An unknown drone approached the plane of the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu over Europe, reports the Russian newspaper Izvestia, citing Serbian military and diplomatic sources.

The Minister’s plane was in Kosovo airspace at the time of the incident. The UAV approached the aircraft at an approximate distance of at least 150 km.

Several MiG-29s of the Serbian Air Force were scrambled to intercept the UAV in case it was required.  

The drone passed along the border between Serbia and …

NATO has expressed its concern regarding the escalation in the Donbas and urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine, the Ukrainian Mission to NATO wrote on Facebook.

“We are concerned by the escalation of violence by the Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine this morning. This undermines the Minsk agreements and the efforts towards a peaceful conflict resolution,” said NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu.

NATO also affirmed its full support of the territorial integrity and …

The multi-year lawsuit between the former shareholders of YUKOS and Russia has reached a new level.

The Hague Court of Appeal has sided with the former owners of what was once the largest Russian oil company, and upheld a ruling by the arbitration court in the Hague, which in 2014 ordered Russia to pay the plaintiffs $50 billion in compensation. A decision by the Hague District Court, which revoked the compensation, has now been annulled.

On Tuesday, the Hague Court of Appeals satisfied the …

Turkey is unsatisfied with the results of the negotiations with Russia on the situation in Syria, and will continue to deploy troops and military vehicles in Idlib, said Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin after a meeting between Russian and Turkish delegations in Moscow, RIA Novosti reports.

The fourth round of negotiations in two weeks, featuring Russia’s Presidential Representative Alexander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and Turkey’s deputy Foreign …

The US has imposed sanctions on Rosneft Trading, a Swiss subsidiary of the Russian oil company Rosneft, for trading oil with Venezuela, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, February 18, Rosneft Trading S.A. will be blacklisted by OFAC, and its assets will be frozen. Furthermore, US citizens and legal entities will be banned from concluding any deals with the company itself or any organization of which it owns more than 50%.

Personal sanctions are …

During a session of the UN Security Council, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsia brought up the topic of the conflict escalation in the Donbas.

“What is our status today? Apparently, an answer was given at 5 AM local time, when our positions came under attack. The attack, perpetrated today, on the fifth anniversary of the Debaltseve tragedy, was particularly shameless,” he said.

Kyslytsia remarked that the Armed Forces of Ukraine responded appropriately to this attack by the …

There are no Russian troops in Libya, said Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday, commenting on a statement by Turkish President Recep Erdogan that Moscow is providing mercenaries to Khalifa Haftar’s army, which is laying siege to Tripoli.

“Vladimir Putin, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces, has not sent troops to Libya, he has not given any orders in this regard,” Interfax cites Peskov as saying.

When asked to comment on the media reports on the death of a Russian …

Israel has decided to disclose information on the extremely low effectiveness of the Russian aerial defense systems transferred to Syria. According to NZIV, to take down a single anti-radar missile fired by an Israeli F-16, the Russian anti-air systems waste on average 8-9 missiles, essentially firing at random.

“The Syrian anti-air defense systems have been able to repel a missile attack on Damascus after the launch of several missiles, but some nevertheless destroyed their targets extremely …