• Verkhovna Rada adds the goal of joining NATO to Ukraine’s foreign policy

    On Thursday, May 8, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Bill Number 6470 that defines Ukraine’s accession to NATO as one of the bases of foreign policy. 276 people's deputies voted in favor of bill.

    In the old version of Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Basics of Domestic and Foreign Policy," the priority was defined as "to deepen cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in order to meet the criteria necessary to obtain membership in this organization."

    Now, the goal of …

  • US Embassy in Ukraine: explosion at the embassy compound was not an act of terror

    On the night of June 8 there was an explosion on the property of the US embassy. Police arrived promptly at the scene of the incident. Examination suggested that an unknown person threw an unidentified explosive device onto the diplomatic mission’s property. The perpetrator was caught on the embassy’s surveillance cameras. Representatives of the embassy’s security service showed Ukrainian law enforcement officials the video recording. The news outlet Obozrevatel reported with reference to its …

  • Ukrainian forces advance deeper into the Donbas as the situation in Eastern Ukraine escalates

    On June 7-8 there was fierce fighting for the Zholobok settlement in the Luhansk region. Both the Ukrainian side and the separatists reported dozens of killed and injured.

    As early as June 2, one of the battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade suddenly moved forward into the gray zone from the Krymskoye settlement in the south towards the separatists’ position along the Bakhmut route. The Ukrainian military managed to advance half a kilometer directly …

  • National Bank of Ukraine: Billions are circulating outside of the banking system in Ukraine

    The amount of cash outside of the banking system is about 300 billion hryvnia ($11.48 billion USD).

    UNIAN reports that the Acting Head of the National Bank (NBU), Yakov Smolii, announced this during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Financial Policy and Banking Activity.

    "At the current time, there is cash of about 300 billion UAH outside of the banking system," he said.

    At the same time, Smolii stressed that such a large amount of cash increases the burden on the National Bank, …

  • The second delivery of coal for Ukraine is being prepared in South Africa

    In the South African port of Richards Bay, a second delivery of 75,000 tons of anthracite began loading on a cargo vessel. This coal is intended to replenish the warehouses of the thermal power plants of DTEK holding that belongs to businessman Rinat Akhmetov. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine with reference to General Director of DTEK Energy Dmytro Sakharuk.

    "The loading of the vessel will take a little more than a week and its arrival in Ukraine is expected in mid-July," he said. …