Contents tagged with crimea

  • Ukrainian President Zelensky meets with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary

    President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky met with President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, President Hungary Janos Ader and President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis, all in attendance at the newly elected head of state’s inauguration.

    Zelensky thanked the heads of state after they warmly congratulated him on assuming office, as reported by the president’s press service.

    During a meeting with President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, Vladimir Zelensky said that …

  • Estonian President condemns decision to restore Russia's voting rights in PACE

    Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid heavily criticized the Council of Europe’s  intention to restore Russia's voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), after the agreement was reached allowing Russia to retain its  membership in the organization, reports Postimees news agency.

    "I believe in dialogue with Russia, but this does not mean that Russia should be returned to the partnership after it violated international law and its promises," said Kaljulaid at a …

  • Lithuanian Foreign Minister: Council of Europe will lose credibility if Russia regains voting rights

    Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius said that by restoring Russia’s voting rights, the Council of Europe (CoE) risks losing credibility and influence, BNS reports.

    “If the Council of Europe continues to think that the involvement of all countries is of greater value than the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, which this organization was created to protect, then, over time, this could become an institutional problem that undermines the credibility of …

  • Kremlin: Trains will start to run ahead of time on the Crimean bridge

    Railway traffic on the Crimean bridge will open ahead of schedule — in August-September 2019, reports RIA Novosti, referring to the statement of the Minister of Transport of Russia Yevgeny Dietrich.

    "With regards to specific schedule, we will reach the object and consider the details related to the construction more specifically, and then we will announce how early we can finish the work," the Minister said.

    Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the railway part of the Crimean …

  • Zelensky predicts a ‘long road’ for Crimea's return to Ukraine

    The elected President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine take the Crimea back, but it will take a long time for that to happen.

    Zelensky's Facebook posts, where he spoke on the issue of Peninsula, was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. Zelensky said that the events of the 1940s showed that "you can destroy people, but you will never destroy the spirit of the nation."

    According to Zelensky, the Crimean Tatars, who remained faithful to …

  • Ukraine urges international community to recognize deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement on the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea which calls for the international community to recognize the incident as a genocide, Radio Liberty reports.

    “The global community’s recognition of the genocide against the Crimean Tatar people as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide would be evidence not only of the restoration of historical justice, but would also serve …

  • Russia conducts aviation exercises in Crimea to counter reconnaissance aircraft

    The Russian Air Forces conducted a training exercise to destroy a foreign reconnaissance aircraft in the Crimea, which "violates the state border in the airspace over the Crimean Peninsula," reported the press-service of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

    It also reported that the so-called "the Wall" tactic was practiced during the training.

    "The joint command involved equipment of radio reconnaissance and air defense of more than 30 warships, six divisions of Coastal Missile Systems Bal and …

  • U.S. Secretary of State urges Russia to release Ukrainian sailors

    Washington hopes that Moscow will be able to negotiate with the new government in Ukraine and release Ukrainian sailors who were detained in the Kerch Strait, stated U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sochi, Interfax reports.

    "We want Russia to reach out to the new Ukrainian government to find a way out of this situation. We also urge the Russian government to release the representatives of the crew that were captured in the Kerch …

  • Ukraine’s muftis and rabbis to Donbas residents: lay down your weapons

    Ahead of his inauguration, Ukraine’s President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has held a meeting with a number of prominent religious leaders. During the meeting, Ukrainian priests, mullahs and rabbis recorded a joint video message to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas who have declared autonomy in Luhansk and in Donetsk.

    In the video, the religious figures highlight the need to be filled with love, to set aside weapons, and to engage in peaceful dialog.

    The clip begins with a statement by …

  • Russia jamming Ukrainian radio stations in northern Crimea

    The Russia-controlled Crimean authorities are deliberately jamming the signals of Ukrainian radio stations in the north of the peninsula, primarily by using the same frequencies for Russian stations, the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG) reports.

    According to monitoring conducted by the group between March and April this year, the signals of seven Ukrainian radio stations are being entirely or partially jammed by the signals of Russian FM stations in 20 settlements in northern Crimea.

    The …