Russia has applied for participation in the 2017 Eurovision International Song Contest, reported the Eurovision website.

The contest will take place in Kyiv, and a record number of singers are scheduled to participate. The report says that 43 participants have confirmed their participation, including Russia. 

“We are happy that 43 national artists applied for participation in the Eurovision 2017 contest, which has become a record,” the organizers of the contest noted.

Earlier, Ukraine called …

Authorities of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic announced innovations in the seperatist republic’s passport policy. According to a new document adopted on 28 October 2016 by the Council of Ministers of the LPR, Ukrainian passports of residents of the occupied territory of the Luhansk region will be recognized as legal, as reported by separatists’ media.

"The section ‘General provisions’ was supplemented by a paragraph that states that a passport document issued before this regulation, …

The issue of deploying a special armed mission to the Donbas may be passed on to the UN from the OSCE due to a lack of financial resources. 112.ua reported that this was stated by the Deputy Minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons of Ukraine, George Tuka.

He believes that the budget proposals of the Western partners for arming of the observational OSCE mission, and for increasing its staff to between 500 and 1,000 people, are not enough.

“It is …