• Ambassador Chaly: Ukraine Will Soon Receive Military Assistance from the U.S.

    The Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, said that in the coming months, Ukraine will start receiving military aid from the United States. He recalled that the U.S. Congress is introducing specific changes to the legislation on military assistance to Ukraine and that the U.S. budget for 2016 includes 658 million dollars of military aid to Ukraine. However, he said that in order to receive such assistance and specific resources for certain goals, special legislative …

  • Russia to Deploy Three New Divisions along Western Border

    The Russian Minister of Defense, Sergey Shoygu, stated that three new divisions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be deployed along the Western border in 2016.

    “I can’t but mention such a critical task, which is the formation of three divisions in Western direction. The task is extremely important,” Shoygu said. The Minister of Defense stressed that alongside the creation of the new divisions, there is a need to set up proper infrastructure including barracks, firing ranges …

  • Construction of the South Stream Pipeline Postponed

    The construction of the South Stream Pipeline remains suspended, as reported by Bulgarian National Radio based on Russian sources. Earlier the Standard, a Bulgarian newspaper, stated that the construction of the South Stream Pipeline may resume in the next few weeks. They reported that their sources stated that the delay is due to the deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations and the refusal of the Turkish Stream project which was discussed as an alternative to the South Stream.

    On Monday, a …

  • EU Council to Discuss Situation in Ukraine

    On January 18th, at the meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, the Council of the European Union will discuss the situation in Ukraine, reported the Council's press service. A discussion on the current situation in Syria and Iraq will also be on the agenda.

    At the end of last year, the leaders of the "Normandy Four" (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) held talks over the phone and agreed to extend the validity of the Minsk Agreements into 2016. They also arranged another meeting of …

  • Finland Expects Thousands of Refugees to Enter Via Russia In 2016

    Finland’s national public-broadcasting company, Yle, cited the Lapland border service, who predicted that in the year 2016 about 7,500 refugees could enter Finland through the border with Russia. This forecast was made based on the current rate of arrival of asylum-seekers.

    Since the beginning of the year around 200 refugees crossed the Finnish-Russian border through the checkpoints Salla and Raja-Jooseppi. Most of the refugees were Iraqis, Afghans, Nepalese and Syrians. Last year 700 …