of Ukraine, Valeriya Hontaryeva, stated in an interview with Reuters that the former owners of PrivatBank could face criminal charges if auditors reveal that they intentionally brought the financial institution to bankruptcy.

According to her, the National Bank of Ukraine hired the international audit and consulting firm, Ernst & Young to conduct an audit of PrivatBank. Ernst & Young will verify the solvency of companies that received loans from the former …

The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman, stated that Ukraine has achieved full economic independence from Russia in the defense sector, the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers reported.

“The work on import substitution was successfully completed. We were traditionally attached to the Russian economy, due to the aircraft construction and defense sector. Today, we have reached full import substitution. In general, the majority of products are manufactured by Ukrainian enterprises. …

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro Srdjan Darmanović said in an interview with Reuters that the country was assured that the U.S. Senate would ratify the accession of Montenegro to NATO. He expects Montenegro to become a member of the alliance by the end of May 2017.

Darmanović noted that Montenegro has received assurance from the United States Senate that "this will happen 100%." According to him, 24 out of 28 NATO members have ratified Montenegro's accession to the alliance, though …

The Belarusian NPP (BAES) which is being constructed near the Lithuanian border is a geopolitical project of Russia directed against Lithuania, said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, as reported by Delfi media source.

“I consider this project, BAES, a Russian geopolitical project, malevolently directed against Lithuania. This is an opportunity to blackmail and put pressure on Lithuania, to impede its integration with the West,” Grybauskaite stated.

According to her, Lithuania needs to …

Ukrainian leadership intends to hold negotiations with western partners regarding a possible tightening of sanctions against Russia in connection with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s issuing of a decree to recognise the “documents” of the separatist republics, reported Oleksiy Makeyev, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

“The President clearly specified that such destructive acts of the Kremlin must be brought to discussion in the EU, with our main partners, not to ease the …

The Financial Times reported that, according to foreign diplomats, Russia asked Western countries to provide billions of dollars for the restoration of Syria. "They [Russia] came, created a mess, destroyed everything, and now they want us to pay for all of this," a European diplomat told the publication.

According to the newspaper’s sources, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said at a meeting of EU ambassadors last week that the restoration of Syria will be the main issue on the …

Russian authorities have launched a project aimed at refuting media reports they believe to be false.

A new page on the Russian foreign ministry's website has appeared named “Examples of publications circulating false information about Russia.”

Currently the Russian foreign ministry has listed five media sources, among them are NBC News, the Telegraph, the New York times, and Bloomberg. In addition, the much lesser known site the Santa Monica Observer was also listed.

The revelations made by …

The extradition of billionaire Dmytro Firtash to the United States of America, if it really happens, would be a good sign for Ukraine, as stated by the former United States Ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst, in his interview with the Voice of America. He recalled the negative role played by Dmytro Firtash in Ukrainian-Russian relations.

"Firtash was a businessman and was associated with the corrupt deals between the Kremlin and the leaders in Ukraine – the corrupt gas deals,” John Herbst …