Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Concerned with Human Rights Situation in Crimea

Ukraine is deeply concerned about human rights violations by Russia in the Crimea, as well as in some areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as reported in a statement by the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The reports from international organizations and human rights institutions unanimously record massive harassment by the Russian occupation forces of ethnic Ukrainians and the indigenous Crimean Tatar population of the Crimea for political and national motives; including …


Poroshenko: Ukraine has Survived First Winter without Russian Gas

The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, said that the country has demonstrated its independence from Russian gas during the autumn-winter heating season, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

"Russia thought that they would bring us to our knees by offering gas at $212/cubic meter.  I discussed this with the Minister who called Russia and said: 'No, we will not take your gas,'" Poroshenko stated.

According to Poroshenko, Ukraine now buys gas from Europe, which costs less than buying gas from …


OSCE: Situation in Donbas region remains highly volatile

Deputy Chief Monitor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Alexander Hug, held a news conference in Kiev in which he outlined the general security situation in the Donbas region. Hug highlighted several areas in eastern Ukraine where tensions are rising between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Russian-backed separatists of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).

The …


Europe Plans to Close its Market to Russian Metal Imports

The European Commission plans to introduce anti-dumping duties on cold-rolled flat metal products from China and Russia, as reported by Reuters on January 28th, citing sources familiar with the plans of the commission.

Officially, the introduction of the new policy will be announced on February 14th, and will be finalized on August 12th, provided the anti-dumping investigation confirms the underpricing accusations, according to the website of the European Commission. Usually, anti-dumping …


Court in Ukrainian city of Rivne seizes Sberbank accounts

The Rivne City Court has ruled to seize the accounts of Sberbank of Russia for UAH 8.5 billion (appromately $330 million).  This decision was made on the 26th of January during the consideration of Evgeny Puhalskiy’s lawsuit. Puhalskiy requires the bank to return his funds amounting to EUR 325 million.  The 33-year-old entrepreneur has been in the process of suing Sberbank of Russia since September of 2015. 

Initially, the entrepreneur planned to donate the interest of EUR 24 million to the …