Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the situation in the Donbas during a recent telephone conversation. According to the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the telephone conversation was initiated by the Americans.

During the conversation, the representatives of the Russian Federation and the US touched upon the Minsk agreements.

"The importance of further engagement of the bilateral channel of consultations was confirmed, in …

The framework of negotiations conducted between US State Department Representative Kurt Volker and Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov was one of the most effective this year, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for the European Integration Olena Zerkal during a broadcast on Channel 5.

"There is no other framework, so everyone supports the Minsk format ... This year the Volker-Surkov format worked more intensively," she said on Channel 5 on Tuesday.

According to Zerkal, …

Interfax-Ukraine reports that the Austrian Supreme Court has postponed the extradition of the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash to the United States. The decision of the Austrian Court of Appeals was thus annulled, said Firtash’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, on Tuesday, December 26.

"The Supreme Court ordered a stay of Mr. Firtash's extradition pending its review," the lawyer said.

He also added that the case was suspended until the European Court of Justice delivers a preliminary decision on the …

Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance has completed the fourth stage of the additional capitalization of Kyiv-based PrivatBank by issuing domestic government bonds worth UAH 16 billion ($570 million USD) covered by the bank’s shares, the Ministry’s website reports.

The Ministry of Finance stated that the recapitalization of the bank to UAH 38.5 ($1.38 billion USD) was in accordance to the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision of June 23, 2017. The decision was based on proposals by Ukraine’s National Bank ( …

Moldovan president Igor Dodon stated that his country's economy would not develop without close cooperation with the Russian Federation.

"Moldova and Russia are closely connected with each other historically, economically and politically. The Moldovan economy cannot develop without all-round cooperation with the Russian Federation," Dodon wrote on his Facebook page after a meeting with the Head of Sberbank, Herman Gref in Moscow.

The President clarified that during the meeting he had …

The head of the Crimea's Russian-controlled administration, Sergey Aksyonov, said that there are ‘sleeper cells’ of international terrorist organizations on the peninsula, RIA Novosti reports.

According to him, there are several threatening factors that influence the situation in the field of countering terrorism.

"Firstly, it is the destructive activity of the activists of the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian national separatism, as well as the presence on the peninsula of "sleeper cells" of …

Five Eastern European countries are currently supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine, as stated by Pavlo Barbul, the director of the state-owned enterprise SpetsTechnoExport, which specializes in the trade in military technologies.

 “In particular, [the automatic grenade launchers] VOG-17 and VOG-25, ammunition for grenade launchers, some artillery ammunition – 100-mm and 152-mm – that’s what’s top priority. I will not name the countries, quantities or prices, but yes, we do import those", said …

"The first is to extend the amnesty period for capital, referring to those external restrictions that do not become smaller, but, on the contrary, appear to have a tendency to increase," he said at a meeting with Russian MPs.

Putin also proposed to exempt those entrepreneurs who transfer business from abroad to Russia from income taxes.

The amnesty on capital was effective in the country from July 1, 2015 until June 30, 2016. This rule allowed Russian taxpayers to voluntarily declare their …