On Saturday, December 22, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed Bill 8519 "On the status of war veterans and guarantees of their social protection" which aims at strengthening the social status of participants in the war for the independence of Ukraine, as reported on the Verkhovna Rada’s website. 

The bill would provide the status of combatant to persons who took part in all forms of armed military activities for the independence of Ukraine in the 20th century, including the Ukrainian …

About 500,000 Ukrainian migrant workers could migrate from Poland to Germany, negatively affecting the country’s economy, the Polish Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers told the newspaper Die Welt on Sunday, December 23. About two million Ukrainians live in Poland; most of them are migrant workers. 

"According to a moderate scenario that we consider realistic, five hundred thousand Ukrainians will leave the Polish market. The worst-case scenario suggests that there will be twice as many,” …

Speaking on the Ukrainian Pryamyi TV Channel, Yuriy Hrymchak, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, suggested that Britain should send the British ship HMS Echo, which recently visited in Odessa, to the Kerch Strait together with the Ukrainian vessels. 

While speaking about the attack of Russians on the Ukrainian ships, Hrymchak said that the British ship should try to go through the Kerch Strait. 

“When people say that Russia will allow the British ship to pass, …

The Mariupol Maritime Border Guard detachment of the Ukrainian State Border Service was supplemented by a new UMS-1000 PC 12 M-2 small patrol boat, reported the Ukrainian military portal. During exercises, this boat showed a maximum speed of 45.5 knots, the statement reads. 

Moreover, tests showed that even when running at maximum engine power of three thousand revolutions per minute, it makes less noise than the basic UMS-1000 model. According to developers, the improvements were achieved  …

At the “Return to the faith of the fathers” forum in Lviv, Kyiv Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko) explained how President Petro Poroshenko played an important role in obtaining autocephaly (independence) for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. 

“Our enemy knows well that, if there is no firm spiritual foundation, if we build our country on the sand, then this house will not stand long. And we must build on a firm foundation. And that is why, at the very start, Moscow, when it was unable to break me, …

If needed, Israel is prepared to expand the scope of its military operations in Syria following the withdrawal of US troops, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as reported by the Jerusalem Post. 

According to Netanyahu, Israel’s policy is intended to weaken Iran’s influence on its neighbor, Syria. “The decision to remove the 2,000 American soldiers from Syria will not change our consistent policy: we will continue to oppose Iran’s attempts to establish military bases in Syria, and …

The new runway at the Belbek Airport in Crimea is ready to receive civilian and military planes, the Russian Defense Ministry reported, citing Viktor Sevostyanov, Commander of the 4th Army Air Force and Anti-Air Defense. 

“The reconstruction of this airport has been effectively completed. Today we made the first technical route with two planes, and looked at the condition of the runway. There is still work to do, and the work is underway. But initially the conclusion is made that the airport …

On December 22, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the violation of human rights in the Crimea annexed by Russia. In particular, the General Assembly condemned the "illegal establishment of laws, jurisdiction and administration" in the region. The document submitted by Ukraine was backed by 67 countries, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, Volodymyr Yelchenko wrote on his Twitter page. 27 states, including Russia, Belarus, China, India, Serbia, Syria, the Republic of …