The press service of the Sevastopol Government, controlled by Russia, reported after a meeting of the Operational Headquarters on Emergency Situations that power outages continue in annexed Sevastopol. The local authorities, controlled by Moscow, explained that these outages are the result of the ongoing work installing the energy bridge from neighboring Russia.

“In this regard, the emergency services of Sevastopol work on heightened alert. The limit (162 MW.) was set for the city at 10 p.m. …

The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, who is in favor of maintaining the present non-aligned policy, noted that the issue on the country entering NATO should be put to a national referendum.

Commenting on the report of the international expert group about the consequences of NATO entry for the country, published on Friday, he stated in an interview with Yle that Russia sees NATO as a threat, which was also outlined in the report.

“They don’t want this threat to reach their borders,” the …

According to unnamed sources in a Der Spiegel report, the current format of the G7 is unlikely to be re-expanded to the G8 to include Russia, the Office of the Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, stated, as reported by Deutsche Welle.

"The G8 format is dead," the source in the agency said. Merkel's staff is skeptical that Moscow will be able to fulfill the conditions for their return to the Group of Eight.

According to the journal's information, the US authorities are against the …

The State Department's Deputy Spokesperson, Mark Toner, stated that pro-Russian separatists are responsible high number of ceasefire violations in the Donbas.

“We are certainly concerned at the level of violence in eastern Ukraine which has reached its highest level since the ceasefire agreements in September,” Toner said.

He emphasized that about 30,000 ceasefire violations were registered in April; which he described as “a huge number.” At the same time, as Toner noted, “The OSCE reports …

Ukrainian political prisoners Oleg Sentsov and Alexander Kolchenko, who are being held in Russia, filled out all necessary documents for their extradition to Ukraine. Radio Liberty journalist Anton Naumlyuk posted on Facebook about this recent development in their plight.

"Oleg Sentsov and Olexandr Kolchenko finished all paperwork necessary for their transfer to Ukraine. The documents were handed over to the Federal Penitentiary Service to be transferred later to the Ministry of Justice," …

The State Border Service of Ukraine announced that security will be increased during the May holidays, especially along the coastal areas, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Naval forces and aircraft will be used on a daily basis during this time to monitor Ukraine’s coastlines and administrative border between the mainland and the Crimea.

“Tactical ship groups are to cover approaches from the sea. In the air are ‘Diamond’ planes to monitor the situation in the sea and the administrative border with …

The memorial display on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge dedicated to the memory of murdered politician Boris Nemtsov was disassembled again, presumably in preparation for the May holidays. Two activists on the bridge were detained.

"Holidays began. The memorial on Nemtsov Bridge was cleaned up. The next few weeks will be difficult.  What’s a without traffic getting blocked? Most likely the government will clean up often. But holidays pass, and memory remains. Let them destroy [the memorial]. …

According to a report released by the Finnish government, if the country joined NATO, it would provoke a crisis in relations with Russia, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.

As noted by the Yle Finnish broadcasting company, a working group which assesses the implications of the possible accession of Finland to NATO submitted a report to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timo Soini. 

According to the report, membership in NATO would most likely affect Finland's security, as it would help deter …