The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, has submitted a package of three laws to the Verkhovna Rada which are aimed at helping Ukraine comply with the requirements for the introduction of a visa-free regime with the European Union (EU).  This was reported by the presidential press service.

According to the report, one of these laws was named "On amendments to the law 'On Prosecutor's Office' concerning ensuring transparency in the organization of work of the Specialized Anti-Corruption …

American company Orbital ATK, the world leader in aerospace and defense industry, has signed an eight-year contract with NASA worth approximately 1.5 billion dollars to provide six commercial cargo flights to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2019.  The flights will use the Ukrainian launch vehicle (LV), Antares.  In the framework of the signed contract, Orbital ATK will use the modernized LV Antares for cargo flights to the ISS in addition to using the LV Atlas-5 of the American United …

A member of Russia’s Federation Council, Konstantin Kosachev, stated that no Russian ground forces are active in Syria. Kosachev told this to a Deutsche Welle reporter on Friday at the International Conference on Security Policy in Munich. The diplomat also rejected the possibility of a future Russian-led ground operation in the war-torn country.

Kosachev specifically denied allegations of the presence of Russian soldiers and artillery units in the Syrian province of Latakia.

Der Spiegel has …

At the beginning of the year ten mercenaries were arrested in Moldova who fought on the side of the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.  Two of them have already been sentenced to three years of imprisonment, as announced by the Acting Prosecutor General of Moldova, Igor Popa, Radio Liberty reported.

Popa noted that the investigation against eight other suspects continues.  They are all between 26 and 32-years-old and all of them are Russian speaking natives from the south of …

Ben Cardin, a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed concern about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, which are designed to reduce tensions in eastern Ukraine.  Completed a year ago, the Minsk Agreements represent a package of measures related to security and policy, agreed to by Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, to resolve the conflict in the Donbas region.

"Thursday was the first anniversary of the Minsk Agreements.  While all parties expressed the …