Новости за 20.10.2015

Good evening and welcome to Sports Mole's live text coverage of the Champions League Group G clash between Dynamo Kiev and Chelsea in Ukraine.

While at home, President Vladimir Putin is the world-bestriding colossus, wise tsar and benevolent father of the nation, abroad he is once again facing a familiar vilification, as warmonger, kleptocrat and tyrant. Yes, corruption is deeply embedded in Russia's economic and political systems, and the Kremlin regards military force as an instrument of national interest.

Ukrainian representative in the humanitarian subgroup and lawmaker from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Iryna Heraschenko announced the issues which were discussed at the meetings of the working subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk on Oct. 20.

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Hrytsak has reported to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko about "a Russian trace" in the case on the explosion near the building of the SBU branch in Odesa.

Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers has sent the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, draft amendments to 17 laws as part of reform in the energy sector, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said at a meeting with representatives of the European Business Association and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine on Oct. 20.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have removed tanks from the contact line in the Artemivsk area and will soon start to remove artillery systems and mortar launchers there, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on its website.

MINSK - The security subgroup of the Contact Group on Ukraine agreed to continue working on the mine clearance of the most important infrastructure facilities in Donbas, OSCE Special Representative Martin Sajdik told reporters upon the results of the work of the Contact Group in Minsk.

Around 60 tanks have been withdrawn from the demarcation line in the war-torn zone in Donbas on Oct. 20, the anti-terrorist operation press center reported.

MINSK - About 800 trucks with humanitarian aid bound for Donbas have been unable to get into the region promptly.

MINSK - The political subgroup of the Contact Group on Ukraine met on Oct. 20 to discuss how to organize local elections in Donbas.

The Russian foreign ministry on Oct. 20 called plans by Estonia to expand its Amari air base to make more room for NATO aircraft a provocation.

With Europe awash in more than a half-million refugees from Middle Eastern and other wars, it might be easy to overlook Ukraine's response to its own population - nearly three times the size, at 1.5 million - displaced by the Russian-backed war in the east.

Iran is ready to start shipping cheese to Russia, a little over a year after Moscow imposed an embargo on dairy products from most European countries, a Russian agricultural official said on Oct. 20.

Ukrainian intelligence and data from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission prove that militants violate the conditions of withdrawing arms from the contact line in Donbas, spokesman of the Ukrainian presidential administration for the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas Oleksandr Motuzianyk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Oct. 20.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia - In Yekaterina Vologzheninova's opinion, the only things she might be guilty of are her daughter's messy bedroom and unwashed dishes.

Moscow's upscale Azbuka Vkusa supermarket chain has won a case against pro-Kremlin activist Margarita Cherkashina, assistant head of the "Eat Russian" movement that raided supermarkets in search of banned products, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Oct. 20.

CHERKASY, Ukraine -- “Living for Cherkasy!” reads the slogan on a banner of Oleksandr Radutsky, who is running for mayor in Cherkasy, the central Ukrainian provincial capital with 283,000 people.

One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and another one was wounded in an explosion in Donetsk Oblast, military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk said.

Ukraine reported on Oct. 20 the start of a polio vaccination drive that began only after health groups accused Kyiv of being critically late in responding to Europe's first outbreak since 2010.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed Ukraine's ambassadors to Portugal, Oman and the Comoros.

Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said he did not think it would make sense to suspend electricity supplies from mainland Ukraine to Crimea.

France's foreign ministry summoned Russia's ambassador on Oct. 20 after Moscow mistakenly accused a French military jet of flying "dangerously close" to a plane carrying a parliamentary delegation, a spokesman said.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has said that it is not familiar with the contents of the complaint of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR) and reiterated that his human rights have been respected during the course of the investigation.

A Ukrainian man pleaded not guilty Oct. 19 to U.S. charges he orchestrated a scheme to steal computer users' online bank information and sell it on the black market.

MOSCOW - Intelligence agents have foiled 20 terrorist plots in Russia this year, President Vladimir Putin said on Oct. 20, and asked officials to increase their efforts to prevent terrorist attacks.