Bolhrad

Two brothers - Igor and Yevgeny Bonchevi from the village of Nadezhdivka, Artsyz municipality, Bolhrad Raion, died at the front this year. "This is a great tragedy for the family - their two sons, aged 32 and 38, died," wrote the Artsyz municipality on its official website.

The Russian army fired a missile at the Zatoka drawbridge 60 kilometers southeast of Odessa, the Ukrainian agency UNIAN reported.

The news was also confirmed by the mayor's office in Odessa. The blow was inflicted at 12:36 p.m. on Tuesday. No one was injured among the railway staff serving the bridge.

A 20-year-old Bessarabian Bulgarian, Ivan Minkov, a resident of the Ukrainian village of Krichnoye (Chushmelia, Bolgrad oblast), has died on the Ukrainian front.

The news was announced by Stepan Velikov, who is from the village of the murdered Ivan Minkov, and was spread by Viktor Stoyanov of the Macedonia Foundation. Today he told details on Nova TV.

Today, August 23, Foreign Minister Svetlan Stoev starts a three-day visit to Ukraine. On the first day of his visit, Minister Stoev represents Bulgaria at the Crimean Platform, which will be attended by over 40 foreign delegations.

Ukraine lodged an official protest on Wednesday, after Bulgaria's parliament criticised a planned reform to divide the Bolhrad region in Ukraine's southern Odessa district into five sections. The area is home to a large ethnic Bulgarian community.

Sofia. Ukrainian citizens of Bulgarian descent will always be a bridge for understanding and cooperation between the two countries, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the government press office said.

Ukraine authorities have vowed to investigate the vandalization of a monument to Bulgarian volunteer fighters in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1888 in the city of Bolhrad in Ukraine's Odessa region.

Bulgaria's government dismissed the Ukrainian citizen Ivan Avramov from the position honorary consul of Bulgaria in eastern Ukraine over reports that he is involved in alcohol contraband.

Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev congratulated in a phone conversation  the newly-elected Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, said the President's press office. 

According to 99.03% of the processed ballots, Poroshenko wins the May 25 presidential elections with 54.7% of the votes.