Contents tagged with crimea

  • U.S. Secretary of State urges Russia to release Ukrainian sailors

    Washington hopes that Moscow will be able to negotiate with the new government in Ukraine and release Ukrainian sailors who were detained in the Kerch Strait, stated U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Sochi, Interfax reports.

    "We want Russia to reach out to the new Ukrainian government to find a way out of this situation. We also urge the Russian government to release the representatives of the crew that were captured in the Kerch …

  • Ukraine’s muftis and rabbis to Donbas residents: lay down your weapons

    Ahead of his inauguration, Ukraine’s President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky has held a meeting with a number of prominent religious leaders. During the meeting, Ukrainian priests, mullahs and rabbis recorded a joint video message to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas who have declared autonomy in Luhansk and in Donetsk.

    In the video, the religious figures highlight the need to be filled with love, to set aside weapons, and to engage in peaceful dialog.

    The clip begins with a statement by …

  • Russia jamming Ukrainian radio stations in northern Crimea

    The Russia-controlled Crimean authorities are deliberately jamming the signals of Ukrainian radio stations in the north of the peninsula, primarily by using the same frequencies for Russian stations, the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG) reports.

    According to monitoring conducted by the group between March and April this year, the signals of seven Ukrainian radio stations are being entirely or partially jammed by the signals of Russian FM stations in 20 settlements in northern Crimea.

    The …

  • Ukraine accuses Russia of violating rights of indigenous peoples

    The Ukrainian political party the “Petro Poroshenko Bloc” intends to approach the UN, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO and the OSCE, and various national parliaments, to urge them to condemn Russia’s “systematic violation of the rights of indigenous peoples”. A draft of the corresponding resolution will be put on the agenda of Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on 14 May.

    The document was authored by MPs Refat Chubarov, Oksana …

  • Former Ukrainian Joint Forces commander: Russia has more than 70,000 regular troops in Crimea and Donbas

    There are nearly 75,000 Russian career soldiers in Crimea and the Donbas, Serhiy Nayev, former commander of Ukraine’s Joint Forces, told TSN in an interview.

    “In Crimea there are 40,000 Russian soldiers, and 35,000 in the Donbas, where Russians hold all the leading military positions and are part of the so-called precision divisions. The special divisions and instructors are also from Russia. There are generally between 2,100 and 2,300 of them there. In the ‘army ranks’, there are around 11,000 …

  • Latvia recognizes deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 as genocide

    Latvian Parliament (the Saeima) published a statement dedicated to the anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944,  recognizing it as an act of genocide, reported the news agency Delfi.

    The statement of the Latvian Saeima says that the Soviet authorities carried out genocide against many peoples and ethnic groups, in particular, against the Crimean Tatars, to "move them out from their homeland." Also, the Parliament recalled that five years ago Russia annexed Crimea.

    "Those …

  • Putin calls Kyiv ‘one of the ancient Russian capitals’

    President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin made a speech at the Victory Parade in Moscow’s Red Square, TASS reports.

     “It is our sacred duty to protect the real heroes of the Great Patriotic War when in a number of countries people shamelessly lie to their children about the war and betray their ancestors ... The memory of the war and its truth is in our conscience and one of our responsibilities. Today we see how a number of states deliberately distort the events of the war and make …

  • Crimean authorities recognize Zelensky's wife's ownership of an apartment in Livadia

    The so-called "State Registry Committee" of the annexed Crimea stated that they recognize the rights of newly elected President's wife of the Vladimir Zelensky and Olena on a luxury apartment in Livadia, reports RBC news agency.

    The press service of the "State Committee of Crimea on state registration and cadaster" said that there was no appeal from the wife of Zelensky.

    "There were no appeals. According to her declaration, she has included it [the apartment] there, and it means she owns it. …

  • Former Ukrainian President Kravchuk: Ukraine was forced to take Crimea in Soviet times because Russia could not sustain it

    The first president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, in an interview with the Ukrainian news outlet Apostrof, said that  the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Nikita Khrushchev forced the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to integrate the Crimea, since Russia "could not sustain it (the Crimea)."

    “[Nikita Khrushchev] comes to Kyiv, comes to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of …

  • Russia sends imprisoned Ukrainian sailors for a new medical examination

    Russia set a new technical examination for the detained sailors from the ships Berdyansk and Nikopol which were seized in the Kerch Strait, reported  lawyer Nikolai Polozov reported on Facebook.

    The Russian investigators had already presented the decision to conduct the medical examination to all imprisoned sailors and their lawyer.

    Polozov stressed that the lawyers objected to the examination. "This expertise is a kind of know-how of the Russian investigation. Experts are required to give a …