The Ukrainian government will put an end to illegal amber mining in three provinces: Volyn, Rivne and Zhytomyr, President Zelensky said in a press statement after traveling to Zhytomyr.

“We understand that people are chasing after amber, it’s a real war of the crime bosses, who have used the police, the SBU, the prosecution office and the government as cover,” the president remarked.

Zelensky said that experts estimate that around $500 million worth of amber is sold on the black market in …

Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers flew over the Barents, Norwegian and North Sea. At several parts of the route, they were escorted by Norwegian fighters, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced.

The department noted that Russian bombers regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, Black and Baltic Seas and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These flights, the Russians claim, are done in complete compliance with international regulations, and do not violate the borders of any other countries. …

After four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the Donbas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested an emergency session of the Normandy Format, but his request has gone unanswered, the Ukrainian news outlet Glavred writes.

The news outlet believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have taught their Ukrainian colleague a “tough lesson”.

They have made it clear that they do not intend to attend “emergency sessions” …

The Chinese giant is taking steps to achieve independence from the American Market. Recently it unveiled its own operating system, and now it has announced that it will be cooperating with a Russian state bank, reports DW.

Russia’s Sberbank and the Chinese concern Huawei are discussing the possibility of integrating the Huawei Pay service with the bank’s own payment service. “We are also discussing various applications and services, how to create a microsystem, a base, how to combine our …

Ukraine and Turkey have established a joint corporation for producing precision weaponry and aerospace technologies, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine reports.

In particular, a contract has been signed between Ukraine’s UkrSpetsExport and Turkey’s Baykar Defence.

The primary purpose of the joint enterprise is to unify the capabilities of the two countries’ defense industries in order to serially produce new, modern weapons for their armies.

“One of the first …

Six drones belonging to the Syrian militants tried to attack the Russian Khmeimim Air Base. All  the drones were destroyed, no one was hurt, reports the Russian Defense Ministry.

According to TASS news agency, the drones approached the airfield from the northwest side. The Russian military used air defense systems in the response.

Russian Defense Ministry noted that it was the third attempt to attack the airbase in a month. Previously, the airbase was attacked on August 8. Then two civilians …

Andrey Klimov, a member of Russia’s Federation Council, said that “foreign forces” used YouTube videos to provoke Russian citizens to protest unlawfully in Moscow on August 10.

The commission for the protection of sovereignty that Klimov leads supposedly received information that “a large number of citizens received information that they did not ask for, from sources that they were not subscribed to”. He claims that the information was “incendiary” in nature and incited citizens to act …

The Syrian government forces  have captured the strategically important city of al Habeit in the province of Idlib, which is controlled by the rebels, reports Deutsche Welle.

"The capture of al Habeit is the most significant progress of Assad's army since the beginning of its offensive in Idlib province three months ago. More than a hundred fighters from both sides were killed in the battle for al Habeit. At the same time, the Syrian army and its allies conducted about two thousand artillery …