Human Rights Watch has condemned the illegality of Ukrainian actions in east Ukraine, ascribing direct blame to Kiev for the rising death toll in the Lugansk Region, which by local estimates has reached 300 since May. The organization visited the city on August 20-22, performing a survey of the situation and carrying out interviews with locals who in one way or another were affected by the heav [...]

Vladimir Putin’s remark about “taking Kiev in two weeks” was taken out of context and its meaning was distorted, Moscow said, adding that it’s ready to publish the president’s conversation with the European Commission head. Moscow may reveal the full recording of the controversial phone call if European Commission president, Jose Manual Barroso, doesn’t object in the next two days, [...]

Nato would not be able to stop a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe because of years of military cuts, one of Britain’s top generals has warned. General Sir Richard Shirreff, who stepped down from his post as Nato deputy supreme commander earlier this year, said the military alliance needed to rearm if it was serious about defending itself in the future. [...]

After months of failed telephone diplomacy between Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, hardliners are gaining the upper hand in discussions over the appropriate response to Russia. They may soon prevail with demands that go far beyond new economic sanctions. [...]

Ukrainian forces ceded a strategic eastern airport to pro-Russian insurgents on Monday as the government in Kiev accused Moscow of launching a “great war” that could claim tens of thousands of lives. The sense of foreboding in Kiev came as European-mediated talks over the fast-escalating crisis opened in the Belarussian capital Minsk behind closed doors, attended by government, separatist a [...]

America’s war hawks, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were thrilled by the Libyan “regime change” engineered through a U.S.- European bombing campaign in 2011. But now with Libya torn by civil war and Arab powers intervening, the “victory” has a bitter aftertaste, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. [...]

Alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping Official Washington – and the specter of a new Cold War U.S. intelligence veterans took the unusual step of sending this Aug. 30 memo to German Chancellor Merkel challenging the reliability of Ukrainian and U.S. media claims about a Russian “invasion.” [...]

Moscow is to review its military doctrine, a move that is caused by expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe, problems of missile defense and the crisis situation in neighboring Ukraine, says an official from the Russia's Security Council. “I have no doubts that the issue of drawing of military infrastructure of NATO member-countries to the borders of our country, including via enlargement, will r [...]

Cuba's former president Fidel Castro compared NATO's recent statements to that of Nazi SS and accused US and its allies of igniting conflicts abroad. Castro slammed John McCain for backing Israel and accused both of being involved in the creation of ISIS. Apparently referring to the pressure the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been trying to exert on Moscow in connection with the [...]

In an August 29 editorial calling for the US and NATO to adopt a retaliatory policy against Russia over its alleged “large and unacceptable escalation of … aggression against Ukraine,” the New York Times asserts in passing that after rebels in eastern Ukraine “shot down a Malaysian jetliner with a Russian missile … Russia’s involvement became more overt.” [...]

Declassified documents reveal that in the 1950s the FBI trained Alaskan residents to become agents behind enemy lines if the Soviets invaded. No women, Eskimo, Indians or Aleuts were included, with native peoples considered unreliable. The recently declassified FBI and Air Force documents show that in the early stage of the Cold War the US government feared that the Soviet Union was planning an [...]

Following comments from Ukraine's Defense Minister Valery Geletey of Moscow threatening with a nuclear attack on its neighbor, Moscow said it was shocked by the statement. Russia warned that such rhetoric only deepens the civil stand-off in Ukraine. “Geletey’s calls to get ready for ‘tens of thousands’ of new victims in what he called ‘Great Patriotic War’ and what in fact is a new [...]

Russian Parliament speaker Sergey Naryshkin has accused the US of influencing the EU into imposing sanctions on his country without knowing "the actual reasons behind the situation in Ukraine" and says Europe "will have to pay the price for this policy." The European Union recently put you on its blacklist. You are even banned from traveling to Europe. It is a pretty unique situation for the sp [...]

The first Eastern European EU president, Donald Tusk faces difficult times ahead – and few credentials to suggest he is up to the job... Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will chair EU meetings as President of the European Council, with many hoping he will prove to be a pragmatic counterweight to the divisive Jean-Claude Juncker, who by his own admission held the Eurozone together with a tiss [...]

The Australian government on Monday unveiled further sanctions against Russian oil and gas, financial and defense sectors, bringing Canberra in line with the European Union. Under the new sanctions there will be no new arms exports and no new exports for the oil and gas industry, Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the Australian parliament. [...]

Barack Obama and David Cameron will urge NATO members to increase military spending at the alliance's summit in Wales, amid criticism that some countries are getting a "free ride", growing geopolitical tensions and Europe-wide austerity. The NATO summit, which kicks off later this week, will see Obama and Cameron urge European state leaders to protect their continent from amplifying threats by [...]

Ukraine’s military said on Monday it had pulled its forces back from defending a vital airport in the east against Russian tanks, as President Petro Poroshenko accused Moscow of “direct and open aggression”. The withdrawal from the civilian airport outside the city of Luhansk was the latest in a string of reverses for Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists who Kiev says have th [...]

Press TV has conducted an interview with Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of US Treasury from Atlanta, about Russia sending a humanitarian aid convoy to Ukraine under an agreement between Moscow and the International Committee of the Red Cross. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview Press TV: Well Paul Craig Roberts, this crisis keeps escalating. My first qu [...]

Growth in Germany contracted 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the first fall in over a year, stoking worries Europe's biggest economy is slowing down, as the Ukraine crisis and weaker trade drag down what was once a glowing model for the rest of Europe. The seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) from April to June was confirmed Monday by Germany's Federal Statistics Office to have d [...]

Examining the rise and (possible) fall of the European Union and the Euro, John Peet and Anton La Guardia tell a damning tale. Europe specialists at the Economist, the authors are free marketers. They’re also believers in a United States of Europe. They begin by assessing the economic and socio-political rationales for the Euro. They outline the free trade and prosperity that a mutually depen [...]

Conservative lawmakers could pledge to support Britain leaving the European Union, irrespective of what powers are returned to London from Brussels, newspaper The Independent has reported. The report underlines the growing pressure facing Prime Minister David Cameron as he contends with the rise of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) ahead of a May& [...]

Germany on Sunday presented the list of weapons it plans to send to the Kurds in northern Iraq. Some of them, though, may end up being used against former German soldiers. SPIEGEL has learned that 20 ex-Bundeswehr troops have joined jihadists in the region. The German government over the weekend reached a decision on the weapons it plans to ship to the Kurds in northern Iraq to help them combat [...]