• Japan: Russia’s deployment of weapons in the Kuril Islands is unacceptable

    After the “2+2” meeting of the heads of diplomatic and defense departments of Russia and Japan, Japanese Foreign Minister Tarō Kōno said, that Tokyo considers the strengthening of Russia's military presence in the Southern Kuriles unacceptable, reports RIA Novosti.

    "Speaking of missile launches and the deployment and other reinforcement of Russia's military presence on the Northern Islands (the Islands of the southern part of the Kuril Chain), we told Russia that this is unacceptable from the …

  • Polish Foreign Ministry summons Russian ambassador over Smolensk catastrophe billboards

    The Polish Foreign Ministry has summoned Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergey Andreev in connection with information boards placed at the site of the Tu-154 plane crash near Smolensk that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

    Poland expressed its dissatisfaction with the fact that the boards contain information from the Interstate Aviation Committee’s (IAC) report, which concluded that the aircraft’s crew was responsible for the catastrophe. Warsaw does not agree with the IAC’s findings, and …

  • Russian Space Agency: Pentagon wants space sector relations to deteriorate

    The Pentagon’s decision to limit the use of Russian carrier rockets will lead to a deterioration in US-Russian relations in the space sector, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement on its official website.

    “This decision by the Pentagon could have a negative impact on the international cooperation to organize regular launches of spacecraft into targeted orbits on a commercial basis,” the statement reads.

    Roscosmos believes that, through this decision, the Pentagon is trying to …

  • Zelensky discussed ways to ‘revive’ the Minsk process with the Foreign Ministers of France and Germany

    President Volodymyr Zelensky met with French and German Foreign Ministers Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas. The interlocutors discussed the reforms and the ways how to settle the conflict in the Donbas, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

    After the meeting in Kyiv, President Zelensky said to reporters that "they support our priorities, and the priorities of my team are economical and anti-corruption issues. Also, the main priority of every Ukrainian is a ceasefire and the end of the war."

    The …

  • Zelensky: Ukraine is fighting two wars – one against Russia and one against corruption

    During a meeting with US Senator Robert Portman, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is fighting two wars, one against Russia, the other against corruption.

    Zelensky and Portman met to discuss the political situation in Ukraine, especially the snap parliamentary election, the president’s press service reported.

    The newly elected president explained that his decision to dissolve parliament was in line with a public survey. He observed that holding elections in July will …

  • Russian Special Forces ambushed in Syria

    Russian Special Forces were ambushed by Syrian rebels near the village of Khirbet al-Arus in the northwest of the Syrian Hama province, reported the Conflict Intelligence Team on Telegram.

    According to the news agency Nors for Studies, a group of up to 23 Russian soldiers was ambushed. Several commandos were injured. However, on their official page, the militants reported that the Russians suffered casualties.

    Nors for Studies also published photographs of items belonging to the Russian …

  • Turkish Ambassador to US: F-35s to be stationed outside S-400 cover zone

    The American 5th generation F-35 fighter jets will be stationed in Turkey outside the zone covered by the Russian S-400 aerial defense systems, said Turkish Ambassador to the US Serdar Kiliç.

    “The S-400s and the F-35s will be stationed in two specific regions of Turkey, and the F-35s will not be in the zone covered by the S-400s,” he said at the National Press Club in Washington.

    The Turkish diplomat drew attention to the fact that Israeli F-35s fly over Syria, where there are also Russian S-4 …

  • Lithuanian President-elect Nauseda considers Russia an ‘aggressor country’

    In an interview with BBC Lithuanian President-elect Gitanas Nausėda said that he believes Russia is an "aggressor country" because of the "annexation" of Crimea and their actions in Eastern Ukraine.

    "This is unacceptable. My policy toward Russia is not going to change. It is hardly possible to maintain warm relations with the country, which, unfortunately, is now an aggressor towards Ukraine," said the elected President Nausėda.

    However, he does not believe that these two peoples should …

  • Kyiv: Russia has extracted 9 billion cubic meters of gas from Ukrainian deposits in Crimea

    General Director of the Ukrainain gas company Chornomornaftogaz Svetlana Nezhnova said that Russia had extracted more than 9 billion cubic meters of gas from Ukrainian deposits in the annexed Crimea, reports Krym.Realii.

    According to Nezhnova, now Ukrainian drilling rigs, which Russia had appropriated after the annexation of the Peninsula, are in deplorable condition.

    "To date, Russia has illegally extracted 9.2 billion cubic meters of gas from all the deposits which belong to Ukraine. When I …

  • Russian oligarch Deripaska complains of billions lost due to US sanctions

    The Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has lost billions as a result of US sanctions on himself and the companies he controls. The damage from these sanctions is in excess of $15 billion, Deripaska said in a statement.

    These losses have been suffered by “investors, suppliers and clients of En+, Rusal and the GAZ Group” according the statement published on Deripaska’s website. The sanctions have “ruined a person’s life and business, and put hundreds of thousands of people at risk, including staff …