Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded to the statement by the Syrian Defense Ministry that they intend to bring down Turkish Air Force aircraft if they invade the country’s airspace, reaffirming Damascus' position.

Lavrov said that Syria is a sovereign state, a member of the United Nations and has full sovereignty over its territory and over its airspace.

“Any attempt to repeatedly violate Syrian airspace by Turkish military aircraft will be rebuffed, and they will be shot down by …

The Ukrainian leadership has no clear plan or strategy on what to do with the occupied territories, said the coordinator of the "Spravedlyvist" movement, the diplomat Markiyan Lubkivskiy on ZIK TV.

He stressed that the public should be given a clear answer on how the Donbas will be returned and in which way: political, economic, military, and humanitarian or whichever combination of all of these factors.

"A process of conflict settlement in the Donbass should be carried out more dynamically …

During a press conference in Helsinki, the Presidents of Finland and Estonia, Sauli Niinistö and Kersti Kaljulaid, stated they have not excluded imposing additional sanctions against Russia due to its actions in Syria, reported Postimees news agency. According to the President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, who is in Finland on a State visit, what is happening in Syria is the largest humanitarian disaster of our time.

Kaljulaid noted that, according to the international community, if sanctions …

On Thursday, October 20, 2016, the Upper House of the Czech Parliament adopted a resolution on the situation in Ukraine, which expressed concern about the intensification of attacks in Donbass. The Parliament stressed the need to end support for separatists by the Russian Federation as well as the restoration of the control over the border by Ukrainian.

45 of 63 senators present voted for the resolution, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Herashchenko, wrote on her Facebook …

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have a plan to triple their military spending between 2014 and 2018. An estimated amount of $670 million will be spent on arms and other military equipment.

By 2020, it is estimated that the combined defense budget of the three Baltic republics will be $2.1 billion. This is more than double the amount of when the countries first became part of NATO in 2004. It is also the fastest growth in any region. This was reported by Reuters referring to prominent research …

A group of Chinese entrepreneurs visited the Crimea, as reported by Crimean Tatar TV Channel, ATR. According to the source, the purpose of their visit is to find out what projects they can implement on the peninsula and learn how Crimeans live.

“There are no limits to trade. We are confident that the more the Crimea and China can help each other the better. Tourism is a very promising area of cooperation,” Krym Realii reported, quoting Chinese entrepreneurs.

ATR added that the Chinese guests …

The Russian military conducted a training exercise, making simulated strikes from an Iskander-M operational and tactical missile system at the testing site of the Western Military District in the Leningrad region, the Russian Ministry of Defense’s website reports.

The training focused on the preparedness of the missiles complexes for fire, and conducting individual and group e-launches of missiles aimed at targets simulating enemy command posts and radars, which were located at a distance of …

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Polish Sejm have adopted a joint declaration of memory and solidarity. According to information on the parliament’s website, 243 deputies voted in favor, including one representative from the “opposition bloc.” The only deputy who voted against it was a member of the “Radical Party.”

Introducing the document, the chairman of the parliament, Andriy Parubiy, stated that the Polish Sejm will vote for the same document at the same time as the Ukrainian …