Breaking News, 9th of April, 2018

14 people died today as a result of a missile attack on the Syrian airbase T-4 in the province of Homs. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that the missile strike on the air base was carried out by Israeli aircraft. «Between 3:25 and 3:53, two F-15 aircraft of the Israeli Air Forces, without entering Syrian airspace, launched eight guided missiles at the airfield of T-4 from above of Lebanon» — the Russian Defense Ministry explained. Syrian air defense forces were able to destroy only five of the eight missiles. The remaining three missiles reached the western part of the airfield.

The owners of the Russian company «RusAl» announced that the inclusion of the company in the list of US sanctions can lead to a financial default in connection of a number of its loan obligations. The company considers it highly probable that the sanctions will have a significant negative effect on its business and prospects for its development. At the same time, »RusAl» intends to fulfill its existing obligations. The company made this statement after a sharp decline in its shares: on the stock exchange in Hong Kong, after the company was included in the «black list» of the USA, the company fell in price by more than 40%.

Ukrainian troops fired at the LPR positions twice over the past day. This was reported in the defense department of the Republic. The areas of villages Lozovoye and Kalinovka were under attack. 82-mm mortars, weaponry of IFVs, anti-aircraft guns and automatic grenade launchers were used in the shelling.

In the DPR, over the past day, Ukrainian troops violated the ceasefire agreements 19 times, firing 303 shells at the front-line regions of the Republic. The settlements Kominternovo, Sakhanka, Kulikovo, Spartak, Vasilievka, Krutaya Balka, Yakovlevka and Mineralnoye were under attack. In the south of Donbass region the Ukrainian military used heavy artillery — the village of Leninskoye in the Novoazovskiy district was attacked with 122-mm howitzers.

President of Ukraine Petro Porshenko, who visited Istanbul during a meeting with the head of Turkey Recep Erdogan, announced Ankara’s readiness to participate in the international peacekeeping mission in Donbass region, according to the information on the website of the Ukrainian president. At the same time, DPR recently announced that there are no practical reasons for inviting UN peacekeepers to the Donbass yet.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Pavel Klimkin, was invited to the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the G7 countries, which will be held in Toronto on April 22nd. «We are glad that Ukraine will be able to join the uneasy but critically important conversation, and we expect to make a valuable contribution for the future joint decisions.» — Ukrainian ambassador to Canada, Andriy Shevchenko, commented on the invitation.