Новости за 12.12.2017

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the law about the country’s defense budget for the next year. The press service of the White House reported that on December 12. Among other things, the document stipulates financial assistance for Ukraine for 350 million U.S. dollars. Another 4.6 billion dollars will go to U.S. allies in Europe […]

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian leader who is now an ardent opponent of Ukraine’s president, said corruption had inflicted far greater damage on Ukraine than Russia had. Speaking one day after a judge rejected prosecutors’ request to put him under house arrest, Saakashvili said on December 12 that he had no ambitions himself to become […]

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed the law, which ratified the agreement on the extension of the mandate of the international mission looking into the MH17 disaster. The bill was approved by the Ukrainian Parliament earlier this month; 257 MPs voted ‘yes’, with 226 necessary to pass. Ukrainian and Dutch governments ratified the agreement on […]

Donald Trump’s lawyers are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the special counsel overseeing the federal inquiry into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. According to a report from Axios published early December 12, one of Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, has raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest within […]

Despite Russia’s ban from the upcoming Olympics, officials in the country still expect more than 200 of their athletes to compete at the Pyeongchang Games. Under International Olympic Committee sanctions announced last week, all Russians must compete under the Olympic flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.” Read more here. 

Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Fiona Frazer says the Mission is concerned about the practice of death penalties in the separatist-controlled areas of Donbas, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read more here.

Russia’s Olympics authorities opted against a boycott of the 2018 Winter Games December 12, saying they would support athletes who choose to participate in the coming games under the Olympic flag. Read more here. 

Russia’s top domestic security agency says it has detained three suspected members of a sleeper cell of the Islamic State group who have been preparing suicide bombings in Moscow. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said December 12 that the suspects were plotting a series of suicide attacks in the Russian capital during the New […]

Movement of New Forces leader and former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been summoned to appear at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office for questioning as a suspect in a criminal case on several counts on the morning of December 18, a summons posted on the PGO website on December 12 afternoon said. As reported, on […]

A top Russian official says most of the fake bomb calls that have plagued cities across Russia have come from Syria. Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said December 12 in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that most of the anonymous calls came from areas controlled by “terrorists” in Syria. Read more here. 

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in the course of auctions for placement of domestic government loan bonds in January-November 2017 attracted Hr 27.697 billion and $1.382 billion to the state budget. Read more here.

Russia has suspended its diplomatic presence in Yemen, and all its staff have left the country due to the situation in the capital Sanaa, according to official Russian sources. Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Maria Zakharova, the country’s foreign ministry spokesperson, as making the announcement on December 12. Read more here. 

An explosion and fire at Austria’s Baumgarten gas hub will temporarily reduce gas transit via Ukraine and slightly affect gas supply from Europe to Ukraine, gas transport monopoly Ukrtransagaz said on December 12. The explosion killed one person and injured at least 18 others, prompting Italy to declare a state of emergency as flows from […]

Ukraine is conducting the environmental examination of the construction of the Kerch Bridge to initiate a lawsuit at the international level, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said. “Prevention of an environmental disaster, which could appear due to the construction of so-called Kerch Bridge, is an extremely important aspect of our work. Today Crimean Prosecutors’ […]

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has authorized Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv to sign an agreement on economic cooperation with the Portuguese Republic. The corresponding order has been published on the website of the Head of State. Read more here. 

Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is planning new protest rallies in Ukraine following his release from custody and wants the West to put more pressure on Kyiv’s leaders to accelerate reforms and fight corruption in the country. On December 11, a Kyiv court rejected a request from prosecutors to place Mr Saakashvili under house arrest, […]

Weak evidence presented by prosecutors and domestic and international pressure were among the factors that led to the release of ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from custody on Dec. 11 by Kyiv’s Pechersk Court, analysts and lawyers say. The prosecutors’ case presented during the Dec. 11 ran counter to Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s claims that he […]

The Ukrainian president’s envoy for the Crimean Tatar people, MP and Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, states that a fake Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people may be created in the Russian-occupied Crimea, according to an UNIAN correspondent. Read more here. 

European Council President Donald Tusk, writing in the invitation to the EU leaders, has confirmed that the December 14-15 summit will focus on the implementation of the Minsk agreements on Ukraine and the question of extending economic sanctions against Russia. “Chancellor Merkel and President Macron will also report on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, […]

The European Parliament is concerned about the conflict surrounding the activities of anti-corruption institutions in Ukraine. Dariusz Rosati (EPP), Michael Gahler (EPP) and Rebecca Harms (Green), key MPEs working on Ukraine, said this in a statement on December 12, an Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels reports. Read more here.   

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented numerous cases of human rights violations by Russia in the occupied Crimea, which mostly affected the rights of the Crimean Tatars. Read more here.

BRUSSELS – European Union leaders will agree on Dec. 14 to prolong for another six months the bloc’s economic sanctions on Russia, imposed over the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and Moscow’s support for rebels in east Ukraine. Read more here.

Over 4,000 Ukrainian enterprises were seized in Crimea, and Ukraine sent an information letter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on ten cases of violation of private property rights, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has said. “In the course of the investigation, the Crimean prosecutor’s office received information on the seizure of more than 4,000 […]

The United Nations says daily cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine have led to more civilian deaths and “further aggravated a dire human rights and humanitarian situation” as temperatures drop. Read more here.

NATO on Dec. 12 reappointed Jens Stoltenberg as secretary general to serve until 2020, as the alliance undergoes its biggest revamp since the Cold War to counter the perceived threat posed by Russia. Read more here.