Crimea head assures missile tests by Kiev pose no threat to flights over peninsula

According to earlier reports, Ukraine has unilaterally decided to carry out missile tests on December 1-2 in Russia’s airspace near Crimea.

SIMFEROPOL, November 30. /TASS/. There will be no threat to safety of flights over Crimea, if Ukraine conducts missile tests near the Black Sea peninsula, Crimean Prime Minister, Sergei Aksyonov, told reporters on Wednesday.

"There is no threat to flight safety, as Rosaviatsiya (the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency) said earlier. Simferopol’s airport is operating as usual, all services are fully functioning," Aksyonov stressed.

According to Aksyonov, the Ukrainian authorities announced plans to carry out missile tests to harass Crimea. 

"They just do not know what else to do to harm Crimea," Aksyonov noted.

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency earlier reported that, in violation of all international agreements, Ukraine unilaterally decided to carry out missile tests on December 1-2 in Russia’s sovereign airspace near Crimea where the itineraries of civil and state aircraft lie.

 
Source: ITAR-TASS 30-11-2016

Defense Ministry: West threatens Russia with sanctions for liberating Aleppo residents

MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Western countries are urging to impose sanctions against Russia after 80,000 civilians were liberated in Syria’s Aleppo, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov, said on Tuesday.

He recalled that, over the past 24 hours, the Syrian army had been able to liberate almost half of eastern Aleppo where 80,000 civilians reside from militants.

"Now it turned out that the release of over 80,000 Aleppo residents held hostage by gunmen was not part of the plans of the UK and French Foreign Ministries, the US Department of State and the German Bundestag. They even urged to impose new sanctions for that," the spokesman said.

According to Konashenkov, there are tens of thousands of children in the liberated areas. "Many of them were provided, for the first time in a long while, with food, drinking water and medical assistance in the humanitarian centers deployed by Russia. Over the past few years, these Syrians have been used as human shield by terrorists of every stripe and color in Aleppo. It was they who were allegedly protected by all Western politicians," he said.

 
Source: ITAR-TASS 29-11-2016

Russian opens criminal case over crimes committed by Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies

Investigators have opened criminal cases against six more Ukrainian armed forces commanders.

MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee has initiated criminal proceedings over crimes committed by the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in the Donbass region, the committee’s spokesperson, Svetlana Petrenko, told TASS on Monday.

"The department for investigating the crimes involving the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare and the Main Investigative Department of the Russian Investigative Committee have established previously unknown incidents of artillery bombardments of the civilian population by the Ukrainian servicemen," she said.

According to Petrenko, investigators opened criminal cases against six more Ukrainian armed forces commanders under Part 1 of Article 356 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("Use of prohibited means and methods of warfare").

 
Source: ITAR-TASS 28-11-2016

Ukrainian military fire 260 shells, mines on Donetsk Republic — news agency

"They launched dozens of shells from infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms," the republic’s defense authorities told the Donetsk News Agency.

DONETSK, November 27. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Armed Forces in the evening and at night launched 260 artillery shells and mines on settlements in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the republic’s defense authorities told the Donetsk News Agency on Sunday.

"After 18:00, the Ukrainian side has launched 260 artillery shells of 122 and 152mm calibers and mines of 82 and 120mm calibers," the defense authority said. "From positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they launched dozens of shells from infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms."

Under fire from the Ukrainian military were settlements Trudovskiye, Alexandrovka, Zaitsevo, Spartak, Zhabichevo, Sakhanka, Leninskoye, Oktyabr, the industrial area near Yasinovataya and the area of the Volvo Center.

The defense authority said also, on Saturday, the military opened fire three times on the Mayorsk checkpoint north of Gorlovka.

On August 26, the parties to the Contact Group for settling the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine made a yet another, ninth, attempt to attain ceasefire. The agreement they reached suggests the ceasefire takes effect as of September 1. However, the Ukrainian side keeps on shelling DPR’s settlements. The DPR has been daily reporting more than 100 episodes of shelling with the use of weapons of 120mm and 122mm calibers.

Despite the ongoing provocations, the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics, the DPR and LPR (Lugansk People’s Republic), on September 13 banned their servicemen to open retaliatory fire in response to provocations from Ukrainian troops. On the following day, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after talks in Kiev that Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko had also guaranteed Ukraine’s readiness to observe truce in Donbass.

The Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015, envisaged a ceasefire regime between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) starting from February 15, 2015, and a subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

 
Source: ITAR-TASS 27-11-2016

Leader of Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro passes away aged 90

The death of the former leader was announced by his brother, President Raul Castro.

HAVANA, November 26. /TASS/. Leader of the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro died at the age of 90, Cuba’s President Raul Castro told the state television on Saturday.

"I am here to inform our people, our friends in America and in the world, that today, on November 25, 2016, at 22:29, Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz passed away," he said.

Fidel's body would be cremated as Fidel had wished.

Within coming hours, the commission on funeral will give further information about mourning ceremonies, Raul Castro said.

 

Source: ITAR-TASS 26-11-2016