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The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An archive photo

MINSK, 26 June (BelTA) The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Igor Kyzym on 26 June. The ambassador was summoned after making biased statements for mass media about the Belarusian-Russian-Serbian army exercise Slavic Brotherhood 2017, the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BelTA.

The ambassador was told that his inappropriate remarks had failed to live up to the high level of Belarusian-Ukrainian friendly relations. The ambassador was told that his remarks groundlessly accused Belarus of failing to observe trust- and security-building measures in the OSCE region.

The ambassador's attention was drawn to the fact that the Slavic Brotherhood 2017 army exercise had been staged in full compliance with the international law and Belarus' commitments to the OSCE. Military attaches, including Ukraine's, were invited to observe the army exercise as purely a gesture of good will on the part of Belarus. The invitation testified to the high transparency of the army exercise.

In full compliance with the Belarusian head of state's initiative on creating a good neighborly belt Belarus has always demonstrated trust and openness in military affairs to Ukraine. Upon our invitation military observers from Ukraine and other neighboring countries could watch active phases of all the main military exercises ranging from Neman 2001 to Zapad 2013. It is worth noting that in full compliance with our international commitments we could have chosen not to invite foreign observers to watch the exercises, noted representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, in this period within the framework of the 2011 Vienna Document on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures Ukraine has never invited military observers from Belarus to watch the largest military operations in the Ukrainian territory. Apart from that, representatives of the office of the military attache of Belarus in Ukraine have not been invited to attend a single multinational or national army exercise in the Ukrainian territory since 2013.

The Belarusian side would like to resume the constructive dialogue in the sphere of defense and security in the region, the press service underlined.

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Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus summoned over international army exercise remarks - Belarus News (BelTA)

The Ukrainian military has said that two soldiers were killed and two wounded in the eastern part of the country despite a cease-fire that began on June 23.

In a statement posted on Facebook on June 24, the military accused antigovernment rebels of firing artillery rounds in both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The statement did not provide details about the casualties.

The two sides and representatives of Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed on the cease-fire on June 21. It is intended to last until August 31 to allow locals to harvest crops.

Representatives of the Russia-backed rebels on June 24 accused government forces of violating the cease-fire 10 times, adding that information about the purported violations had been sent to the OSCE monitors.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed more than 10,000 lives since it began in early 2014, shortly after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

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Ukraine Says Two Soldiers Killed Despite Cease-Fire - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Kansas City Star

Svi Mykhailiuk congratulates KU's draft picks, stays busy playing for Ukraine Kansas City Star 6-foot-8 Ukraine native Mykhailiuk tweeted from France, where Ukraine's under-20 national team has spent the last couple of days playing exhibition games in advance of the European Championship U20 (Division A) tournament July 13-23 in Crete.

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Svi Mykhailiuk congratulates KU's draft picks, stays busy playing for Ukraine - Kansas City Star

Updated / Saturday, 24 Jun 2017 17:38

Joe Ward lived up to his top-seed status, as the Irish champion secured the gold medal at the European Championships in Kharkiv.

The Moate man was crowned European champion for the third time as he overpowered Russias Muslim Gadzhimagomedov in the final of the light-heavyweight division.

Having secured the title in 2011 and 2015, Ward was barely troubled all week and made no mistake in the deciding bout to take gold home for Ireland.

Ward eased into the fight against the taller Russian and used his strong right leading arm to work Gadzhimagomedov out and pick his punches.

The Irishman landed some scoring punches without getting anything significant back in what was quite a cagey opening three minutes.

The tempo increased in the second round as the Russian picked up the pace, but his enthusiasm lacked the quality to trouble Ward, who remained calm and picked off some good scores with his quick right jab.

The round continued in the same manner as the fight turned into a scrappy affair, however, the experienced Ward scored well to the body of his visibly tiring opponent.

Ward walked off at the end of the second round with his arm raised in triumph, obviously quite content with his work thus far.

And the Irish champion maintained control of the centre of the ring for the final round as the Russian kept up his energetic approach without troubling the now three-time European champion.

Naturally, a brawl broke out for the final minute as Gadzhimagomedov looked to impress the watching judges, but they were not for turning as Ward secured the verdict on all five scorecards.

That ends Ireland's involvement in the tournament and the team return home with one gold and two bronze medals, won by Kurt Walker and Brendan Irvine, while Sean McComb reached the quarter-final and joins the medal winners in the world championships in August.

Joe Ward definitely was the better boxer over the three rounds and definitely landed more quality shots," former Irish amateur champion and now professional Eric Donovan told RTE Radio 1's Saturday Sport.

"The Russian pushed forward and had some success himself, but in terms of quality and consistency throughout the three rounds, Ward definitely looked the better of the two boxers.

"Three times European champion is incredible stuff, and he's still just 23-years-age."

Donovan believes that the team's performance will give High Performance director Bernard Dunne a welcome boost amidst all the current turmoil outside the ring in Irish amateur boxing.

"Considering relationships and how they've gone over the last while with Sport Ireland, the IABA and the High Performance, these guys were going to the European Championships with things almost in turmoil.

"But we produced the goods and are coming back with a gold medal, two bronzes and four boxers qualified for the world championships in August, so all-in-all it's been a success."

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Joe Ward wins European gold in Ukraine - RTE.ie

In its July cover story, Wired magazine takes an in-depth look at ayears-long string of cyberattacks in Ukraine that could have global implications. It has undermined every sector including the media, military, politics and even people's homes.

Andy Greenberg, who reported the story, and Wired editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss the findings and what the implications could be for the United States.

The Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid were extensive. In 2015, electricity was cut to nearly a quarter-million Ukrainians, and about a year later a transmission station was taken down, revealing the attacks were becoming more sophisticated.

"There's a disturbing progression happening," Greenberg said.

The reason, according to Greenberg, was Russia's desire to destabilize Ukraine. What he finds even more worrisome, though, is that the Russians seem to be using Ukraine as a place to test-run their methods.

"The really disturbing thing is that they're also using Ukraine as a testing ground for attacks that they're honing to possibly use against Western Europe or the United States in the future," Greenberg said.

Thompson said they saw the hacks happening and decided to send Greenberg on a reporting trip to Ukraine, knowing it would likely be a scary story. But what he found was even worse.

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In his new book, "Lights Out," veteran journalist Ted Koppel paints a grim picture of a paralyzing power outage in the form of an all-out cyberat...

"Andy goes to the Ukraine, he reports it. And it's actually scarier than we thought because it turns out they're not only doing all these terrible things they're not only shutting down the power grid, they're not only shutting down the railway stations. It looks like they're kind of planning to come after us," Thompson said.

According to Greenberg, U.S. power grids are more secure than Ukraine's, but the U.S. does have another type of vulnerability.

"It's probably harder to take down our grid, but it might be easier to keep it down for a longer period of time," Greenberg said.

Thompson said the aim of the Wired article is to help make the case for what the U.S. should be paying close attention to. Greenberg pointed out that Russia isn't the only one with the capabilities to carry out such attacks, but it might be the most likely.

"All of the most powerful nations in the world U.S., Russia, China probably have the ability to take down each other's power grids and infrastructure, but the scary thing is that Russia is brazen enough to actually do these things," Greenberg said. "There's a kind of boldness in the Putin regime that should scare everyone."

In the article, Greenberg makes the argument that despite the extent of the Ukraine attacks, Russia's capabilities could have allowed them to do even more damage.

"In the second of these two power grid attacks, they only took the power down for one hour but they used an incredibly sophisticated, new piece of malicious software that automated the whole attack," Greenberg explained. What does that mean? "They have a reusable, adaptable weapon that they're going to want to use again," he said.

Asked whether the responsibility for addressing the threat falls more to the government or the private sector, Thompson said it requires the cooperation of both. "If you work at a power grid you can't just rely on the federal government."

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Was Russian hacking of Ukraine's power grid a test run for U.S. ... - CBS News