Slavic

BELGRADE - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic and Japanese Ambassador to Serbia Masafumi Kuroki signed and exchanged notes on a EUR 1.43 million worth non-refundable donation from the Japanese government to Serbia, expressing the hope that the donation will further improve the friendly relations between the two countries.

BELGRADE - The Coalition of Refugee Associations stated that the meeting between Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Croatian counterpart Vesna Pusic leads to further enhancement of the two countries relations, but it also warned that mutual respect would not be possible without first finding a fair solution to open issues.

The Bulgarian government is dissatisfied with Ukraine's decision to cancel the recognition of Bulgarian language as regional language.

Earlier this week Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada canceled the State Language Policy Act, which was granting the status of “regional language” to the language of minority groups who make up more than 10% of the residents in an area.

No details on foreign financial assistance to Ukraine

KIEV -- Russia should be a good neighbor to Ukraine and allow it to move forward in the direction that is has chosen, said Catherine Ashton.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met on Tuesday with member of the French parliament and former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon and thanked him for the support for Serbia's EU integration and efforts to solve the Kosovo issue.

Serbian Defense Minister Nebojša Rodić will on Tuesday go on a two-day visit to Greece, at the invitation of his Greek counterpart Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Croatia and Serbia to pursue war reparations

Experts said reparations are important to reconciliation in the region.

Davor Stier (centre), European Parliament member from the Croatian Democratic Union, rasied the issue of war reparations with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule. [Facebook/Davor Stier]

“We Are Witnessing a Democratic Revolution in Ukraine”, Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev wrote in his official Twitter account on Monday.

In a series of tweets, commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Plevneliev said it was of the highest importance that Ukraine remains whole and conducts open and fair elections.

Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed indignation at another case of vandalism of the Soviet Army monument in Bulgaria's capital city of Sofia.

The New York Times

By Andrew Higgins

As ranks of riot police officers, Interior Ministry troops and even the president vanished Saturday from the capital, Ukraine slipped, with often-eerie calm after months of tumultuous protests and a week of bloody mayhem, into the hands of revolution.