The Estonian daily newspaper Postimees reported that the Estonian Minister of Defense, Hannes Hanso, favored the deployment of NATO heavy military equipment near the country’s borders.

“We want NATO heavy military equipment to be deployed closer to Estonia rather than a thousand miles away from it. For our part, in alliance with Latvia and Lithuania, we will do our best to ensure simplified transportation of the units across the state border and provision of weapons to our allies,” Hanso noted. …

Only Russian performers who “understand that the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of the Donbas is a crime” should be allowed to participate in the Eurovision contest in 2017, according to a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Narodny Front, Anton Herashchenko. He said this on the 15th of May while at the Govorit Moskva radio station.

According to him, Kiev “does not see any obstacles” for contestants who “do not speak out in support of Russia’s aggressive policies” and who “do not …

The European Union, in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council and the Danish Demining Group, gave the Ukrainian State Emergency Service (GSCHS) 200,000 euros worth of demining equipment for use in the Donbas, RBC-Ukraine reported.

"This is class 4 body armor, Kevlar helmets. This equipment is very necessary to us,” a representative of the GSCHS, Oleh Bondar, stated.

The equipment can locate mines at a depth of 3 meters.

“We must ask the aggressor country [Russia] when they will stop …

According to an estimate of the Ministry of Finance, Lithuania intends to increase defense spending by 150 million euros next year, up to 725 million euros, Kauno Diena reported.

The current Lithuanian military budget is 575 million euros, approximately 1.48% of the country’s GDP. It is expected that next year's defense spending will rise to 725 million euros, or 1.77% of GDP.

According to Lithuanian Minister of Defense Juozas Olekas, the country plans to spend 2% of GDP on defense in 2018. …

According to a survey by Amnesty International, almost two-thirds of Russians are opposed to the settlement of refugees in the Russian Federation.

The Head of the Amnesty International representative office in the Russian Federation, Sergei Nikitin, reported at a talk at the anniversary conference of the Moscow Helsinki Group that “a statistical review by Amnesty International about the attitude of authorities and population toward refugees from other countries will be released in a week. …