Ukraine

KIEV, August 6. /TASS/: The activity of President Vladimir Zelensky and his team is looking more and more like a dictatorial system to intimidate its own citizens and evict unwanted ones, the Opposition Platform — For Life party said on Friday.

LUGANSK, August 6. /TASS/: LPR Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego believes that remarks made by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who urged Donbass residents who consider themselves ethnic Russians to relocate to Russia, are a display of the neo-Nazi nature of Kiev’s policy. The Foreign Minister’s statement was published in the LPR Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel Friday.

"Zelensky crossed all boundaries in his cynicism by stating that Donbass residents, Russian by spirit, are making a ‘grave mistake’ by staying on the land of their ancestors," Deinego said.

KYIV, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A Belarusian activist living in exile in Ukraine was found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday, and Ukrainian police said they had launched a murder case.

Vitaly Shishov, who led a Kyiv-based organisation that helps Belarusians fleeing persecution, had been reported missing by his partner on Monday after failing to return home from a run.

Police said they had launched a criminal case for suspected murder, including investigating whether attackershad tried to disguise the killing as suicide.

DONETSK, August 1. /TASS/: Four militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) were killed in the Ukrainian armed forces’ shelling on Friday, the DPR Defense Ministry reported on Saturday.

"The Ukrainian army opened fire in the area of the settlement of Petrovskoye yesterday evening. One DPR fighter was wounded. The ambulance vehicle that was sent to evacuate him was also attacked," the statement says.

KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Ukraine expects to receive a second payment from its $5 billion International Monetary Fund programme after fulfilling all its agreed commitments.

The IMF approved the standby loan facility in June 2020 and disbursed a first tranche of $2.1 billion to help the Ukrainian economy, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Further loans have been frozen due to the slow pace of reforms in Ukraine and concerns over central bank independence.

LUGANSK, July 25. /TASS/: A Ukrainian drone carrying two bombs was intercepted by militias of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), LuganskINformCenter reported on Sunday citing militias’ spokesman Alexander Mazeikin.

According to the spokesman, the drone was intercepted and forced to land "thanks to the well-coordinated actions of the LPR air defense and electronic warfare units with the use of the Triton-M1 station." The drone was carrying "two improvised bombs that were destroyed by LPR field engineers," he said.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A teenager who says he’s a U.S. permanent resident and his fiancée are once again on the run from the threat of extradition to their homeland, China, in a sign of Beijing’s lengthening reach over perceived dissidents abroad.

KYIV, July 16 (Reuters) - Belarusian police searched offices and homes of independent journalists and human rights activists for the third successive day on Friday, extending what President Alexander Lukashenko's opponents say is a new crackdown on dissent.

The office of U.S. broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was one of 19 premises searched, the Belarus Association of Journalists said, denouncing "a massive attack by security forces on journalists across the country."

KIEV, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian-British military exercises Cossack Mace 2021 started on Monday in southern Ukraine and will run on July 12-24, the Ukrainian military said.

The exercises will take place in Nikolaev region involving about 2,000 servicemen and more than 300 combat vehicles from Ukraine, Britain, the United States, Canada and Sweden, the press service of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Monday.

They are held to improve the coordination of the military units of partner states.

ABOARD USS ROSS (AP) — Ukraine and NATO have conducted Black Sea drills involving dozens of warships in a two-week show of their strong defense ties and capability following a confrontation between Russia’s military forces and a British destroyer off Crimea last month.