Four days into 2018, two Iranian nationals tried to buy parts of an advanced missile in Kyiv, according a spokesperson for the Ukrainian intelligence service. This effort appears to have violated a UN arms embargo on Iran.

Masked men in Ukraine’s secret police arrested the men and found parts of the missile in their vehicle, according to the spokesperson. What followed became a secret diplomatic incident, and both men were detained and then quietly deported to Iran.

Vasyl Hrytsak, the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, described this all to American government officials during a recent trip to Washington.

The attempt as alleged by Ukrainian intelligence sources likely violated United Nations’ prohibitions on Iranian arms procurement. And it shows Iran may intend to procure weapons that would let it make the Persian Gulf more dangerous than ever.

Hrytsak told American officials Iranians tried to procure an X-31 anti-ship missile components, produced in Ukraine. “X-31” can also be rendered as a Kh-31 missile, depending on how you transliterate the cyrillic.

Officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested the men when they were in possession of parts of the missile as well as technical documents related to its use, according to pictures of the arrest reviewed by The Daily Beast. (Those pictures included images of a vehicle’s open trunk, packed with missile parts.) One of the men, according to Hrytsak, is named Abdi Biyan and was a military attache at Iran’s embassy in Kyiv.

“ The diplomats in Ukraine are not there for Chicken Kiev... They’re there to get this kind of stuff. ” — Tom Karako, CSIS

“The diplomats in Ukraine are not there for Chicken Kiev,” said Tom Karako, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They’re there to get this kind of stuff.”

The Kh-31 is a Russian-designed anti-ship weapon that can fly along the surface of the sea at supersonic speeds.

Dr. Nikolai Sokov, a fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and an expert on Russian missiles, said that photos of the missile components shared by The Daily Beast “look consistent” with Kh-31 parts but could not be certain the items in the images came from the Kh-31 given that the “missile is disassembled and the pictures are incomplete.”

“It’s most likely this missile is a Kh-31,” added Behnam Ben Taleblu, a research fellow focused on missiles at the FDD, who also reviewed the Ukrainian photos.

“The Islamic Republic is already home to a wide array of Chinese anti-ship weapons and their Iranian variants,” Taleblu said. “Had the Kh-31 been successfully procured, Iran’s ability to project power, harass vessels, and deter great powers in the Persian Gulf would have measurably grown.”

Iranian acquisition of Kh-31 missiles could improve its ability to attack U.S. and Gulf Arab countries’ naval forces as well as commercial maritime traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the thin strip of sea between Iran and the United Arab Emirates that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. According to the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration, 18 million barrels of oil went through the strait every day in 2016—more oil than moved through any other choke point that year. Iran has repeatedly threatened to shut the strait in response to tensions with the U.S. and Europe. Expanded Iranian capabilities to harass ships could have economic consequences as well as military ones.

Anti-ship cruise missiles are one of “four core areas” which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) has prioritized for naval weapons acquisition, according to a 2017 study published by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (PDF). In the event of a major conflict in the Gulf, the IRGCN would likely leverage its anti-ship missiles, fast attack craft, small boats, and naval mines to close or restrict access to the strait on the belief that sinking enemy ships early on “would break the political will of an adversary to continue with a military campaign against Iran.”

The Iranian military has long made a practice of harassing American Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, though these incidents have declined under the Trump administration, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson recently told the AP, according to Business Insider.

A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the UN did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether or not the country’s government disputes the Ukrainian intelligence service’s allegations. A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment.

It is unclear if Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s government informed the UN of the men’s attempt to buy the missile. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s mission to the UN said he had no information on the matter.

This alleged attempt wouldn’t be the first time Iranians tried to get weapons from Ukraine. In 2005, Ukrainian prosecutors revealed that Iran smuggled Kh-55 air-launched cruise missiles out the country in 2001—a move U.S. officials reportedly believed was assisted by corrupt senior officials in the government of former President Leonid Kuchma. Missile experts believe that the illicitly acquired Kh-55 missiles formed the basis of Iran’s “Soumar” long-range cruise missile revealed in 2015.

Classified State Department cables released by WikiLeaks also show U.S. officials repeatedly warned Ukraine in the mid-2000s that its Zaporizhzhya Regional Foreign Economic Association—sanctioned by the U.S. in 2004—had sold specialty metals useful in the construction of ballistic missiles to Iranian missile procurement front companies.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian lawmaker wounded in an explosion in Kiev that killed two people blamed Russia on Thursday for the blast while investigators said they were considering various motives for what they called an act of terrorism.

 Ihor Mosiychuk, a member of the populist opposition Radical Party, was hospitalized but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, while his bodyguard and a passerby were killed. Two others were wounded.

 Since fighting with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine broke out in 2014, the number of incidents involving explosives outside the conflict zone has increased.

 There has been a spate of vehicle bombings over the past 18 months in Kiev, the capital, and elsewhere, but investigators have failed to find those responsible. 

 Ukraine's state security service (SBU) said that unknown perpetrators had rigged a motorcycle with explosives on Wednesday that detonated as the lawmaker left a TV station.

 Radical party leader Oleg Lyashko said he had no doubt the incident was politically motivated, while Mosiychuk blamed Russia. "I believe that the initiators are in Moscow, the executors are in Kiev," Mosiychuk said on Facebook.

 Russian involvement is one of the possible motives being investigated, deputy Kiev prosecutor Pavlo Kononenko told journalists.

 "Another explanation is Mosiychuk's political activity, his public position within our country," he said. "A third explanation is an attempt on Mosiychuk's life for personal reasons."

 The Kremlin dismissed the accusations as a product of anti-Russian sentiment.

 "Beyond all doubt, these are new signs of this anti-Russian campaign which has unfortunately swept across Ukraine and Kiev," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

 Relations between Kiev and Moscow collapsed in 2014 after Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and backed a pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern Ukrainian regions. 

 Radical Party lawmaker Evhen Deidei posted photos on his Facebook page from the scene of Wednesday's attack which showed the burnt-out shell of a motorcycle in front of a damaged vehicle. 

 "Judging by the damage to the car and the shrapnel holes in the doors, the power of the explosion was pretty strong," he said. "There is a lot of blood on the stairs, where Ihor was situated at the time of the explosion."

 The interior ministry's Shkiryak said political analyst Vitaliy Bala was one of the three wounded in the blast.

 In June, a colonel in Ukraine's military intelligence was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev. In 2016 a prominent investigative journalist, Pavel Sheremet, was killed by an explosive device in his car. 

 

 (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Robin Pomeroy/Mark Heinrich)</s>KIEV, March 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine will make local bonds tradable through a cross-border settlement house in the coming months to capitalise on foreign investor appetite for hryvnia-denominated debt and attract much-needed foreign currency, the finance ministry told Reuters.

Currently there are no restrictions on foreign funds or companies buying Ukrainian government bonds denominated in local currency, but the process is time-consuming due to myriad legal and bureaucratic requirements.

Nevertheless, aggressive rate hikes by the central bank has boosted interest in domestic bonds. Foreigners’ holdings have tripled to 14.7 billion hryvnias ($556 million) from 5.2 billion hryvnias since the start of 2018.

This has provided a welcome influx of foreign currency, helping to stabilise the national hryvnia currency after a period of volatility and to boost reserves ahead of hefty external debt payments.

The finance ministry plans to encourage this trend by making it easier for foreigners to trade.

“We’re analysing the bottlenecks and looking for ways to eliminate the inconveniences. One of the planned steps is to create a link between the Ukrainian depositary system and the international depository,” it said in emailed comments.

It did not say which external clearing institution it had in mind, but last July Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said he planned to talk with Euroclear.

Similar moves have proved successful elsewhere in the region. In 2013, foreign investors quintupled their holdings of Russian treasury bonds after international settlement services opened up the local market.

In Ukraine, increased trading of this sort will further support the hryvnia because investors must sell their dollars or euros on the local market to receive the hryvnias needed to buy government bonds at weekly auctions.

“Ukrainian bonds offer investors a higher yield than in other countries with a similar level of risk. This, together with the relatively low volatility of the exchange rate, makes such investments very attractive,” the ministry said.

The bonds are likely to remain attractive as the central bank has signalled it will stick to a hawkish policy that has seen four consecutive rate hikes - the latest a percentage point increase to 17 percent in early March.

“Investors who expect to earn in a long-term prospect will buy government bonds because the coupon of 16.1 percent on two-year papers and 16.15 percent for a three-year period is very good for them,” said ICU financial analyst Taras Kotovych.

This will also boost reserves at a time when Ukraine faces foreign currency debt payments of around $7 billion in both 2018 and 2019 and is struggling to implement reforms needed to unlock further loans under its $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund programme.

Kiev wants to take advantage of the appetite for hryvnia bonds and reduce the share of foreign currency-denominated debt, which stood at nearly 69 percent of Ukraine’s total debt worth $76.8 billion as of February 28. ($1 = 26.4400 hryvnias) (Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Gareth Jones)</s>KIEV/NOVOLUHANSKE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated to the worst level in months, officials monitoring the conflict said on Tuesday, after the shelling of a frontline village wounded eight civilians and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

 A Russia-backed insurgency erupted in 2014 and the bloodshed has continued despite a ceasefire deal that was meant to end a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed, with casualties reported on a near-daily basis.

 The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors the implementation of the peace agreement, said it had recorded 16,000 ceasefire violations between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17, a 35 percent increase on the week before. 

 "We note with concern a sharp deterioration in the security situation with ceasefire violations reaching levels not recorded since February this year," chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan said in a statement.

 In February, a surge of violence around the government-held industrial town of Avdiivka cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on the front line.

 Apakan said the latest escalation reflected an established trend "in which a recommitment to the ceasefire by the sides was followed by a steady increase in the level of violence, culminating in fierce fighting". 

 Apakan's comments followed warnings from aid agencies over the humanitarian situation in the eastern Donbass region, particularly given Monday's attack on the government-controlled village of Novoluhanske.

 The United Nations' OCHA humanitarian arm said on Twitter heavy shelling near Novoluhanske was affecting 2,000 residents.

 People are fleeing the area in blizzard conditions, it said.

 Eight civilians were wounded and more than 50 buildings were damaged in the shelling, which also temporarily cut power supplies, the regional Kiev-controlled Donetsk administration said.

 A Reuters witness saw residents picking their way through the rubble of destroyed homes and surveying fire-blackened buildings.

 The U.S. State Department said the humanitarian situation was "dire" because of the shelling, which it blamed on Russian-led forces firing Grad multiple-launch rockets.

 The Ukrainian military on Tuesday accused pro-Russian separatists of deliberately firing more than 40 times from multiple-launch rocket systems at Novoluhanske. 

 Meanwhile, the rebel command said attacks from the Ukrainian side had almost doubled in the past 24 hours, according to separatist news website DAN.

 Rebels deny attacking Novoluhanske and say the Ukrainian military fired at the village to justify their attacks on separatist-held civilian areas, according to DAN.

 The U.S. State Department also voiced concern about fighting around the Donetsk water filtration station, which has a system of pipes that carry chlorine gas.

 "If those were to go off in this area, which is close to where people live, it could be potentially devastating," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing.

 She said civilian water workers were trapped in the station's bomb shelter and could not get out because of fighting.

 In an effort to end the deadlock, the international community, including the United States, has in recent months been advocating for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the Donbass.

 Both Kiev and Moscow backed the idea but disagree on whether the troops should be positioned on the rebel-controlled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, so no decision was made.

 Russia denies accusations from Ukraine and NATO that it supports the rebels with troops and weapons.

 

 (Reporting by Alessandra Prentice and Oleksandr Klymenko; additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Alison Williams and Grant McCool)</s>Baku. 23 February. REPORT.AZ/ Azerbaijanis living in Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations in connection with the missing and trapped in hostage compatriots, Report informs referring to the press service of the Congress of Azerbaijanis of Ukraine (CAU).

Due to missing and trapped in hostage Azerbaijanis in the eastern region of Ukraine, where the conflict is ongoing, the Azerbaijanis living in Ukraine, appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Kiev office of the UN and the OSCE and the relevant law enforcement authorities of Ukraine, said in a statement.

CAU notes that, since May 2014, 10 people were missing and 5 Azerbaijanis taken hostage mainly citizens of Ukraine in Lugansk and Donetsk regions. The report notes that there is a probability that the number will be much higher.

In this regard, Congress called for help to clarify the number of missing and Azerbaijani hostages:

Hostages and missing were not involved in the occurred conflict. They are mainly businessmen, civilians living in the region. Every day Disappearance of civilians, including Azerbaijanis, many seriously concerned about the Azerbaijanis living in Ukraine. These facts pose a serious threat to the safety and Azeris and other ethnic peoples living in the country. The appeal made by the Head of CAU Rovshan Tagiyev, as well as 24 regional leaders of the Congress of Azerbaijanis and societies of Ukraine.</s>is only a symptom of something far deeper and more systemically murderous and evil

We are now entering yet another US-UK led war build-up against the cornerstone of Western ideology, the designated Enemy Russia.As usual there is amnesia of the ever-recurring big-lie pretext, the need for another crisis to keep the two-billion-dollar a day NATO war machine going, the baleful puppet moves of Canada in the process, the crisis of legitimacy of the lead attacker's government, and the silent diversion from the whole nightmare scenario unfolding by all NATO-member governments, mass media and even 'peace activist' organisations.This time the big-lie pretext is about the alleged poisoning by the Kremlin/Putin of a double-agent, usually a stock move in espionage entertainments, but here with no evidence of the claimed origin of the lethal nerve-agent, but rather expert denial within British defence and weapons research itself, with devious political word games to get around the absence of evidence in familiar denunciations of Russia that are full of aggression and hate.What this latest war pretext for US and NATO-backed aggression is really about is justifying more war in the Ukraine now that the massive war preparations along Russia's Western borders are in place following the neo-Nazi-led and US-orchestrated mass-murder coup d'etat in February 2014 and the uprising of Eastern Ukraine. As always, the US-directed mass murder in the Kiev coup was reverse-blamed on the ever shifting Enemy face - Russia's allied but duly elected federal government of the Ukraine. It was only after this violent-coup of the elected government of Ukraine's very resource-rich country - "the breadbasket of Europe" and sitting on newly discovered rich fossil fuel deposits - that Russia annexed its traditional territory of the Crimea next to Eastern Ukraine. In predictable censorship by state proclamations and corporate media in NATO societies,In reality, Crimea was returned to Russia in a referendum-backed bloodless transition in reaction to the war-criminal putsch that put it under the rule of a US-appointed and neo-Nazi-led junta as the dispossessed Russia-speaking people of Eastern Ukraine simultaneously fought for their own government - Russia refusing pleas for annexation - in the now NATO-targeted Donetsk and Lugansk republics (the former by the way with a publicly adored competitive national soccer team in the European Champions League).What is new now is that we are about to enter yet another NATO-member war build-up against the cornerstone of Western ideology, the designated Enemy Russia. As usual there is amnesia of the ever-recurring big-lie pretext, the need for another crisis to keep the two-billion-dollar a day US-led NATO war machine going, the baleful puppet moves of Canada in the process, the crisis of legitimacy of the lead attacker's UK government, and silent diversion from the whole nightmare scenario unfolding in NATO-member states, mass media and even 'peace activist' organisations.The UK and the US followed by Canada and some of the EU have by expulsion of Russia diplomats prepared the diplomatic way for war in the Ukraine to seize back these lost coup-territories,. But there is much officially suppressed colour to the warring parties of this international conflict which reveals who the vile suppressor of human rights is in reality. Under mass media and corporate-state cover, the ordering the expulsion of Russia by NATO nations with its Secretary-General Stoltenberg crowing at the disbelief of Russia is preparation towards what will only be prevented by public exposure - NATO plan for war against Russia over Eastern Ukraine and Crimea separation from the illegal coup-state of Ukraine. The factually absurd but non-stop pretext of "Russia aggression" constructed out of the double-agent poisoning affair, with the guilty agents and poison having no proof but the ever louder UK-led and NATO-state assertion of it in unison, is the already building pretext.Yet there is a clear answer to the cui bono question - which party does all this benefit? Clearly once the question is posed,. The old war of aggression pattern reverse-blamed on the official enemy unwinds yet again. Now NATO-member states are clearing the way by expulsion of Russia diplomats, and the bigger prize is armed seizure of the new Eastern Ukraine republics and the Crimea itself, incalculably rich in natural and strategic resources. But all this depends on whether the peoples of Britain and NATO buy the string of big lies that grow before them propounded by hate-Russia propaganda being dinned people's heads now.It is revealing in this context how Canada's government has no such ruler need of war -In light of all of this suppressed factual background and motive for more war in Ukraine which is unspeakable in the official news, interaction with the United Nations is of revealing interest. While it has been the cover for US-led NATO executed genocidal wars of aggression in the past as in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Korea, the pretexts of 'human rights', 'responsibility to protect' and 'stopping communist aggression', which are in fact always been the spectacular opposite on the ground in terms of diseased, mass-murdered and destitute bodies,. But what state leader yet has repudiated these false-pretext wars rather than sustained their illusions and thus the war crimes and crimes against proceeding underneath them?The NATO-executed Ukraine war now being orchestrated is especially revealing in its actual record of 'protecting human rights' through 'international law' and 'norms of civilised nations'. Completely buried in official records is a United Nations resolution n on Ukraine that the US and Canada repudiated on November 20, 2015 after the US-led bloody coup d'etat in Ukraine was in full motion claiming all the vast tracts of land and resources that were Russia-speaking territory in the past.The 2015 UN resolution was straightforwardly against "Nazi symbols and regalia" as well as "holocaust denial". The Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee of the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for a resolution to enable measures against "the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that facilitate the escalation of modern forms of racism, xenophobia and intolerance". A total of 126 member-states of the UN voted for it for the second time. Over 100 countries also voted for the first resolution in 2014 which also included "denial of the holocaust and glorification of the Nazi movement, former members of the Waffen SS organization, including the installation of memorials to them, and post-coup attempts to desecrate or destroy the monuments to those who fought against Nazism in Ukraine during World War II".How could any civilised state vote against these United Nations Resolutions for human rights as Canada and the US have done and stood by ever since while mouthing opposite commitments? Well. It is not by accident that Canada's Foreign Minister in this near century-old Nazi loyalist vs. Russia-speaking conflict was before her appointment the "proud "granddaughter of a leading Nazi war propagandist during its occupation of Poland and Ukraine described as a "fighter for freedom".Yet on the other hand, we must not lose ourselves in ad hominem responsibility. Chrystia Freeland, her Canada name, is interestingly propagandist in itself from her birth - Christian Free Land - but not observed in the corporate press. Minister Freelandin state-executed unlimited corporate greed and immiserization of innocent millions of people masked as 'human rights' , 'freedom' and 'the rule of law' . Her more sinister double in the US is also a renamed person of the region, Victoria Nuland (read New Land) who orchestrated the whole 2014 mass-murder coup in Ukraine and now tub-thumps on public television for the 'need to teach Putin and Russia a hard lesson', aka another war attack by US-led NATO on Russia's borders.The difference now is that the absurd pretext and geostrategic mechanisms now in motion can be seen in front of our eyes beforehand -. This alone will stop it.John McMurtry March 27, 2018About: John McMurtry is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada whose work is translated from Latin America to Japan. His most recent book is The Cancer Stage of Capitalism: from Crisis to Cure.</s>Baku. 31 March. REPORT.AZ/ Turkey takes part in Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project and Ukraine may also join TANAP.

Report informs, Turkish Ambassador to Ukraine Yonet Can Tezel said in the forum entitled 'Capturing new markets', which held in Kiev.

According to the ambassador, construction of TANAP, which is a joint project between Azerbaijan and Turkey, will be completed in 2019.

Y.C.Tezel also mentioned that Ukrainian government is in more active position in the energy sector:

'On January 1 this year Russia put an embargo on goods from Turkey, but it did not affect the relations between Turkey and Ukraine. Turkish Airlines doubled flights to Ukrainian cities. Even tomorrow (eds. Today) Istanbul - Ivano - Frankovsk route will launch'.

Notably, large part of Ukraine's natural gas demand is met at the expense of Russia.</s>KIEV (Sputnik) — The Kiev Appeals Court decided on Thursday to remand Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Nadezhda Savchenko in custody, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the courtroom.

"Leave appeals of defenders in the interest of Savchenko without satisfaction," the presiding judge announced.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, Savchenko was planning terrorist attacks in the parliament building and the government quarter. She faces from five years to life imprisonment. The court in Kiev on March 23 arrested the deputy, who had been serving for two months. At the same time, Savchenko went on hunger strike. Savchenko's lawyers later filed an appeal against her arrest.

READ MORE: Savchenko Announces Meeting With 6 Ukrainian Prisoners of War in Donbass

A Russian court sentenced Savchenko to 22 years in jail in 2016 for being an accomplice to the murder of two Russian journalists in Donbas. During her arrest, Savchenko also held a hunger strike. Later that year, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to pardon her. Savchenko's imprisonment in Russia was widely criticized by the European Union and the United States, with the West calling her release a "milestone" in resolving the Ukrainian conflict.
The government of Ukraine states that it expelled two Iranians earlier this year for attempting to buy a Kh-31 missile in Kiev, in violation of United Nations sanctions.