The Minister of Defense of Bulgaria, Nikolay Nenchev, stated that Bulgarian airspace has been increasingly violated by Russian aircraft—actions that can be interpreted as provocation against Bulgaria and its Air Force, Reuters reported. According to Nenchev, four cases of flights of military aircraft and six cases of flights of passenger liners through Bulgarian airspace were recorded in June.

Nenchev claims that Russian aircraft entering Bulgarian airspace switch off their transponders— …

Russian Defense Ministry blamed the U.S. anti-terrorist coalition for the air strikes on the Anglo-American base in Syria. The Russian military is not well informed about the location of the bases of the Syrian opposition forces, the speaker of the Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, said on Saturday, July 23, 2016.

He said that Russia has repeatedly asked for the coordinates of the bases used by Syrian opposition forces. According to Konashenkov, a "joint action" against the extremists will …

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency called the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow the Russian team to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro an enormous blow against clean athletes.

“Many people, including clean athletes and informants, demonstrated strong character and strength in the fight against the culture of doping and corruption in Russia. However, unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee didn’t take on the role of leader at a crucial moment for …

The head of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), Igor Plotnitsky, has announced the decision to postpone the local elections in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region. The elections were to be held on July 24 and have been postponed to November 6, reports the Luhansk separatist websites.

The date of the local elections has been repeatedly postponed by the Luhansk and Donetsk separatists.

Recently, a representative of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis …

Ukraine has noticed an upward trend in tensions in the military-controlled region of Donbas, where “weapons, ammunition and military equipment are being supplied daily”. Interfax-Ukraine reported that this was said by Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Stepan Poltorak, in his speech at the opening of the active phase of the Ukrainian-American exercises in Odessa.

“These exercises are being held at a time when the situation in eastern Ukraine is deteriorating. However, they are an important …

The international credit rating agency Fitch has given Russia the lowest possible investment grade, a BBB-, Rosbalt reported. Fitch also gave Russia a negative growth outlook.

"In line with the updated guidance contained in Fitch's revised Sovereign Rating Criteria dated July 18, 2016, Russia's credit profile does not support a notching up... This reflects Fitch's view that neither of the two key factors cited in the criteria that support upward notching of the LTLC IDR [long-term local …

NATO fighters intercepted and escorted three Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea last week, Delfi reported, citing the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense.

According to the Ministry, fighters, as part of NATO’s air patrol mission over the Baltic Sea, escorted a Russian Tu-134 military cargo plane and two Su-27 fighters on July 18th.

The Russian planes were flying with disabled transponders, which NATO believes is a threat to civil aviation.

The presence of Russian military aircraft and  …

Ukrainian forces lost two soldiers during the fight near Novozvanivka

On July 23, 2016, Ukrainian forces near Novozvanivka, in the Luhansk region of the Donbas, defended against the attacks of the pro-Russian separatists, and two Ukrainian soldiers were killed as a result. The details of the fighting near Novozvanivka were provided by the Ukrainian Headquarters on its Facebook page.

Reportedly, in the morning of July 23, Ukrainian military officials noticed the movement of a sabotage- …