On December 1, Ukraine transferred its last due payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2017 at $169 million, while overall it paid $1.268 billion this year, Ukrainski Novyny reports citing  the press service of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).

According to the schedule of debt owed to the IMF, on December 1, Ukraine repaid 114.3 million Special Drawing Rights or SDRs that amount to $169 million. In total, in 2017 Ukraine paid 858.7 million SDRs worth $1.3 billion.

Meanwhile, …

The Ukrainian side of the Joint Center on Control and Coordination or JCCC reports that representatives of separatist-held territories of Ukraine fabricated a letter allegedly from residents of Hladosove to the first deputy head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, Alexander Hug, regarding the illegal seizure of territory by Ukrainian servicemen.

"The separatist media released information stating that the residents of the town Hladosove settlement had sent an open letter to the first deputy …

The European Union has lifted part of the restrictions imposed on the Russian Federation, allowing the sale and purchase of hydrazine space rocket fuel needed for a Russian-European joint project, the ExoMars.

The November 30 decision on lifting the sanctions was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Restrictions were lifted specifically on operations that provide technical support, financing or funding regarding the sale, supply, shipment, transfer, export and import, …

The removal of sanctions from Russia depends to a large extent on the resolution of the situation in Ukraine, as stated by the US Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr.

"Many sanctions were imposed not only by the United States, but also by Europe because of the situation with Ukraine. If we can resolve the issue with Ukraine, namely: if we come to the agreements that will be arranged for both sides, then we will get a positive outcome" he said in an interview to the TV channel "St. Petersburg". …

About 3 thousand people passed on Sunday through the streets of Kyiv with the slogans calling for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko. The march was organized by his political opponent, former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been stripped off Ukrainian citizenship by the Ukrainian President.

The participants of the march, led by Saakashvili, set off from the monument of Taras Shevchenko and went through the government district, chanting "Impeachment!", "Down with …

During an interview with the Interfax news agency, Aleksandr Vitko, Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, stated that Moscow has transferred more than 50 new warships, boats and auxiliary vessels for "tasks in the Mediterranean and Black Seas” since 2014.

"Over the past three years, we have received more than 50 new warships, boats and auxiliary vessels, which without a long commissioning period immediately began realization of tasks ", Interfax quotes Vitko as saying.

According to Vitko, …

Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview for Belarusian television that the US and NATO fears over the Zapad-2017 military exercises were just a pretext for the deployment of troops in Poland and the Baltic States.

According to Lavrov, "the West was not so much afraid but tried to use the exercises as an excuse to start hysteria."

"Everyone who wanted to come to these exercises found that everything was transparent. But, amid the growing hysteria, our American colleagues …

Over the past week, three Russians have asked for political asylum in Ukraine because of the persecution by Russian law enforcement, as reported on the website of the State Border Service.

"During last week three Russian citizens 45, 38 and 27 years old, who are being persecuted in the Russian Federation, asked employees of the State Border Service of Ukraine for refugee status," the report said.

Two Russians asked for asylum at the Kyiv Passazhyrsky  checkpoint . They wanted to be recognized …