In a meeting with his Lebanese colleague Ya’qub as-Sarraf, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said that the civil war in Syria has ended, Interfax reports.

“In Syria, having separated the ones from the others [opposition from terrorists], we have managed to create four de-escalation zones, and to effectively stop the civil war,” Shoygu noted.

He added that the Russian military “is satisfied to watch Lebanon’s successes in the north-east of the country” in the fight against the terrorist …

Yuriy Lutsenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, signed a letter to the prime minister requesting the dismissal of Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk. He spoke about this on Wednesday, August 23, during a work visit to the Dnipropetrovsk province.

During the visit with the prosecutors of the Dnipropetrovsk province, Lutsenko expressed dissatisfaction with Danylyuk’s work, accusing him, amongst other things, of not increasing the prosecutors’ salaries.

“The thing is that since September, …

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) received information from an unknown source regarding a planned attempt to assassinate President Petro Poroshenko, Ukrinform reported with reference to a source in SBU management.

The information regarding the possible attempt on the president’s life arrived, while Poroshenko was on a work visit in the Kharkiv province.

“Yesterday, on August 22, at roughly 12:00, the SBU received an anonymous phone call. The call was not from a stationary telephone, it …

Belarus invited representatives of seven countries and six international organizations to the Belarusian-Russian military exercise Zapad 2017 in the fall of 2017, as reported by the Ministry of Defense of Belarus on its website.

The report emphasizes that "monitoring of the exercise has been organized in strict accordance with national legislation and international treaties."

"Building on the practice of good-neighborliness and reciprocity, within the framework of the OSCE Vienna Document …

The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro has planned a trip to Russia. "I am going to visit Russia soon. We will strengthen bilateral relations," Maduro said at a press conference in Caracas, RIA Novosti reports.

According to the Venezuelan leader, his country intends to strengthen ties with Russia in the military-technical sphere.

Earlier, Maduro said that the United States violated international law. "The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump threatens us with military …

The Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevičius, during a meeting with the US Special Envoy on Ukraine, Kurt Volker, congratulated him on his appointment to this post and welcomed the growing attention and support that the US is giving to the region and Ukraine, as reported on the Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Ministry website.

It is noted that Volker took part in the regional leadership conference at Vilnius University that was organized by the Lithuanian President, Valdus Adamkus. …

The Crimean plant Titan belonging to Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash receives a portion of the electricity it uses from the Kherson region, stated the representative of the President of Ukraine for Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev, Krym.Realii reports.

"Why is this happening? There are several explanations. Some say that if we do not supply a certain amount of electricity there, then a technogenic disaster could occur," said Dzhemilev.

He noted that a technogenic disaster is …

Moldova asked the United Nations to include in the General Assembly’s 72nd session agenda the issue of the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria. A letter from the Permanent Representative of Moldova to the UN, Victor Moraru was made public on Tuesday, August 22.

Chișinău is convinced that the presence of Russian troops "is a threat to maintaining international peace and security," the letter says. Moraru asked the UN to support Moldova's efforts aimed at completing the …