• Military Registration office in the annexed Crimea asked a Jehovah's Witnesses follower to change his beliefs

    The Military Commission of the Bakhchisaray district of the annexed Crimea demanded a conscript-follower of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to provide “documentation of his change of belief”, as stated on the Russian Jehovah's Witnesses’ website.

    It was reported that in early June, the Military Registration and Enlistment Office denied the young man the right to alternative services, stating he must change his beliefs.

    The organization's website has also published a copy of the draft notice, in which …

  • Media: thousands of Russian soldiers are currently stationed in the Donbas

    The total number of military personnel from the Russian Armed Forces who are active in the separatist-held territories of Eastern Ukraine is currently 5-6 thousand, wrote journalist and military expert Yuriy Butusov on ZN.UA news website.

    “Nominally assigned to the command posts, the local separatists carry out, in the best case, the functions of students and ‘advisers’, or are otherwise ‘talking heads’ for propaganda. Russian mercenaries are the linchpins in all the military subdivisions of …

  • International Maritime Organization condemns Russia for opening fire at Ukrainian An-26 aircraft in February

    19 delegations of the member-countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) condemned the actions of the Russian Federation in connection with the firing at the An-26 aircraft of the Ukrainian Naval Forces over the Black Sea in February this year, as stated in a message on the website of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    On June 15, the Ukrainian delegation addressed a meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee of the International …

  • The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s General Office has demanded that Russia extradite the ex-commander of the Berkut Special Police

    The Prosecutor General's Office (GPU) has asked Russia to detain and extradite Serhiy Kusyuk, the former chief of the Kyiv Special Police Regiment, Berkut, as reported by the head of the GPU Department of Special Investigations, Sergei Gorbatyuk on 112 Ukraine.

    “A request was sent to the Russian Federation to detain and extradite him,” he said.

    So far, there has been no answer from the Russian Federation.  

    Gorbatyuk also noted that Kusyuk was made aware of GPU’s suspicion during seven …

  • Russian schoolboy was dissatisfied with Putin's answer to the question about corruption

    A schoolboy named Danila, from Nefteyugansk, remained dissatisfied with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to his question about corruption.

    During the ‘Direct Line with Vladimir Putin’ Q&A TV show, the young man asked Putin how the President could solve the problem of corrupt officials. The teenager also expressed the opinion that placing corruption suspects on house arrest does not yield results, yet the problem affects most of the country's population.

    He added that in the Khanty- …