Turkey will pay Russia $2.5 billion for four S-400 systems

Russia will sell Turkey four anti-aircraft S-400 defense systems for $2.5 billion, as announced by Sergey Chemezov, the General Director of the state corporation Rostec, in an interview with Kommersant.

"This is the first country in NATO to acquire our newest air defense system S-400," Chemezov said.

He also said that Turkey will pay 45% of the total amount of the contract as an advance, while 55% will be with Russian credit funds.

"We plan to begin the first deliveries in March 2020. The …


Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau conducts investigation into Oschadbank over misappropriation of funds

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is conducting a pre-trial investigation in regards to the possible embezzlement of property by the head of Oschadbank management board and his subordinates by writing off $ 20.98 million from Cyprus's Opal Core Ltd. The funds were declared as State property with the purpose of their further confiscation.   The criminal scheme was described in the statement of the Solomensky District Court of Kyiv from December 6, 2017, published on December 1 …


Biometric control system begins operation at Ukrainian airports

The biometric control system has begun operation at Ukrainian airports, as reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine on its Facebook page.

"The project involves the collection of personal biometric data and the storage of [this data] in the databases of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Security Service of Ukraine, as well as the capture of the biometric data of foreigners and stateless persons during border control," …


Media: Russian Khmeimim military base in Syria attacked with missiles

Interfax news agency reported that two missiles approaching the Russian-operated Syrian airbase at Khmeimim were shot down by the Pantsir-S1 system. A third missile failed to reach the airbase at all.

The AMN publication claims that two missiles were shot down in the province of Idlib, bordering Latakia. It says that Russian helicopters are patrolling the area from which rockets were allegedly fired.

The Russian military operation in Syria began on September 30, 2015. The Russian Air Force …


Ukrainian President greets prisoners of war released from separatist captivity in Donbas

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko personally met Ukrainians who were released from the captivity of pro-Russian separatists in self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. A video of the head of state greeting the freed citizens was posted on Poroshenko’s Facebook page.

Poroshenko met the former prisoners of war at the Boryspil airport where they were flown in by helicopters from the point of exchange. The President, clad in military fatigues and wearing an Armed Forces beret, …