Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decree to expand the list of sanctions against Russian citizens and companies has come into effect. The list of individuals affected by sanctions has increased from 347 to 682 people. The list of legal entities has increased from 104 to 271. This was reported by Segodnya.

Individuals added to the list include: the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev; the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Rashid Nurgaliyev; the …

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, Valery Gerasimov, and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar met in Moscow to discuss cooperation in Syria, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, RIA Novosti reported.

"During the meeting, [the generals] discussed cooperation in the settlement of the Syrian conflict, including the normalization of the situation around the city of Aleppo,” the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in a statement.

Gersimov highlighted the need …

The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice and the Office for Human Rights, under authorization from the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), returned 23 prisoners to Kyiv from uncontrolled territories of the Donetsk regions, as reported by the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.

There is one woman among the prisoners, and 11 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment. The ministry reported that the total number of prisoners who have been returned to the territories controlled by …

Russia has applied for participation in the 2017 Eurovision International Song Contest, reported the Eurovision website.

The contest will take place in Kyiv, and a record number of singers are scheduled to participate. The report says that 43 participants have confirmed their participation, including Russia. 

“We are happy that 43 national artists applied for participation in the Eurovision 2017 contest, which has become a record,” the organizers of the contest noted.

Earlier, Ukraine called …

Authorities of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic announced innovations in the seperatist republic’s passport policy. According to a new document adopted on 28 October 2016 by the Council of Ministers of the LPR, Ukrainian passports of residents of the occupied territory of the Luhansk region will be recognized as legal, as reported by separatists’ media.

"The section ‘General provisions’ was supplemented by a paragraph that states that a passport document issued before this regulation, …