On Friday, April 10, 1,793 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were kept in hospitals across Belarus (Sputnik.by, April 10); but by the following day, April 11, the number had already risen to 2,031. As of Saturday, most patients’ condition was fair; just 52 were in... MORE

On March 12, the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration hosted a retreat session of the Ukrainian parliament’s Committee on Economic Development. The main subject on the lawmakers’ agenda was the prospects of reviving the Ukrainian rocket industry as well as launching a national space program. Dnipro—nicknamed... MORE

While the whole world copes with the crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic responsible for COVID-19, Moscow has been attempting to take advantage of the situation. Under the pretext of helping them tackle a “common misfortune,” the Kremlin hopes, at a minimum, to pressure... MORE

Recent reports that Moscow is deploying Cossack groups along the Russian-Ukrainian border near the Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiy regions of Ukraine are extremely worrisome, as the Kremlin ostensibly used similar units in its initial invasion of southeastern Ukraine in 2014. Such revelations may presage a... MORE

According to the Belarusian Ministry of Health (MH), as of April 4, 440 people had contracted the novel coronavirus responsible for causing COVID-19. That number included 41 recovered and 394 hospitalized patients. Five people died; all of them had multiple chronic diseases that were aggravated... MORE

Russian-Ukrainian relations, increasingly tense since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, plummeted to a new low after Russia’s forcible absorption of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and subsequent invasion of Donbas. On March 18, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Sevastopol, home of... MORE

Ukraine’s top businessmen are answering President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to assist and even lead the country’s efforts to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic. Zelenskyy had summoned Ukraine’s wealthiest businessmen for an emergency meeting on March 16 in the presidential building to consider a coordinated... MORE

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has come under growing public pressure and international criticism for not undertaking the types of pervasive quarantine and mobility restriction policies to limit the spread of COVID-19 that had become de rigueur across most of the West. On March 27, the Belarusian... MORE

On March 1, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MOD) reported that all combat units and some small garrisons (indirectly involved in Joint Forces operations) of the Armed Forces switched to a new meal and food-supply system. The poor quality of soldiers’ meal packs has long... MORE

On February 3, the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Major General Serhiy Kryvonos, suggested the necessity to legalize private military companies (PMC) in Ukraine. According to the national security official, many Ukrainian soldiers—especially those coming from the front lines... MORE