From ITAR-TASS:
Ukraine hopes to receive more than half of imported natural gas it needs through reverse supplies from the European Union, Ukrainian parliament-appointed Energy and Coal Industry
Minister Yury Prodan said Tuesday.
"With account for Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, we can cover over 50 percent of our imported gas needs," the Ukrainian Energy Ministry quoted Prodan as saying.
He said Ukraine may annually obtain 8-10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas via Slovakia. In all, such supplies may amount up to 16 bcm each year via the territory of the three countries.
With the international public distracted by the stalled humanitarian convoy?
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry dismisses a Russian suggestion -- possibly based on a Hungarian news report -- that Hungary has provided Kyiv with weapons.
The Russian "humanitarian" convoy has hit another snag, after Kyiv suggested earlier today that the Red Cross "have not received security guarantees from [separatist] militiamen."
ITAR-TASS reports on the current state of the standoff on the Ukrainian border, where nearly 300 trucks are parked and the Red Cross is due to inspect the shipment:
Russia's ambassador to UN Vitaly Churkin says Kiev must provide security guarantees for humanitarian officials who will provide assistance to population in eastern Ukraine.
AFP quotes Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying Russia's navy will be provided with more advanced weaponry to counter threats from NATO:
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a general security meeting that he expected to hear a detailed report from Russia's navy commander about how this could be achieved efficiently over the coming six years.
"These proposals must ensure that our forces are reequipped with modern weapons and military equipment," Russian news agencies quoted Shoigu as saying.
The new strategy "must also improve the operational readiness of Russian naval forces in locations posing the greatest strategic threat," said Shoigu.
"I will not hide that this in large part is linked to events of recent months," he said in reference to the pro-Russian insurgency convulsing eastern Ukraine.
An adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister says that, to date, nearly 4,000 police officers have been sacked for disloyalty to their oath, a "lack of motivation," or bringing discredit to the force.
In a feisty "commentary" posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website, the ministry's special representative for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, urges the United States to "look after its largescale internal problems and take effective measures to solve them," adding that "that's a more constructive path that corresponds to the needs and realities of the 21st century than interventions in the internal affairs of other countries and replacing unfavorable regimes on the false pretext of protecting democracy and human rights -- a practice inherited from last century."
Ukrainian authorities now say they have recovered 17 bodies from the site where a column of vehicles carrying internally displaced persons was shelled. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said six other people are hospitalized, three of whom are seriously injured.