Contents tagged with crimea

  • US aircraft conducts reconnaissance flight near annexed Crimea

    A US Navy P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol aircraft flew near the Kerch Strait, as reported on Tuesday, November 6 by Interfax, citing the monitoring data of Western aviation resources. The American aircraft took off from Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicilia, Italy and held a long flight over the international waters of the Black Sea, 35 km south of the entrance to the Kerch Strait.

    During its flight, the Poseidon also flew near Sevastopol and the coast of Krasnodar Krai.

     A US Air Force …

  • Ukrainian politician accuses Merkel of preventing Ukraine from becoming a NATO member

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “responsible” for the fact that Ukraine has not become a NATO member yet, stated Verkhovna Rada Deputy Yuriy Chyzhmar on the Channel ZIK.

    “It was she who in 2008 in Bucharest, as you remember, raised the issue of not providing Ukraine with an action plan for NATO membership, to please Putin. If we had it then, maybe today the issues of the Donbas and the Crimea would not exist, so we have lot of questions for you,” the deputy stated in the show “People are …

  • Crimean authorities ask Russia for help in organizing air transit between Damascus and Simferopol

    Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian head of the Crimea, sent a letter to Yevgeny Dietrich, the Russian Minister of Transport, and asked him for support in organizing flight connections between Damascus and Simferopol, TASS reported.

    It was reported earlier that Aksyonov spoke about this at his meeting with Syrian authorities during his visit in Damascus from October 15 to 16.

    The Russian Ministry of Transport confirmed that they received Aksyonov’s letter.

    Representatives of the Russian authorities …

  • Erdogan: Turkey will never recognize the annexation of Crimea

    President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the joint briefing with the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, stated that Turkey has never recognized and will not recognize the  annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

    He once again assured that the position of Turkey is to support the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and political unity of Ukraine, reports 112 Ukraine.

    At the same time, Erdogan stressed that Ankara will continue to protect the …

  • Ukrainian military to hold guided missile launches near Crimea

    From November 1 to 4, Ukrainian military will carry out tests of guided missiles in the Kherson region. The airspace over the Black Sea will be closed because of the exercises, said spokesman of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Dmytro Strutynsky.

    “Flight exercises will be held tomorrow in the Kherson Oblast to test launch guided missiles from anti-aircraft systems,” Strutynsky said.

    Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities stated that the airspace over the Black Sea near the western …

  • Ukrainian Permanent Representative to UN: Russia is attempting to deploy nuclear weapons in the Crimea

    The permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN, Volodymyr Yelchenko during a speech at the UN Security Council meeting stated that Russia doubled its military presence in the annexed Crimea, RBC-Ukraine reports.

    “Russia has more than doubled its forces on the Crimean peninsula and is attempting to deploy nuclear weapons on the peninsula,” stated Yelchenko.

    The ambassador added that since 2014, more than 100 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation moved to the territory of Crimea.

    “For …

  • Crimean authorities intend to nationalize property of Crimean Tatar Mejlis

    The Crimean authorities intend to nationalize the property of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and hand it over to the Russian-controlled Spiritual Direction of the Muslims of Crimea (SDMC), Krym.Realii reports, citing Sergey Ayksyonov, Russian Prime Minister of Crimea.

    Aksyonov noted that no “nationalization” is currently taking place on the peninsula, but with respect to the Mejlis’s property “the relevant measures should be taken”.

    The initiative had been voiced the day before at the …

  • Russia to start sending new Crimean conscripts to its northern territories

    During the autumn conscription, the Armed Forces of Russia plan to draft 2800 Crimeans, many of whom will be sent to the Extreme North of Russia to serve for the first time, said Russian Military Commissioner of Crimea Oleg Yermilov, as reported by Krym.Realii.

    According to the commissioner, 2,300 people will be sent to serve in neighboring Russia. The Crimean conscripts will be made to serve in the ground, aerospace, engineering, and even the strategic forces, the Russian National Guard, and …

  • Ukraine demands that Russia stop recruiting Crimeans to its army

    The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry protested the ongoing recruitment of Crimean residents to the Russian army. “Such actions are a blatant violation of the obligations according to the International Humanitarian law that prohibits Russia, as an occupying state, to force individuals to serve in its armed forces or reserve forces and to promote voluntary service in the army,” the Ministry’s statement reads.

    The Ministry has also demanded that Russia stop persecuting Ukrainian citizens for …

  • Mogherini: European Union will never recognize annexation of Crimea

    While speaking before the deputies of the European Parliament during the hearings on the situation in the Azov Sea , High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, assured that the European Union would never recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

     “I am grateful to the European Parliament for focusing their attention on the situation in the Black Sea after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. We do not recognize [now] and …