Kiev

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has dissolved parliament and announced snap elections for 26 October.

In a televised address late on Monday, he said many Urainian lawmakers supported ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and blocked reform which made it necessary to cleanse parliament.

Russia readies another humanitarian aid convoy

MOSCOW -- Russia wants to soon send another convoy of humanitarian aid to Ukraine - even though the tensions raised by the first shipment have not yet subsided.

Several dozen ethnic Serbs and representatives of pro-Serbian parties in Montenegro protested on Sunday in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Podgorica, saying that they wanted to show solidarity with their “Russian brothers in Novorossiya” – the separatists’ name for parts of eastern Ukraine that they are trying to seize from Kiev.

A tunnel more than three kilometres long and a six-kilometre stretch of highway between Sarajevo and Zenica will open on Monday, marking another milestone in the strategic plan to connect a road corridor from Croatia via Bosnia to the Adriatic sea.

Ukrainan President Petro Poroshenko promised that over EUR 2.2 B are to be set aside for rearmament as the country is celebrating its Independence Day.

At the military parade marking the anniversary he explained the money would be allocated between 2015 and 2017.

It will be mostly spent on fighter jets, helicopters, ships, and cutters.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on Aug. 24 decried Russian "aggression" as Kiev staged a symbolic Independence Day parade while battling pro-Moscow rebels in the east of the country.
       

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has arrived in Kiev on her visit to the country since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Merkel met with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and assured him of Germany’s support. She called for a bilateral ceasefire, stressing that the territorial integrity and prosperity of Ukraine were a key goal of German politics.

Parts of a mammoth aid convoy from Moscow on Aug. 23 crossed back from rebel-held east Ukraine to Russian territory, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel jetted into Kiev for crisis talks.
 

The Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) on Friday showed its being "very concerned" with Russia's "unilateral" decision of sending a convoy to Ukraine without the approval of the Government of Kiev.

In a Twitter post, MAE maintains that is absolutely essential that any escalation of the situation be avoided.

The first vehicles of a Russian aid convoy have reached the war-torn Ukrainian city of Luhansk this afternoon, ignoring charges of ‘direct invasion’ by the government in Kiev.