The presidential administration of the Russian Federation never received an official letter from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych with a request for Russian troops to enter Ukraine. TASS reports that this was stated by Dmitry Peskov, Press-Secretary for the President of Russia.

"No letter was officially received by the presidential administration; no such letter was registered in the administration," Peskov said.

At the same time, the Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on the …

The European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding Ukrainian political prisoners that are being illegally detained by Russia in the annexed Crimea.

The MEPs urged Russia to immediately release these Ukrainians and appealed to the EU with a call for new sanctions against those responsible for this harassment of Ukrainian citizens.

451 Eurodeputies voted for the resolution and 73 opposed it. 86 European parliamentarians abstained from the vote.

In a resolution called "Ukrainian prisoners …

The Malinovsky District Court of Odessa convicted the captain of the vessel Sky Moon, which sailed under the flag of Tanzania, for illegally entering a port in the Russian-annexed Crimea, as reported on the website of the military prosecutor's office of the Southern region.

The court decided to confiscate the goods that were being smuggled, namely, soda worth almost 18.5 million UAH (or 687 thousand USD), and the ship itself, as the vehicle that was used to commit the offense. The worth of the …

The presence of American troops in Lithuania is virtually permanent, said Curtis Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO.

“We have forces here here 365 days a year. I want some flexibility on that, so it may not be [permanent deployment] but it will be nearly that if not that because of the forces we have,” Scaparrotti told reporters on Thursday.

He noted that the rotation of the US battalion in Lithuania would take place in June and July, and the division would take part in the “ …

A new integrated 8th army will be formed in the Russian Southern military district, as reported by Izvestia daily citing representatives of the Russian military forces.

“The General Staff headquarters are planned to be established in Novocherkassk with the units stationed in Rostov and Volgograd regions,” Izvestia reports.

Izvestia’s source said that the formation of the new Army has already begun. It is expected that the first stage of the formation of the army will be completed by June 2017. …

The French missile frigate HMS La Fayette, possessing a small radar signature, entered the waters of the Black Sea during the evening of the 16th of March, reports Interfax.

At present the warship is heading towards the Bulgarian port Varna.

In this French frigate, the hull and superstructures were constructed with the use of Stealth technology. The frigate feature unique stealth design with reduced radar, acoustic, infrared and electromagnetic signatures. It is equipped with modern anti-ship …

The U.S. considers the Russian government guilty of violations of the rights of the inhabitants of the Crimea. Such a statement was made Thursday by official State Department spokesman Mark Toner. He also stressed that Washington still does not recognize the results of the referendum in the Crimea on March 16, 2014, as well as Russia’s “attempted annexation of Crimea and continued violation of international law."

“Russia…staged an illegitimate referendum in which residents of the Crimea were …

On March 16 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine to adopt sanctions with respect to a number of legal entities. Ukraine will soon adopt sanctions for a year on five banks with Russian capital: Sberbank, VS Bank, Prominvestbank, VTB Bank, and BM Bank. The goal of the sanctions is to prevent them from withdrawing this capital from Ukraine in favor of entities related to them.

The media outlet 24tv.ua reports that …