"The mismatch between the realities on the ground and the nature of the president’s pronouncements reveals a president who is out of touch with reality." This has been one of the underlying themes of those who have argued from the beginning of this drama that the West doesn’t have a stake in Ukraine’s fate to even approach the stake of Russia, which has included Ukraine within its sphere [...]

A favorite tactic to get Americans and Europeans ready for another war is to liken some foreign “enemy” to Hitler, no matter how ill-fitting or absurd the comparison. But once the Hitler slur is slung all rational debate ends, as Danny Schechter explains. The ISIS gang makes great enemies. They dress in black, wear Halloween masks, wave flags, act viciously, and cut off the heads of journal [...]

We are at the beginning of an epoch where at some point in the future there could be an open war between the advanced powers, and there is not much faith in the ceasefire in Ukraine, Samir Dathi, National Officer of the Stop the War Coalition, told RT. Ukraine's President is confident about a ceasefire - do you think he's right to be? [...]

Moscow has accused NATO of using the Ukrainian crisis as a “pretext” to “push its military presence closer to Russia’s borders,” and says that plans for a new rapid response force will sabotage the peace process in eastern Ukraine. “The [expansion] plans have been harbored by NATO for a long time, and recent events have served as a pretext to put them into action,” said a statemen [...]

It is too late for decentralization, as E. Ukraine's self-defense forces want full independence from Kiev after its bloody military campaign, international law expert Alexander Mercouris told RT. Kiev now needs a ceasefire because it's losing, he argued. On Friday, Kiev officials and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire as the contac [...]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced ceasefires before and was always the first to violate them, Spanish volunteer Ramiro Gomez, who fought in eastern Ukraine against the troops of the coup-imposed Kiev government, told RT. According to the European volunteer, this ceasefire is in effect a part of Poroshenko’s strategy: “to reorganize the [Ukrainian] army which is already a la [...]

Lugansk and Donetsk residents are now used to gunfire. RT's Maria Finoshina crossed Ukraine's southeast to see the aftermath of war there - and how it is the civilians who have carried the heaviest burden: relatives lost, homes destroyed, and hope gone. “I worked all my life and what did I get for it,” exclaims a weeping elderly woman. “Why is this happening? Why, God, why?” Many of tho [...]

After admitting last week that "we do not have a strategy yet" for dealing with the Islamist militants in Syria who have beheaded two Americans, Barack Obama has struck a more confident note on a trip to Europe this week. The American president used a visit to Estonia on Wednesday to declare that the "defence of Tallinn and Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defence of Berlin and Pari [...]

Lithuania has asked the European Commission to allocate €46 million ($60 million) as compensation for Russian food embargo losses. Slovakia has also asked the EU to lift some sanctions against Russia to partially allow exports. Vilnius is expecting to receive at least part of the requested compensation, as Brussels sees Lithuania as one of the countries most affected by the Russian sanctions, [...]

Both sides in the Ukrainian conflict have agreed to “all to all” prisoners of war exchange, hardware withdrawal and humanitarian aid access to the area. Kiev and rebel troops laid down arms as the main agreement – ceasefire- came into force at 15:00 GMT. The contact group in Minsk agreed on three key issues: ceasefire, exchange of war prisoners and humanitarian aid access, OSCE envoy Tagl [...]

United States President Barack Obama said Friday that the US and European Union are still prepared to impose sanctions against Russia if the crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate following the signing of a ceasefire agreement. Speaking in Newport, Wales at the close of a major NATO alliance summit, Pres. Obama expressed skepticism over a pact signed only hours earlier in Minsk during a meetin [...]

When Poland’s Solidarity trade union movement was founded in 1980, several Western countries and labor unions shuddered at the idea of those upstart Poles daring to challenge the post-1945 settlement and the Iron Curtain that divided Europe. The feeling at the time was that the Cold War had brought about stability. Forget the fact that Soviet tanks had crushed the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 o [...]

I suppose one should be grateful for even small gestures, and the news on the morning of September 3rd that Poroshenko might speak with the separatists of Lugansk and Donetsk should be viewed positively as a first step. It also brings to mind the saying “nothing is more permanent than the temporary.” [...]

The UK will contribute 1,000 personnel to a new multi-national rapid reaction force, Prime Minister David Cameron has said. He suggested the NATO "multinational spearhead force" could be deployed anywhere in two to five days. The British prime minister announced the force, to be based in Eastern Europe, will be launched in response to alleged Russian military involvement in Ukraine and instabil [...]

Ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has again blamed the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine on the hasty and thoughtless breakup of the USSR. He noted that a peaceful outcome could only be reached through resumed dialogue between Russia and the US. The former Soviet leader expressed these opinions in the afterword to his latest book of memoirs called “After the Kremlin” - soon to be released. The [...]

Scores of casualties were reported as eastern Ukrainian militias were allegedly closing in on Mariupol port hours before a ceasefire pledged by President Poroshenko was announced. Authorities say they repelled the attacks and the city is calm. The fighting near Mariupol has cost the cost the lives of seven civilians, including two children, during the two days, Konstantin Batozsky, adviser to t [...]

Kiev officials and representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in southeastern Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire, as the contact group met behind closed doors in Belarus. The two sides accompanied by representatives of Russia and the OSCE were meeting in the Belorussian capital, Minsk, in an attempt to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine. [...]

UK PM David Cameron said new sanctions against Russia could be lifted if the warring sides in Ukraine's conflict agree to honor a ceasefire, the details of which have now been finalized. Germany and France echoed the sentiment. Negotiators from Kiev, eastern Ukraine rebels, Russia and the OSCE are in Minsk, and a ceasefire between the warring sides has been signed as of Friday afternoon. The ce [...]

A new rapid reaction force, likely numbering at least 4,000 and ready to be deployed within 48 hours, will be created in Eastern Europe, after a decision by the 28 NATO member states following a conference in Wales. “This is a demonstration of our solidarity and resolve,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the summit, largely dedicated to Ukraine, and attended by the count [...]

The US President says it is now “provable” that "Russian combat forces and tanks" moved into Ukraine. But Kremlin says Obama’s words are in conflict with the State Department that said it has no proof of Russian troops in the area. A statement from the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov came in response to Barack Obama’s address to the Baltic States’ leader. Speaking ahead [...]

Given the very high stakes of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, some analysts wonder what’s the real motive for taking this extraordinary risk over Ukraine. Is it about natural gas, protection of the U.S. dollar’s dominance, or an outgrowth of neocon extremism, asks Robert Parry. A senior U.S. diplomat told me recently that if Russia were to occupy all of Ukraine and even neighboring [...]

The European Central Bank unexpectedly cut interest rates to 0.05% from 0.15% in a strong response to combat deflation. The move comes as the EU is struggling to boost its stagnating economy, which Draghi. “Growth recovery was losing momentum,” ECB President Mario Draghi said at the news conference after the announcement was made to cut rates further. [...]