European Parliament was urged to increase pressure on Moscow to end repression in Crimea

On March 13, human rights activists and relatives of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia urged the European Parliament to increase international pressure on Moscow.

“In authoritarian Russia, getting justice is impossible. The only chance for our relatives to return home and put a stop to the increasing political repression in the annexed Crimea is to increase international pressure on Moscow, which deliberately disregards the principles of international law,” the statement said.

Human rights …


Russia refuses to inform NATO about upcoming military exercises

Russia is not yet prepared to brief NATO on the upcoming military exercises, said Andrey Kelin, Director of the Department of European Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an Interfax interview on Monday.

“We have not yet moved forward in establishing our relations to the extent that we can take steps such as the prospective explanation of such situations,” Kelin said, commenting on the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who expressed the hope on Monday …


Ukrainian authorities crackdown on Donbas blockaders sparking protests across the country

The trade blockade Headquarters redoubt at the Kryvyi Torets railway station in the Shcherbynivka locality of the Donetsk region was captured by members of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Rapid Operational Response Unit (KORD) of the National Police on March 13. The blockade Headquarters posted about this on its Facebook page. [The blockade of the uncontrolled Donbas territories was started by war veterans in Eastern Ukraine at the end of January 2017, with the demand for …


Norway promises to respond to Russia's ban on entry for its journalist

The Director of Communications for the Foreign Ministry of Norway, Frode Overland Andersen, said that the country condemns Moscow's for ban the entry of Norwegian journalist Thomas Nielsen into Russia.

As reported by NRK news agency, this act is considered in Norway to be unlawful and unreasonable, and will not be left unanswered.

"We believe that it is unreasonable and unlawful to use EU restrictive measures as a pretext for refusing entry to Russia for Norwegian citizens," Andersen said. …


Media: Turkish ship ran aground on the Crimean Peninsula

On the morning of March 12th, the Turkish dry cargo ship, River Eregli, ran aground near the coast in Alupka. The vessel was sailing under the flag of Micronesia, as reported by the monitoring group of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs and BSNews.

"The incident occurred in quiet weather. This suggests that the vessel's engine stopped working. However, another option is possible – that the dry cargo ship has not had its AIS transmitter on since the end of November 2016. The last known location of …