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A minister for a Church of Christ in Alabama had discussions with the former U.S. senator now embattled attorney general about the plight of Ukraine's war-torn east.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions (UNITED STATES CONGRESS) The minister, Jeff Abrams, doesnt believe that the Republican lawmaker now U.S. Attorney General had improper dealings with a Russian official on behalf of Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

Never, never, never. Thats not him, Abrams, who preaches for the Tuscumbia Church of Christ in northern Alabama, said of Sessions in an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Sessions recently recused himself from an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The reason: two meetings Sessions had last year with a Russian ambassador meetings Sessions didnt disclose during his confirmation hearing to become attorney general.

One of those meetings included a discussion of Ukraine at which point the conversation got a little testy, Sessions said during a recent news conference.

Jeff Abrams surveys the war-ravaged region in the eastern Ukrainian town of Adiivka in 2016. (PHOTO PROVIDED)

In recent years, Abrams has spoken with Sessions and his staff about eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists broke away from the country after the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Dozens of Churches of Christ met in the region before the conflict. Church members have seen their buildings seized by separatists, some of whom claim that the Russian Orthodox church is the regions only legitimate faith.

Ukrainians accuse Russia of supporting the separatists. Russian officials deny that claim.

Heroes, Satan and Ukraine:Church elder in Donetsk ministers to separatists who seized his congregation's building

During his Senate years, Sessions was instrumental in helping Abrams meet with officials at the U.S. embassy in Ukraines capital, Kiev, in 2015, the minister said. The meeting, he added, seemed to have little effect on the conflict or the U.S. response to it.

Now, as Democrats call for Sessions to resign, the attorney general defends the two meetings he had with the Russian ambassador as part of his duties as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee not as a surrogate for the Trump campaign.

In the following transcript from a news conference, Sessions describes the meeting where Ukraine was discussed:

"And so, we talked a little bit about terrorism as I recall. And somehow the subject of the Ukraine came up. I had had the Ukrainian ambassador in my office the day before. And to listen to him ... Russia had done nothing that was wrong in any area, and everybody else was wrong, with regard to the Ukraine. It got to be a little bit of a testy conversation at that point. It wrapped up. He said something about inviting me to have lunch. I did not accept that, and that never occurred.

They are very tired of the shellings that have become quite frequent recently, the Ukrainian preacher wrote. They are morally exhausted and in great need of spiritual support.

A separatist fighter carries a live artillery shell through the former meeting place of the Petrovsky Church of Christ in Donetsk, Ukraine. Militants seized the building in October 2014 and renamed the region the Donetsk Peoples Republic.

Excerpt from:
On Russia, Ukraine and Jeff Sessions - Christian Chronicle

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Ukraine to provide visa-on-arrival for Indian tourists - The Hindu - The Hindu

The relationship between Russia and Belarus has never been an easy one. The two former Soviet republics have spent the last two decades on a roller coaster ride sometimes allies, sometimes adversaries in heated public rows.

Now, as Russias neighbors grow increasingly worried about Moscows ambitions in the region, Belarus has joined them: The countrys ever-more-tenuous relationship with Moscow has deteriorated to the point of a regional crisis.

The situation echoes the tensions over Ukraine in 2014, when a mass protest movement ousted a Kremlin-friendly president, setting the stage for a Russian invasion and seizure of the Crimean Peninsula. Ukraines nearly three-year war with Russian-backed separatist fighters in the east has killed 10,000 and displaced 1.75 million.

Previous disputes between the two countries have followed a predictable pattern that includes oil and gas price wars, public accusations, anti-Belarusian information campaigns from Moscow, and eventually a resolution, said Andrei Yahorau, the director of Center for European Transformation, a regional think tank in Minsk.

This time, though, Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing signs that he is less likely to negotiate.

Whats different about this crisis is Ukraine, Crimea and the so-called new Cold War, Yahorau said.

The stakes are now higher.

At the heart of the feud is the status of what is quietly referred to here as the oil for kisses deal, in which Russia supplies Belarus with subsidized oil and gas in exchange for Minsks loyalty.

When Russia in 2015 refused to lower its gas prices to reflect a decrease in global oil prices, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko began exploring closer relations with the West.

Lukashenko has refused so far to recognize Russias annexation of Crimea. Last year, he said no to a Kremlin proposal to build a Russian air base in eastern Belarus.

Lukashenko, who has ruled this former Soviet republic with an authoritarian grip for 22 years, bowed to Western pressure in 2015 to release six prominent political prisoners, and ushered in a period of softening against political dissent and public gatherings. This earned him cautious praise from Western governments, which subsequently lifted sanctions on Belarus.

With Russias economy in decline because of lower oil prices and its own Western sanctions placed after the Crimean annexation, Lukashenko in 2016 turned for help elsewhere, entering loan talks with the International Monetary Fund.

In Moscow, such moves were seen as a betrayal from a country long perceived as a brotherly neighbor, and one heavily subsidized by the Kremlin budget.

Throughout the current crisis, Russian media have been ratcheting up what some say is a Kremlin-orchestrated information war.

Nina Stuzhinskaya, a Belarusian historian from Minsk, said the information campaign is designed to fuel the crisis and spark fears among the Russian public that Belarus is looking to follow Ukraine into an alliance with the West.

In November, Stuzhinskaya appeared as a guest on Time Will Tell, a popular, live evening talk show on Russian state-owned television.

The show began with a discussion about how Russia had failed to react quickly enough to stop Ukraines betrayal of Moscow during the protests of 2014. The host, Artyom Sheynin, then turned to Belarus, introducing it as a country suffering from a similar sickness.

Surrounding the subsequent conversation, Stuzhinskaya said, seemed to be an underlying question of whether Belarus had a right to call itself a separate nation from Russia.

I went into that show like it was a boxing ring, and I came out feeling like I was the punching bag, she said.

Already, Russia has shown signs that the Kremlin is willing to react more harshly than in the past.

Russia has banned some Belarusian meat, dairy and other agricultural products, diminishing Minsks exports, of which 40% go to Russia. The Kremlin has reduced crude oil shipments to Belarus, hurting another important sector of Belarus economy. State-run enterprises refine Russian oil and then sell it abroad.

In January, Minsk announced that it would introduce visa-free travel for tourists from more than 80 countries. Russia responded by moving troops from the Federal Security Services, the successor to the KGB, to the shared border, which had previously stood relatively unchecked.

What the Lukashenko administration doesnt accept yet is that the Kremlin is only giving ultimatums now, said Andrei Porotnikov, a security analyst with the Belarus Security Blog. Things arent going to be resolved in the same way they previously were.

In recent weeks, public protests have sprung up in Minsk and a few regional cities against an unpopular law instituting a yearly flat tax on the unemployed. So far, the protests have been small, and authorities have not cracked down on demonstrators, a rarity in Lukashenkos tightly controlled Belarus.

Still, Belarusians are wary of their unpredictable neighbor to the east, who some fear could use the public unrest as a pretext for Russian intervention. Speculation about a possible Crimea-like annexation occurring in Belarus, thus far without foundation, is sparking uneasiness around the country.

When Stuzhinskaya returned to Minsk after the Moscow talk show, her friend picked her up at the airport and said she had seen the show. Its a good thing Belarus wont be going the way of Crimea, Stuzhinskaya later recalled her saying on the car ride back to her private house on the outskirts of Minsk.

I told her, You know what? In Russias eyes, we are exactly like Crimea. And thats whats so worrying, Stuzhinskaya said.

Ayres is a special correspondent.

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In Belarus, a rising fear: Will we be the next Ukraine? - LA Times - Los Angeles Times

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A Bellwether Case For Ukraine's Reform Movement - Foreign Policy (blog)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) Germany expects the United States touse the countrys influence onall the parties concerned toimplement the Minsk agreements onthe conflict settlement inUkraine, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Thursday.

"We would liketo see the United States not only informed, butalso using their capabilities, asan official representative ofthe State Department said, toexert influence onthose whom they can influence, so that [the Minsk agreements] were respected," Gabriel said afterholding talks withRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Gabriel is currently paying a two-day working visit toMoscow inorder todiscuss international issues, including the Syrian and Ukrainian crises and EU-Russia ties.

Sputnik/ Sergey Averin

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement inthe Belarusian capital ofMinsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal fromthe line ofcontact inDonbass, aswell asconstitutional reforms that would give a special status tothe Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered bythe Normandy Four states, the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, withboth sides accusing each other ofmultiple breaches, undermining the terms ofthe accord.

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Berlin Expects US to Facilitate Implementation of Minsk Deal on Ukraine - Sputnik International