• Russia delivers first S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran

    The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the first S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems were delivered to Iran, as reported by Kommersant citing a statement made by the Press Secretary of the Iranian MFA, Hossein Jaberi Ansari. Iranian television showed footage of the transportation of the missile systems on eight heavy tractors with platforms. Rosoboronexport (state intermediary agency for Russia's exports/imports of defense-related and dual use products, technologies and services) …

  • Poroshenko: Consultations on a new Prosecutor General will take place once a new Prime Minister takes office

    Consultations on the candidature of a new Prosecutor General of Ukraine will begin immediately after a new Prime Minister and government are approved by the Verkhovna Rada. This was stated by President Petro Poroshenko in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels.

    "Immediately after the Prime Minister's and the government elections, I will begin consultations with the leaders of all parliamentary parties on the candidature of a new Prosecutor General," Poroshenko said.

    Earlier, the MPs said …

  • Kiev: Russia has blocked the transit of Ukrainian sweets

    Russia has blocked the transit of Ukrainian confectionery products to Georgia and Azerbaijan, the president of the association Ukrkondprom, Alexander Baldynyuk, said on Saturday, April 9th, Deutsche Welle reported.

    "Almost fifty wagons of Ukrainian products destined for Azerbaijan stood for more than a month at the customs station Derbent in Dagestan, and only at the beginning of April were they turned around back to Ukraine. A few days ago Russian customs stopped all shipments at the customs …

  • Azerbaijan says Armenian-backed forces violated the ceasefire 125 times in one day

    During the last 24 hours, the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh was violated 125 times. The use of heavy machine guns was reported. The Trend publication disclosed this, quoting the statement of the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan.

    Baku clarified that the Armed Forces of the Republic answered the enemy with 125 response fire strikes.

    At the same time, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) reported that the ceasefire …

  • Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia allocates budget funds to support separatists in Donbas

    Ukrainian Intelligence stated that Russia continues to allocate funds from the state budget to support separatists in the occupied part of Ukraine.

    "It has been established that in the beginning of April, occupied territories received about 800 million rubles from the Russian budget. Of these, 775 million was allocated for the administrative apparatus and the security forces of the so-called DPR and LPR, where local residents are under the control of the Russian occupying power," the press …

  • US will continue to purchase Russian rocket engines for another six years

    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. …

  • JCCC: Separatists attempt to intimidate OSCE Observers

    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 …

  • Poroshenko announces a number of steps to deter individuals from creating offshore accounts

    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 …

  • German diplomat: The situation in eastern Ukraine 'excites concern'

    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 …

  • EC may decide to open visa-free regime with Ukraine despite results of Dutch referendum

    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 …