Ukraine

KIEV, August 7. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has told reporters he had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Donbass.

"This morning I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin," Zelensky told a briefing following an urgent meeting with security forces, convened after four Ukrainian troops were killed in the Donbass operation zone. "I called him on short notice. I said that this is not bringing us closer to peace."

KIEV, August 6. /TASS/: The number of people diagnosed with measles in Ukraine continues to grow, having reached nearly 57,000 since the beginning of the year, the press service of the Ukrainian Healthcare Ministry reported.

"A total of 56,861 people, including 26,748 adults and 30,113 children, have been diagnosed with measles in Ukraine in 2019. Eighteen fatalities have been registered. In total, 117,000 people have fallen ill since the measles outbreak in the summer of 2017," the press service said.

KIEV, August 3. /TASS/: The Servant of the People political party has won a sweeping victory in the snap election to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) taking 43.16% of the votes, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission head Tatiana Slipachuk said on Saturday announcing the official results of the July 21 parliament election.

LUGANSK, August 2. /TASS/: Ukrainian forces have shelled the positions of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) five times in the last 24 hours, spokesman for LPR people's militia Yakov Osadchiy said on Friday.

"Ukrainian forces continue provocative shellings of positions of LPR people's militia. Today at 9:45pm, the 54th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the settlement of Kalinovo from grenade launchers of different types," LuganskInformCenter quoted Osadchiy as saying.

KIEV, July 28. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has voiced protest in connection with the trip to Crimea of a Russian delegation led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the ministry’s press service said on Sunday.

"The trip comes in defiance of repeated warnings from Ukraine," it said. Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister arrived in Sevastopol to attend festivities marking Russia’s Navy Day.

KIEV, July 26. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's Servant of People party is winning the snap parliamentary election with 43.16% of the votes, the Central Election Commission (CEC) says after all 100% of the ballots have been counted.

Four other parties have overcome the five-percent threshold. Opposition Platform - For Life received 13.05% of the votes, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko's Batkivshchina - 8.18%, former president Pyotr Poroshenko's European Solidarity - 8.10%, and singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Golos (Voice) - 5.82%.

KIEV, July 25. /TASS/: Wexler Group, the largest importer of petroleum products in Ukraine will stop importing of diesel fuel from Russia from August 1, due to introduction of duties by official Kiev, the company s announced on Thursday.

25 July 2019; DW: Ukraine has alleged that the Russian tanker took part in a November confrontation in the Kerch Strait. Relations between the two former Soviet nations has been strained since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine has seized a Russian tanker in the Black Sea, alleging that it was used in an operation to block Ukrainian vessels from sailing through the Kerch Strait, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Thursday.

KIEV, July 22. /TASS/: Sunday’s snap parliamentary election in Ukraine was neither fair nor democratic, Head of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Political Management Ruslan Bortnik told TASS on Monday, adding that the vote had been overshadowed by the earlier presidential election.

KIEV, July 22. /TASS/: Andrei Portnov, lawyer and former First Deputy Chief of Staff of the fourth Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's administration, reported Prosecutor General Yuri Lutskenko’s disappearance on Monday.

"Friends, I inform you that Prosecutor General Lutsenko has disappeared. [First Deputy Prosecutor General Dmitry] Storozhuk will serve as acting prosecutor general from now on," Portnov wrote on Facebook.

Later Yuri Lutsenko’s Press Secretary Larisa Sargan explained on Facebook that the prosecutor general did not disappear but "is on leave."