Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has discussed the launch of a needs-assessment mission in connection with the reform of the Ukrainian Customs Service during a meeting with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection delegation, as reported by the governmental press service on Wednesday.

Eleven experts from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have arrived in Kyiv at the PM’s invitation to prepare for the reform of the Ukrainian Customs Service.

The needs-assessment mission will work …

Another meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on settling the security situation in the Donbas region has been concluded in Minsk as reported by the Press Secretary of the Ukrainian Representative Leonid Kuchma, Daria Olifer, on her Facebook page.

"The main issue for Ukraine is security. Attacks using weapons banned by the Minsk Agreements continues in the Donbas region. These attacks are also conducted in the areas designated for clearance. The full implementation of the safety conditions …

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has a long history of cooperation with U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. A new memorandum was released concerning crimes connected with international money-laundering and asset recovery.

The Director of NABU, Artem Sytnyk, and the Acting Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, Mathew Moon, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, reported the U.S. Embassy in Kiev.

According to the memorandum, the FBI and NABU will work together to …

Reuters reports that at a joint press conference with Slovakian President Andrej Kiska, Polish President Andrzej Duda maintained that NATO must keep its doors open to countries of strategic importance such as Ukraine.

"NATO must maintain an open door policy, especially with regard to the countries that are strategic in terms of their nature and location," he said. "The Alliance also must always be ready to help countries that have been attacked in violation of international law.”

The next …

Opera singer Vasyl Slipak was killed in the Donbas region, as reported by a representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe, Dmitry Kuleba, on Twitter.

"Vasyl Slipak, the Ukrainian opera singer, who left the French Opera in order to protect Ukraine, was killed in eastern Ukraine," he wrote. Journalist Yuri Butusov reported on his Facebook page that Slipak died in the Donetsk district.

"He chose the pseudonym ‘Myth.’ It was shortened from Mephistopheles from the opera Faust. He was not a …

The scale of NATO’s military presence and activity near Russia’s borders has caused Moscow to retaliate. This was said by the Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoygu, at a board meeting of the military department on the 29th of June, Radio Svoboda reported.

“These actions by the West are undermining the strategic stability in Europe and are forcing us to take retaliatory measures, primarily in a western strategic direction,” Shoygu stated.

He said that actions for strategic deterrence are …

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin extended the food embargo on Western products.

“To extend the action of separate special economic measures from the 6th of August to the 31st of December 2017, envisaged by the Presidential Decree of 6th of August 2014 № 560 ‘On the use of special economic measures in order to ensure security of the Russian Federation’ and extended by the Presidential Decree № 320 of June 24th” a statement issued by the Kremlin read.

Russia imposed an embargo on …

The Liguria Regional Council in northern Italy has voted in favor of a resolution which calls on the government and parliament to review the EU’s policy towards Russia and Crimea. This was reported by Genova24.

The Regional Secretary of the Northern League and the author of this initiative, Edoardo Rixi, said that all members that were present at the meeting voted in favor of the resolution. These included representatives of the center-right majority.

“The unanimous approval for our …