Contents tagged with Ukraine

  • Putin extends restrictions on transit of Ukrainian goods to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

    Russian President Vladimir Putin amended the decree from January 1, 2016 "On Measures to ensure economic security and national interests of Russia during the transit of goods from Ukraine to the Republic of Kazakhstan or the Kyrgyz Republic through the territory of the Russian Federation." He extended it for half a year, until July 1, 2019,  the Russia’s government website of legal information. 

    The decree entered into force on December 31, 2018. It stipulates that inter-country transportation …

  • Ukraine opens new Army training center

    The construction of the training center called “Urban warfare” has been completed at the Yavoriv military base in the Lviv region, reported the Ukrainian military portal on Monday, December 31. The tender for construction was first announced in May 2018. The cost of the construction was about 40 million hryvnia ($1.5 million). 

    Three squadrons can train simultaneously there during the day and one squadron can train at night. “This training center will conduct training in urban offensive and …

  • Kyiv: Russia has deployed 53,000 soldiers on Ukrainian border

    Russia is maintaining vast military forces along the Ukrainian border, with as many as 53,000 soldiers there at the end of December 2018, reports Uninform with reference to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

     “The Russian Federation is continuing to expand its military groups close to the Ukrainian state border. Notably, as of the end of December 2018, on Ukraine’s border and in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, 28 tactical battalion groups were deployed. The total number of the …

  • Czech Republic is unhappy with Ukraine's law recognizing OUN and UPA veterans as fighters for independence

    The President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman "publicly called on Prague to officially protest against the glorification of Ukraine's war criminals,” his representative Jiří Ovčáček wrote on Twitter, Radio Svoboda reports. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, particularly its head, Tomáš Petříček ‘fearfully keeps silent’ regarding the glorification of Bandera’s followers in Ukraine,” the statement said.

    Petříček responded to Ovčáček’s statement by saying he would discuss …

  • Ukrainian Security Service: Three prisoners handed over to Kyiv in December were recruited by the LPR

    The counterintelligence department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has discovered that three out of the 42 prisoners from Luhansk who were handed over to Ukraine at the start of December had been recruited by the Luhansk People’s Republic’s (LPR) Ministry of State Security. 

    The SBU press service reported that prisoners had been coerced to sign tacit collaboration pledges through threats and psychological pressure. Presumably, they were expected to collect information about the …

  • Ukrainian Interior Minister agrees to be questioned by the Russian Prosecutor’s Office in exchange for the extradition of Yanukovych

    Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said he is ready to be questioned in the case of alleged interference in the Russian presidential elections. In exchange, he demanded that the Russian Prosecutor's Office extradite former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who is suspected of high treason in Ukraine.

    “I am ready to testify in the so-called case on interfering in the elections of Putin in exchange for the extradition of Ukrainian citizen Yanukovych,” Avakov wrote on Facebook.

    The …

  • Ukrainian Army plans to buy up to 20 types of new weapons

    Ukraine Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak stated that Kyiv will purchase up to 20 types of new weapons for the country's army. He emphasized that domestically produced weapons would be purchased, as well as Western weapons.

    “I would say that most of the weapons will be of domestic production,” the press service of the Ukraine Defense Ministry cites him as saying.

    The Ukrainian Minister of Defense said that plans to acquire arms are part of state defense contracts for 2019-2021 adopted by the …

  • Kyiv: Ukraine to test new models of weapons in 2019

    The Ukrainian government’s press service reported on Sunday, December 30th, that Ukraine would test new weapons in 2019. 

    It is noted that testing of the Ukraine-made man-portable air defense missile system (MANPADS) Kolibri (Hummingbird) will begin. 

    Also, next year, Ukrainian weapon makers will complete development and start government testing of the Neptun ground-based cruise missile systems which is capable of striking distant targets at sea. 

    “This weapon will be high-precision, modern …

  • Austrian Chancellor: Lifting of sanctions against Russia must be linked with the resolution of the situation in Donbas

    In an interview with the Rheinische Post, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that the gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia should be linked with the process of resolving the situation in the Donbas. 

    “When I was a foreign minister, I believed that it was necessary to link the gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia with positive steps towards Ukraine – something that former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier proposed. The first step would imply establishing a real …

  • Crimea exported 200 thousand tons of grain to Syria and Russia

    The Crimean Minister of Agriculture, Andrey Ryumshin stated, that in 2018, 200 thousand tons of grain were exported from Crimea to Syria and Russia. 

    According to him, the supply of grain to Syria this year amounted to about 40 thousand tons. Additionally, Ryumshin emphasized that this year grain supplies from the Crimea halved due to drought. 

    “Last year about 400 thousand tons of grain were exported out of Crimea, and this year about 200 thousand tons,” noted the Crimean minister. 

    In 2017, …