According to several Ukrainian soldiers, heavy fighting has erupted near Avdiivka, where a separatist offensive involving members of the Russian Special Forces (GRU) was launched, CRiMe reported.

The Ukrainian servicemen told the online publication that the offensive includes the use of tanks and other heavy weapons that are banned by the Minsk agreements. They also stated that Russian GRU forces were involved in the fighting.

“Before the offensive we managed to intercept their radio …

According to Radio Svoboda, the special representative for the organization in the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of conflict in Donbas, Martin Sajdik, stated that as a result of the meeting of the Contact Group in Minsk, the parties discussed the proposal of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to provide the police mission during the coming election in Donbas.“Security issues during the elections were not discussed. But unfortunately, the secretariat and the German Government …

The leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, believes that the issue of the de-occupation of Crimea cannot be of less importance then other topics during the international negotiations on the situation in Ukraine. The politician said this at a press conference in Kyiv on April 6, Krym.Realii reported.

"The Minsk Agreements don't say a word about the aggressor withdrawing completely from the occupied territories. So the de-occupation of Crimea is omitted from these agreements. From our …

The former head of Latvian counterintelligence and adviser to the president of the republic, Janis Kazocins, believes that Russia will hardly risk a direct military invasion into the Baltic States as stated in his article titled, "Has the Russian Venture into Syria made Latvia Safer?", BaltNews reported.

However, in his opinion, right now there comes an extremely dangerous period when Moscow can "decide on their next venture."

"There are two opinions regarding Russia’s current opportunities …

The World Bank predicts that the Russian economy will shrink 1.9%, a poorer estimate than the December forecast which estimated a dip of only 0.7%.

The worsening of the forecast is due to a revaluation of oil prices for 2016. In the previous forecast the bank assumed that the average oil price would be 49 dollars per barrel. According to the bank’s new estimates, the average oil price this year will be about 37 dollars per barrel.

The new WB forecast also anticipates 1.1% growth in the …

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk intends to introduce a ban on the import of oil products from Russia. He stated this on April 6th during a meeting with the government. Ukraine has established strict sanctions on goods from Russia after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and because of Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded with its own ban on Ukrainian goods.

At a meeting with the government in Kiev, Yatsenyuk said that "we have introduced …

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first comments on the investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, calling it “nonsense”, Dozhd reported.

“The publication of the ‘Panama Papers’ is an attempt to destabilize the situation in the country,” Putin stated. “The easiest way to do this is to motivate people to distrust the authorities.”

The International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) recently published a report highlighting the ways in which …

Pro-Russian separatists have fired on Ukrainian positions 23 times since midnight near in the Donbas region, mostly around Avdiivka, the Press Center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stated, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine on April 7th.

Exchanges of fire were also reported near Nevelsky, Trehizbenka, and the Butovka mine.

The Press Center confirmed that Ukrainian soldiers returned fire.

“Our experiences the past few days have shown that [to open fire] is the only way to stop the provocation of …