• Klimkin calls on foreign ministers to help free Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia

    The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavlo Klimkin sent letters to his colleagues from different countries, asking them to exert pressure on Russia to release all Ukrainian political prisoners.

    The Minister stressed the extreme importance of freeing Volodymyr Balukh, Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko, who all announced that they would go on hunger strike.

    "I sent letters to fellow ministers around the world and asked them to apply pressure on Russia and demand everyone’s release. It …

  • Media: NATO to create rapid response force in Europe to counter Russia

    In addition to the existing forces, NATO intends to create a 30,000 strong rapid response force in Europe in case of a Russian attack, writes the German news outlet Welt am Sonntag (WamS).  

    Representatives of 23 EU governments have signed a declaration on their intentions to participate in a “permanent structured security and defense collaboration”. The final decision is scheduled to be made in December.

    There are plans for the rapid response forces to have several hundreds of military …

  • President of Belarus names conditions for closure of the border with Russia

    During the visit to the border checkpoint in Divin, in the Kobryn district, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko offered Russia to determine the current status of border guards on the border of the two countries, BelTA news agency reports.  According to Lukashenko, Belarusian border guards “should not act like Russians” because “they themselves do not understand what they want and what they are doing at the Belarusian-Russian border”.

     “They should decide. Once they do it — it is not …

  • European MP: there is evidence that Putin pays those who support him in European Parliament

    Supporters of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, who receive money from Moscow, are operating actively in the European Parliament, Ukrinform reports, with reference to a statement by the Lithuanian MEP and chairman of the EU Informal Group “Friends of European Ukraine”, Petras Auštrevičius.

    “We have a lot of people with impartial views, and we have information about the situation in Ukraine—we are Ukraine's strong supporters,” Auštrevičius stated. “We do our best in this respect. At the …

  • Putin's adviser on Donbas Surkov may be replaced

    The newspaper Kommersant reported that Russia will appoint a new representative in charge of the so-called to the Donetsk Luhansk People’s Republics, to replace Vladislav Surkov.

    According to the newspaper, government reshuffle in the Kremlin will affect advisers and assistants to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Surkov is Putin’s aide in matters related to the Commonwealth of Independent States, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Ukraine.

    Mikhail Babich, whose appointment as Russia’s ambassador …