The European Union is ready to approve the extension of economic sanctions against Russia, but this process is hindered by France, Sweden, and the UK, which haven't yet agreed on this issue in their National Parliaments, Ukrinform reported with reference to a high-ranking EU diplomat.

“This week, Ambassadors approved political decision to extend sanctions against Russia for subsequent years. The EU, presided by the Netherlands, seeks to complete this process on Friday at a meeting of the EU …

Russia may deploy additional nuclear-capable missiles to its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad by 2019 in response to the US’s missile shield in Eastern Europe, Reuters reported, citing sources close to the Russian military.

The sources also noted that such missile installations may be put in the Crimea as well.

According to Mikhail Barabanov, a senior research fellow at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), which advises the Russian Ministry of Defense, said …

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and National Security Council Senior Directors Charles Kupchan and Celeste Wallander met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, and other senior Ukrainian officials on Wednesday, June 22 in Kiev, as stated in a press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.  

According to the Embassy, the diplomats met “to discuss Ukraine's reform agenda and implementation of the Minsk …

NATO together with Ukraine will work on creating a new framework to counter hybrid warfare. This was reported by Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Igor Dolgov, at the press briefing on Wednesday, June 22 as reported by RBC-Ukraine.

“A new mutual framework to counter the hybrid war will be a practically a new undertaking. This is unlike anything we have had before. We hope that after the  specific political approvals are made Kiev will become the center of this mutual operation,” Dolgov …

The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, appointed Viacheslav Yatsiuk, the odious diplomat from the administration of the former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, as the Ukrainian Ambassador to Norway, as indicated in an article by Sergei Sidorenko of EuroPravda. Norway is aware that "Yatsiuk was the third person assigned to the Ministry after Kozhara and his éminence grise Ruslan Demchenko, in the last years of Yanukovych’s presidency".

The signature of Yatsiuk is on some of the …

According to Moldavia’s Publika News, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova has sent a note to the Russian Federation with a demand to stop the illegal recruitment of Moldovan citizens.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova has sent a note to the Russian Embassy in Moldova, in which it requires the Russian Federation to stop the illegal recruitment of young people into the Russian army on the territory of the Republic of Moldova,” the statement said.

The …

Russia continues to build up forces on its western and south-western borders. The spokesman of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, Vadim Skibitsky said on Espresso TV live that the Russian Federation is preparing for a possible war with Europe.

Skibitsky announced that Canadian experts are of the opinion that Russian actions in Ukraine and the Baltic countries are a show of force and that Russia has a desire to defend its interests, most likely through …

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has signed the law on the introduction of universal military service in the country on an ongoing basis.

According to the Lithuanian news portal Delfi, the law, previously approved by the Council of State Defense, provides for the transition of the Lithuanian army from fully professional to a mixed-type system. At the moment, more than ten thousand people are serving in the Armed Forces of Lithuania.

Previously, the introduction of universal …