Новости за 17.02.2017

  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the 53rd Munich Security Conference, under way on Feb. 17-18 in Germany that Russian President Vladimir Putin “hates Ukraine deeply and sincerely.” He also said that appeasing Russia would be “naive, wrong and dangerous.” Poroshenko also talked by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, briefing him “on […]

Ukrainian Jean Gritsfeldt is like no other Ukrainian designer. He lists his personal cell phone number on his brand’s website, and he runs his own Instagram account. It’s a mystery how he manages to fit in all these things in his schedule, but he does say that he has assistants. On Feb. 5 Gritsfeldt presented […]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Feb. 17 held a telephone conversation with U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson, the Ukrainian president’s press secretary, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, said. “The president of Ukraine while at the Munich Security Conference in Germany held a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,” Tsegolko wrote on Twitter on Feb. 17.

An estimated 1 million children need humanitarian aid as fighting persists in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian rebels, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Feb. 17. Read more here.

MOSCOW – The leader of Russia-backed separatists has warned that they may use force to drive out Ukrainian troops from positions in eastern Ukraine. Read more here.

Russia has dismissed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s call for the U.S. to approach Moscow from a “position of strength.” Read more here.

The separatists leader Alexander Zakharchenko said that the militants are ready to seize by military means the areas in Donbas currently under the Ukrainian control in case they fail to do so using political tools, Russia’s Interfax reports. Read more here.

LUHANSK – Observers from the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE SMM) are not getting full access to weaponry storage sites on both sides of the frontline in Donbas, heavy weapons remain on the contact line, SMM deputy chief Alexander Hug said. The SMM have full access neither on […]

Lithuanian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into a false report of rape by German soldiers stationed there as part of NATO a mission to deter Russia. Read more here.

Around 420,000 more children in Ukraine will need humanitarian aid in 2017, UNICEF said on Feb. 17. Read more here.

The United States and Russia may be on the verge of a new arms race in Europe, decades after the missile crisis that shook the Old Continent in the waning years of the Soviet Union. Read more here.

The Russia-backed separatists in Donbas have started taking steps towards creating a sense of nationhood. Read more here.

Finland’s government has announced plans to strengthen its military by raising troop levels and increasing defense spending. Helsinki cited concerns over actions by neighboring Russia as a reason for the beef up. Read more here.

Robert Harward, a respected former Navy Seal who earned high marks for his management skills, has turned down Donald Trump’s offer to replace Michael Flynn as national security adviser. Read more here.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged authorities in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian region of Crimea to drop all charges against journalist Mykola Semena, an RFE/RL contributor who has angered Moscow over his reporting. Read more here.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry commented on the report of the Special OSCE monitoring mission (SMM) dated Feb. 16 “Hardship for conflict-affected civilians in eastern Ukraine” during May-September, 2016, the Ministry’s press-service said. The Foreign Ministry noted that the report “has once again confirmed the gross violations of the Minsk agreements and human rights by Russia […]

With little more than a year remaining before Russia’s next presidential elections, Aleksei Navalny, the country’s leading opposition politician, is hitting the campaign trail. Over the coming weeks he will embark on a tour from Siberia to the Black Sea, opening offices and recruiting volunteers. The fact that a Russian court recently ruled him ineligible […]

U.S. President Donald Trump defended his presidency, slammed reports that his campaign advisers had inappropriate contact with Russian officials and promised to crack down on the leaking of classified information in a news conference on Feb. 16 at the White House. Here is the full transcript. Read more here.

Men who might be too shy or busy to make the first step and chat with a woman they like on a social network can now use Ukrainian dating app Likeapp to automate the wooing process. Designed by a team from Dnipro, the application will help you “find a girl you like and invite her for a […]

Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine 2,197 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, performing tasks there, Chief of General Staff – Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko said. “Combat losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for this period amount to 2,197 people dead and about 8,000 wounded,” Muzhenko said during […]

BRUSSELS – NATO defense ministers have decided to beef up the military alliance’s naval presence in the Black Sea in response to an increasingly aggressive Russia. Read more here.