• Moscow expresses dissatisfaction about Ukraine being absolved of any blame in the case of MH17 air disaster

    Moscow expressed dissatisfaction that the Netherlands “took blame off Kyiv for not closing off the air space over the combat area" in the South-East of Ukraine in 2014, where the Malaysian Boeing MH17 crashed. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the action as “blatant” in a statement it published on Tuesday, July 17 on the Ministry’s website.    The Ministry called the conclusions of the joint investigation team on the MH17 case "unsubstantiated accusations." The Foreign Ministry noted that the …

  • Ukraine accuses Russia of intentionally creating traffic jams at the entry point to Crimea

    A large traffic jam built up at Chonhar checkpoint on the administrative border with the Crimea on July 17, Krym Realii reported. Maksym Soroka, assistant head of the Azov-Black Sea Regional Department of Mass Media Cooperation with the State Border Service of Ukraine explained that Russian border guards delayed car inspections at the checkpoint, resulting in long queues. "They registered vehicles slowly and intentionally, though there were no objective reasons for this," he explained.  …

  • Ukrainian President intends to prevent Russia from inspecting ships in the Azov Sea

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced his country’s plans to challenge the actions of Russian border guards who are inspecting ships in transit to Ukrainian ports.    “We are now faced with the question of how we will strengthen the protection from the sea,” the presidential press-service quotes Poroshenko. “We will not tolerate the illegal capture of Ukrainian and foreign ships moving toward Ukrainian ports, including Mariupol.”   Poroshenko said that he gave the appropriate orders to …

  • Herashchenko: Putin’s statements about ‘referendum’ in Crimea should be used in court

    The first vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact group for Donbas, Iryna Herashchenko,  stated that Ukrainian diplomats and lawyers must use the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about Moscow’s organization of the so-called referendum in the Crimea, for the lawsuits in international courts.

    “The most important thing that was said at the press conference (Russian President Vladimir Putin and President …

  • Russian intelligence gets hold of confidential OSCE Special Monitoring Mission information

    Internal documents belonging to OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) observers have found their way into the hands of Russia’s FSB, according to an investigation by the ARD Fakt program.The documents in question are reports on events in the occupied Donbas territories, as well as communication data pertaining to the SMM Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug.

    There is also a mini-file on mission members describing their character traits, alcohol consumption habits, financial standings, preferred …