On the night of July 3, Russia’s Federal Security Service Coast Guard (FSB) detained two vessels in the Sea of Azov on their way to Mariupol and back, the chief editor of the Black Sea News portal, Andrii Klymenko, reported on Facebook. According to Klymenko, the first vessel was detained on July 2 at approximately 8:30 pm Moscow Time, at a distance of 12 nautical miles (22 km) south of the Berdyansk Spit. The vessel was a Turkish HALISDEMIR bulk carrier, en route from Mariupol to Türkeli, in …

The assets and currencies which the Bank of Russia holds funds in are depreciating rapidly, reports Finanz.ru. For example, gold, which the Central Bank of Russia has been actively purchasing for several years, has hit its lowest price since last year, dropping by roughly 8.5% compared to its April high.

Recently published data showed that last year the Bank of Russia began to actively accumulate reserves in Chinese yuans, tripling these investments. However, as part of its “trade war” with …

Crimean officials intend to visit Syria in the fall of 2018, said Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea in the Russian Federation Council Georgy Muradov on July 3.

According to him, during the visit, the two sides will discuss areas of cooperation “which are important for Syria and for the Crimea.”

“Syria has a critical need for various building materials and materials that are needed for rebuilding and repairing roads, railways, and the infrastructure. There is great interest in cooperation in the …

Ukrainian political prisoner Stanislav Klikh, sentenced by a Russian court to 20 years in a penal colony on charges of participating in the Chechen war, was found in Magnitogorsk in the regional psychiatric prison hospital, reported Russian human rights activist Tatyana Shchur. “He was discovered there by Catherine Burian, a lawyer of the Ural Human Rights Group, after Stanislav’s lawyer in Ekaterinburg, Roman Kachanov, reported that he was promised that his client would be sent there …

At a joint briefing with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić , President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who is on an official visit to Serbia, stated that Ukraine does not recognize Kosovo and hopes that problems in the area can be resolved in favor of the interests of Serbia. “We honor and respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia. We do not recognize Kosovo, and we proceed from the premise that the Kosovo problem should be resolved by compromises being made, taking into account …

Russia will continue to use cyberattacks as an instrument of geopolitical influence, said Oleh Frolov, Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), during the first UN High-Level Conference on Counter-Terrorism in New York.

“A series of powerful and complex cyberattacks, ruthless by design and catastrophic in their possible consequences, on the computer networks of the energy, banking and transport sectors and the communications sector, have once more demonstrated the aggressor’s …

Despite ongoing military actions in the East of Ukraine and the Russia’s aggression, Belgian investors went through the hot phases of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (Ukrainian Military Operation in the Donbas) and continue to work in Ukraine, stated by Luc Jacobs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Belgium to Ukraine.

According to Jacobs, a difficult period with the security situation and lower economic activity in Ukraine did not prevent the Belgian companies from …

Alexei Kondratyev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council Defense and Security Committee, stated on July 2 that the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov could be included in the list for a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

As reported by the Russian Izvestia newspaper, Kondratyev said: “I think Sentsov can get [on the list]. The issue of his exchange has repeatedly been raised by the Ukrainian side, and his name is still relevant [for exchange].”

On July 2, the First Deputy …