The United States, the European Union, and Canada welcome the steps taken by Ukraine towards anti-corruption reforms and call for further reforms, in particular, for an independent and reliable verification of electronic declarations, as was said in a joint statement by the Embassy of Canada, the United States of America, and the representative of the European Union on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.

“We welcome the impressive steps made after the Revolution of Dignity, …

The German Defense Ministry agreed to send military advisers to Ukraine, as reported by the press service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

The agreement was signed on Thursday in Kyiv by the Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister for European Integration, Ihor Dolhov, and the German Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense, Ralf Brauksiepe.

According to the agreement, German advisers will be active at the Petro Sahaydachnyi National Academy of Ground Forces in Lviv. …

The Polish Border Guard reported four cases of Russian drones illegally crossing the Polish border this year.

According to Rzeczpospolita, one incident occurred two weeks ago near the village of Banie Mazurskie near the border with the Kaliningrad region, the second one in September near Górowo Iławeckie, and two more in February near the city of Gołdap. The drones, which arrived from the Kaliningrad region, were flying at an altitude of 50-100 meters and penetrated about one kilometer into …

At an OSCE ministerial meeting in Hamburg, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that NATO is “desperately dragging Montenegro” into the alliance, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.

According to Lavrov, the continued enlargement of NATO in the Balkans changes the geopolitical situation on the European continent.

"NATO continues to say that they will continue to expand. Now they are desperately dragging Montenegro into their ranks and we see it. No one asks the people of Montenegro, though …

The new energy policy of Turkey requires all payments to be made in the national currency to the major trading partners in the energy sphere. Ankara is preparing to conduct payments in national currency for the purchase of gas from Russia, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Berat Albayrak said, Anadolu news agency reports.

“All relevant agencies are working in this direction," the Minister said and added that Ankara is working on transitioning to the Turkish lira in the procurement …

The agreement  on the supplement contract between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russia’s Gazprom could not be reached by the tripartite group with the participation of the representatives of the  European Commission, as stated by the head of Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

"Unfortunately, the agreement could not be reached today. We hope that this can be done in future, but today we were not able to sign the supplementary agreement. Without it, the purchase of Russian gas under …

The Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Lamberto Zannier, reported a split among the organization’s 57 member countries. This statement was released on Friday, December 9th, at the meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Hamburg. Zannier stressed that the split was caused primarily by disagreements over the conflict in Ukraine, but was not limited to that.

The OSCE Secretary General also stated that organization observers encounter obstacles in …

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that US President Barack Obama’s cancellation of the embargo on the supply of arms, ammunition, and military equipment to allies in Syria can lead to "different kinds of weapons falling into the terrorists’ hands", RBC reports.

According to the Kremlin's representative, "this decision could have a dangerous outcome."

"We need to understand, very carefully, the main goal, intentions, and details of that decision. The worst possible outcome of lifting such …