• Hezbollah to open official representative office in Moscow

    Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah is conducting consultations on the possibility of opening an official representative office in Moscow to establish direct channels of communication and strengthen them, Iranian TV channel PressTV reported.

    Negotiations began in mid-March after a delegation of the terrorist organization visited the Russian capital. At the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the sides "discussed the situation in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Palestine." At the same time, …

  • Kyiv: Ukraine will no longer continue Donbas talks in Minsk

    After the lockdown, which is in force during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyiv will not send its delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in Minsk for talks on settlement in the Donbas, stated the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied, Oleksii Reznikov, on air of the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV, adding that Ukraine intends to look for another platform to continue negotiations.

    "We have firmly informed that we will not participate in the TCG meetings if the quarantine is …

  • Russia begins combat readiness check of its entire armed forces

    The Russian Defense Ministry announced the beginning of a large-scale inspection of the combat readiness of the armed forces, which will span all Russian military districts and the Northern Fleet.

    According to Interfax, during the month of April, the Russian armed forces will hold 4,048 exercises of various scale at a hundred training sites and 520 training facilities. "All types of troops of the Armed Forces will be involved in the readiness checks," the Defense Ministry said.

    The beginning …

  • Russia prepares for yet another round of ‘terrible sanctions’

    The U.S. has reached out to Russia in connection with the situation in southeastern Ukraine, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

    The contacts took place "at a high level" and the U.S. side "expressed concern” about “Moscow’s actions”, Ryabkov said.

    The Pentagon estimated that 4,000 troops and equipment were transferred to the border with Ukraine.

    "We are carrying out on our territory, on Russian territory, those steps that we consider necessary," Ryabkov reiterated the …

  • Kremlin: Ukraine’s membership in NATO will not help to solve Donbas conflict

    The Kremlin doubts that Ukraine's accession to NATO will help resolve the conflict in the Donbas, said the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

    "We deeply doubt that this will help Ukraine somehow cope with its internal problem. From our point of view, this will make the situation even worse," he said. The Kremlin representative once again called the fighting in the Donbas an internal conflict of Ukraine, denying the military and financial participation of the Russian …