WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Department of State has confirmed delivery of Javelin anti-tank missile systems to Ukraine, a department spokesperson told Sputnik on Monday. The United States has been assigning millions of dollars to support Ukraine, particularly in the defense area, over the past years. US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch has said that the United States had provided over $85 [...]

WASHINGTON - The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is allegedly involved in a series of crimes, including torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, the State Department said in its annual human rights report released on Friday. "Human rights groups and the United Nations noted significant deficiencies in investigations into human rights abuses committed by [Ukraine’s] government [...]

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) - The suggestion of Ukrainian Ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnyk to ban German nationals from visiting Crimea is nonsense and an act of interference in Germany's internal affairs, Andreas Maurer, the head of Die Linke party group of the Quakenbruck parliament, told Sputnik. [...]

The pilot's death, preliminarily ruled a suicide, has reopened claims about his possible role in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2014. Vladislav Voloshin, the Ukrainian combat pilot which some Russian investigative journalists have accused of responsibility for the MH17 disaster, allegedly shot himself Sunday at his home. [...]

A former pilot with the Ukrainian military, who was once accused of shooting down MH17 plane in 2014, has died in an apparent suicide. He was flying his Su-25 on a combat mission on the day of the tragedy. Vladislav Voloshin, the 29-year former pilot, died in his apartment in the city of Nikolayev on Sunday from a gunshot wound. [...]

The announcement came as Petro Poroshenko visited Ukrainian military personnel in Kramatorsk. In his speech he stressed that now the country will be ready for war with Russia. Some users, commenting his post on Facebook, expressed skepticism concerning his promises. [...]

Ukrainian police and radicals have blocked Russian diplomatic missions to prevent voters from participating in the presidential election. The move was condemned by Russian officials as a “blatant violation of international law.” [...]

Ukrainian MP Nadezhda Savchenko, who was lauded as a hero for her role in the Donbass military campaign and her prosecution in Russia, is now accused of plotting to blow up the national parliament in Kiev. [...]

While Washington ostensibly supports the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine-Donbass conflict, new revelations - if true - do not add to these claims and on the contrary seem to be in sync with the approval of US weapons to Kiev. The Swiss newspaper Le Temps has reported about scores of US and Canadian instructors training Ukrainian servicemen at the former Soviet firing range Yavorov in wester [...]

The gradual lifting of sanctions against Russia may start if the Moscow-backed plan to deploy UN peacekeepers in the conflict area of eastern Ukraine is implemented, interim German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. [...]

On February 20, 2014, unknown snipers shot at people gathered on Kiev’s central Maidan square killing 49 protesters and four police officers. Local opposition leaders, as well as US and EU representatives, were quick to point a finger at the "regime of Viktor Yanukovych." [...]

Congress has authorized $618.7 billion for the 2017 military budget. The bill ups aid to Ukraine by $50 million and allows the transfer of missiles to Syrian rebels. However, it omits controversial provisions about drafting women or religious exemptions for contractors. [...]

Former US vice president Joe Biden boasted that he had a word to say in another state’s internal affairs, admitting to have pressured the Ukrainian government into sacking a prosecutor general in just a few hours. [...]

The newly-adopted Ukrainian law on ‘restoring sovereignty over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions’ shows that Kiev is determined to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine by force, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The law grants Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “unlimited powers to silence dissent, similar to those of a dictator,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. [...]

Russia has accused the US of fueling the conflict in Ukraine after the ultra-nationalist Ukrainian Azov battalion was spotted wielding American-made TOW anti-tank weaponry, according to Moscow’s envoy to the OSCE. Russia is concerned that the US is encouraging Kiev to solve the Donbass conflict with force by supplying it with “defensive” heavy weaponry. [...]

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has praised the US and Canada for approving lethal arms supplies, while Moscow says it subverts the peace process. By including Ukraine on the list of countries approved for lethal weapons sales, Canada has become a side in a bloody civil war, undermining a shaky peace process, a senior Russian senator said, as Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko applauded the m [...]

Ukraine’s hryvnia has hit rock bottom, now 34 against the euro. This is the lowest point for the Ukrainian currency ever tracked. The hryvnia has also plunged to a record low against the Russian ruble, trading at 4.99 hryvnia to 10 rubles. The Ukrainian currency is on its hat-trick against the US dollar. One dollar is worth 28.44 hryvnia; the historical record was 30.01 hryvnia in February 2015. [...]

Ukraine’s President Poroshenko has praised the US and Canada for approving lethal arms supplies, while Moscow says it subverts the peace process. By including Ukraine on the list of countries approved for lethal weapons sales, Canada has become a side in a bloody civil war, undermining a shaky peace process, a senior Russian senator said, as Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko applauded the m [...]

Jim Jatras comments on the Washington Post report that President Donald Trump has approved providing lethal weapons to Ukraine’s armed forces. Specifically, according to the report, the decision opens the door for delivery of items like Model M107A1 sniper systems and ammunition, plus associated parts and equipment, with a value of $41.5 million [...]

Thousands of people supporting Mikhail Saakashvili, the fugitive ex-Georgian president turned Ukrainian opposition figure, have once again taken to the streets of Kiev to take a local cultural center by storm. Some 2,000 people turned up for yet another protest action in support of Saakashvili in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday. The demonstrators marched through the city center to Maidan Square, [...]

Czech political analyst and activist Jan Miklas, recently back from a trip to Crimea, gives his take on the planned 'Crimean march' planned by Ukrainian nationalists, and on Washington's efforts to use Kiev as a pawn in its geopolitical confrontation with Russia. [...]

Ukraine's Defense Ministry has sacked chief military psychiatrist Oleh Druz, who told lawmakers that 93% of veterans from the conflict in the country's east need treatment for mental health issues. Radio Sputnik contributor Vladimir Filippov says Druz's remarks, and Kiev's reaction, are a testament to the senselessness of the country's civil war. [...]