On October 13, in his speech during the ceremonial events in honor of Ukrainian servicemen, President Petro Poroshenko dismissed Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak from military service, UNN wrote.

 “General of the Ukrainian Army Stepan Poltorak filed a corresponding report about dismissal from military service and I approved it. Nevertheless, appreciating Stepan Poltorak’s significant contribution to the revival of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, I offered him to continue leading the defense …

On Saturday October 13, the crew of a Joint Forces Mi-24 helicopter shot down an Orlan-10 drone in the Donbas, the kind of drone used by the Russian Armed Forces, the headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reports.

“In the sky over Lysychansk at 8:09, radar instruments detected an airborne target, presumably identified as an Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle, which is in the armament of the Russian Armed Forces,” the report states.

According to the JFO, the object maneuvered in a way …

Ukraine and France want to intensify relations at the government level, reported RBC-Ukraine with reference to the information department of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

A meeting had been held on October 12th between the head of the Verkhovna Rada Foreign Affairs Committee of Ukraine, Hanna Hopko and the Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for the European Integration Parliament of Ukraine, Maria Ionova with French Senator Olivier Cadic. The meeting was also attended by French Ambassador to …

The former leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, separatist Igor “Strelkov” Girkin stated that the monks of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra actively participated in the conflict in the Donbas. He admitted that his personal security was fully made up of spiritual servants, monks and hieromonks of the Sviatohirsk Lavra.

“It [the security team] was not very big but anyway they were there. A novice of the Sviatohirsk Lavra commanded one of the units in the Slavic brigade. And this novice …

As part of his working visit to the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko visited the military training ground where he checked the Ukrainian army’s readiness to repel Russia’s possible aggression from the Azov Sea, the website of the President reports.

Poroshenko noted that the military’s work scored "12 points" and he thanked the command and personnel that took part in the exercises. "I stress that we all do this not …

Before the second reading of the drafted law “ensuring a functioning Ukrainian language as the state language” Ukraine must coordinate with all interested parties and obtain an assessment of the document by the Venice Commission, stated the EU’s representatives as quoted by Evropeiska Pravda.

The official position of the EU is that the future law must comply with international norms and Ukraine’s responsibilities. In particular, it must follow the European Charter regarding regional or …

Britain refuses to issue visas to Russian diplomats, said Russian Ambassador to London Alexander Yakovenko.

 “We are not able to fill these vacancies since the UK refuses to issue visas to our diplomats to arrive in the UK,” said the ambassador at the press conference when asked who will replace the diplomats expelled by London in March.

According to Yakovenko, it is necessary to restore normal communication to fill the vacancies.

 “So far, we have seen a non-constructive position from the …

On October 12, President Petro Poroshenko put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) to protect Ukraine’s interests in the Azov and Black Seas, the Kerch Strait, as well as in the south and east of Ukraine, as stated in Decree No. 320/2018.

A great number of articles of this decree are classified. The non-confidential part of the decree speaks about, for example, the need to form a working situational group to protect Ukraine’s national …