The United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, Robert Work, stated in an interview with Reuters on April 8th, that the Pentagon needs to buy 18 more Russian RD-180 rocket engines in order to launch military satellites into orbit. According to him, this need will continue to be in place until a similar American engine is developed. “We see no means by which to develop these engine types within the next six years. We need Russian RD-180 rocket engines during the transition period,” Work explained. …

The Ukrainian representative of Joint Center on Control and Coordination for issues related to the ceasefire and the stabilization of the contact line, stated that Russian-backed separatists are trying to intimidate OSCE SMM observers.

“The shelling of OSCE representatives is nothing more than another attempt by the militants to intimidate the OSCE SMM observers and force them to abandon the practice of mirror patrolling proposed by the Ukrainian representatives in the JCCC,” the press-officer …

In an interview with Ukrainian media, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced a number of steps for “deoffshorization.”

“Attempts to prohibit the creation of and transfer of assets to offshore companies only led to an increase in their numbers. It is absolutely a dead end. I would like to present new steps which we should take to implement an effective, rapid and deep ‘deoffshorization’ process,” he said.

President Poroshenko announced that he assigned the Ministry of Finance, State …

Gernot Erler, the Special Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany for Russian policy, noted that the threats to the members of the special OSCE monitoring mission are "unacceptable." Erler reiterated his call for the fulfilment of the Minsk agreements.Reports of observers of the special monitoring mission (SMM) of the OSCE about the increased ceasefire violations in the east of Ukraine, as well as the presence of heavy weapons there "excite concern,” Erler said. "I urge all parties to …

In April, the European Commission intends to propose the introduction of a visa-free policy for Ukrainian citizens, contrary to the results of the referendum in the Netherlands, Reuters reports, citing a source in the leadership of the European Union.

"It may seem that we are ignoring the Dutch voters. However, we should keep our word with Ukraine as they have fulfilled all the conditions," the source said.

For the policy to come into effect, it must be approved by a majority of the member …

According to Polish Radio, Polish Minister of Defense Antoni Macierewicz stated on channel TVP that he is convinced that the current President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, intentionally falsified the report on the tragic plane crash near Smolensk that claimed the life of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Tusk was the Prime Minister of Poland at the time of the tragedy in 2010.

"Tusk ensured full control not only over the investigation but also over each claim of the bureaucracy. …

The Head of the National Security Bureau of Poland, Pavel Soloh, stated that the Ukrainian crisis should be the main subject of the forthcoming NATO-Russia meeting, Rosbalt reported.

When Soloh visited Berlin, he noted that Russia violated international law by annexing the territory of another state, which led to an increase of tensions in relations between NATO and Moscow. According to the Head of the National Security Bureau of Poland, the decision on the council meeting was taken only after …

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed deep concern over the deterioration of Nadiya Savchenko’s health after 4 days on a dry hunger strike.

"Ukraine strongly protests that Ukrainian doctors and consular officials are not allowed to visit the Ukrainian pilot, [and] that the Russian political leadership ignores numerous complaints of world leaders, [and] the Ukrainian MFA,  concerning this issue, [as well as the complaints of] human rights organizations and public leaders,” a …