Contents tagged with Ukraine

  • Poroshenko calls on Ukrainian Security Service to investigate government officials with Russian relatives

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has asked Vasyl Hrytsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service  (SBU), to have the counterintelligence department investigate civil servants to find out whether they have relatives with Russian citizenship.

    The Ukrainian President announced this at a press conference on Sunday in Kyiv, when asked if the SBU had determined whether Serhiy Semochko, first deputy head of the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, has Russian citizenship.

    “We have a large …

  • Poroshenko: Martial law in Ukraine will be extended only in case of Russian attack

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated at a press conference in Kyiv that Ukrainian authorities won’t extend martial law unless Russia conducts "large-scale aggression."

    “If there is no large-scale aggression or the invasion of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine beyond the demarcation line and the administrative border of the Crimea, the Martial law will not be extended,” TV Channel 112 Ukraine cited the President as saying.

    Poroshenko also added …

  • Ukrainian President: Putin refuses to talk about Kerch Strait incident because he has nothing to say

    Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is disingenuous when saying that the reason he is refusing a telephone conversation because of the election process in Ukraine. In Poroshenko’s opinion, the head of the Kremlin simply has nothing to say.

    At a press conference on Sunday, the President of Ukraine said: “When, during the act of aggression, I called him to talk, he refused to have a conversation not because, as he explains, the election process in …

  • Captain of ship captured by Russia tells investigators he is a prisoner of war

    Bohdan Nebylytsya, captain of the Ukrainian armored boat the Nikopol, which was captured several weeks ago near the Kerch Strait, told Russia’s FSB that he considers himself a prisoner of war, reported attorney Mykola Polozov.

    “As with the other sailors, Nebylytsya was investigated, we have been informed of several orders to set up expert assessments. They have also interrogated him. During the interrogation, he said that he is a prisoner of war,” Polozov noted.

    “Emil Kurbedinov, the defense …

  • Ukraine establishes autocephalous orthodox church

    On Saturday, December 15, the Unifying Assembly of Ukrainian Orthodox Confessions, under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, ruled to establish an autocephalous (independent) local Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The assembly also confirmed the church charter, and elected Metropolitan Epiphany, patriarchal vicar of the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC KP), as primate of the new church. Ukrainian religious scholars and political experts believe that this …

  • President of Belarus says Ukraine rejected his help in ending the war in the Donbas

    President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Ukraine rejected his initiatives to help end the war in the Donbas.

     “Given that Russian and Ukrainian people are good with me, I was ready to stand on that border as a border guard and to arrange an election compliant with the Minsk Agreement. […] But guess what? The ones who need to stop this war, primarily Poroshenko and the Ukrainians, rejected the offer. They explained their attitude by saying that Lukashenko is pro-Russian,” Lukashenko …

  • European Commission invites Russia and Ukraine to gas negotiations

    Moscow and Kyiv have been invited to Brussels for trilateral negotiations on gas transit, Vice President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič stated on Twitter. “I expect that commercial entities will also attend. It is important to build on the positive momentum created in July,” he added.

    Earlier, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak stated that the meeting of experts from Russia, the European Commission and Ukraine for trilateral negotiations on gas would take place by the end of …

  • Ukrainian Security Service accuses Russia of attempts to interfere in elections

    Russian special services are trying to use social networks, in particular, Facebook and Twitter to interfere in the election processes in Ukraine, according to a statement published on the website of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU),

     “Russia uses the Internet-Research Agency (closed in 2016) for the above purpose. In the run-up to the parliamentary and presidential elections, Ukrainians began to receive offers for a temporary access to the so-called advertising office intended for …

  • USA and Canada pledge military support to Ukraine

    At a press conference, after the U.S. - Canada 2+2 Ministerial meeting, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Canadian Minister of National Defense Harjit Sajjan both pledged the joint support for NATO European partners and to Ukraine amid Russia’s recent military escalation in Europe.  

    "We are united in NATO, where we uphold trans-Atlantic unity and stand with European allies against the full scope of Russian malign influence, to include Moscow’s recent, brazen contempt of international …

  • President Poroshenko expects EU sanctions after Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships

    The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, wrote on Facebook that the decision of the EU summit to continue sanctions against the Russian Federation is an important result for Ukraine and creates the basis to develop new measures.

    “The next step should be the introduction of an “Azov packet of sanctions.” This decision and the discussion between EU leaders provides a good basis for the development process, so Russia’s aggressive act is justly and strictly punished,” stressed the president.

    In …