Without providing access to Crimea for Ukrainian experts, the visit of the monitoring mission of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee will not be possible.  Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tamara Mazur said, while on Radio Krym.Realii, that Ukrainian authorities will not invite international experts to the annexed peninsula.

“This monitoring mission can only come at the exclusive invitation of Ukraine.  UNESCO has said that Ukraine should invite them when an opportunity arises.  …

Latvia has detected a Russian navy corvette near its borders, Evropeyskaya Pravda reported.

The National Armed Forces of Latvia wrote on Twitter that “On 20 July, at a distance of 4.5 nautical miles from the border of Latvia, the Russian corvette ‘Boyikiy’ of the ‘Steregushchiy’ class was discovered.”

The presence of Russian ships near the territorial waters of the Baltic States has become increasingly common since the deterioration of relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s …

Turkish authorities detained the airmen who shot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border in November 2015, Bloomberg reported, citing a high-level Turkish official as their source. Earlier, the Mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, stated that one of the pilots who downed the Russian attack aircraft took part in the coup in Turkey. According to Gökçek, the pilot is a member of the opposition organization of the Islamic preacher, Fethullah Gulen, accused of anti-government activities, Kommersant …