• 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 …