• Russian Alfa-Bank refuses to leave Ukraine

    According to the co-owner of one of the biggest private banks, Petr Aven, Russian Alfa-Bank is not going to sell their business in Ukraine. “We have not made a decision [to sell our Ukrainian business] yet. We’ve decided to work there. We are not a state bank,” he said during a television interview on channel Russia 24, RIA Novosti reports.

    Even so, Aven professes that it is difficult for Alfa-Bank to work in Ukraine. "We have had 80 attacks on different bank branches in different cities in …

  • Poroshenko signed into law a 75% quota on the use of the Ukrainian language on television

    President Petro Poroshenko reported on Twitter that he just signed into law a 75% quota on the use of the Ukrainian language on television.

    "I would like to thank the media representatives for their proposals on the introduction of quotas and the return of the Ukrainian language to Ukrainian media. I signed the relevant law," the President wrote.

    "Here the laurels belong to you. This is your initiative and your proposal, which I simply supported. People's deputies did their job perfectly and …

  • Lavrov promises a 'mirror response' if Ukraine introduces visa regime with Russia

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised a "mirror response" if Ukraine introduces a visa regime with Russia, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

    "When a torrent of mud pours on us; when our actors, and artists are declared persona non grata; when they take business away from Russian investors in the Ukrainian economy; when they start to talk seriously about the introduction of a visa regime; well, do you think we should just swallow all this and not respond? " Lavrov told …

  • Ukraine voices protest over the visit by Russian officials to the annexed Crimea

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has voiced protest regarding a visit to the annexed Crimea by Russian officials, which was headed by Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, as reported on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's website.

    "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest in connection with another illegal trip to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a sovereign territory of Ukraine …

  • Herashchenko: Ukraine must make an effort to become a NATO member

    First Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Herashchenko hopes that Ukraine will become the 30th member of NATO. She expressed her views on Facebook while commenting on Montenegro entering the alliance.

    Herashchenko believes that in 2008, Ukraine lost its chance to get the Action Plan on NATO membership because Russia’s coercion prevented any unity in this issue among political elite.

    “We must wash away this guilt and do everything possible to make Ukraine a NATO member. We must apply …