Ukraine moved to 15th place on the Global Militarization Index

Deutsche Welle has reported that Ukraine has moved up from 23rd place to 15th place in the Global Militarization Index.

The document also stated that the militarization of Eastern Europe continued to proceed at an especially rapid pace during 2016. “The security situation in Europe has changed as a result of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and the long-running conflict in eastern Ukraine,” the report noted.

Russia has taken fifth place. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Greece and Cyprus are all in the …


German media reported on the unofficial salaries of employees of TV channel owned by Poroshenko

Frankfurter Allgemeine, a German newspaper, published an article about the salaries of Channel 5 employees, indicating that they were partially received off the books. Channel 5 is owned by the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko.

Seven employees of Channel 5 are allegedly paid in two parts. The first part of the salary is official; it is often equal to the statutory minimum wage. But most of the salary was paid to them informally. The German newspaper failed to get any comments on this …


The first short notice reservist exercise begins in Estonia

The first short notice exercise of reservists in Estonia’s history, Okas ("Quill"), began on Friday, Interfax reported.

A decision about holding the exercises was adopted by the government on Thursday. 303 reservists have been called up for the exercise. The goal of this is to work out the chain of command of national defense, starting with the decision making process of the government and ending with the call up of reservists.

All reservists who are taking part in the exercise were  …


Lavrov: Russia is ready to cooperate with the Trump administration to combat terrorism in Syria

While speaking at the Mediterranean Dialogues forum on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Moscow is ready to cooperate with US President-elect Donald Trump in countering terrorism in Syria, TASS reported.

"I cannot make guesses [about cooperating with the Trump administration in Syria]. I rely on facts only," Lavrov stated. "And the fact is that during his election campaign Donald Trump repeatedly said that one of his priorities would be combatting the Islamic State and …


Lutsenko: The leaders of the Ukrainian military made mistakes in Ilovaisk

The facts provided during the criminal proceedings regarding the events near Ilovaisk in August 2014, do not exclude possible mistakes by Ukrainian military leadership, as was stated by the Prosecutor General, Yuriy Lutsenko, on the Channel 1+1 on Thursday, 1 December.

"The investigation regarding the events at the Battle of Ilovaisk has been conducted, and indicates that the main and only factor that led to the deaths of Ukrainian servicemen, were the attacks mostly carried out by Russian …