• Ukraine and Georgia signed an agreement on visa-free entry

    The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman and Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze signed an agreement to jointly abolish visa requirements and allow Ukrainian and Georgian citizens to cross the common border using ID cards, the head of the Ukrainian government wrote on Facebook.

    The Prime Minister noted that Ukrainian citizens can travel to Georgia using the ID cards that contain contactless electronic chips.

    On September 19, the government of Ukraine approved the agreement with …

  • DPR and LPR agree to remove customs borders

    RIA Novosti reports that the customs borders between the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics will soon be removed. Leonid Pasechnik, Acting Head of the LPR agreed to this with the Acting Head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin during the former’s working visit to Luhansk on October 3.

    “Denis Vladimirovich and I had a very detailed conversation, discussed every current issue: cooperation in the field of economics, politics, social and economic relations, the removal of customs borders …

  • Ukraine rules out possibility of dual citizenship with Russia

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin ruled out the possibility of dual citizenship with Russia.

    “All cases of obtaining Russian citizenship [by Ukrainian nationals] must be investigated accordingly by our security services,” stated the minister on Friday, October 5th, on TV Channel “UA: Kharkiv.”

    At the same time, a similar possibility of dual-citizenship can be discussed with other countries, believes Klimkin. According to him, the Ukrainians who have left Ukraine “have …

  • South Korea refuses to let Russian ships in because of US sanctions

    South Korea denied the ships of the Russian company Gudzon Shipping entry to the country’s ports, the Kommersant newspaper reports with reference to the company’s General Director, Gennady Kononenko.

    “I have documents showing that South Korean authorities denied the entry [to the ports],” Kononenko said.

    Kononenko added that the matter was related to the sanctions of the United States against companies suspected of oil trade with North Korea. The Director General of Gudzon Shipping stated …

  • Russia threatens Sentsov into quitting hunger strike

    Russian doctors threatened Oleg Sentsov that they would start to force-feed him and turn him into “a vegetable” if he does not end his hunger strike, stated Sentsov’s lawyer Victor Dinze in an interview with Meduza news outlet.

     “There was a plan of force-feeding. They gave him time to think. If he doesn’t end his hunger strike by tomorrow, they would start force-feeding him. They would take him to the intensive care department, tie him to bed and insert a tube for force-feeding,” said Dinze. …

  • Israel: Russian S-300 missile systems are not capable of defeating F-35 fighter jets

    The Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation, Tzachi Hanegbi said on the army radio that Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, which Moscow supplied to Damascus, will not be able to detect F-35 fighters, reports Haaretz.

    “You know, we have stealth-fighters, the best planes in the world. These batteries (S-300) are not even able to detect them,“ he said. As the newspaper notes, the first F-35 arrived in Israel in 2017.

    Russia decided to transfer the S-300 to Syria, after the Syrian …

  • Russia and India sign contract for supply of S-400 missile systems

    During his visit to India, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a contract with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for the supply of anti-aircraft missile system S-400, reports Interfax with reference to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

    According to Interfax, Russia will supply five squadrons of S-400 missiles systems. The amount of the transaction exceeds $5 billion.

    Earlier, the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov, in an …

  • Head of Russia’s Alfa Bank sees no alternative to U.S. dollar

    The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank Group, Petr Aven, does not see an alternative to the U.S. dollar in case Russia completely moves away from using the US dollar for international trade.  

    “Today, I see no alternative in the global trade. It would be very inefficient and entail huge costs. If banks are cut off from the U.S. dollar, what should they do? Kostin (the head of VTB Bank Andrey Kostin) suggested the use of the Russian rubles. This is a bad decision for everyone. I …

  • Turchynov announces large-scale exercises of Ukrainian military in the Azov Sea

    Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov stated that the Ukrainian military would carry out large-scale exercises in the Azov Sea. Turchynov noted that he is aware of that Russia intends to hold military exercises in the Azov Sea in the near future.

    "The Ukrainian military will also carry out serious exercises in the Azov Sea,” he said. He announced that the Ukrainian military is reinforcing the Coast Guard and building up the Air power in the Azov …

  • Kyiv avoids granting citizenship to foreign volunteers who fought for Ukraine

    Timur Tumgoev, a Russian citizen who sought asylum in Ukraine, was recently extradited by Ukraine to Russia, where he was wanted for fighting for the Islamic State in Syria. This has sparked a number of protests outside the Verkhovna Rada by nationalists and volunteer fighters. Their sole demand is that it be made easier for foreigners to obtain Ukrainian citizenship for fighting on Ukraine’s side in the Donbas. Timur Tumgoev was one such volunteer, who fought for four years in eastern Ukraine …