Ukraine

<p>Despite serious concerns, commemorating events on 2 May in Odesa were peaceful and calm and not that mass as one could expect, perhaps due to unprecedented safety and security measures, or just because the dust has settled for the year passed.</p>

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>It's no secret that the government of Ukraine has never been happy with the formation of volunteer battalions in the country. From the very start of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine it was precisely the volunteer battalions that had succeeded in slowing the advance of the separatist gangs and the regular army of the Russian Federation. It would seem that the government would fully support those citizens who of their own free will stepped in to defend the country, but in fact the opposite has happened.</strong></p>

<div><strong>As the result of public initiative several medical aid centers were established during the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. There are parallels to this in Ukrainian history in the 1940's when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the underground opposition network received medical care and support from the Ukrainian Red Cross. As she seeks to understand the unique phenomenon, Maria Fenchyn, a student at Lviv Medical University, sheds light on two instances where citizens organized and provided medical aid under dire and severe circumstances.</strong></div>

<p>17 April, paratroopers of the US Army 173rd Brigade arrived in Ukraine to train Ukrainian military</p>

<p>17 April, Kyiv, <em>Antonov</em> State Company unveiled a new aircraft <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AN-178</a>.</p>

<p>10 April, President Petro Poroshenko has arrived to Odesa to join festive events marking the Odesa liberation from German-Nazi occupants during the WWII.</p>

<p>Kremlin makes one more attempt to destabilize situation in Ukraine - separatist Bessarabia People's Council was created in Odessa yesterday, 6 April, <a href="http://dumskaya.net/news/v-odesse-taki-byla-sozdana-narodnaya-rada-bessar-045386/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dumskaya.net</a> reports, involving pro-Russian organisations, including from unrecognised Transnistria.</p>

<p>Smiling faces of women and men, of children and elderly people – several thousand Odessa residents and guests, including those from other Ukrainian cities and even from other countries, in particularly Germany, Poland and Switzerland, participated today in city’s annual mass sport event “100km Along the Glory Belt”.</p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"></span>1 April, 17 up-armoured Ford Rangers were handed over to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in the framework of the Security Assistance to Ukraine referenced in the 4 June 2014 White House Fact Sheet, U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine <a href="https://www.facebook.com/usdos.ukraine?fref=nf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>.</p>

<p>Ukraine disproves allegations of pro-Russian mass-media and Transnistria, in particularly KGB, on the involvement of Ukrainian border guards in shooting 31 March on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border, and says they are aimed at destabilized situation in the region.</p>

<p><strong style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andriy_Parubiy" target="_blank" style="cursor: pointer;" rel="noopener">Andriy Parubiy</a>, Deputy Speaker of <strong style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Parliament</strong>, Ukrainian politician and the former Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine [appointed after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity], met with a delegation of US congressmen in Kyiv. EMPR presents <span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Andriy Parubiy's </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/andriy.parubiy/posts/885773091488875" target="_self" style="cursor: pointer;" rel="noopener">report</a> on how this meeting was held <span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">for our english-speaking audience.</span></strong></p>

<p>The leader of the "right sector", MP Dmytro Yarosh was offered a position at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. This was announced by Advisor of Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko, Ukrainian Patriots reports.</p>