• Russia in talks with Belarus on extending lease agreement for two military facilities

    The Belarusian Defense Ministry said that Russia might keep the right to use two military facilities on Belarusian territory next year. These two military facilities are the Vileyka VLF transmitter and Missile Attack Early Warning System site in Hantsavichy which houses Volga-type Radar Station.

    According to the Belarusian Defense Ministry, negotiations and consultations on this issue are continuing. The extension of the agreements of January 6, 1995, which entered into force on June 7, 1996, …

  • Seven Ukrainians detained in Poland on extradition request from Russia

    Between 2016 and 2019, 19 Ukrainians have been arrested in Poland due to Russia placing their details on the Interpol system in connection with an extradition request, Hromadske Radio reports, citing the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

    Seven Ukrainians have now been arrested in Poland due to an extradition request from Russia. A Polish court has ruled that another three Ukrainian citizens may not leave the country.

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the extradition of four Ukrainian …

  • Russia and Belarus one step away from oil war

    Moscow and Minsk have been unable to agree on the terms under which Russian oil will be supplied to Belarusian refineries, and the deliveries could even stop at the start of the new year, Reuters reported, citing six sources in the industry.

    On the morning of December 31, not a single ton of Russian oil was registered for Belarus, said two sources familiar with the registration of route instructions.

    There have been numerous obstacles in the negotiations which Moscow links to the integration …

  • Poland’s chief rabbi outraged by Putin’s World War II comment

    Klara Kołodziejska-Połtyn, president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, and Chief Polish Rabbi Michael Schudrich have responded to a statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he called the Polish diplomat Józef Lipski, who worked in Nazi Germany, an “anti-Semitic swine”. Extracts from their comments were published by the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita.

    Kołodziejska-Połtyn and Schudrich called Putin’s statements “outrageous”. “Recently Russian President …

  • Ukraine starts gas transit to EU under new contract with Russia

    New Ukrainian national gas transit company, Operator of Gas Transit System of Ukraine (GTS), announced the beginning of the transit of Russian gas to the European Union under a new contract with Gazprom. The first cubic meters of gas have already been transported to the EU, reads the company's message on Facebook.

    The head of the company Sergey Makogon, in turn, said that the GTS has started working on a regular schedule and transports gas under the signed agreements. "We have proved that we …