The Kherson city court in southern Ukraine on Thursday said Kyrylo Vyshynsky will be kept behind bars until at least July 13, at the request of the prosecutor's office

A Ukrainian court ruled a journalist from Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency, who is accused of treason, should be held in detention until his trial.

The Kherson city court in southern Ukraine on Thursday said Kyrylo Vyshynsky will be kept behind bars until at least July 13, at the request of the prosecutor's office.

Vyshynsky, a Ukrainian national who received a Russian passport in 2015, was on Tuesday detained near his house in Kiev as Ukraine's SBU security service raided RIA Novosti's offices there. The case has sparked a fresh row between Kiev and Moscow, with Russia on Wednesday saying it would do "everything to ensure its citizen is freed".

Vyshynsky denies the charges against him and his lawyer Andriy Domansky told journalists he would file an appeal against Thursday's ruling. Moscow yesterday promised "retaliatory measures" condemning "repressive acts towards a journalist who has always carried out his professional work honestly and conscientiously".

Both the EU and the United States have said that while Ukraine has the right to protect its national security, it must respect human and legal rights. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe have expressed concern at the detention of Vyshynsky.

SBU accused Vyshynsky of travelling to Crimea in 2014 to carry out "subversive" reporting to justify the peninsula's annexation by Russia. The 51-year-old was also accused of collaborating with Russian-backed separatist groups in eastern Ukraine where a conflict that broke out following Crimea's seizure has cost some 10,000 lives.

An SBU spokeswoman Olena Gitlyanska said Russian-controlled media were being "used as tools in a hybrid war against Ukraine".

Kiev and its Western allies regularly accuse Russia of using its public media for propaganda and incitement of separatist sentiment in Ukraine.

Ukraine ranks 101st out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as Russia came in at 148.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates</s>Poland has detained a Russian woman who was part of a pro-Russian group that sought to whip up tension between Poland and Ukraine and will expel her soon, the national agency for internal security ABW said on May 17.

Four other people involved in what the ABW described as “hybrid” activities against Poland would be banned for five years from entering Poland, the ABW said. ABW identified the Russian woman as “Yekaterina C.”.

Read more here.</s>WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has detained a Russian woman who was part of a pro-Russian group that sought to whip up tension between Poland and Ukraine and will expel her soon, the national agency for internal security ABW said on Thursday.

Four other people involved in what the ABW described as "hybrid" activities against Poland would be banned for five years from entering Poland, the ABW said. ABW identified the Russian woman as "Yekaterina C.".

It did not elaborate on the identities of the four other people which it said had undertaken "determined attempts to consolidate pro-Russian groups in Poland around two key priorities of Russia's hybrid actions against Poland."

"That is fuelling Polish-Ukrainian animosities in social and political spheres as well as undermining interpretation of Polish history and replacing it with a Russian narration," the ABW said.

There was no immediate comment available from Russia.

Hybrid warfare includes conducting foreign disinformation campaigns, such as spreading fake news, and targeting the public at crucial times such as elections and in diplomatic or other crises.

ABW said its intervention had "neutralized the activity of two network structures taking part in the Russian hybrid and information war carried out against Poland".

Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, views Russia as the biggest threat to its security, especially since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.</s>WARSAW, Poland — Polish authorities have detained a Russian citizen and banned four others from entering Poland for five years on allegations of “information warfare.”

Authorities say they tried to fuel animosity between Poles and Ukrainians and sought to challenge Polish views on history with a Russian narrative.

The move comes amid rising fears that Russia is seeking to destabilize Poland and exacerbate Polish-Ukrainian tensions that would leave Ukraine isolated. Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency, which investigates espionage and terrorism, said Thursday that it had detained a Russian woman identified only as Yekaterina C. and would expel her.

The agency accused the Russians of being engaged in “hybrid” activities, a term used to describe non-military but subversive tactics that Russia is suspected of using to further its interests.</s>Baku. 15 June. REPORT.AZ/ Start of construction of the Interconnector Ukraine-Poland is planned for 2017, press secretary of "Ukrtransgaz" company Maxim Belyavsky said on Wednesday, Report informs referring to the Russian media.

Maxim Belyavsky stated that the commercial operation of a new pipeline planned from 2020.

M.Belyavsky said that the experts of the gas transportation operators of both countries are ready to begin the design work, preceded by a feasibility study.

In the process of preparing the feasibility study considered three route options of the gas pipeline on the territory of Ukraine. The result approved the project for the construction of the pipeline, 99.3 km away.

He also shared the link to filmed with a drone video from the future construction of the measuring complex of the Interconnector.

Notably, 17 December 2014, the operators of the gas transportation system of Ukraine (Ukrtransgaz) and Poland (Gaz-System) signed the agreement, which provides for the construction of the gas pipeline Interconnector between Poland and Ukraine. The estimated cost of construction on the territory of Ukraine is estimated at 245 million dollars. It will allow us to access LNG terminals on the Baltic sea.

The development of a feasibility study of the Interconnector Poland-Ukraine’s Ukrtransgaz and Gaz-System was completed on 9 October last year.</s>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities plan to expel one Russian and banned four others from entering for five years on allegations they had engaged in “information warfare” seeking to fuel animosity between Poles and Ukrainians.

“Their aim is to destabilize the socio-political situation in our country,” Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for the Internal Security Agency, said Thursday.

The announcement came as officials are warning that Russia is seeking to destabilize Poland and exacerbate Polish-Ukrainian tensions in order to weaken Ukraine’s alliances with Western powers.

Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 amid a broader effort to reassert its sway in a region that Moscow had controlled until 1989.

Poland’s Internal Security Agency, which is focused on investigating espionage and terrorism, said it had detained a Russian woman identified only as Yekaterina C. and would expel her. It said she had been in Poland since 2013.

The agency accused her and the four other Russians of “hybrid” activities, a term used to describe non-military but subversive tactics that Russia is suspected of using to further its interests.

Zaryn said the Polish efforts were aimed at “neutralizing the activity of two network structures involved in the Russian hybrid and informational war” against Poland. The security agency said the Russians were pushing interpretations of history that would incite hatred between Ukrainians and Poles.

Zaryn said the Polish investigation was also targeting Polish citizens who had cooperated with the Russians and were funded for taking specific actions “against Poland and in the interests of Russia.”

Poland for many years has been a key supporter of Ukraine’s pro-Western ambitions. However, the neighbors remain deeply divided over how to remember a shared past that includes massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during the German occupation in World War II, but also a longer legacy of Polish colonialism and brutality toward Ukrainians.

Over the past two years, Poland and Ukraine have increasingly been at odds over that history amid a rise of nationalism in both countries.</s>A Ukrainian court has ordered the head of a major Russian state news agency's branch in Ukraine held for two months on charges of high treason in a case that drew angry criticism from Moscow and expressions of concern from media watchdogs.

The Kherson City Court in Ukraine’s south ruled on May 17 that the director of RIA Novosti Ukraine, Kirill Vyshinsky, be held until July 13 pending investigation of the charges against him.

Vyshinsky was detained in Kyiv on May 15 by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), and his apartment and the news outlet's office were searched. He was later transferred to Kherson.

The SBU accused RIA Novosti Ukraine of participating in a "hybrid information war" waged by Russia against Ukraine.

SBU officials said Vyshinsky, who has dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship, received financial support from Russia via other media companies registered in Ukraine in order to disguise links between RIA Novosti Ukraine and Russian state media giant Rossia Segodnya.

Russia said it “categorically rejects such treatment of its citizens."

The OSCE's representative on freedom of the media, Harlem Desir, called on Ukrainian authorities to “refrain from imposing unnecessary limitations on the work of foreign journalists.”

The U.S. State Department said Washington shares Ukraine's concern about Russian propaganda but added that Ukraine must ensure it abides by the law, including international human rights law.

Tensions between Moscow and Kyiv have risen sharply since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 and threw its support behind separatists in eastern Ukraine, helping start a war that has killed more than 10,300 people.

Ukraine's pro-Western government is wary of Russian media outlets, accusing Moscow of distributing disinformation aimed at sowing tension and destabilizing the country. Kyiv has banned more than a dozen Russian television channels since 2014, accusing them of spreading propaganda.

With reporting by RIA, UNIAN, TASS, AFP, AP, Interfax, and pravda.ua</s>Amid rumors among Russian media outlets that Moscow's top envoy to Ukrainian peace negotiations has resigned, the top U.S. interlocutor says he expects Russia to return to the table with a peacekeeping proposal.

U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, who last met with his Russian counterpart Vladislav Surkov in January, told VOA he had not received word on Surkov's status or about a new meeting.

His last discussion with Surkov, Volker said, left him with the impression that Moscow would soon "come back to us with a proposal for how a peacekeeping force could grow in terms of geography and mandate and along a timeline."

"That would be very interesting to see, and we would be very prepared to sit down with the Russians to talk about that," Volker said. "We remain ready to bring peace to this region, but we need to hear from the Russians."

Volker arrived Tuesday in Donbas to discuss the security situation near the front lines with Ukraine's Joint Forces Commander, Lieutenant-General Serhiy Nayev.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said Monday it would provide Kyiv with $125 million for infrastructure rehabilitation projects in Donbas and adjacent territories.

Donbas, an area bordering Russia that is populated by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, is where Russian-backed separatist forces first battled Ukrainian forces after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, destroying much of the local infrastructure. While Moscow insists local ethnic Russians self-organized their defense, substantial reporting by various observers and international rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch indicate Russian army units provided direct support.

In February, OSCE monitors said fighting had escalated to its worst level in months, after the shelling of a front-line village wounded eight civilians and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

En route to a meeting Tuesday with Ukrainian officials and security monitors at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), Volker told VOA's Ukrainian Service that Kyiv's military commanders, while appreciative of the restoration aid, "do want support for their defense capabilities, which we think are important to provide."

Since Russia's December withdrawal from the JCCC, a Ukrainian-Russian group intended to ensure the safety of OSCE monitors and help implement the Minsk agreement, Ukrainian military brass have found it increasingly difficult to maintain the cease-fire status necessary for restoration work to be carried out.

Volker said Russia, by withdrawing from the JCCC, which allowed Russian and Ukrainian military leaders to collaboratively defuse firefights and reinforce implementation of localized cease-fires, has forced Ukraine and its allies to attempt direct negotiations with local "puppet regimes." But the local separatist groups, Volker added, aren't actually controlling events along the front lines.

"And so you need to talk to the Russians to be able to effectively communicate about things like [cease-fire implementation], and they've pulled back from the JCCC," he said.

Volker said civilians and the military all talk about the need for a cease-fire. "Everything from repairing electricity and water filtration lines and pumps, and the boundary crossings themselves, where there may be a bridge or a road, these things all have to be repaired and made safer. It's very difficult to do when there is active fighting," he said.

He added that Donbas region residents say they want a peace agreement that restores territorial control to Kyiv. "And these were clearly ethnic Russians, as you could tell by the language they spoke," he said. "That Russian speakers are pro-Russian or that this is an ethnic conflict, just clearly isn't true."

On Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's first day in office, top U.S. officials attending a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels said the United States would refuse to "return to business as usual with Russia" until Moscow withdrew "forces and support for proxies in the Donbas, and [returned] control of Crimea to Ukraine."

After separate meetings with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Pompeo, Volker said "everyone is on the same page" regarding U.S. policy on Ukraine.

Asked whether lethal aid would remain on the table, Volker was unequivocal. "Ukraine is fighting a war on its own territory. Soldiers in Ukraine are dying on Ukrainian soil every week, defending the territory of Ukraine. So this is about self-defense of a nation," he said.

"Ukraine has very capable militaries, substantially rebuilt since 2014, and produces most of its own defense equipment, but it does have some gaps," he added. "And it's perfectly reasonable for friends and allies of Ukraine to supply those arms so they can fill those gaps in their defenses.

"There is no restriction on this anymore," he said. "The idea of a blockage on arms sales to Ukraine is over, and it's really a question of what makes sense. What's necessary for Ukraine's self-defenses?"

This story originated in VOA's Ukrainian Service. Some information came from Reuters.</s>Pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian government have been waging a war for over four years in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Kremlin denies that regular Russian servicemen take part in the conflict.

A Russian journalist has been hospitalized in war-torn eastern Ukraine after coming under fire alongside a pro-Russian separatist who was killed in the shelling.

In Ukraine, Russia Wants Political Control, Not Territory (Op-ed)

Igor Uklein, a sound engineer at Russia’s VGTRK state-owned media company, was with local rebel commander Oleg “Mamai” Mamiyev near the town of Avdiivka when both were hit by shelling, the company reported Friday.

Mamiyev died from injuries while Uklein was diagnosed with partial hearing loss, the company said on its Vesti.ru news website.

A third crew member was also slightly injured, VGTRK war correspondent Alexander Sladkov was quoted as saying.

“The guys are in normal condition,” Sladkov said.

Mamiyev will be buried in his native North Ossetia, VGTRK reported.</s>Poland's president has asked the UN Security Council to deploy a UN peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine throughout the zone of conflict with Russia-backed separatists and along the border with Russia.

"We are advocating the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission," Andrzej Duda told a news conference in New York late on May 17 after delivering a similar plea before the UN Security Council, where Poland holds the rotating presidency for the month of May.

"First, those forces should be deployed along the internationally recognized border between Ukraine and Russia," he said.

"I also stressed in the strongest terms that if that happened, those forces should deploy across all territory which today is in the hands of separatists," he said.

Ukraine has supported the introduction of United Nations peacekeepers as long as they are placed along the border with Russia to monitor and ensure Russian troops and weapons do not come over the border to aid the separatists.

Russia made a much narrower proposal in September, saying it would support a limited UN peacekeeping mission to protect around 600 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who are on the ground in eastern Ukraine.

Russia drafted a UN resolution that would authorize lightly armed peacekeepers to protect the OSCE monitors along the demarcation line between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia fighters.

But that was unacceptable to Ukraine and its allies in Europe and the United States. The Security Council never formally debated either sides' proposals.

As president of the council this month, Poland's UN representative may bring Warsaw's proposal up for debate. But it could face a veto from Russia, which has strongly opposed placing armed UN peacekeepers along its border with Ukraine.

More than 10,300 people have been killed in the conflict between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatists since the insurgency broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Clashes erupt regularly despite a 2015 peace agreement forged in Minsk that laid down a process for establishing peace in the region but has been little heeded by either side.
Poland detains Yekaterina C., a Russian woman who was part of a pro-Russian group that sought to whip up tension between Poland and Ukraine, and expels her.