Новости за 14.10.2015

A Dutch voting committee approved on Oct. 14 a request for a non-binding referendum regarding the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.

MOSCOW - As Western media broadcast somber footage from a darkened room in the Netherlands dominated by an assembly of dented, shrapnel-riddled pieces of a passenger jet shot down over Ukraine's conflict zone last year, the pictures on Russian TV on Oct. 13 were dramatically different.

The poisoning of the Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in 2004 was a shocking act. Images of his face, disfigured by lesions and blisters, were seen across the world. And the fact that the attempted assassination had taken place while he was running in an election in a European state added to the sense of astonishment.

A Russian court has sentenced an elderly Ukrainian citizen who once served as director of a defence factory to six years in jail for espionage, a court spokesman said.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko tried out the cockpit of an Su-27 fighter jet. The president is seen putting on a pilot's helmet and taxiing down the jetway.

Russia said on Oct. 14 that one of its fighter jets had approached a US-led coalition warplane in Syrian airspace for identification purposes, as it sought to allay US fears of mid-air collisions.

Russian officials and State Duma deputies can no longer fly with international airlines on business trips, under an amendment to a presidential decree published on Oct. 14.

Five Russian contract soldiers have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment over their unwillingness to end up fighting in Ukraine, with the soldier most active in communicating with the media receiving the longest sentence. All four were among the number of military servicemen who were sent to the Rostov oblast, bordering Ukraine, and, as reported back in July, went absent without leave after being offered up to 8 thousand roubles a day for "volunteering" to go to Ukraine, and effectively held there until they agreed. Читать дальше...

Ukraine's creditors cast votes on Oct. 14 on a restructuring deal critical to the country's bailout programme with most expected to agree to the terms except Russia, which holds bonds worth $3 billion.

It is 5 weeks since Crimean political prisoner Gennady Afanasyev was moved from Rostov, apparently to a prison colony, and all efforts by his mother to find out his whereabouts have been unsuccessful. There are very serious grounds for concern, noted immediately after Afanasyev appeared at the trial of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko and not only refused to testify, but retracted all previous testimony stating that it had been tortured out of him. He then... Читать дальше...

AMSTERDAM - A Dutch satirical website has collected enough signatures to call a national referendum on a European pact with Ukraine, authorities said on Oct. 14, a poll organized as a protest against the government's pro-EU stance.

The Ukrainian defense ministry says one soldier was killed and two were injured on Oct. 13 in eastern Ukraine in violation of a month-long ceasefire between government and rebel forces.

Hundreds of members of Ukraine's nationalist groups gathered in the center of the capital Kyiv for a rally in commemorating famous Ukrainian nationalist figures. The march came as Ukrainians marked Defenders' Day, a new national holiday meant to honour those who fought for the country's independence.

They held a boxing interview last week and a philosophy lesson broke out. Across the table was the heavyweight champion of the world, Wladimir Klitschko. If they put a hood over your head when you entered the room, depriving you of seeing the 6-foot-6-inch, 240-pound boxer with his muscle-beach biceps and rock jaw, you'd think you were listening to somebody with a doctorate degree, advising on life lessons.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has requested permission to open an investigation into the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia, saying there is evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed during the brief conflict.

A Dutch referendum is to be held on an EU agreement for closer relations with Ukraine, after 427,000 people backed a citizens' initiative.

Russia has appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization to open a new probe into last year's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine, the chief of the Russian aviation agency said on Oct. 14.

Election officials in the Netherlands have cleared the way for a referendum that could disrupt a keystone of closer ties between the European Union and Ukraine.

A senior Ukrainian rebel leader has rejected a Dutch report that concluded a Russian-made missile downed MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people.

LAS VEGAS - Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton dominated the debate stage Tuesday night.

Kyiv believes Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian separatists armed with a surface-to-air missile launcher, something that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

Dutch approval of Ukraine's Association Agreement with the European Union is under threat.

Ukrainian female pilot and parliamentarian Nadia Savchenko and her defense team have urged the international organizations to interfere into the situation with a ban imposed on Savchenko's sister Vira from entering Russia, her lawyer Mark Feygin said.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are working with the Russian side to study the circumstances surrounding the attack on Ukrainian army positions near Avdiyivka, Donetsk region, in which one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and two were wounded, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said.

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin informed United States' President Barack Obama of plans to strike Islamic State targets in Syria during their recent meeting on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly session in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.