Crimea

The Pentagon announced Tuesday plans to provide $250 million to Ukraine for training, equipment, and advisory efforts, to enhance the country’s military.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian media on Thursday that former Secretary of State John Kerry approved of Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, believing the residents were overwhelmingly in favor of “reuniting” with Russia. According to Lavrov, Kerry’s main criticism of Russia’s actions was to suggest holding another referendum to reinforce the legitimacy of annexation.

The United Nations International Maritime Court on Saturday ruled Russia must immediately release 24 Ukrainian sailors taken prisoner in November and return three seized naval vessels to Ukraine.

Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky stepped into his new role as Ukraine president with his inauguration on Monday, launching a new era for the country wracked by war and economic difficulties.

Ukrainian comedian Vladimir Zelenskiy, who plays the president of Ukraine on a TV show, appears to have pulled into the lead in the actual presidential election contest.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the State Board of Administration voted Tuesday to sanction Airbnb for its decision not to list properties in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The vote made Airbnb the first American company to be placed on a “scrutinized” list of businesses that boycott Israel.

Stephen Cohen said the “Russiagate fiction” may prevent Donald Trump from negotiating peaceful resolutions to conflicts with Russia.

Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice published an op-ed Sunday in the New York Times in which she declares that President Donald Trump “does more to undermine American national security than any foreign adversary.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin held his 14th annual year-ending press conference on Thursday. These events find Putin talking for hours on end as he takes questions from hundreds of journalists – in this case over 1,700 of them from both Russian and foreign media organizations, according to the Kremlin.

Ukraine’s Border Guard Service on Monday accused Russia of effectively blockading the Kerch Strait by subjecting vessels bound for Ukrainian ports to an extremely slow approval process that allows only a few ships to pass per day.

The U.S. Navy deployed its guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell near Russia-contested waters in the Sea of Japan on Wednesday as it begun taking the necessary steps to sail a warship into the Black Sea, west of Russia, amid increased tensions in the wake of the Kremlin’s seizure of three Ukrainian military vessels.

The Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko revealed on Thursday that Russia has deployed nuclear weapon carriers in Crimea.

Russia is holding naval war exercises and surface-to-air missile drills in the Black Sea region amid tensions with Ukraine and a U.S.-led alliance over the capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crew off the coast of Moscow-annexed Crimea last month, the Kremlin’s defense ministry reportedly announced on Tuesday.

The Russian military has deployed additional S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries in its Dzhankoy airbase in Crimea amid heightened tensions with Ukraine.

The Border Guard Service of Ukraine announced a ban on Friday on male Russian nationals between the ages of 16 and 60 entering the country for the duration of martial law, currently scheduled to last 30 days.

Ukraine’s parliament has voted to support the president’s motion to impose martial law in the country for 30 days.

Russia on Monday refused to return three Ukrainian ships seized in the Black Sea on Sunday during a confrontation in which Ukraine said the Russians fired upon its vessels and injured six sailors.

The naval conflict this weekend between Russia and Ukraine was not a sudden development. Pressure has been building between the two nations for a long time, arguably even before Ukraine broke away from the disintegrating Soviet Union in 1991.

Russia alarmed the world on Sunday by reportedly seizing Ukrainian vessels in the Sea of Azov, attacking Ukrainian assets and blocking some of its most important port cities through its illegal command of the Crimean peninsula.

Contents: Ukraine counters Russia’s military buildup in the Sea of Azov; Ukraine prepares to challenge Russia in the Sea of Azov; Violent school massacre in occupied Crimea kills 19 people

An 18-year-old allegedly massacred his fellow students with a shotgun on Wednesday at a vocational school in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory Russia annexed in 2014, killing 19 and injuring more than 50 others before committing suicide.

The Russian government reacted with outrage on Wednesday following a declaration from the State Department confirming that Washington would never legitimize Moscow’s illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea, Ukraine.

The media are not interested in Russia. They are only interested in taking down Trump. Hence the free pass for Obama and friends.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western powers on Thursday against deepening military alliances with Georgia and Ukraine, asserting that Russia would “respond proportionately” to “aggressive moves” against it.

Columbus Dispatch journalist Randy Ludlow claimed on Twitter, Thursday, that he would “love” to see his Marine son “ship out to Crimea” for a war with Russia.

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a globally-anticipated one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump went right to work in Brussels at the NATO summit Wednesday morning, taking truculent Germany to task for coming to the United States for defence, while simultaneously paying billions of dollars to the Russian Federation for energy.

Contents: Russia’s actions in Sea of Azov raise fears of another invasion of Ukraine; Ukraine’s Donbas war continues, as US supplies Javelin anti-tank missiles

“Well you know, you have to ask President Obama because he was the one that let Crimea get away, that was during his administration,” Trump said during a press conference with reporters at the G7 Summit in Canada.

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that Russia be allowed back into the annual G7 summit of world leaders.