Breaking News, February 17th, 2018

USN destroyer ‘’Ross’’, which participated in a missile strike at the airfield Shayrat in Syria, entered the Black Sea. According to Interfax, the warship has at least 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board. Earlier, the British destroyer ‘’Duncan’’ left the Black Sea. As we reported earlier, in April 2017, after accusing the official Damascus of using chemical weapons in Khan-Sheikhun, the United States launched a missile strike at the Syrian military airfield Shayrat. The US could not prove the involvement of the Syrian government in the aforementioned chemical attack.

After the shooting at the school in Parkland this Wednesday, which killed 17 people, the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, called on FBI director Christopher Ray to resign. According to him, the Bureau had information about the possibility of such incident, but the agency was inactive. «The FBI’s inability to take action against this killer is unacceptable. The FBI admitted that they were contacted by a man, during last month, who told them about Cruz’s desire to kill people, and about the potential threat that he would shoot people at school. The 17 innocent people are dead, and the recognition of the error will not change anything» — The governor said in a statement.

A helicopter crashed in Mexico, on board of which were the Minister of the Internal Affairs, Alfonso Navarrete and the Governor of the State of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat. Due to an unknown reason, the helicopter lost control before landing at an altitude of about thirty meters, and fell on a car. As a result of the incident, several people died on the ground, and the people inside the helicopter were injured, except for Navarrete and Murat who were not injured during the incident.

Director of the Syrian hospital in Afrin region, Joan Mohamad, said that during the operation «Olive branch» the Turkish forces used shells with poison gas. According to him, the poison gas was used in the village of Aranda. Six people with symptoms of suffocation were delivered to the hospital, the SANA agency reports. Ankara’s use of chemical weapons, such as Napalm and chlorine which were banned by the international convention, was also stated by the official representative of Kurdish self-defense forces, Afrina Reizan Hedu.

Speaking at the Munich conference, Ukrainian President Piotr Poroshenko said that the hybrid war, which, in his opinion, is being waged by Russia, grows into a «full-scale world hybrid war». He added that Russia is trying to «destroy their unity and destroy their democracy.» — as well as -«The Russian flag should not be waving anywhere, while Russia continues to incite a worldwide hybrid war, and Russian guns are aimed at our symbols,» — the RIA news agency quoted him. Poroshenko also traditionally opposed the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, as well as the Russian elections in the Crimea, and the restoration of Russia’s membership in PACE.

Ukrainian forces fired at the positions of the People’s Militia of the LPR four times over the past day. The LPR’s positions near the settlements of Nizhniy Lozovoye, Kalinovo and Kalinovka were under fire. In the DPR, during the same period, the Ukrainian Forces violated the ceasefire agreements eight times, firing 149 shells along the front-line territories of the Republic. Ukrainian Forces fired the northern and western outskirts of Donetsk — the «Volvo Center» and the village of Aleksandrovka, as well as the suburbs areas of Gorlovka — Shirokaya Balka, Mikhailovka. During the shelling of the territory of the Republics, mortars, various types of grenade launchers, weaponry of BMP-1 armored vehicles and small arms were used.