The Spokesman for the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, Oleg Slobodyan, stated at a press conference in Kyiv, that Russia has recently intensified aerial intelligence at the administrative border with the annexed Crimea. Slobodyan noted that Russian troops used a Rys (Lynx) aerostat craft on the 28th of February and the 1st of March.

Ukrainian border guard officers have recorded four monitoring flights carried out by Mi 8 helicopters and the active movement of coast guard motorboats in the Black …

In the Crimea, the Russian naval aircraft fleet on the Black Sea has expanded its radius of action and has begun to patrol the entire perimeter of the Black Sea, Russia's RIA Novosti reported.

“The Russian naval aircraft fleet on the Black Sea has expanded the operational and tactical radius of its activity and is able to patrol the entire perimeter of the Black Sea,” said Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Kogut, deputy commander of the naval aviation fleet regiment.

According to him, navy pilots …

RIA Novosti reported that the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, General Petr Pavel urged Russia to "withdraw recognition" of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"We call on Russia to withdraw its recognition of independence of the two regions and to express respect for Georgian borders," InterpressNews news agency quotes him as saying after the meeting with Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria.

Pavel also believes that Russia should be involved in safeguarding the security of the Black Sea. " …

Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, accused US troops stationed in the Baltic States of being actively involved in “provocative actions in Eastern Europe.”

“It cannot be ignored that US troops that have recently arrived in Poland and the Baltic States have engaged in ‘historical activities’ with clear anti-Russian intentions,” said Zakharova, who was quoted on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Zakharova pointed out to “a memorial …

The United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations prepared a draft defense budget that promises to allocate $150 million to support the armed forces of Ukraine, according to a document posted on the House of Representatives website.

The project proposal states that the money must be spent on training, equipment, lethal defensive weapons, logistics and intelligence. A separate paragraph makes clear that the funds allocated to Ukraine cannot be spent on the purchase or …

On the evening of March 1st, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sent Ukraine the final version of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Its signing will allow the Fund to consider the allocation of a fourth tranche to Ukraine amounting to $1 billion within the program as announced on Thursday, March 2nd, by the Chairwoman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), Valeriya Hontareva, during a press conference in Kyiv. "On the part of the NBU, …

The international group of investigators from Bellingcat has released new data about the involvement of the former Russian officer, Sergey Dubinsky, also known as Khmuryi (Grumpy), in the use of a Russian Buk missile system in the occupied Donbas. In 2014, a Malaysian airliner was shot down from this Buk missile system and all 298 passengers on board were killed.Since the publication of their preliminary report last month, investigators have obtained new data that additionally confirms the …

According to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, have talked on the phone, but have not discussed the question of the a cease-fire in Avdiivka, as reported by Russia's TASS news agency.

"It is a fact that the cease-fire in Avdiivka was not discussed. What took place was an exchange of views and expression of mutual concerns at the escalation of the tension, " said Peskov.

Earlier on Thursday the media, citing …