Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy canceled the invitation for members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to observe the early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, reports the head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE Vladimir Aryev.

Earlier, Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs recommended the Verkhovna Rada to suspend the participation of permanent Ukrainian delegation in the PACE.

Earlier, PACE removed all restrictions from the …

At a joint briefing after a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Toronto on July 2, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that peace in the Donbas is possible through political and diplomatic means, reports RBC-Ukraine.

According to Zelensky, the first issue that he discussed with Trudeau was the peace in Ukraine.

"I am sure that we will achieve real progress only through political and diplomatic means. So in the end, we will force Russia to stop the escalation, to …

Russia has resumed its payment of membership contributions to the Council of Europe’s budget, said COE Spokesperson Daniel Holtgen, as cited by Deutsche Welle. He expressed confidence that Russia would also repay what it owes for 2017 and 2018, which amounts to €55 million, as well as a penalty for late payment.

On 26 June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) reinstated the Russian delegation through a resolution that did not include any sanctions.

The amendment to the …

Russia has announced the final version of its charges against the 13 Ukrainian sailors who are being held as prisoners of war, attorney Nikolai Polozov reported.

“Today there were investigative proceedings concerning another four prisoner-of-war Ukrainian sailors: Vladislav Kostyshin, Oleh Melnychuk, Serhiy Chuliba and Vasyl Soroka. The prisoner-of-war sailors and their attorneys were briefed on the conclusion of the commission’s situational forensic inquiry and charges were filed in their …

14 Russian sailors were killed by a fire on board a deepwater nuclear submersible, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The fire broke out on 1 July. The submariners were in Russian territorial waters in a submersible designed to study the sea floor. Their deaths resulted from poisoning by combustion byproducts. According to the local media, the accident took place on Monday evening at about 9 PM Moscow time.

The exact number of people on board is not known. According to …

Russian National Defense Management Center stated that Russian Black Sea fleet carries out a set of activities to monitor the actions of NATO ships during the Sea Breeze-2019 exercises in the Black Sea, reports RIA Novosti news agency.

According to the Russian military, the monitoring is needed for fast response to possible emergencies. The exercises are organized in the North-Western part of the sea, the Defense Ministry said.

Sea Breeze exercises has been held by Ukraine and the United …

On July 1, Swedish Armed Forces reported that Swedish authorities had strengthened air defense on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The new surface-to-air missile system has been deployed on the island due to the tense relations with Russia. The new system that is produced by Saab company will replace a previously used mobile air defense system.

"From a military-strategic point of view, Gotland is an important region," said the Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, Micael Bydén. …

All of the transport infrastructure for the Southern Gas Corridor in Turkey has become operational. From 2020, the corridor will enable Azerbaijan to supply Europe with gas without going through Russia. The Azerbaijani state oil and gas company Socar announced on 1 July that the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is completely ready to supply Europe with gas from the giant Shah Deniz 2 deposit in the Caspian Sea.

The 1,850 km long pipeline will receive gas entering Azerbajian through …