• Russia introduces a schedule of power outages in Crimea

    Russia introduced temporary power outage schedule for the southern coast of Crimea as a result of the maximum load on the Simferopol – Yalta power lines being exceeded, as stated by the Ministry of Energy of Russia, according to Interfax.

    "On August 6th, at 10:33 Moscow time, an order was issued to introduce timetables for the temporary shutdown of consumption in the amount of 8 MW (...) in the power sector for the south coast of Crimea. The reason for this is the exceeding of the permissible …

  • Human rights advocates demand sanctions to be imposed on those responsible for prosecution of Ukrainian activist Balukh

    The Crimean Human Rights Group considers the case against Vododymyr Balukh to be fabricated, and has demanded that FSB officers and all those involved in the case to be included in sanctions lists.

    A representative of the organization, Volodymyr Chekrygin, stated this during an interview with Radio Liberty.

    "And now, I would like to note that in the case of Volodymyr Balukh, we insist that all persons involved in the case are included in the sanctions lists; all, not only the FSB and court …

  • Germany’s Special Representative for Cooperation with Russia calls on Ukraine to focus on Donbas conflict

    Germany's Coordinator of German-Russian Intersocietal Cooperation, Gernot Erler, said that Ukraine should focus on resolving the conflict in the Donbas, and only then return to the issue of Crimea’s de-occupation, reports Deutschlandfunk.de. According to the German special envoy, such an approach coincides with the wishes of the European community. It considers the ending of the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine a matter of priority. The matter of the de-occupation of the Crimea is on the …

  • US special representative for Ukraine to visit Russia soon

    US special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker will soon visit Russia and meet with Vladislav Surkov, advisor to the Russian president, as stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the Philippine capital of Manila on Sunday.

    “Rex Tillerson confirmed that such contact with our representative Vladislav Surkov has been planned and will take place soon,” RIA Novosti cites Lavrov as saying.

    Lavrov mentioned that Volker …

  • Ukrainian foreign reserves reached $18 billion

    The National Bank reported that Ukraine's international reserve had reached $18 billion. This was stated by the Deputy Head of the NBU, Dmytro Sologub.

    According to Sologub, the favorable situation on the foreign exchange market allowed the National Bank to buy $1.4 billion, a net purchase of foreign currency, from the beginning of 2017.

    "At the moment, international reserves amount to about $18 billion," he said. He also noted that the U. S. dollar exchange rate is falling relative to world …