Contents tagged with Ukraine

  • Ukraine wins Eurovision

    Ukrainian Singer Jamala has won the Eurovision contest. Her performance of song “1944” received 534 points bringing her to the top of the competition. The second place was taken by Australian Singer Dami Im, 511 points.Russian contestant, Sergey Lazarev, took the third spot scoring 491 points.Jamala’s song was dedicated to the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Soviet authorities in 1944.

  • Group of Italian MPs arrive in occupied Crimea

    RIA Novosti reported that a group of Italian MPs arrived in the occupied Crimea for a three-day visit. During the visit, the members of the delegation will visit Sevastopol, Yalta and Simferopol. The delegation includes senators Bartolomeo Pepe, Paola De Pin and Ivan Simeoni, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Nicola Ciriacci and also the Regional Council of Tuscany member, Gabrielle Sani.

    An MP of the Italian Parliament, Nicola Ciriacci, expressed the view that the rights of the Crimean …

  • Turkey supports creating OSCE police mission in the Donbas

    During a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, Turkish Minister of National Defense İsmet Yılmaz supported the idea of placing an armed OSCE police mission in the Donbas, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

    "The president briefed [Yılmaz] on the situation in the Donbas. Ukraine remains committed to the implementation of the Minsk agreements, but draws attention to the need for a system for the de-escalation of the situation and the deployment of armed police mission under the …

  • US demands that separatists allow OSCE access to weapons storage facilities

    The US representative to the OSCE, Daniel Baer, called for the immediate withdrawal of heavy weapons from the territories controlled by separatists in eastern Ukraine.

    At a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, the representative said that the OSCE observers reported no decrease in the arsenal of heavy weapons in Luhansk, "including tanks, howitzers, armored vehicles and anti-aircraft surface-to-air systems," Ukrinform reported.

    According to the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine, …

  • Ukraine and Turkey hope to finish negotiations on free trade agreement ‘as soon as possible’

    Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to finalize the negotiations on a free trade agreement as soon as possible, according to Ukrainian Trade Representative Natalia Mykolskiy.

    According to the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Economic Development, the parties have decided to hold talks on amending the intergovernmental agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax deviation, as well as an agreement on the mutual promotion and protection of investments, signed in 1996. …

  • Separatists demand withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from contested territories

    Casting doubt on the effectiveness of negotiations aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine, skirmishes continue along the contact line dividing separatist-held territories from the rest of Ukraine.

    Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that separatist leaders have demanded that the Ukrainian military withdraw from the territories recently taken by government forces.

    According to the news agency, representatives of the separatist republics, Denis Pushilin and Vladyslav Deinego, issued …

  • Ukraine and Turkey agree to strengthen military cooperation in the Black Sea

    Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the military sphere during a meeting between Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak and the Turkish Minister of National Defense, İsmet Yılmaz, Krym.Realii reported.

    "We agreed to develop a joint action plan to deepen cooperation in the military-technical sphere and logistical support, personnel training, the military-industrial complex, as well as on joint actions in the Black Sea basin. We plan on signing the relevant documents …

  • The FBI was invited to renew its mission in Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office

    The newly appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, announced an agreement with the FBI’s representative’s office in Ukraine about renewing the FBI’s mission in the Prosecutor General's Office.As Interfax-Ukraine reported, Lutsenko said that he had come to an agreement regarding the resumption of work of the FBI in the Prosecutor General's Office.

    "Also, I have an agreement with the representative office of the FBI in Ukraine about renewal of their mission in the Prosecutor …

  • Groysman accepts Biden’s invitation to visit the US

    Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladimir Groysman has accepted an invitation issued by US Vice President Joseph Biden to visit the United States in June.  This was announced in a statement released by the Department of Information and Communication of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Government after a telephone conversation between Groysman and Biden.

    "The Prime Minister accepted the invitation of Vice President Joe Biden to visit the United States in June of this year,” the statement read.

    The two …

  • Ukrainian Media Trade Union condemns blocking of news site in Crimea

    The Independent Media Trade Union of Ukraine has condemned the blocking of the Krym.Realii website on the territory of Russia and the annexed Crimea. The news portal, which is part of the Radio Free Europe program and funded by the US Congress, was reportedly blocked in Russia and the Crimea earlier this week.

    Russian Crimean Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya confirmed that the website had been blocked. She had previously stated that she was preparing the materials to make the news source …