Russia returning the three captured Ukrainian naval vessels should be considered nothing more than the implementation of a court ruling, wrote Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk on Telegram.

“It is not an act of goodwill… I consider these developments nothing other than the aggressor-state implementing the May ruling of the International Sea Tribunal,” Interfax-Ukraine cites him as saying.

The head of Ukraine’s defense department noted that specialists will soon examine the ships …

On Monday, Gazprom sent Naftogaz of Ukraine an official offer to extend the current gas transit contract by one year or to sign a new one-year contract, Interfax reports.

As a precondition, all lawsuits and claims in international arbitration courts must be withdrawn.

This would also include the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee’s fine against Gazprom for economic competition violations and of Naftogaz’s motion to have the European Commission investigate the Russian company. …

French President Emmanuel Macron held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Presidents discussed the situation in Ukraine in advance of the Normandy Four Summit, which is scheduled for December 9 in Paris, reports the Kremlin's press service.

Macron and Putin noted that "holding such a meeting should contribute to the quick and full implementation of the Minsk agreements."

"In this context, the importance of Kyiv to fulfill its obligations on the political …

Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Lyashenko said that Belarus expects that the price for Russian gas imports will be reduced in 2020, reports the BelTA news agency.

"For the coming year, we expecting to move towards lower prices, which we are negotiating about. We made our proposals," said Lyashenko. He noted that Belarus' ambassador to Russia Vladimir Semashko, as well as Belarusian Energy Ministry and Belneftekhim Gas Concern, are consolidating the work on the preparation of  oil and gas …

India is purchasing French 4th generation Rafale fighters instead of Russian Su-30MKI fighters because the former’s capabilities are superior to the latter’s, The Economic Times reports.

The Indian news outlet writes that the Rafale’s extended loitering ability is 50% greater than the Su-30MKI’s. The former’s flight range is 780-1055 km, as opposed to the latter’s 400-550 km. The French fighter can also be scrambled up to five times a day compared to the Russian fighter’s three times. …

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said after parliamentary elections that Belarus and Russia are not going to send tanks against Poland, reports BelTA.

The Belarusian President pointed out that Belarus has always been open to Poland, as it is one of the countries closest to it. He also added that Belarus is ready for close, friendly relations with Poland.

According to Lukashenko, when such relations began to develop between Minsk and Warsaw, Poland began to "play along" with the …

The global nuclear weapons control system that was set in place by Moscow and Washington in the last few decades of the Soviet Union is slowly but surely falling apart.

Following the breakdown of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the last key nuclear arms reduction treaty, New START, will also soon be history.

The treaty, which restricts the number of nuclear warheads and carriers, first signed in the late 1970s and then repeatedly expanded and extended (most recently by …

Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, former “defense minister” of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has admitted that the investigators of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 catastrophe have intercepted a phone call from 2014 between him and then “prime minister” of the DPR Alexander Borodai. Girkin published his reaction to the recording on VKontakte, a Russian social network.

The Joint Investigation Team’s (JIT) report mentions an intercepted phone call from August 13, 2014, in which …