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Ukraine intends to submit a new zoning plan of the Danube biosphere reserve that takes into consideration the construction of the Danube-Black Sea shipping canal (restoration of shipping through the Bystre estuary) to the UNESCO before October.

The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry's special envoy Natalia Zarudna announced this during a meeting with the heads of the diplomatic missions in the Odesa region on Friday last week.

According to Zarudna, Ukraine intends to include in the nucleus of the biosphere reserve the territory of the Zhebriianskyi sea ridge, which the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences previously proposed as an alternative site for construction of the Danube-Black Sea shipping canal.

The Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences proposed constructing the canal through the Zhebriianskyi sea ridge with creation of a sluice canal from the Solomonovo distributary and an approach canal to the Zhebriianskyi bay.

However, the Transport Ministry and the Environmental Protection Ministry believe that construction of the canal through the Zhebriianskyi sea ridge and bay would have more man-made influence on nature than construction of the canal in the Bystre estuary.

According to ecologists, the Zhebriianskyi bay is characterized by a high concentration of unique animals and plants, with 95% of the entire flora in the Danube biosphere reserve concentrated there.

Therefore, it is proposed to create another nucleus of the reserve in this area, thus expanding the reserve's territory by 4,000 square kilometers, with UNESCO reconfirming the status of the Danube biosphere reserve within this new area.

At present, the Danube biosphere reserve is organized as a cluster, with three nuclei, none of which was affected by the construction of the Danube-Black Sea shipping canal through the Bystre estuary.

The Danube biosphere reserve in the Ukrainian section of the Danube delta has been under the auspices of UNESCO as part of the Ukrainian-Romanian Delta Danuarea since 1998.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported,

The Ukrainian Ministry of Transport completed the first stage of restoration of the Danube-Black Sea shipping canal in the Bystre Estuary on August 26.

The pilot passage of a 120-meter long and 5-meter draft ship through the canal took place on August 19.

Ukraine and the European Commission have agreed to hold consultations at the level of experts with the aim of studying the environmental effects of the Ukrainian construction project in the Danube delta.

Ukraine has enhanced its border security after the recent terror attacks and escalation of tensions in the Transnistrian region, Ukrainian authorities told RBC.

Additional armed forces were dispatched to Ukrainian borders. Funds allocated for security were transferred for buying necessary cars, mine detectors and communications equipment.

The conflict, which lasted more than two years, claimed a huge death toll. It began when Russia sent troops to the Ottoman Empire, now Turkey.

In September 1854, Britain and France invaded the Crimea, which was then part of Russia.

This week, each of the countries involved in the war will pay tribute to those who died.

More than a million people were killed in the war. But many of those victims died as a result of sickness and disease rather than on the battlefield.

The poor conditions that soldiers had to put up, with as well as military incompetence, like the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, led to significant changes in the way future wars were fought.
 
Those who died will be remembered over the next two days in Ukraine.

On Thursday, flowers will be laid on a communal grave in Sevastopol. Then on Friday, the official memorial day dedicated to the victims of the Crimean War, there will be a series of events.

Separate services of remembrance will be held in the Black Sea resort by each of the countries involved in the conflict. Britain will also unveil a new monument to its war dead in the area once used as the base camp for the Light Brigade.

Later on Friday, representatives from Britain, France, Turkey and Russia will come together for a ceremony of reconciliation. Each country will then lay wreaths at a monument dedicated to peace.

"How about a fruity Lenin or a bottle of Stalin Cabernet?" Tetyana suggests to a customer at her store in Kiev.

Crimean wine, which features former Soviet leaders on the labels, has just gone on sale in the capital.

Full-bodied Bolshevik? Lenin labels are popular with drinkers At Tetyana Ivanenko's shop it costs around $2 (?1.10) a bottle.

Half a million bottles have already rolled off the production line.

More than a decade on from Ukraine's independence, there is a growing demand for nostalgia and former leaders like Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev are now being used to make money.

"This wine is not being produced for political reasons," says Olexandr Andreev, commercial director at the Eupatoria Wine Factory.

"We are doing this out of respect for the older generation; we want to bring back memories for people who were brought up during communism."

Yevhen Marchuk Ukraine says it will take steps to curb corruption and improve governance as it makes a new push to join NATO, the trans-Atlantic military alliance. The issue came up during a visit to London by Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk.
In an address on Ukrainian defense issues, Mr. Marchuk said his country seeks broader support among NATO countries for Ukraine to join the alliance.

"Without an intensified dialogue on progressing towards membership, we may lose some of the political momentum and public support that is so essential to the goal of NATO-Euro-Atlantic integration that remains a central objective of Ukrainian foreign policy, said Yevhen Marchuk.

Poland has been Ukraine's key advocate in the NATO councils, but many other NATO members have expressed concern about Ukraine's lack of economic reform and its autocratic government.

Speaking at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr. Marchuk admitted Ukraine must make some major reforms.

"We do only have a fledgling market economy with a limited financial infrastructure and inevitably, serious corruption and governance problems," he said. "We are aware of the scale of the issues and we are attempting to tackle them."

The defense minister said Ukraine will cut the size of its armed forces from 350,000 members to 200,000 by the end of next year as it restructures its defense establishment.

During a question-and-answer session that followed his speech, Mr. Marchuk played down a report issued by the European Parliament that next month's presidential election in Ukraine may not meet European standards of fairness.

Mr. Marchuk said there will be 10 times as many international observers than at previous Ukrainian elections, and he said judgments should be withheld until after the voting.