Kyiv should cease negotiations with Right Sector and declare its armed forces illegal, prosecuting those who continue to fight under its banner while allowing qualified former members to enroll in the National Guard and other state security organs as individuals. By Kimberly Marten, Olga Oliker. (Sept. 14, 2017)

Ukrainian military observers have claimed that the number of Russian tanks and heavy armaments spotted in the east of Ukraine has increased tenfold since fighting began in the region in 2014. Moscow has long denied a military presence in two Ukrainian regions close to its border, Donetsk and Luhansk, where uprisings following the ousting of Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych three years ago quicky descended into war between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army.

Ukraine has filed a case against Russia for “acts of terrorism and unlawful aggression” at the United Nations’ highest court. The Ukrainian foreign ministry launched the action at the International Court of Justice on Monday, claiming that Russia was supplying weapons and other assistance to rebel groups operating in eastern Ukraine. “As part of its unlawful aggression in Ukraine, the Russian Federation has displayed contempt for the basic human rights of the people of Ukraine,” said foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin.

When two Swedish Nazis thought their group’s leaders had gone soft, they went to train with Russian paramilitaries, before returning home to carry out an attack. Their case shows how nationalist extremism across Europe is being transformed by the conflict in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed Thursday that the upcoming Russian military drill in Belarus shows Moscow is preparing its forces for a much bigger conflict. The comments came during his annual address to parliament. Russia’s backing of separatists in the eastern region of Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea show no sign of being reversed, Poroshenko added according to Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda. On the contrary, Ukraine thinks the Kremlin’s military ambitions are only going to grow.

If Dragonfly is a Russian state-sponsored group, then the compromises could be a show-of-force meant to indirectly respond to recent sanctions placed on the sponsor. If the group is mercenary, the campaign could be a demonstration of skill. In either case, while the capability exists, actual cyber-kinetic impacts similar to the Black Energy malware attacks against Ukraine, would do little other than draw the ire of the United States and its allies. Considering that Energetic Bear has only just reemerged, the likelihood that it would substantiate an attack that would necessitate its immediate dispersion is minimal.

Russia is not capable to supply water to Crimea without Ukraine's participation. Agriculture and industrial manufacturing of the peninsula suffer from dehydration, and the steppe might turn into a lifeless desert. The Kremlin is not able to recognize its own incapability. Moscow is preparing for Ukraine's future ultimatum...

Ukraine denied on Monday that it had ever supplied defense technology to North Korea, responding to an article in the New York Times that said North Korea may have purchased rocket engines from Ukrainian factory Yuzhmash. Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has raised global tensions in recent weeks. The United States is a key backer of Ukraine.

Secret service bosses are a notoriously tight-lipped bunch, particularly in Eastern Europe, where the Soviet legacy of complete state secrecy lingers. In the former Soviet Union, where the KGB ruled for most of the last century, spy chiefs give few interviews, and when they do they say very little of interest. Such is the nature of the espionage business there.

A Dutch-led investigation has concluded that the powerful surface-to-air missile system that was used to shoot down a Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine two years ago, killing all 298 on board, was trucked in from Russia at the request of Russian-backed separatists and returned to Russia the same night.

Russia is working to resurrect a number of Soviet-built military facilities in Crimea that were used during the Cold War as a defense against naval attacks, Reuters reported Tuesday. A resident from Crimea’s southern coast who was employed at a base last year said Moscow has begun stationing soldiers in the formerly abandoned bunkers and blocking the roads that lead to the areas.

Tribunal has failed to live up to hopes of international community, Moscow says day after court report on Russian annexation of Crimea

We already saw how the new $1.6 billion sarcophagus—the 843-foot wide, 354-foot tall steel shield that entombs the radioactive material leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor left over from the Chernobyl disaster—was going to be put in place to replace the old concrete structure that enclosed the damaged reactor in a picture but here’s a time lapse showing the entire process. Seeing the gigantic arch structure slide in shows what a feat of engineering this was. It’s a really, really, really snug fit.

For the last few years, a Dutch museum has been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Just after the Allard Pierson Museum debuted a new exhibition featuring hundreds of gold artifacts from the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Russia annexed the contested region. The land grab drew condemnation from all corners of the international community, but it had the side effect of stranding these artifacts in legal limbo.

‘I admire the fact that you will fight for your homeland,’ Lindsey Graham tells Ukrainian soldiers.

After two years of relative calm, Ukraine's war with Russian-backed rebels took a deadly and destructive turn this week, leaving besieged towns like Avdiivka without electricity, heat or water.

The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has expressed "strong condemnation of Russia's actions" in eastern Ukraine and warned that Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia will not be lifted until Crimea is returned to Kyiv. "Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine," she said on February 2 in her first public remarks before the Security Council since being sworn into office.

A prominent pro-Russian guerilla commander has been assassinated in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, according to local officials. Thirty-six-year-old Mikhail Tolstykh, better known by his nom-de-guerre Givi, was reportedly killed on Wednesday morning. The exact nature of the assassination is still unclear, but multiple, unverified reports have emerged of an explosion in Tolstykh’s office. Insurgents have already blamed his death on Ukrainian operatives.

Ukraine calls the move an escalation while Russia says it is a humanitarian act.

Chernobyl's new sarcophagus took two decades to make. Bigger than Wembley Stadium and taller than the Statue of Liberty, it will seal in the entire disaster site for 100 years. World leaders jostle with global executives and anonymous men dressed in full camouflage as platters of shrimp, foie gras and cheesecake are passed around by white-gloved staff. It would all seem quite normal were it not for the fact that we’re just 100m (330ft) away from the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

On April 26, 1986, a nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine caused radioactive material to be spewed into the atmosphere, exposing hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of people in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe to extremely high doses of radiation. The effects of the nuclear fallout are still being felt: more than 500,000 people in Belarus, the country most affected by the disaster, have thyroid problems stemming from Chernobyl radiation, and more than 2 million people live in areas of the country that put them at high risk of contamination.

Beneath the song contest’s glitz and glamour lies some tricky geo-politicking—especially when Ukraine plays host.

Vladimir Putin has referred to "the territories which now belong to Ukraine" in ominous comments during his annual phone-in. The Russian President made several remarks about Ukraine, recent anti-government protests and his country's relations with the United States, during A Direct Line With Putin. "I hope at some time this period in the life and history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people will come to an end," ​Mr Putin said. 

A high-ranking Ukrainian military intelligence official has been killed by a car bomb in Kiev in what authorities are calling an act of terrorism. An explosive device destroyed the Mercedes being driven by Col Maksim Shapoval at 8.15am local time, police said. The car’s bonnet was blown open and its roof and driver side door almost completely destroyed, video footage from the scene showed.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday Russia must make the first move to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, during a first official visit to Kiev that President Petro Poroshenko called a powerful signal of U.S. support. Tillerson said Washington's primary goal was the restoration of Ukrainian territorial sovereignty, in comments that will cheer Kiev and show ties are warmer than many in Ukraine dared hope after U.S. President Donald Trump took office.

Thousands of Russian volunteer fighters helped Vladimir Putin create a proxy army to foment conflict in Ukraine. In return, many say Putin has given them nothing.

After seizing control of a large section of Independence Square, authorities began an attempt to retake City Hall, setting off fierce clashes with protesters.

“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.” That's a text message that thousands of Ukrainian protesters spontaneously received on their cell phones today, as a new law prohibiting public demonstrations went into effect. It was the regime's police force, sending protesters the perfectly dystopian text message to accompany the newly minted, perfectly dystopian legislation.

Ukraine descended further into chaos as violent clashes between police and protesters left two dead and injured hundreds, in a situation the Ukraine Prime Minister said is "spiralling out of control". Escalating unrest resulted in the first two fatalities today, after the Ukraine's General Prosecutor confirmed two men had died of gunshot wounds and a criminal investigation has been opened in a statement.

Ukrainian opposition leaders held fresh talks with President Viktor Yanukovich on Saturday after overnight clashes between radical protesters and police, and an attempt by other activists to occupy the main energy ministry building.

A 27-year-old police officer has been shot dead in Kiev according to the Interior Ministry.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has offered the post of prime minister to opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk. He also offered former boxer Vitali Klitschko the position of deputy PM. In response, the opposition leaders did not explicitly say whether they accepted the offer, but repeated their demands for new presidential elections.

I found it hilarious, although its probably not as simple as this.

What I saw during the Orange Revolution that may spell doom for the Protesters 

How is it we are so willing to put our prestige on the line for people in the Arab countries for whom democracy is a stranger and women’s rights are often held hostage to male ignorance while ignoring people in the West who cry out for democracy, are willing to put their lives on the line for it, and accord women equal rights with men.