• Soldier arrested in Ukraine for joining Russian Armed Forces during the annexation of Crimea

    A former serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who joined the Russian army after the annexation of the Crimea annexation was arrested in the Kirovohrad region, reported the press service of the Military Procurator's Office of the Central Region of Ukraine.

    According to the report, the detainee has been wanted since 2014. He used to be a senior soldier of a Ukrainian military unit in the Crimea. In early March 2014, after the Russian annexation of the peninsula, the soldier did not arrive …

  • Media: NATO forces deployed to the North of Kosovo

    NATO is concerned about media reports that a Kosovar military action is being prepared in the North of the Republic in order to gain military control over territory populated mainly by Serbians.

    According to the newspaper Večernje Novosti, due to the risk of the situation spiraling out of control, units from the NATO International mission in Kosovo and Kosovo Forces (KFOR) were deployed to the North of Kosovo in Mađunsko village in the Vučitrn municipality, between Priština and Kosovska …

  • Kyiv considers banning Hungarian Commissioner for Transcarpathia from entering Ukraine

    The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is ready to deny the Hungarian ministerial commissioner for the development of Transcarpathia entry to Ukraine, as reported by the Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar.

    “Interference of the neighboring state in our internal affairs is an impermissible thing. We will take all possible steps involving diplomatic influence. But first, we are waiting for Hungary’s reaction, acceptable explanations and changes,” he explained. There have been no …

  • Poland claims its dependence on Russian gas decreasing

    The Polish oil and gas company PGNiG in its press release reported the increase in import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the country. According to the company, although the volume of gas purchased in Russia has also increased, its share in total imports amount has decreased.

    In January-July 2018, LNG shipments to Poland increased by 0.6 billion cubic meters (by 60%) compared to the same period last year. These LNG supplies to Poland came from Norway, Qatar and the United States. Over the …

  • Kremlin: Russian military presence in the Central African Republic is legitimate

    Russian their military units and specialists in the Central African Republic are there “on a perfectly legal basis at the request of the country’s president”, said the official representative for the Russian Foreign, Ministry Maria Zakharova, as quoted by Interfax news agency.

    “The Russians’ main task is to train local military personnel in handling weapons and equipment that was supplied to the Central African Republic by the Russian Ministry of Defense on a no-cost basis in late January- …

  • Russia denies Amnesty International access to imprisoned filmmaker Sentsov

    The international human rights organization Amnesty International did not receive permission to meet with Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov, who is currently in a Russian prison colony, as reported by the organization’s press office.

    On July 30 the Amnesty International office in Moscow received a letter from Deputy Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service Valery Balan which denied the human rights organization’s request to visit Sentsov in the penal colony in Labytnangi, but there …

  • Sweden accuses Russian Defense Minister of lying

    Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist accused his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu of spreading false information about Sweden's cooperation with NATO.

    The Swedish Defense Minister commented on the words of Sergey Shoygu, who, while speaking at the board meeting of the Russia Defense Ministry on July 24, expressed Moscow’s concerns about integration of Finland and Sweden into NATO structures.

    “What the Russian defense minister describes is a lie. NATO does not have unlimited access to …

  • Russian scientist accused of high treason and passing classified information to Belgium

    Viktor Kudryavtsev, a leading researcher with TsNIIMash (Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center), was arrested on a charge of high treason. He is suspected of passing secret data to a foreign scientific organization, the Belgian von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, as reported by RBC news agency with reference to Kudryavtsev’s lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov.

     “The case is not about a country but about an organization TsNIIMash collaborated with – the von Karman Institute for Fluid …

  • Putin signs laws on tax-free zones in Russia

    Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a package of laws on the establishment of special administrative regions (SAR) on the Russky Island in the Primorsky Territory and Kaliningrad Region. Relevant documents have been published on the website of the Russian Government's legal information.

    According to the adopted laws, only foreign legal entities will be allowed to apply for residency on the islands. The law provides for the procedure of re-domiciliation (change of the legal address from one …

  • Commander of the Ukrainian Forces in Donbas: All commanding military positions in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics are held by Russian officers

    All military positions in the DPR (Luhansk People's Republic) and the LPR (Luhansk People's Republic) in the uncontrolled territories of Ukraine are held by Russian officers, reported Lieutenant-General Serhiy Naiev, commander of the Ukrainian Joint Forces, in his interview to Tyzhden.ua news outlet.

    According to Naiev, the 1st and 2nd army corps, created by Russia in the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, are in fact subordinate to the Southern Military District of the Russian …