The Presidents of Russia and Turkey will hold talks in Russia for the third time this year. Russia-Turkey Cross-Cultural Year will open in April under the chairmanship of Putin and Erdogan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are planning to hold a meeting on April 8 in Moscow. The heads of the two states will hold a meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council, Press Secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, March 23.

The …

On 15 March, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov received a letter from Group of Seven (G7) ambassadors, in which they warned him of the activity of “extremist movements” in Ukraine.

Radio Liberty obtained a copy of two letters drafted by a group of G7 ambassadors in support of reforms in Ukraine. The group comprises of envoys from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

In the letter addressed to Avakov, French Ambassador Isabelle Dumont wrote on behalf of her fellow …

A NATO ship entered the Odessa Commercial Sea Port on the morning of March 23. The French minesweeper M653 Capricorne moored at the berth number 16 of the marine station of the port of Odessa, reports Dumskaya news website.

The ship passed the Bosphorus  and entered the Black Sea on March 21. This is the second time the NATO ship of a non-Black Sea country visits Odessa in 2019. The first vessel that arrived in Odessa on February 25 was the United States missile destroyer DDG75 Donald Cook. …

The airstrikes of Russian fighters in areas of Idlib have killed ten and wounded 28 civilians, reported Turkey's TRT news agency with reference to Syrian Civil Defense Forces (the White Helmets).

According to observers, “five Russian fighter jets that took off from the Khmeimin Air Base in the Latakia Governorate, struck villages and districts of Iblib”.

It is noted that residential areas in the de-escalation zone, in particular, Khan Shaykhun and the towns of Al-Fu’ah and Kefriya in the …

In a large number of Russian cities, citizens have taken to the streets to protest against the pension reform and “prohibitive laws”. The rallies were held on 23 March as part of an all-Russian protest to protect citizens’ socio-economic rights that was organized by the Communist Party.

One of the first cities to see a series of protests was Vladivostok. Locals rallied against the pension reform, the “garbage issue”, and more localized problems such as coal dust pollution, deforestation, and …

Ukraine will have to pay $15.7 billion in foreign debt, the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) reported. According to the NBU, Ukraine will pay $5.609 billion in the first quarter. In the second and third quarters, the amount of payments will fall to $3.608 billion and $3.919 billion, respectively. In the third quarter of 2019, Ukraine will have to pay $ 2.519 billion.

According to the NBU, the largest payment will be for non-banking sectors of economy and will reach $2.922 …

The front-runner in the election race in Ukraine, showman and politician, Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking about his views on the Crimea and Donbas issue in an interview with the ICTV channel, announced that he considers a change of power in Moscow to be the only condition for returning the Crimea to Kyiv's control.

“Crimea will return only when power changes in Russia. There is no other choice, “said Zelensky.

Speaking about the status of Donbas, Zelensky stressed that he does not believe in the …

The European Union is ready to finance the improvement of the transport connection between Mariupol and the rest of Ukraine, reported the press service of the the Ministry of Infrastructure after the meeting between Ukraine's infrastructure minister Volodymyr Omelyan and EU Ambassador Hugues Mingarelli.

Mingarelli said that Brussels is ready to support the projects for the improvement of the Zaporizhia-Mariupol railway link and the construction of the Mariupol-Mykolaiv freeway.

Kyiv and the …