From 18 March 2014 to 15 August 2016, 260 merchant vessels flying the flags of 32 countries entered ports of the occupied Crimea  - Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Yalta, Feodosia, and Kerch – violating bans and sanctions, as demonstrated by the monitoring of information portal BSNews, which uses AIS (automatic identification system) vessel tracking systems.

Vessels which provide passenger and cargo services in and out of ports on the Crimean peninsula and also special vessels taking part in the …

Ukraine did not rush to abandon nuclear weapons because it's not easy to do, but the Americans put pressure on the government to do so, according to the online-magazine Slon, citing the first President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk.

According to Kravchuk, at the time the Ukrainian government wanted the Americans to pay for the renunciation of nuclear weapons.

“We demanded compensation from the United States and generally from the West. They were constantly, frankly speaking, pressing us and …

The President of the internationally unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic (PMR), Yevgeny Shevchuk, issued a decree on prepararion to join Russia. The document was published on the website of the Pridnestrovian leader.

The decree calls for the implementation of the outcomes of the republican referendum which took place on 17 September 2006. The regulatory act is necessary for the fulfillment of “the will of the people of Transnistria to join the Russian Federation.”

Shevchuk indicated …

Leaders from the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) announced their intention to open a “diplomatic office” in Austria.

This information was distributed by websites associated with the LPR.

According to the LPR, “the office” will be engaged in “outreach activities” and coordinate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the occupied Ukrainian territory.

The organization will be headed, according to them, by the Austrian social activist Alfred Almeder.

The Austrian edition of Die Presse …

Governor of Odessa Oblast Mikheil Saakashvili said that negotiations are being held with the representatives of the U.S. Department of Aviation about the construction of a new airport in the region, TASS reports.

"The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has not yet allotted the money again. But at the same time we are working with the US Department of Aviation on the construction of another airport. This airport is going to be outside the city boundaries because there will be a large freight …

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed outrage to Russia because of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu’s visit to the Crimea. According to Interfax-Ukraine, this was reported by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariana Betsa.

“Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry is expressing a protest in connection with the presence of the Russian Minister of Defense on the sovereign territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, which includes the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and …

On September 9, two patrol aircraft from the US Navy P-8A Poseidon approached the coast of the Crimea three hours apart from each other. This was reported by Interfax, referring to websites that track the movement of military aircraft.

They took off on Friday from the Italian airbase Sigonella, and the last of the planes is currently performing the task over the Black Sea near the Russian borders and the Crimea.

Poseidon’s route runs through Greek and Bulgarian airspace to the area west of …

A Topol mobile intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with new technology was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia, according to a statement released by representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Department of Information.

As noted in the statement, the experimental missile accurately hit the target at the Kura Missile Test Range in Kamchatka. The launch aimed to confirm the tactical and technical specifications of the missile and also to show …