Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said that Turkey will not pay Russia for the Su-24 bomber that was shot down over the Turkish-Syrian border in November of last year, Rosbalt reported.

According to Yıldırım, Ankara has only expressed its regret over the incident and has not agreed to pay compensation.

On Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan apologized to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the downing of the frontline bomber. …

Turkey has confirmed that its President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin.

“In the letter, he stated that he wanted to inform the family of the deceased Russian pilot that he shares their pain and that he expresses his condolences. Perhaps they will forgive us,” this was said on the 27th of June by Erdoğan’s representative, Ibrahim Kalin, who was quoted by Turkish media.

“Turkey and Russia have agreed on the need to take immediate …

NATO jets escorted Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea on five occasions last week, BaltNews reported with reference to the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense.

On June 23rd, NATO fighters escorted a Russian IL-20 cargo plane flying in international airspace from the Kaliningrad exclave. The aircraft was following its flight plan, but its transponder was turned off. A Russian Tu-134 cargo plane was also intercepted on Thursday for the same reason.

On the same day, a Russian Su-27 fighter …

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, expressed confidence that the draft bill on decentralization will be approved, but without the clause regarding the "special status" of the Donbas region.

As 112 Ukraine reports, the parliament speaker says that decentralization is one of the key reforms in Ukraine, receiving support both from the Parliament and the public, but it should not be approved together with the paragraph about the specifics of local self-government in the breakaway …

On Monday, June 27, the Chamber of the Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) of  the Italian Parliament rejected a resolution to lift sanctions against the Russian Federation. The proposal which called on the Italian government to lift the sanctions against Russia was submitted by the opposition parties , Five Start Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle) and the North League (Lega Nord), as reported by the Russian RIA Novosti news agency.

The Italian deputies rejected the resolution that called on the …

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Andriy Parubiy, and the Speaker of the Polish Sejm, Marek Kuchciński, foresee serious prospects of increasing cooperation between countries of the Carpathian region when it comes to economics, transit and security issues.

“We have discussed the issue of inter-regional cooperation. We have developed a shared understanding where we see great prospects of increasing inter-regional cooperation,” Parubiy stated after bilateral meeting with Kuchciński during a …

The Marshall of the Sejm of Poland, Marek Kuchciński, said in Truskavets that at the Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdrój (Poland), Polish representatives plan to propose the establishment of an Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Visegrad Four countries (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) and two neighboring countries of the Carpathian region - Romania and Ukraine,” as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

"We want to offer our colleagues from the Czech Republic and Hungary to establish a joint …

In her interview with Bild am Sonntag, the Minister of Defense of Germany, Ursula von der Leyen, called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization the strongest existing military alliance and called on Russia to openly report the number of its troops and its movements. “It would be an appropriate step if Russia and NATO continue to exchange information on movements and number of their troops within OSCE,” the Minister stated. Von der Leyen favored improving relations with Russia, noting that Moscow …