• Kremlin threatens Ukraine with court over $3 billion debt

    After the International Monetary Fund's change in intercountry money lending policies (in hopes of assisting Ukraine), Russia is left no choice but to begin a $3 billion retrieval process from Kiev. As reported by TASS, Anton Siluanov, Russia's Minister of Finance, has stated that the Russian Federation will exercise any means necessary to protect its rights as a creditor. 

    According to Siluanov, the IMF's decision in lifting the ban on lending to the countries with defaulting sovereign debt, …

  • Russian human rights advocates demand investigation into the deaths of 159 military servicemen

    The chairperson of the standing Commission on Civil-Military relations of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Sergei Krivenko, intends to address the Investigative Committee and the Military Prosecutor  General and request an investigation into the 159 Russian servicemen who died between 1 January 2014 and 30 July 2015. According to Ukrainian daily ,Glavnoe ,that this number was the result of an own investigation by one of Russian human rights activist.

    This number is substantially lower …

  • Kravchuk: Budapest memorandum has to be revisited

    In a live broadcast on the First National TV Channel of Ukraine, former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kravchuk, stated that the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, signed in 1994, is still pertinent.

    “The memorandum hasn’t been lost at all. We can raise the issue of compliance with the conditions of the memorandum, signed in 1994, at an international conference,” Kravchuk said. The politician is sure that Russia, as one of the signatories of the memorandum, will refuse to take part such …

  • Ukraine has implemented 97% of EU’s visa-free requirements

    Belgian newspaper EUobserver reported that Ukraine has implemented 97% of the EU’s requirements for the establishment of a visa-free regime. EUobserver listed key reforms introduced by Ukraine that helped move the country towards visa-free access to the EU, including the creation of  agencies and offices such as the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the National Agency on the Prevention of Corruption, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Similarly, the adoption of two laws regarding the …

  • Turkey Expels Russian Propagandists

    Russian News Agency TASS reported that according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow has condemned the actions of Turkish authorities in expelling the film crew of TV channel “Russia 1.”

    On December 7th, ”special correspondents” of the TV channel "Russia-1" were detained near the border with Syria, Hatay province in Southeast Turkey, while travelling to the neighboring province of Gaziantep.

    The Ministry claims that the detention was carried out by unknown …

  • OSCE Notes Lack of Progress on the Political Settlement in Donbas

    According to Martin Sajdik, the special contact group on the Donbas issues will continue to discuss the opportunity to hold local elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics on December 9th.  Sajdik, the special representative of the OSCE Chairman discussed the matter while speaking about the last meeting results of the trilateral contact group on December 8th in Minsk.

    The Belarusian Private News Agency (BelaPAN) quoted Sajdik as saying that "despite significant efforts and …

  • Ukraine asks for greater OSCE involvement in Crimea

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is conducting negotiations aimed to expand the mandate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe observer mission to widely operate in every area of the Donbass region. Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin explained this objective last Tuesday during his report on the year-end results of the Ministry’s activities.

    "Let's see what role the OSCE mission can take.  The mission must have access to …

  • Russian weaponry and mercenaries still pour into eastern Ukraine

    Research from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, covering the period from May 16 to Nov. 15 this year, was presented in Geneva on Wednesday.In the report, United Nations blames Russia for its actions in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea, emphasizing the flow of weapons, mercenaries and ammunition from Russia to pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, that has left the situation there “highly flammable”. "Despite a reduction of fighting in the area over the last few …

  • Poland looking for access to NATO nuclear weapons to neutralize Russia

    Deputy Defence Minister, Tomasz Szatkowski, stated that Poland’s Ministry of National Defense will request that the US place nuclear weapons in the country to aid its self-defense. The corresponding request will be made through NATO’s so-called Nuclear Sharing program, which allows non-nuclear alliance members to request nuclear weapons from other NATO countries. A military official explained that the final decision on the request hasn’t been made yet and it is currently being discussed at the …

  • Ukraine called on EU to block new Russian Nord Stream pipeline

     

    At the meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels, Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for a halt on the building of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. He also called for the extension of sanctions against Russia and for the beginning of a visa-free policy with the European Union for Ukrainians. 

    “We think that this project has to be blocked because it serves neither Ukrainian nor EU interests,” Yatsenyuk stated. According to him, the project deprives Ukraine, …