Breaking News, 13th of June, 2018

Тhe opening ceremony of the TANAP gas pipeline, which is a part of the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, happened in the Turkish city of Eskishehir. It was constructed to send Azerbaijani gas from the Shah-Deniz gas field to Europe while bypassing the territory of Russia. The head of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Serbia Alexander Vučić, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and the leader of the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Mustafa Akıncı were at the opening ceremony, as well as the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Petro Poroshenko announced at the ceremony that Ukraine will be happy to diversify its sources of energy, and receive the gas from the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline through Bulgaria and Romania.

The European Parliament approved the allocation of € 1 billion to Ukraine under the third macro-financial assistance program. As Interfax-Ukraine reports — 527 parliamentarians supported the allocation of the funds, 124 voted against it, and 29 abstained from the vote. Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko expressed his gratitude to «all the friends of Ukraine in the European Parliament and European institutions for their unity in support of Ukraine.»

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced that his government will not allow to escalate the Syrian conflict. «Egypt will continue to support the rights of the Syrians and their interests on the basis of sustainable positions of preserving the unity of the Syrian territories.» — he said at a meeting with the UN Ambassador in Syria Staffan de Mistura. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi added that Egypt is ready to act as an intermediary in the Syrian conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the opening ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Luzhniki Stadium on 14th of June. He will stay for the opening game between the national teams of Russia and Saudi Arabia. This was reported by the press service of the Kremlin. The opening ceremony will also be attended by the heads of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Panama, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Paraguay. Today the presidents of Azerbaijan, Rwanda, Bolivia and Lebanon, as well as the Prime Minister of Armenia, have arrived in Moscow — they will later hold negotiations with the Russian president as well. In addition, the opening ceremony will be attended by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Al Saud and the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Assembly of the DPRK Kim Yong Nam — they will hold the talks with Vladimir Putin on 15th of June.

In the DPR, over the past day, Ukrainian troops violated the ceasefire 9 times, firing 120 shells at the DPR. Donetsk, Gorlovka and Mariupol areas were hit. The western outskirts of Donetsk, the suburbs of Yasinovatoy, Dokuchaevsk, the outer areas of Gorlovka, and the southern villages of Leninskoye and Kominternovo were hit the most. As a result of the shelling — one civilian was injured in Yasinovatoy. One woman was wounded as a result of the shelling of Dokuchaevsk.

The Ukrainian army brought ammunition to the two settlements near the contact line in the Donbass region, announced the spokesman of the LPR — Lieutenant-Colonel Andrei Marochko. According to the available information, an army convoy arrived in the town of Novotoshkovskoye — two trucks with personnel and ammunition and one infantry fighting vehicle. In the vicinity of the settlement of Zolotoe, currently controlled by the Ukraine, ammunition was transported to the missile and artillery ammo storage. «Thus, the Ukrainian military leadership is replenishing the ammunition stocks with a plan of committing provocative actions against the LPR» — explained the lieutenant-colonel.