Russia planned to engage forces, which are deployed on the territory of the Donbas, in the Zapad-2017 exercises, stated the spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Andriy Lysenko, Radio Liberty reports.

"We can see now that they tried to engage Russian troops in the Donbas in these exercises. We received intelligence data that showed most of the armor units that should have arrived at the staging areas to perform parallel tasks within the framework of Zapad-2017 exercises simply …

Ukraine’s draft budget for 2018, prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers provides for the sale of the right of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) to broadcast matches of the World Cup that will be held in Russia.

According to the document, the government expects to earn UAH 200 million for the license, which is little more than $7.6 million at the current exchange rate.

"This is to determine that in 2018 the funds in the amount of UAH 200 million from the sale of …

The joint "Zapad-2017" large-scale military exercises by Russia and Belarus, which are being held from September 14 to September 20, are similar to preparations for a big war, stated the Chairman of the Military Committee of NATO, General Petr Pavel, Delfi news agency reports.

"In general, what we see is serious preparation for a big war," he said.

The NATO general added that "if we look at the exercises in the way that Russia represents them, there would be no disturbances. But if we look at …