The Tunisian authorities have detained a ship that set sail from the port at Novorossiysk and was found to be carrying military equipment and ammunition, reported Maritime Bulletin website and Agenzia Nova news agency.

According to Maritime Bulletin, the ship Ural, which was flying the Panamanian flag, was heading for Cameroon. The ship's operator is a Turkish company.

The ship arrived at the Tunisian port of Sfax for repairs. During inspection, customs found 24 containers with infantry …

The Deputy Chairperson of the Russian Central Election Commission, Nikolay Bulaev, stated that the presidential election will be held in the annexed Crimea as planned, despite Ukraine’s protest, RIA Novosti reports.

According to Bulaev, this issue was “resolved for Russian citizens living the Crimea during the referendum in 2014”. The representative of the Central Election Commission said that during the so-called “referendum”, the residents of the Crimea allegedly “chose their future …

In an interview with Censor.net, former Lithuanian ambassador to Ukraine Petras Vaitiekunas  said that he believes that the killing of activists during the Euromaidan Revolution in February 2014 was part of Vladimir Putin’s plan.

“The Maidan shooting was essentially the start of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and part of the plan to seize Crimea… I am certain that the blood at the Maidan was President Putin’s plan. Removing President Yanukovych was a necessary but insufficient condition for …

By the end of 2017, Ukraine was infused with nearly two and a half billion dollars from abroad, Ukrinform news agency reports.

"Overall, using funds transfer systems created by both residents and non-residents [of Ukraine], in 2017, $2.378 billion was transferred to Ukraine, $286 million was sent out of Ukraine, and the equivalent of $4.456 billion dollars was transferred within Ukraine," the statement of the National Bank says.

According to the results of 2017, the international payment …

Polish statesman Antoni Macierewicz, the chairperson of a special commission that was formed to investigate the deadly crash of the Tu-154M plane near Smolensk, Russia, in 2010 and took lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and members of the Polish governmental delegation, has stated that the explosives could not have been placed on the plane in Warsaw.

 “We do not suspect that the explosive was planted during that time at the airport. There is no such suspicion. We’ve run forensic tests …

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) believes that Russia is trying to provoke conflict between Ukrainian Orthodox churches, as stated at a briefing by Deputy Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine Viktor Kononenko.

“The representatives of Russian special services considered the prospect of developing confrontation within the Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The Russia’s future efforts would aim at provoking an escalation of conflict there in the near future. The Russians plan to exploit the …

The Council of the European Union officially extended the sanctions against Belarus for arms sales and exports of goods that could be used for internal repression. It also extended an entry ban to four people.

As stated in the decision published on February 23 on the website of the EU Council, which was adopted the day before, the sanctions were extended for another year, until February 28, 2019.

"These measures include an embargo on the supply of weapons, a ban on the export of means that …

Sweden intends to increase the strength of the Armed Forces by 2035 from current levels of 50,000 troops to future levels of 120,000 troops, as noted in a new report on national defense strategy submitted by the Swedish Armed Forces, reports The Local.

The document assumes that the overall defense budget will increase from today's 53 billion kronor ($6.5 billion) per annum to about 115 billion kronor ($14 billion) per annum by 2035.

The document, called a "prospective study", is formally …