Breaking News, 16th of March, 2018

In the west of Iraq, near the borderline with Syria, US military helicopter UH-60 Black Hawk crashed down. 7 people were on board. According to preliminary data, the helicopter wasn’t shot down. Rescue teams already headed out to the crash site.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow will expel British diplomats from Russia, as a retaliatory measure. At this moment, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the FSB compile a list of British diplomats that are being suspected of working on British intelligence services, and remain in Russia as ordinary diplomats. The number of diplomats expelled by Moscow will be at least 40 percent of the entire British diplomatic corps in Moscow. One could say that London and Moscow open the way for the young people, which is a good thing to do in general.

In Geneva, the meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on the violation of the rights of the inhabitants of the Crimea by Ukraine was disrupted, RIA News agency reports with a reference to the head of the working group on international legal issues, Alexander Molokhov. Allegedly, the official reason for the cancellation of the meeting was a staff strike. At the same time, according to him, the source said that at the day before the meeting, the union workers were spotted in the restaurant with the members of the delegation of Ukraine.

Deputy of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that in response to Washington’s sanctions, Moscow will expand its own blacklist for the Americans. «We do support such parity on the number of persons included in the sanctions registers from the very beginning. So it’s only natural that we’ll add some new names to our own blacklist with another group of Americans» — RIA News quotes Ryabkov. Earlier US had extended sanctions against Russia. On top of that, Washington has added to the list of sanctions the FSB and the GRU.

The deputy of the Ukrainian Parliament, the official hero of Ukraine Nadezhda Savchenko, was listed on the database of the Ukrainian website «Peacemaker» as «A collaborator of terrorists, and a traitor to the Motherland». Savchenko replied on the television that she is ready to give back the »Order of the Golden Star of the Hero of Ukraine’’ to President Piotr Poroshenko, which he rewarder her with in May 2016, and would gladly do so on a meeting with the Ukrainian leader, but she also said that «it’s not so easy to get to meet him».

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office initiated a criminal case against the organizers of the elections of the president of Russia at March 18th in the Crimea, under the articles «State Treason» and «Intrusion on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.» «There are clear signs of treason in the actions of persons assisting the organization of the electoral process in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and in the city of Sevastopol» — The press service of the Voters Committee of Ukraine said.