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Britain is beefing-up its help for Ukrainian troops battling pro-Russian forces , in a move likely to increase tensions with the Kremlin.

The UK is expanding its training of Ukrainian armed forces, with new military courses covering threats including countering attacks from snipers, armoured vehicles and mortars.

The mission, codenamed Operation Orbital, has so far focused on teaching recruits how to spot mines and improvised explosives, provide battlefield medical care and logistics planning.

Unveiling the new help, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said last night: We continue to stand side by side with our Ukrainian friends in the face of Russian belligerence and aggression.

This training, defensive in nature, will help protect Ukrainian troops against the threats that they face on a daily basis.

By stepping up our training programmes we are sending a clear message that we support the people of Ukraine and are firmly committed to its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

Todays announcement comes exactly three years after 298 people, including 10 Britons, were killed when an airliner was blasted out of the sky over eastern Ukraine.

The disaster happened as Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces in the disputed Donbas region.

MH17 a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 - was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crossed over the territory and was shot down on July 17, 2014.

Evidence showed the Buk missile system responsible had been brought in from Russian territory and was fired from a field controlled by pro-Russian fighters.

Since the Donbas conflict flared in March 2014, 2,700 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another 10,000 injured.

A total of 128 have died already this year.

Last week, Sir Michael revealed the UK has directly trained over 5,000 members of Ukraines Armed Forces in 14 locations away from the Donbas.

Since 2015, over 1,300 British personnel have been deployed on Operation Orbital.

The training mission will continue until at least early 2018.

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UK to increase aid for Ukrainian troops battling pro-Russian forces - Mirror.co.uk

Published on: July 16, 2017 | Last Updated: July 16, 2017 1:31 PM EDT

Canadian Forces personnel supervise training in Ukraine. DND photo.

The Canadian militarys Joint Task Force-Ukraine has trained more than4780 Ukrainian soldiers as of the beginning of this month, according to the Canadian Forces. There have been more than 111 course serials that covered various training, including explosive ordnance disposal, small team training, military police training on military service of law and order, flight safety, medical, and logistics systems modernization, the Canadian Forces added.

Canada currently has approximately 200 military personnel deployed to Ukraine, the majority of which are from the 3rd Canadian Division. The Canadian mission to Ukraine will continue until the end of March 2019.

Canadian Army commander Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk recently travelled to Ukraine to meet with soldiers at both the engineer training school in Kamyanets-Podilsky, and the Peace Support Training Centre near Lviv.

During the visit, Wynnyk, joined by the Ukraine Land Force Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Naev Sergii, also participated in a roundtable meeting with senior Ukrainian Land Forces staff, according to the Canadian Army.

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Almost 5000 Ukrainian soldiers trained by Canada so far - Ottawa Citizen

Russia has denied entry to the disputed islands it holds off Hokkaido to a Japanese mayor in retaliation for sanctions Japan imposed on it for annexing Ukraine, diplomatic sources say.

Nemuro Mayor Shunsuke Hasegawa was unable to join a five-day study tour through July 1 to assess the potential for joint economic development of the islands, which are claimed by Tokyo, the sources said Saturday.

Russias denial was based on its territorial claim, which is theoretically unacceptable to Tokyo, which claims Russia illegally occupied the four isles after Japans surrender in World War II. Japan has called for the return of the islands for decades.

Still, Tokyo apparently responded to Russias demand by removing Hasegawa from the study group. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida vaguely spoke about the mayors absence, telling a news conference on June 27 that it was a result of arrangements with the parties involved. The delegation began the feasibility study tour the same day.

Because the joint feasibility study was a visa-free arrangement, Tokyo claimed that Hasegawa should be allowed to join the tour but Russia did not agree, the sources said.

Russias action underlines the difficulties involved in settling the decades-old territorial dispute. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to engrave his name in history by settling the issue and concluding a peace treaty to formally end World War II.

Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed at their hot spring summit in December to launch bilateral consultations on the joint economic activities as a part of settling the territorial issue and signing a peace treaty.

As for the mayor, the Russian government introduced the retaliatory measure in August 2014, but the number of Japanese subject to it, and their names, were not released at that time.

A senior Japanese official admitted, Mayor Hasegawa has been subject to the (retaliatory) sanction measure.

Hasegawa originally planned to take part in the delegation but was notified by the Foreign Ministry the day before departure that he would not be able to participate. The ministry has not disclosed the reason why Hasegawa was excluded, according to Hasegawa.

The government maintains the Russian-held islands are part of Japan and has asked Japanese people to refrain from visiting them by adhering to Russias passport control demands.

The members of the Japanese delegation visited Kunashiri, Etorofu and Shikotan islands without bringing their passports or getting visas for the tour, which ended on July 1.

Nemuro, on the eastern tip of Hokkaido, is close to the disputed islands and acts as a base for campaigns aimed to getting them returned.

Meanwhile, companies and groups from the fisheries and tourism industries in Nemuro are expected to be involved in the envisioned joint economic activities if Japan and Russia formally launch the project.

In April 2014, Tokyo announced it would deny visas to 23 Russian nationals as part of sanctions over Moscows annexation of the Crimea region in Ukraine.

Hasegawa is believed to have been put on the blacklist as he plays a key role in Japans movement to get the islands back.

The three islands and the Habomai islet group were seized by Soviet troops after Japan surrendered in August 1945, bringing World War II to an end.

Japan hopes joint economic activities, once started, will pave the way for addressing the decades-long territorial dispute with Russia.

The city assembly of Nemuro protested to the ministry late June over the decision to exclude the mayor from the tour, after unanimously adopting a resolution to that effect.

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Hokkaido mayor axed from tour of disputed isles as payback for Ukraine sanctions - The Japan Times

Mr. Yanukovych was driven from office in the Maidan Revolution of 2014, after having stolen, according to the current Ukrainian government, at least $1 billion. In the years before his fall, Mr. Manafort took lavish payments to burnish the image of Mr. Yanukovych and the Party of Regions in Washington, even as the party acknowledged only very modest spending.

In 2012, for example, the party reported annual expenses of about $11.1 million, based on the exchange rate at the time, excluding overhead. For the same year, Mr. Manafort reported income of $12.1 million from the party, the Justice Department filing shows.

In 2013, the Party of Regions reported expenses of $3.7 million, while Mr. Manafort reported receiving payments of $4.5 million.

Handwritten ledgers that surfaced last year indicated that the party had actually spent about $2 billion over the past decade or so, much or most of it illegally. Some outlays like payments to an election official possibly amounted to criminal bribery.

Mr. Manafort has not been charged with breaking any laws regarding the reporting of income derived from his efforts on behalf of the party. The disclosures cap lengthy negotiations between Mr. Manafort and officials at the Justice Department, which monitors the activities of Americans who work on behalf of foreign political parties and governments.

In a statement, Mr. Manaforts spokesman, Jason Maloni, suggested that the Party of Regions was accountable for the contradiction between the two disclosures.

Any questions about the reporting obligations of the Party of Regions should be directed to those within the party responsible for such reporting, he said in a statement. Mr. Manaforts work in Ukraine was widely known and the firm was paid only for the work it performed. In fact, just last month Ukraine officials indicated that there is no proof of illicit payments.

Though documents discovered after the 2014 revolution show the partys coffers were padded with donations from Ukraines ultrawealthy steel and natural gas tycoons, it tried to keep up a populist image and declared only a modest, even minuscule, annual budget.

It means either Manafort is lying, or the Party of Regions was lying, Serhiy Leshchenko, an investigative journalist and a member of Parliament who has been critical of Mr. Manaforts work in Ukraine, said in an interview.

A Ukrainian investigation of this discrepancy is not likely. The Party of Regions is now disbanded, and prosecutors are looking into far more serious crimes than campaign finance filing errors.

Moreover, at the time the party made its declarations, filing a false campaign finance report was considered an administrative offense akin to a parking ticket and punishable by no more than a fine of a few hundred dollars, said Ostap Kuchma, a party finance analyst at the anticorruption group Chesno.

Mr. Manaforts reports to the Justice Department do not cover the entire period he worked in Ukraine. Last summer, The New York Times reported that the partys handwritten ledgers showed $12.7 million in undisclosed payments designated for Mr. Manaforts firm from 2007 to 2012.

Anticorruption officials in Ukraine assert that the payments were part of an illegal off-the-books system. Mr. Manafort, who resigned from his campaign post shortly after the article appeared, has denied receiving any cash, and state prosecutors in Ukraine have not accused him of wrongdoing.

Ukraines chief anticorruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky, reiterated that assessment last month, telling Ukrainian television that ledger entries provided no proof of Mr. Manaforts having receiving illegal payments.

But the investigation into the accounting book, including the entries mentioning Mr. Manafort, is still open, and recently shifted from one branch of the prosecutors office to another, Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said in an interview.

The Party of Regions was spending a lot of cash, to bribe voters and for illegal advertising, Daria M. Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said in an interview. Manafort took the money to whitewash its reputation in the West.

Iuliia Mendel contributed reporting.

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Huge Manafort Payment Reflects Murky Ukraine Politics - New York Times

As the dust settles from the momentous merger news that will eventually see Uber and Yandex form a new ride-sharing company covering six Eastern European markets, its worth taking a moment to dig down into the finer nuances of the deal.

Weve already looked at how the partnership willhelp expand Yandexs global footprint, but specific to the handful of countries where the new joint venture will operate, there was one conspicuous absentee:Ukraine, which claims a population of more than 45 million people.

The new Yandex / Uber combined unit which is tentatively called NewCo but will eventually get a proper name is going to operate in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, where both Uber and Yandex.taxi both operate already, as well as in Armenia and Georgia, which will represent entirely new markets for the Uber platform.

So why not Ukraine, which on the surface fits into the duos broader plans for the region? Well, it all comes down to politics.

Uber kicked off its Ukrainian operations in Kiev last June, while Yandex.taxi threw its hat into the ring there in November. However, with political tensions mounting between Ukraine and Russia, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in Mayimposed sanctions on a number of Russian technology companies including Yandex. A couple of weeks later, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) raided Yandexs offices in Kiev and Odessa, alleging thatthe company had been illegally collecting Ukrainian users data on behalf of Russian security agencies. Shortly after Yandexs Ukrainian adventure was cut short, Uber reportedly raised its pricesthere.

At any rate, NewCo will be 59.3 percent owned by Yandex,which is why Uber will continue to go it alone in Ukraine under its own brand its just too risky trying to launch a Yandex-backed venture in the country.

As an aside here, Ubers decision to jump into bed with a major Russian tech company could isolate Uber from customers in Ukraine if the opinions contained in some tweets are a template for sentiment across the country.

This could ultimately be good news for other local players, such as Estonias Taxify, an Uber clone that launched in Ukraine last year.

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Why the Uber-Yandex merger in Eastern Europe won't cover Ukraine - VentureBeat