On Thursday, August 16, President Petro Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of the visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Germany, the press service of the Ukrainian President announced.

The leaders of Ukraine and Germany coordinated their positions ahead of Putin's visit. They discussed the situation in the Donbas and further efforts aimed at peaceful reconciliation.

Poroshenko reminded Merkel about the Ukrainian political prisoners …

The US currently has many packages of sanctions against Russia, and they will increase until Russia starts to collaborate in the search for a resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, the violation of human rights, and so on, said US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker in an interview with the Pryamiy TV channel.

“The sanctions, I believe, are already having an effect. They have not yet changed Russia’s fundamental  policy towards Ukraine or the Donbas. But I know that …

The Belarusian government is asking Russia for a loan of $1 billion in order to repay its foreign debt obligations. As reported by TASS, this was announced on Wednesday by Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vasily Matyushevsky.

Matyushevsky says that in 2019, Minsk will have to pay foreign creditors $3.7 billion, despite the fact that at the end of last year, the country’s central bank had only $8 billion in reserves.

The Belarusian government intends to refinance half of this debt, and …