Contents tagged with Kyiv

  • Kyiv: Russian submarines in Black Sea contravening Montreux Convention

    Russia is violating the Montreux Convention, which regulates the usage of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and the Sea of Marmara, said Ukrainian General Staff spokesperson Leonid Zalyubovskiy, as reported by Ukrinform. The Ukrainian military has documented heightened activity of Russian submarines in the Bosporus strait, he noted.

    “By pretending to do technical maintenance, Russia is effectively carrying out a full-fledged deployment of submarines in the Mediterranean region,” the …

  • Kyiv: NATO military forces arrived in Odessa to participate in Sea Breeze 2019 exercises

    Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported about the arrival of additional units of the North Atlantic Alliance in Odessa to participate in the Sea Breeze 2019 exercises. The first units arrived in Odessa on the American C-130J Hercules, and the UK special marine forces arrived on British A400 Atlas jet aircraft, reports the press service of the Ukrainian military department.

    The exercises Sea Breeze were initially conducted as part of the Partnership for Peace program. Since the 2000s, they were …

  • US: Russians under sanctions should not be allowed to PACE

    During the press conference in Kyiv, United States Chargé d’Affaires to Ukraine William said that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe should not allow the Russian delegation to include Russians who fell under US and EU sanctions, reports Hromadske TV channel.

    The politician recalled that the United States is not a member of the Council of Europe but noted that Washington opposed the decision to return Russia to this organization. He also spoke about Kyiv's efforts to prevent …

  • Volker tells US Senate about Zelensky’s ties to Kolomoyskyi

    The US State Department is aware that there are ties between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi. However, US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker hopes that Zelensky will manage to become a president who is independent of the oligarchs, Voice of America reports.

    During a hearing titled “Five years after the Revolution of Dignity: Ukraine’s progress/Russia’s malign activities” held by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 18 June, Volker …

  • Kremlin: Putin adopts wait-and-see approach with Ukrainian President Zelensky

    In an episode of the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin has taken a wait-and-see attitude towards Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, because it is not yet clear what his approach will be towards the essential items on the agenda, Interfax reports. In particular, it is unclear whether Ukraine will maintain its “hostile” stance toward Russia. The Kremlin would also like to understand the new president’s attitude to the Minsk Agreements. …

  • Ukrainian President Zelensky's party names opponents and allies

    In an interview with the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the chief of staff of Ukrainian President Zelensky's party Servant of the People (Sluha Narodu) Alexander Kornienko said that their party does not consider any of the "old political forces" as their allies. At the same time, the party has the same values as Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's new political party the Voice (Holos).

    In his opinion, the plans of Servant of the People intersect with Voice "in some regions in the West and a little in Kyiv."

    " …

  • Ukrainian President Zelensky wants to dismiss all governors

    President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky insists that all the chairmen of regional state administrations be dismissed, said his spokeswoman, Iuliia Mendel.

    “In fact, the President of Ukraine insists that all governors should be dismissed. Now, we are talking about 13 (governors ) and the process of finding the professionals who can take over the regional administrations continues,” Mendel said, according to Radіo Svoboda.

    She noted that international HR companies are participating in selecting …

  • President Zelensky’s party publishes program to 'reset Ukraine's government'

    At a session on 9 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party unveiled its program for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections. Its priorities include purging and renewing the country’s government system, eradicating corruption, establishing attractive conditions for business, reforming the social sector and building an innovative economy, the party wrote on Facebook.

    “Ukraine needs radical changes. This was confirmed by the voting for Volodymyr Zelensky in …

  • Gazprom capitulates in gas dispute with Ukraine

    A gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, which began with a record drop in prices in 2013 and translated into a reduction and later suspension of supply, will apparently finally end with Gazprom capitulating.

    The Russian gas monopoly is offering to negotiate a deal to resume the direct gas supply to Kyiv, and to extend the contract for transit to Europe that expires in 2019, said Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller.

    The gas prices will be lower, he promised: the cost of gas for the end consumer will …

  • Kyiv: 120 Ukrainian citizens held captive in Russian, LPR, and DPR prisons

    The representative of the Department for Operations of President's Commissioner on the issues of rehabilitation of combatants Natalia Zaretskaya said that 120 citizens of Ukraine are in custody in Russia and the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR).

    "We have about 120 people, both civilian and military, who are in detention centers on the territory of Russia, as well as the territory of the LPR and the DPR," she said.

    Zaretskaya has expressed confidence that the …