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It has been reported that Russian tanks have been spotted moving into occupied territory in Crimea, which was seized following an operation carried out by Vladimir Putin's forces in 2014. Witnesses have reported large amounts of Russian military hardware massing near the towns of Dzhankoy and Armyansk in northern Crimea, close to the border with Ukraine. Norman Dzhelalov, deputy chairman of Crimean Tatar Mejlis – which represents the peninsula’s ethnic Tatar group, claimed on Facebook that tanks had arrived. He wrote: "Witnesses report that large groups of Russian military hardware have been massed near Armyansk and Dzhankoy. "Dzhankoy has been...

Donald Trump has come under fire for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his ties to the country--and he suggested Sunday that he might recognize Russia's control of Crimea. "You know, the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were," he said on ABC's "This Week." "And you have to look at that, also. Now, that was under -- just so you understand, that was done under Obama's administration. ... Crimea has been taken. Don't blame Donald Trump for that." Trump made those comments just after saying Putin is "not...

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte today (13 June) admitted a referendum called by euroskeptic groups on whether to back closer ties between Ukraine and the EU had been “disastrous” after voters soundly rejected the pact. “I’m totally against referenda, and I’m totally, totally, totally against referenda on multilateral agreements, because it makes no sense as we have seen with the Dutch referendum,” Rutte told a conference of European MPs. “The referendum led to disastrous results,” he added. …

Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has whipped up a storm on Russian social media for an off-the-cuff comment he made to a Russian pensioner last month. Medvedev was caught on camera telling an elderly woman in Crimea, a region annexed by Russia from Ukraine in spring 2014, that there was "no money left" in Russia's budget when he was asked why the state pension of 8,000 Russian rubles a month (around $125 a month) was not higher given the rising cost of living. "There just isn't any money now. When we find money, we'll make the adjustment," Medvedev replied to...

France has delivered the first of a series of Mistral warships to Egypt, the Egyptian news website Al Ahram reported Thursday. The helicopter carriers were initially constructed for the Russian Navy, but France pulled out of the deal following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. France paid to Russia 950 million euro ($1 billion) as compensation for breaching the deal. The official ceremony was attended Egyptian Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi, the commander of the French naval forces and other top military officials from France and Egypt. The warship was named after the former president of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser. A...

The U.S. military must rebuild in Europe to face a more aggressive Russia, whose advanced submarines, weapons systems and geographic advantage have the U.S. “playing zone defense,” the top U.S. commander in Europe said Thursday. “We have about 20 years of a different paradigm to correct,” Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander of U.S. European Command, said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. Breedlove, who has led EUCOM during the command’s biggest transformation in a generation, said he did not foresee a need to return to a Cold War-style military posture. But the era of trying to make a partner...

Russia is now preparing an offensive in order to create a land corridor through mainland Ukraine to the Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Deputy Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Mykhailo Koval who addressed the participants of the meeting of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Seimas of Lithuania and the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

For months, Scandinavian countries have accused Russian military planes and ships of slipping into their waters without permission. It’s made many Nordic governments wary of the Kremlin’s intentions in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean. Russia’s assertive behavior is driving Sweden and Finland — two countries that have never been part of NATO — closer to the alliance. At present, Norway, Denmark and Iceland make up NATO’s Nordic members. According to Anna Wieslander at the Atlantic Council: Denmark has played a key role, with some support from the United Kingdom, putting Baltic Sea security and the perspective of relevant...

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday criticized Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, accusing him of placing a "time bomb" under the state, and sharply denouncing brutal repressions by the Bolshevik government. The harsh criticism of Lenin, who is still revered by communists and many others in Russia, is unusual for Putin, who in the past carefully weighed his comments about the nation's history to avoid alienating some voters. At the same time, he signaled that the government has no intention of taking Lenin's body out of his Red Square tomb, warning against "any steps that would divide the...

Fr. Lubomyr Yavorskyy, head of the Chaplaincy Services of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, on the physical trials and spiritual challenges of ministering to Ukrainian soldiersIn mid-February 2016, Fr. Lubomyr Yavorskyy, Deputy Head of Chaplaincy Services of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, visited numerous parishes and venues in Toronto and parts of southern Ontario at the invitation of Bishop Stephen Chmilar, Eparch of Toronto, and of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). Bishop Chmilar and the UCC had jointly organized a fundraising campaign called “Save Lives” in order to assist Ukrainian soldiers with their extensive humanitarian...

Senator Ted Cruz with Cavuto speaking about the IMF in the Ukraine aid package and Hobby Lobby issue before SCOTUS.

NATO’s secretary-general says the NATO-Russia Council will meet for the first time since 2014 within the next two weeks. The announcement Friday from Jens Stoltenberg was a sign both sides might be seeking an improvement in relations, which have been in the deep freeze since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. NATO accuses Moscow of violating its international obligations by annexing Crimea, and of backing a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. …

The political and military environment in Kazakhstan is deteriorating due to the efforts of pro-Russian activists. The activities of pro-Russian movements in Kazakhstan indicate a tremendous growth of the threat to the acting authority, which emerged in the last 18 months. Currently, Kazakhstan is ready for the repeat of the “Crimean scenario”. It could be triggered by domestic problems in the Russian Federation or a sudden change in the state regime of Kazakhstan. Such threats to Kazakhastan are driven both by its citizens, who are coming home having obtained combat experience in Donbas region, and the increased activities of Cossack...

Golan Heights, Israel - Elliot Chodoff, a political analyst who kindly gave our Christian group a tour of the Syrian border this week on our trip to Israel, was not even fazed by the gunfire we heard in the distance. "Welcome to my world," he said casually as "Pop! Pop! Pop!" sounded behind us. He just as calmly added that there were over 50 terror organizations within our field of vision. With all these nearby threats, you would expect Israel would be able to count on her friends to be fully versed on the situation and be ready to protect...

Turkey is confronting what amounts to a strategic nightmare as bombs explode in its cities, its enemies encroach on its borders and its allies seemingly snub its demands. As recently as four years ago, Turkey appeared poised to become one of the biggest winners of the Arab Spring, an ascendant power hailed by the West as a model and embraced by a region seeking new patrons and new forms of governance. All that has evaporated since the failure of the Arab revolts, shifts in the geopolitical landscape and the trajectory of the Syrian war. Russia, Turkey’s oldest and nearest rival,...

VORONEZH MALSHEVO AIR BASE, RUSSIA Beware the Ides of March, some say. Or “they.” At the tender age of thirty-one, I still have no ****ing idea what that idiom means. Is March an inherently ****ed up month? Did the creators of the Gregorian calendar know that in the year 2014 we would be facing Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, March Madness, and a small but rapidly spiraling out of control war with Russia all within the same month? The other day, the body of a Crimean Tartar was found tortured to death, with all the hallmarks of it being a...

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that strains between Russia and the West have plunged the world into a "new Cold War". With tensions high over the lingering Ukraine conflict and Russia's backing of the Syrian regime, Medvedev said: "All that's left is an unfriendly policy of NATO against Russia". "We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War," he said, speaking at the Munich Security Conference. "Almost every day we are accused of making new horrible threats either against NATO as a whole, against Europe or against the US or...

Patriarch Kirill is overheard telling the Pope: 'Things are easier now' At long last, Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow have embraced, kissing each other three times.“Finally,” the Pope told the Patriarch as they met in a lounge at Havana’s José Martí International Airport . “We are brothers,” he told the Patriarch.Amid the clicking of cameras and multiple flashes, Patriarch Kirill was overheard telling the Pope, “Things are easier now.”“It is clearer that this is God’s will,” Pope Francis told him.A flight of almost 12 hours capped months of intense negotiations and more than two decades of...

Putin’s war cost Russia its centuries-long shared identity with its neighbour. Now, Kyiv risks betraying the spirit of the Maidan revolution. When the Russian inquest finally comes, the answer will be clear. It was President Vladimir Putin who lost Ukraine – after a millennium of shared east Slav identity. When the Ukrainian inquest into who lost the ­Euromaidan’s “Revolution of Dignity” finally comes, the answer, on the present evidence, will also be clear. It was an elite core of politicians and oligarchs who first worked a miracle in fighting Russia’s military Goliath to a stalemate – only to revert to...

It didn't take long for western media to lose focus. After Russia began its military campaign to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the world largely stopped paying attention to Ukraine. It shouldn't have. Over the last few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been busy trying to deepen the quagmire he created in Eastern Europe. A United Nations' report released in November detailed the degree to which his proxy war in Ukraine has turned the country into Russia's killing field. More than 9,000 people have died since the spring of 2014 after Russia-backed rebels began fighting Kiev for independence,...