Several units of 54th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have moved forward in the direction of the town of Stakhanov and took over positions which were previously held by separatists. This was reported by the journalists of the Ukrainian TSN channel who visited the newly held Ukrainian positions. According to the Ukrainian soldiers, the positions were captured without any losses and almost without shooting.

All the paths to the separatist bunker are covered with mines and booby traps. The …

According to Russia's Izvestia newspaper, the Estonian Ministry of Defense announced plans to modernize Europe's largest cyber training ground which was established in 2011 to train personnel in combating cyber threats. The Defense Ministry of the Republic explained to Izvestia that the facility is being upgraded in the interests of NATO, of which the country has been a member since 2004. In turn, NATO indicated that the upgrade concerns only the expansion of cyber defense capabilities.

The …

The Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, was re-elected as Chairman of the United Russia party, as reported on the party’s Twitter account. The voting took place on January 22 at the party conference. Medvedev was nominated without opposition. The Prime Minister has been the Chairman of United Russia since May 2012.Speaking before voting, Medvedev stated that opposition parties could use regional elections scheduled for the 10th of September 2017 in order to effectively begin a …

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, in an interview with 1 + 1 TV channel, said that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (GPU) plans to conduct all the necessary final interviews and examinations in February. Once the pre-trial investigation in the case of the former Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, is complete, the case will go to trial.

"We do not plan to extend the terms of the pre-trial investigation, and that is why we will conduct all the final necessary …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko criticized the opinion of some politicians who are calling on him to abandon the Donbas, as he stated at an event commemorating Unity Day in the Taras Shevchenko National Museum.

"It is regrettable to discuss this on Unity Day, but there are political forces which are in a subtle way, proposing that we abandon the Donbas... I want to ask these politicians a question: Gentlemen, did you unite these territories to discard them so easily," the President asked. …

The Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said that Russia should give up the illusion about the lifting of the sanctions, UNIAN reported.

"It's time to part with the illusion that the anti-Russian sanctions that were imposed on our country will be lifted in the near future. It's obvious that everything that has happened will last for a long time. We cannot put our hopes in the results of elections in foreign countries to affect this issue," Medvedev said during his speech at the congress …

The Russian energy giant, Gazprom, will pay the costs of the construction of the trans-Baltic gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, after Austrian oil company, OMV, and other European partners abandoned their plans, as reported by Der Standard.

"Gazprom lost hope for the participation of European partners in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, at least for the near future," the newspaper reports. Gazprom planned to implement the Nord Stream 2 project together with European oil companies, Engie, OMV, …

The Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Viktor Ozerov, declared that Russia is not conducting negotiations with Libya on the establishment of military bases in its territory. This statement was made by Ozerov in response to reports by Western media outlets that Russia is planning to build two military bases in Libya. "There are no negotiations of that sort," RIA Novosti quoted Ozerov as saying.

Earlier, the Swiss newspaper, Neu Zürcher Zeitung, reported that …