In the schools of Syria, Russian became the second language and many parents in the country are starting to name their children in honor of Putin. This was stated by the Syrian Ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad.

"President Bashar al-Assad's decision to make Russian a second language in Syria is one of the elements of the gratitude of the Syrian people to the Russian people for their support. Many families even started to name their children Putin. It's not a secret that the children of the …

In 2016, NATO fighter jets were scrambled 780 times from military bases in Europe in order to visually identify and escort planes from the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS). This is a record number of such incidents since the time of the Cold War, news outlet DPA reported, citing representatives of the Ramstein US Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

About 90 other such flights were made on account of the military planes of other states, passenger liners or other transport aircraft, …

Interfax news agency reports, with reference to a source in Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), that an OSCE vehicle was blown up near Lunahsk.    

“According to preliminary data, the vehicle with the OSCE monitors hit a roadside bomb near the town of Prishyb in Lunahsk. The bomb was placed by unknown persons. There are casualties", the source said.

The Interfax‘s source accused the Ukrainian side of placing that bomb, stating that the bomb could have been installed "intentionally for the …

The U.S. Treasury announced that it would not make an exception for ExxonMobil, which asked for a temporary lifting of sanctions that prohibit the implementation of joint projects with Russian corporation Rosneft.

"In consultation with President Donald J. Trump, the Treasury Department will not be issuing waivers to U.S. companies, including Exxon, to authorize drilling prohibited by current Russian sanctions," Voice of America quoted Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as saying.

Oil giant …

The U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, will visit Ukraine next week to discuss military assistance programs, the State Department said in a message.

The report says that Kaidanow will visit Germany, Estonia and Ukraine on April 23-29 to discuss a number of international security issues.

"In Estonia and Ukraine, Ambassador Kaidanow will meet with civilian and defense officials to discuss a wide range of political-military issues, …

Syria and Russia are holding negotiations about new shipments of arms, including anti-air defense weapons. Damascus is interested in latest generation systems, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

“Yes, this always happens before war and during it. Of course, we need more weapons after the war and on account of expending them, this is a part of everyday relations between the Defense Ministries of Russia and Syria,” he said, when asked whether concrete …

Author: Dmytro Snegiryov, Head of Prava Sprava public initiative.

On September 6, 2016, while making an annual speech to Parliament, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko discussed the number of pro-Russian fighters in the separatist-held Donbas. "The pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donbas amount to almost 38,500 people, more than 600 tanks, 1,250 combat armored vehicles, 750 artillery systems, and about 300 multiple launch rocket systems," Poroshenko said.

On February 22, 2017, …

China is ready to establish a visa-free regime with Ukraine, as stated by Chinese Ambassador Du Wei.

"The Chinese government is constantly working to provide comfortable conditions for Ukrainian guests who travel to China. I want to clearly express our position: China is ready at any time, on the principle of equality and mutual benefit, to take new measures to facilitate the travel of people between our countries, including the implementation of a visa-free policy," Du Wei said at a press …