Prisoner swaps in Ukraine are in danger of stalling as rebels say they will no longer tolerate Kiev's practice of producing random people for exchange instead of actual members of militia and political prisoners. Prisoner exchanges are a crucial part for consolidating the shaky truce in eastern Ukraine. The peace deal signed in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5 states that all captives must be eve [...]

Mass graves with bodies bearing signs of violent death, and grieving relatives of those who were identified: That was the blood-curdling scene witnessed by an RT crew in a village near the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Four bodies were found in two shell craters behind a burned-out coal mine near the village of Nyzhnia Krynka, 35 kilometers northeast of Donetsk. RT’s Maria Finoshina re [...]

RT correspondent Paula Slier faced strong anti-Russian bias during an OSCE panel on the freedom of journalism. She was invited to speak about her experience as a reporter while covering the situation in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine. Slier was attending a panel entitled ‘Professional Journalist: How to escape a deadly danger’ inWarsaw, Polandon Thursday, where she wanted to share her [...]

There is no draft law on creating a special status for the restive regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said, adding that Ukraine is only to be decentralized. “There will be no law on the special status of the Donbass region,” Poroshenko said on Thursday, speaking at a press conference in Kiev. [...]

Moscow is bewildered by Washington's warmongering rhetoric, which accompanied President Petro Poroshenko's visit to the US. Russia has also noted all the Russia-unfriendly opinions voiced recently by hawkish American politicians. “We’ll keep in mind all signals, including those unfriendly towards Russia, that were heard during the visit of the Ukrainian president to Washington,” commented [...]

A reported claim by Ukraine's Defense minister that Russia used tactical nuclear weapons against his troops sparked sarcastic comments from Moscow and criticism from the rival Ukrainian Interior Ministry. “So Russia did use tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainian troops,” the journalist wrote on his Facebook page, citing Geletey’s words. [...]

The families of German citizens killed in the Malaysian plane crash in eastern Ukraine are planning to sue the Ukrainian authorities in the European Court of Human Rights, accusing them of manslaughter by negligence. Ukraine should have closed its airspace if it couldn’t provide for the safety of flights over its territory, Elmar Giemulla, a professor of aviation law representing the three fa [...]

A preliminary report on the crash of the MH17 released this week by the Netherlands has answered no questions Russia was interested in, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "International experts have spent three weeks in Kiev, [they] talked with Ukrainian authorities. [...]

President Petro Poroshenko has requested NATO give “special” security status to Ukraine. Addressing the US Congress, he called on Washington to provide Kiev with “more military equipment, lethal and non-lethal” to “keep peace” in the east of his country. While President Barack Obama previously pledged only non-lethal assistance to Kiev, such as bullet-proof vests and helmets, Porosh [...]

$30 million will be given to those who help identify the perpetrators of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine that killed all 298 on board, said an independent German fraud investigation company. Two months have passed since the Malaysia Airlines plane on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot-down in eastern Ukraine on July 17 with 298 crew and passenge [...]

The Ukrainian parliament has approved laws on special status for the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions, as well as amnesty for those participating in the hostilities. The special status law has received 277 ‘yes’ votes from a total of 450 MPs, while the amnesty law was approved by 287 parliamentary members. The session of the Verkhovna Rada is underway during which MPs are to ratify an agreement [...]

While most civilized people view the Swastika and other Nazi symbols as abhorrent reminders of unspeakable evil, the Washington Post trotted out a new way of seeing them – as “romantic” – a sign that apologists for Ukraine’s coup regime know no limits, reports Robert Parry. The U.S. mainstream media’s deeply biased coverage of the Ukraine crisis – endlessly portraying the U.S.-bac [...]

A total of 1,300 troops from 15 nations, either active NATO members or would-be members, have come together for a military exercise in western Ukraine – even as the fragile truce in the east of the country barely holds. The exercise, code-named “Rapid Trident” has been an annual event since 2006, and has been organized by the Germany-based US European Command (EUCOM). It was initially pla [...]

NATO member states have started supplying weapons to Ukraine, the country's Defense Minister said on TV. His comments came a few days after a similar statement by a Ukrainian presidential aide sparked a diplomatic scandal and a rash of denials. In an interview with Channel 5, Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Geletey said that he had held verbal consultations with the defense ministers of the � [...]

The last truck from Russia's second humanitarian aid convoy to the Eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk has returned home after delivering its cargo. All vehicles had reached the Ukrainian-Russian border without incidents and the last of them crossed the border in the direction of Russia at around 6:30 pm local time (2:30 pm GMT). [...]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has officially authorized the OSCE mission in Ukraine to deploy drones in order to monitor compliance with the ceasefire terms agreed last week between the government and the self-proclaimed eastern republics. “In order to keep the conditions of the ceasefire, the Ukrainian President and OSCE Chairperson Didier Burkhalter agreed on the matter of a substant [...]

All 200 trucks in Russia's 2nd convoy carrying humanitarian aid for devastated areas of eastern Ukraine have arrived in the city of Lugansk after weeks of delays that occurred despite an agreement on relief corridors in the Minsk ceasefire deal. Six of the nine trucks carrying medicines have been unloaded, RIA Novosti reports. [...]

The report on the Malaysian jet crash is very "calm" and doesn't provide much information about the tragedy, said Russian FM Sergey Lavrov. He added that despite all the hype around the crash, the investigators do not seem to be in a hurry. In a Saturday interview to Russian channel TV-Center, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed he was disappointed by the latest report from Dutch experts on [...]

Heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization say that the crisis in Ukraine is spilling beyond the borders of the country and needs immediate action, while stressing that the only solution to the conflict lies in dialogue and consensus. At a press conference following the summit President Putin said the leaders had touched upon various issues of international politics, including thos [...]

Moscow scored a major diplomatic coup after Kiev agreed to postpone the enforcement of its Association Agreement with EU until the end of next year, following three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and European Union officials in Brussels. "We agreed on delaying the provisional application until the end of next year and to prolong the autonomous trade measures for the same period. [...]

Exclusive: More than seven weeks after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine killing 298 people, a preliminary report failed to address the mystery of who shot the plane down. The Dutch investigators didn’t even try to sort through conflicting allegations and evidence, writes Robert Parry. Beyond confirming that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 apparently was shot down on July 17, [...]

The battalion's far-right volunteers' desire to 'bring the fight to Kiev' is a danger to post-conflict stability. "I have nothing against Russian nationalists, or a great Russia," said Dmitry, as we sped through the dark Mariupol night in a pickup truck, a machine gunner positioned in the back. "But Putin's not even a Russian. Putin's a Jew." [...]