Новости за 19.10.2016

Garoua, Cameroon – Not long ago, a Dutch neurobiologist announced a surprising discovery: A root used by rural West African healers to treat pain contains an apparently natural version of a man-made opioid. The root from northern Cameroon had such high levels of a painkiller called tramadol that mice given an extract and placed on […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin may soon be immortalized as a sea captain in Crimea, local Russian nationalist activists have announced. Brandishing a concept artwork of Putin, in naval uniform, at the helm of a ship, Sergey Shuvaynikov, who is a local councilor for the Russian nationalist LDPR party, announced he and others were collecting money […]

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France gathered in Berlin on Oct. 19 for four-way talks hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that aimed to revive the stalled peace process in eastern Ukraine. The summit was also expected to touch on Syria and Russia’s role in the conflict there. Prospects of significant progress on either front […]

Seven ceasefire violations were recorded in the conflict area in Donbas on Oct. 19, the Ukraine military operation headquarters’ press center said. “In the Mariupol sector, Ukrainian units were shelled five times. The adversary fired small arms in Maryinka and heavy machineguns and grenade launchers of various systems in Slavne and Shyrokyne, while the 122mm conventional artillery […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has begun talks in Berlin with the presidents of Russia, France, and Ukraine about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The talks at Merkel’s office in Berlin on October 19 come after the four leaders held separate meetings about a possible settlement to the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists. […]

BERLIN – The leaders of Russia, Ukraine and France gathered in Berlin on Oct. 19 for four-way talks hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that aimed to revive the stalled peace process in eastern Ukraine. The summit was also expected to touch on Syria and Russia’s role in the conflict there. Prospects of significant progress on […]

The Netherlands cannot block the European Union over the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association agreement, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv told EurActiv.com in an exclusive interview. Stepan Kubiv is First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economic Development and Trade. He is a former university professor and acting chairman of the […]

PRAGUE – Czech police have arrested a Russian hacker suspected of cyberattacks in the United States, officials said on Oct. 19. Police said an international warrant for the man, who was not named, was issued by Interpol and that officers cooperated with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation on the case. Read more here.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has stressed that holding elections in areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are outside Kyiv control, is unacceptable until the withdrawal of the occupation troops and the return of control over the state border of Ukraine. “Holding the elections in Donbas without the withdrawal of the occupation troops and […]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host a meeting on Oct. 19 with the Russian, Ukrainian and French presidents in Berlin in efforts to reactivate the stalled Minsk peace agreements aimed at a political settlement in eastern Ukraine. Amid escalating tensions between the West and Russia, Merkel invited Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and […]

Finland is becoming increasingly worried about what it sees as Russian propaganda against it, including Russian questioning about the legality of its 1917 independence. The country shares a 1,340 km (833 mile) border and a difficult and bloody history with Russia, of which it was once a part. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and […]

Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers appointed Polish Sławomir Nowak as an acting head of Ukravtodor, Ukraine’s State Agency of Automobile Roads on Oct. 19. Nowak is an ex-minister of transport, construction and maritime economy of Poland, having served in 2011-2013. He resigned after being photographed wearing a watch worth at least $3,500 that he hadn’t declared. […]

BERLIN – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko arrived on a working visit to Berlin, where he will participate in the negotiations in the ‘Normandy format’, on Oct. 19. An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that, according to the Ukrainian presidential press service, a separate meeting of the Ukrainian president with his French counterpart Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela […]

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fiscal Policy and Banking has upheld an appeal to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko to ask the Verkhovna Rada to dismiss Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Valeriya Gontareva. Six out of the nine members of the committee voted for the decision at a meeting on Oct. 18, an Interfax-Ukraine […]

STOCKHOLM – The United States wants to send a 300-strong rotational force of U.S. Marines to Norway, a NATO member that shares a border with Russia in the Arctic. Norwegian Defense Ministry spokesman Lars Gjemble said on Oct. 19 that “a limited rotational U.S. Marine Corps presence in Norway is a possible option currently being considered.” […]

Ever since a series of bankruptcies left banks unwilling to lend to him, Donald Trump has been on the lookout for partners willing to fund the buildings that bear his name. Over the years the US presidential candidate has assembled an eclectic collection of backers and collaborators. Some had chequered pasts, with links to organised […]

The art project “United” by Luc Chenier, the CEO of the Kyiv Post, features acrylic paintings of 11 national flags of various countries, but in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colors. The paintings will be exhibited on Oct. 20 – 23 in the Triptych Global Arts Workshop art gallery, at 34 Andryivsky Uzviz St. in Kyiv’s […]

MOSCOW – The lower house of the Russian parliament unanimously approved on Oct. 19 President Vladimir Putin’s move to suspend a deal with the United States on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium. Amid growing strains between Moscow and Washington, most recently over the conflict in Syria, Putin has cited the “emerging threat to strategic stability as […]

Germany and Russia played down prospects of four-way talks on Oct. 19 achieving a breakthrough in the stalled Ukraine peace process at the first such meeting in just over a year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois will also raise their concerns about Russia’s role in the Syrian civil war with President Vladimir Putin […]

The leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France will hold a summit in Berlin for talks on the stagnant peace process in eastern Ukraine — a meeting that also is expected to touch on Syria’s civil war. Prospects of significant progress on either front look poor, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said before Wednesday evening’s […]

In Wartime: Stories From Ukraine is not Tim Judah’s first experience writing about a conflict region. Two decades ago, he wrote The Serbs, now considered a classic account of the ethnic conflicts that sundered Yugoslavia. Unlike the Balkans, Judah makes clear in his new book, Ukraine is not threatened by genocide or, at the moment, […]

Ukraine insists on the return of control over the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve in Donetsk region, held by the Russian-terrorist forces, ahead of the meeting of the Normandy Four leaders in Berlin Oct 19, according to Darka Olifer, the spokesperson of Ukraine’s envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group, ex-president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. Read more

The Verkhovna Rada has appealed to the government and parliament of the Netherlands for the completion of the ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Some 235 people’s deputies voted for the corresponding decision at the plenary session on Wednesday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has stated that Ukraine is ready for the current heating season and has accumulated sufficient resources. Read more 

An ambitious new project involving more than 50 researchers from 30 countries will attempt the first full circumnavigation of Antarctica to measure pollution and climate change. The international team will travel on the Russian research vessel Akademik Treshnikov, which left its home port of Arkhangelsk in the Russian arctic on October 19. Read more