Drivers will face criminal liability, while fines will also increase significantly. Photo from UNIAN Ukraine will toughen punishment for drunk driving from July 1. “Drivers will face criminal liability, while fines will increase significantly,” according to Ukrainian TSN TV news service. In particular, the fine for driving under influence will increase from UAH 10,200 (US$382) to UAH 17,000-34,000 (US$637-1,274). In case of

Reports are coming about the Sevastopol-based Black Sea naval fleet showing teeth amid the ongoing vote for Russian constitutional amendments that would allow Vladimir Putin to retain power, resetting the count of his presidential terms. Reports seem plausible as even the avid pro-“Russian spring” commentators are voicing alarm across social networks over the defiant position of Russian sailors – something

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged Russians to take part in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms to ensure “stability, security and prosperity.” In a televised address before the week-long ballot ends on Wednesday, Putin said Russians should vote for the country “we want to pass on to our children” but made no mention of a controversial amendment that would

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has announced the launch of flights to five new destinations from Ukraine. As the airline’s press service said on Tuesday, in particular, from September 1, 2020 it is planned to launch flights from Lviv and Kyiv to Pardubice (the Czech Republic), and from March 2021 from Odesa to Milan (Malpensa), Rome (both starting from 29

Russia has notified the UN that it is stopping cooperation through the deconfliction system in Syria, reports TASS with reference to the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock. During the meeting of the UN Security Council on Syria, Lowcock said that on June 23, Russia notified the UN that it is stopping participation in the humanitarian deconfliction

Two trains ran toward each other. Occupying authorities launch freight traffic across Crimean bridge / Screenshot The de-facto authorities in Russia-occupied Crimea have launched freight traffic across the Kerch Strait Bridge. “Two trains ran toward each other: [One] from Crimea with goods, and [the other one] from Russia with fuel, grain, fertilizers, and building materials,” the Crimeainform information agency wrote

   Igor Sikorsky Kyiv International Airport is forced to lay off half of its employees to escape bankruptcy due to a drop in passenger traffic caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The press service of Kyiv Airport wrote about this on Facebook. “The leadership of Kyiv International Airport is forced to lay off half of its employees in order to save

The Cabinet of Ministers has not yet submitted to the Verkhovna Rada any bill introducing amendments to Ukraine’s state budget regarding assistance to those affected by floods in western Ukraine. The leader of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko, said this at a meeting of the parliament’s conciliation council on Tuesday, June 30, according to an Ukrinform

A letter from the chairman of the ERG (European Research Group), Mark Francois MP, to Michel Barnier, Head of the European Commission Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom. It’s a masterclass in being firm, fair and polite, concerning Britain’s soon to be independence from the repellent Franco-German Russia lackey that the EU has become.

  The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SACPO) detained the head of the Kirovohrad Regional Administration, Andrii Balon, on suspicion of extorting about UAH 2 million bribe and receiving the second tranche of the sum in the amount of UAH 250,000. Ukrainian News Agency learned this from a source

MON, JUN 29, 2020 UkraineAlert by Georgiy Kent James Norton stars as Welsh journalist Gareth Jones in the new movie “Mr. Jones”, which explores the struggle to reveal the truth about Stalin’s man-made famine in 1930s Ukraine. (Photo Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films) Stalin’s man-made famine in 1930s Soviet Ukraine ranks as one of the worst crimes of the totalitarian

Meduza: Our publication discovered that there is an electronic system [called] votely.ru, which is being used to monitor turnout among employees at large enterprises in the vote on amendments to the constitution. For example, Russian Post, Rostec, and Rostelecom are connected to the system. Employees at these companies are being given special QR-codes, which are then scanned at polling stations under the

Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky talks with journalists at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv on Sept. 13, 2019.Photo by Matthew Kupfer In Ukraine, state companies are hotbeds of corruption. One oligarch is especially talented in milking them.  Since July 2019, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky has allegedly gained millions of dollars through the resale of natural gas from the state-owned Ukrnafta oil

The Russian authorities understand the reasons for the situation with the Belgazprombank case and the arrest of its former head Viktor Babariko, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting with the government in the Minsk region. “On June 24 (during my visit to Moscow), I noticed that when we ctracked down on this gas industry bank, they understood

(c)SKYSCRAPERCITY 2020

By Michael Schwirtz First came a destabilization campaign in Moldova, followed by the poisoning of an arms dealer in Bulgaria and then a thwarted coup in Montenegro. Last year, there was an attempt to assassinate a former Russian spy in Britain using a nerve agent. Though the operations bore the fingerprints of Russia’s intelligence services, the authorities initially saw them as isolated, unconnected