Contents tagged with Ukraine

  • Putin: Normandy format meetings before the elections in Ukraine meaningless

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his briefing to the Russian media, stated that meetings in the Normandy format before the presidential elections in Ukraine, which will take place on March 31, are meaningless.

    “At the moment, meeting in the Normandy format during the election campaign that is taking place in Ukraine, is pretty much meaningless because today’s Ukrainian authorities have not shown any desire to comply with the Minsk agreements. They do nothing to implement these …

  • Kyiv: Ukraine has arrested 15 ships for visiting closed Crimean ports

    Ukraine has already arrested or placed other restrictions on 15 foreign vessels that have visited the closed ports of Russia-annexed Crimea, said Oleh Slobodyan, assistant to the head of Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service (SBGS), Radio Liberty reports.

    Ukraine’s border guards take actions when they see that ships are entering Ukraine’s economic sea zone or ports.

    “Already 15 vessels have been placed under arrest or other restrictions. These are all vessels that have violated Ukraine’s …

  • The new Ambassador of Hungary announced his support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine

    Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar said on Twitter that he received copies of credentials from the new Ambassador of Hungary to Ukraine, István Ijdyarto.

    “Today, I received copies of credentials from the new ambassador of Hungary in Ukraine, István Íjgyártó.

    We have agreed to work on a positive agenda of bilateral relations. Mr. Ambassador is studying Ukrainian, which will undoubtedly help him in his professional activities,” Bodnar wrote.

    The previous Ambassador of …

  • DPR head Pushilin announces integration with LPR and accession to Russia

    Newly-elected leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin claimed that borders and customs between territories controlled by the DPR and LPR would be removed, and that in the future, the territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are controlled by pro-Russian militants will become a part of Russia, the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

    “We can speak about a single Donbas, but it happened so in 2014 l, that it was split into two Republics. We didn’t …

  • Ecumenical Patriarchate: Holy Synod to grant Ukrainian Church autocephaly

    The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will grant the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly (independence), Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said in an address on the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor (man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians).

    “This great responsibility of the mother church, the holy and great Church of Christ, surely has no borders. And so, just as we grant autocephaly to all local churches, the Holy Synod has decided to …

  • Slovakia opens the first criminal case for participation in the war in Donbas

    For the first time, a citizen of Slovakia has been charged for taking part in the war in the East of Ukraine, Slovak police reported on Facebook.

    According to the investigation, Mario, a local resident whose last name was not disclosed, has been fighting on the side of pro-Russian militants since July 2015. He has been charged in absentia with taking part in hostilities as part of an organized armed group in the territory of another state. If Mario returns to Slovakia, he may face up to eight …

  • Ukraine initiates criminal proceedings against organizers of LPR elections

    The Prosecutor’s office of the Luhansk region initiated criminal proceedings for organizing and holding the “regular elections for the head of the LPR and deputies of the People’s Council” by the separatist administration of Russia on the temporarily annexed territories of the Luhansk region, reported the press service of the Prosecutor’s Office. 

    The criminal proceedings are based on articles on forcible change or overthrowing constitutional order, violation of the territorial integrity of …

  • American company wants to grow cannabis in Ukraine

    The American company C21 Investments Inc. has announced that it is filing an application to the Ukrainian State Service for Medications and Drugs Control [SSUMDC] to obtain a license for growing cannabis.

    C21 Investments says that it has already been granted a license by the SSUMDC to import extracts and concentrates of raw cannabidiol or CBD, a naturally occurring cannabinoid constituent of cannabis, as well as the processing of CBD for medicine, the wholesale distribution of finished …

  • No Ukraine-NATO drills planned in Sea of Azov

    Ukraine and NATO do not intend to hold joint exercises in the Sea of Azov, said Vadym Prystaiko, head of Ukraine’s NATO representation.

    “Joint exercises or operations in the Sea of Azov will definitely be perceived by Russia as provocation. The Alliance does not plan to provoke Russia… We do not yet have plans to conduct exercises in the Sea of Azov with NATO,” he told Interfax-Ukraine in an interview.

    He also pointed out that bringing military ships into the Sea of Azov is currently …

  • Media: Russia’s anti-Ukrainian sanctions only partial

    The restrictions that Russia imposed on Ukraine at the start of November do not include a direct ban on shipping goods from the companies under sanctions, the Russian news outlet Interfax reported, citing its own source in the financial and economic division of the Russian government.

    “The government’s decree from November 1 concerns only financial relations and does not impose a ban on trade agreements with the involvement of third parties,” the source stated.

    Products manufactured by the …