Contents tagged with Russia

  • U.S. reconnaissance plane circles over Russian Navy's flotilla in the Mediterranean

    A U.S. Navy reconnaissance P-8A Poseidon aircraft monitored Russia’s flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Syria, Interfax reported, citing websites that track the movement of military aircraft.

    The P-8A with tail number 158858 reportedly took off from the Sigonella airbase in Sicily and monitored the activities of the Russian flotilla, which is centered around Russia’s sole aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov.

    The reconnaissance aircraft circled around the flotilla at an …

  • US State Department: Sanctions against Russia will remain in force

    Deputy Speaker of the US State Department Mark Toner said that the sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia for its violation of the sovereignty of Ukraine will remain in effect until the return of the Crimea, Ukrinform reports.

    “Our attitude has been and will remain – within the present administration – unchanged. As for the sanctions regarding the Crimea – they will stay in effect until Russia takes its troops out of the Crimea and returns the peninsula to Ukraine,” Toner said. …

  • Ukrainian Defense Ministry: Russia constructed walls to prevent desertion from the Donbas

    In the occupied Luhansk region, near the Izvarino checkpoint, engineering barriers were installed and Russian Armed Forces were deployed along the Russian side of the border, as announced on Tuesday at a briefing by the press secretary of the Ministry of Defense on ATO issues, Colonel Olexandr Motuzyanyk, Ukrinform reports.

    "Near the Izvarino border crossing, in the occupied territory, engineering obstacles are being built on the Russian side of the border. Also, along this stretch of the …

  • Russian minister: Moscow is willing to lift sanctions if the EU does the same

    Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukayev stated that Russia is determined to lift the mutual sanctions with the European Union. However, the European partners themselves have not yet demonstrated good will regarding this issue.

    “The best proposal would be a mutual refusal from these restrictions. We would welcome it but unfortunately, our partners, including European partners, have not demonstrated the proper good will,” Ulyukayev said at the meeting with Italian entrepreneurs, …

  • Lavrov: Russia is interested in resolving the conflict near its border with Ukraine

    The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said that Moscow rejects the accusations that Russia seeks to maintain the conflict in Ukraine.

    "Russia is interested in resolving the conflict near its borders, more than anyone else, despite the fact that periodically you hear the assertions that we want to artificially drag out the conflict, keeping it in a frozen state forever. This is an attempt to shift the blame on others," the Minister said, speaking at the Potsdam meetings at the Alexander …

  • Media: EU expands sanctions against Crimean officials

    The European Union agreed on the introduction of new personal sanctions against Crimean officials, Reuters reports, indicating that this decision was based on the accession of the Crimea to Russia.

    According to the newspaper Delfi, the decision was made at the request of Lithuania and was formally approved at a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the Council of the European Union.

    It was noted that the sanctions will affect the six deputies of the State Duma who were …

  • Ukraine insists on round-the-clock work for OSCE Mission at checkpoints

    Ukraine has insisted that the OSCE Mission and the Red Cross work near the gate checkpoints for 24 hours a day.

    This was posted on Facebook by a member of the humanitarian subgroup at the Minsk negotiations, Iryna Herashchenko, after a meeting of the subgroup on Tuesday.

    “Generally speaking, Ukraine supports the idea that the ICRC [International Committe of the Red Cross] and the OSCE have permanent posts when working close to all the checkpoints. Also, they should not just go there for only 1 …

  • Russia and Armenia will create joint group of forces in Caucasus

    Russia and Armenia intend to create a joint group of forces. The corresponding document was published on Tuesday on the official Internet portal of the Russian governmemnt for legal information.

    “The parties will create a joint group of troops (forces) of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in order to ensure security of parties in the Caucasus region of collective security,” stated the draft agreement between the two countries. The …

  • Media: Russia is getting ready to launch airstrikes on Aleppo

    The Russian Navy group, headed by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and the battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy, is preparing to launch strikes on rebels in Aleppo. This was reported by Gazeta.ru citing a source in the Russian Ministry of Defense.

    According to Gazeta.ru, the strikes will be launched on the remote outskirts of the city and not on the residential areas. Gazeta.ru’s source stated that the Russian military intends to use Kalibr cruise missiles and the naval aircraft to carry out this …

  • US, German and Swedish aircraft conducted reconnaissance flights near Russian borders

    According to Russia's TASS news agency, on Monday, aircrafts from the air forces of the United States, German Naval Forces and Swedish Air Forces made a simultaneous approach to the maritime borders of the Kaliningrad region to perform operational reconnaissance tasks. According to the agency the information was initially reported by western websites monitoring the movement of military aviation.

    As was reported, at approximately 12:30 an aircraft from the US Air Forces was recorded near the …