On February 19, the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) entered the Black Sea. On February 25, it is planned to arrive at the port of Odessa.

The U.S. Sixth Fleet Command reports that the U.S. Navy’s missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DD G75) arrived to "conduct maritime security operations and enhance stability in the region."

According to Dumskaya, this ship will take part in joint exercises with the NATO allies’ ships. Ukrainian ships will also take part in these …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a law that consolidates in the Constitution the mandate of the Verkhovna Rada, the president, and the Cabinet of Ministers to implement Ukraine’s strategic course towards acquiring full-fledged membership in the EU and NATO. The changes also remove from the Constitution provisions that allow for a foreign state to rent military bases in Ukraine.

The president signed the law during a special parliamentary session dedicated to the fifth anniversary …

Restrictive measures imposed against Russian products abroad caused a damage of $6.3 billion (expert evaluation) to the Russian economy, according to the report published on the website of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. 

It follows from the presentation prepared by the ministry that the European Union took the first place in terms of the number of restrictions imposed on Russian goods. Next come Ukraine, India, Belarus, Turkey and the United States. 

Nevertheless, the picture …

Russia outpaced Saudi Arabia in crude oil production, moving into second place after the USA, the world's largest oil producer, RIA Novosti reports.

According to a review by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative or JODI, in December 2018, the United States produced an average of 11.66 million barrels of oil per day. Russia now produces 10.74 million barrels per day while Saudi Arabia dropped into third place at 10.64 million barrels per day. 

Meanwhile, experts of ITI Capital Ltd. said that …

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Romanian Deputy Prime Minister for the Implementation of Strategic Partnerships Ana Birchall took part in the ceremony marking the beginning of the construction of the second-stage of the Jasz-Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline. 

The first line of the gas pipeline was put into operation in 2014, making it possible to deliver almost a million cubic meters of gas from Romania to Ungheni and several nearby settlements. The second part of the 120-km-long pipeline …

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius stated in an interview with the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that EU countries should make greater efforts to fight against “Russian propaganda” and prepare for an information war with Russia. 

The Minister asserted that the West “still underestimates Russia’s informational influence” while Eastern European countries are not the only ones under “Moscow’s attack.” Linkevičius called for the continuation of a strict sanctions policy against …

The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration wrote on Facebook that Moldovan authorities complained about Russia to a number of international organizations. 

The reason for the appeal was the “unacceptable actions” of the Russian Federation against two Moldovan pilots Lionel Buruiana and Mihail Crihan, who was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and released with the assistance of Igor Chaika, a member of the council of All-Russian public organization “Business Russia”. …

Russia has been forced to postpone the serial production of the passenger plane MS-21 due to US sanctions, TASS reports, citing Rostec director Sergey Chemezov. 

“In connection with the fact that the Americans have stopped the supply of composite materials, we are transitioning to our own composite materials,” he said. As a result, the deadline for launching serial production of the MS-21 has been “shifted slightly” to the end of 2020. Earlier it was expected that the first planes would be …