Section: News & Summaries
Obama to hold informal talks with Turkey`s Erdogan
U.S. President Barack Obama will hold informal talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Washington this week, the White House said on Tuesday, dismissing suggestions that the lack of a formal meeting represented a snub to Ankara, according to Reuters.”I would expect that over the course of the visit, the president will have an opportunity...
Ukraine`s statistics service improves grain harvest estimate for 2015
The State Statistics Service of Ukraine has released an updated estimate of the grain harvest in 2015, reporting that Ukraine`s yield was 60.1 million tonnes of grain after shelling (5.8% down on 2014), against a previous estimate of 59.96 million tonnes.The yield of sugar beets in 2015 was 10.3 million tonnes, which was 34.3% down on the year...
Getting hot in Donbas: Enemy fires 158 bombs at Zaitseve within 1.5 hours
Donbas in eastern Ukraine has been seeing escalation since the early hours of Tuesday, and the village of Zaitseve is the hottest spot now, according to the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation headquarters. ”Enemy attacks in the Donetsk sector were aimed at Ukrainian troops in the villages of Luhanske, Mayorsk, Opytne and Novhorodske,...
NABU fails to detain bribe-taking judge who flees while shooting
Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk has briefed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko about an unsuccessful operation to detain a judge who was caught red-handed while taking a bribe. ”The National Anti-Corruption Bureau`s director informed the president about a special operation to detain a judge who has...
Putin: Russian arms exports hit $14.5 bln in 2015, more than planned
Russia`s arms exports totaled $14.5 billion last year, more than originally planned, Russian news agencies quoted President Vladimir Putin as saying on Tuesday, according to Reuters.The total portfolio of foreign orders for Russian arms has exceeded $56 billion, Putin told a meeting of the presidential commission on military-technical...
Tombinski concerned about investigation into anti-corruption NGO in Ukraine
Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine Jan Tombinski says he is concerned about investigations conducted by the Prosecutor General`s Office (PGO) into an anti-corruption non-governmental organization in Ukraine.”I am concerned about recent reports about investigations by the Prosecutor General`s Office into the activities of a...
Shokin’s Revenge: Ukraine’s Odious Prosecutor General Fires Honest Deputy Before Parliament Sacks Him
On March 29, the Ukrainian Rada finally approved the resignation of Ukraine’s disreputable Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. He was voted out with an overwhelming majority of 289 votes, including 114 of the 134 deputies of the Poroshenko Bloc. On February 16, Shokin was forced to submit his letter of resignation in connection with the...
US Presidential Politics Play Poorly in Odesa
US President Barack Obama’s refusal to militarily defend Ukraine against Russian aggression has sent a chill halfway around the world to Odesa, the Black Sea port only 200 kilometers by warship from Crimea.In the April issue of The Atlantic, Obama says: “The fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country, is going to be vulnerable to...
Canada wants anti-Russian sanctions to be maintained or strengthened
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion says Canada insists that collective sanctions against Russia either be maintained or strengthened, according to portal Macleans.”The sanctions imposed on Russia in retaliation for its aggression against Ukraine are effective only because they are being imposed by a large number of countries. Canada...
Sick of the Ukraine Crisis? Then Arm Ukraine
Building Up Ukraine’s Military is the Counterintuitive Solution to Peace Western policymakers who believe the Minsk accords would work if only Ukraine made the requisite constitutional and electoral concessions are missing a key point: that they, and Russia, forced Ukraine to make security its priority by violating the 1994 Budapest...