Increased US military posturing, troop buildup in Eastern Europe and a continued effort to show strength destabilizes the region and creates a scenario where one wrong move could spark a global conflict, journalist Marcus Papadopoulos told RT. [...]

The process of destroying America's largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons began on Wednesday in Colorado, more than a decade after the Defense Department approved the destruction of 780,000 shells containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent. It will take four years to destroy the inventory leftover from World War II at Pueblo Chemical Depot in southern Colorado. [...]

Despite the predictions, the Israeli left has been soundly beaten in Tuesday's elections by its more honest "right wing", whose commitment to the total eradication of the Palestinians as any kind of political entity is openly stated. The defeat of the Zionist Union, ostensibly committed to negotiations and a two-state solution, should not, therefore, be read as the defeat of any genuine desire [...]

People in the US, like ex-CIA chief Michael Hayden, are trying to put Berlin back in place dissatisfied that the Germans are acting like adults but not like subservient servants from of the “five eyes” alliance, says Ray McGovern, a former CIA officer. Speaking at a Washington-based think tank, the New America Foundation, on Tuesday former NSA and CIA director, General Michael Hayden, said [...]

The US perceives the Ukrainian crisis as an opportunity to damage Russia and bring Ukraine into NATO, says Srdja Trifkovic Foreign Affairs Editor of Chronicles Magazine. He says a decision to ship lethal weapons to the Kiev regime has already been made. Despite an improving situation in Ukraine, we are still witnessing aggressive rhetoric from some US officials. Why is that? [...]

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with American protocol and delivered a speech before the US Congress without consulting the White House first. Many Democrats viewed the speech as an attempt by a foreign leader to chastise and change Washington’s foreign policy efforts, specifically with regards to Iran over its alleged efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. [...]

Maintaining tension and making boldfaced accusations for decades has suited the US’ purpose to try to divide and rule in Europe and to put a split between Eastern and Western Europe, investigative journalist Tony Gosling, told RT. The murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov provoked a vast amount of comment in the West, some of which according to the Russian envoy to the EU Vladim [...]

NATO is using the situation in Ukraine to push closer to Russia's border, according to the Russian deputy defense minister. He says the Alliance's activities have expanded considerably over the past years. In their push, Anatoly Antonov says Allied forces are ignoring diplomacy. [...]

Ukraine asking the United Kingdom for advice on fighting separatists is akin to questioning the Marlboro Man about how to prevent cancer. It's not only futile - it makes both Kiev and London look stupid. Apparently the day Henry Kissinger won the Noble Peace Prize, satire died. [...]

Poland may follow the UK's lead and send military advisers to Ukraine to help train the country's troops. An aid to the Polish defense minister says a final decision will be made in March with the number expected to be under a hundred. Poland has been a staunch ally of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Warsaw says the number of military advisers will range from around a dozen to several [...]

The EU "sleepwalked" into the Ukrainian crisis after a failure to address Moscow's concerns over Western policies, a UK parliamentary report says. Europeans suffer from poor analytic capacity when it comes to Russia. [...]

The demonization of Vladimir Putin and Russia by the British political establishment and media has never been as intense as in the wake of the recent Ukraine peace talks in Minsk. Rather than preparing British public opinion for peace and a negotiated settlement to a conflict which thus far has cost the lives of over 5,000 people and seen over a million displaced, the opposite has been evident: [...]

The German intelligence service estimates the real losses in the Ukrainian civil war at 50,000 dead (civilians and servicemen), which is nearly 10 times higher than reported by the Kiev authorities, German media report. The information comes from a source in German intelligence, who spoke to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAZ) newspaper. [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande did not consult Washington before deciding to visit Moscow to hold talks on the Ukrainian crisis, a source in the French government told AP. The two leaders, who are part of the so-called ‘Normandy Four’ group along with Moscow and Kiev, decided on a trip on Wednesday night, an unnamed French government official said. [...]

The US is partially responsible for Ukraine’s indiscriminate use of cluster bombs in the country’s east, US Senator John McCain told Russia’s Sputnik news agency. According to McCain, it is due to the US failing to send Kiev other arms. “I think that if we had provided them with the weapons they need, they wouldn’t have felt they had to use cluster bombs. [...]

Ukraine's parliament has passed a law which authorizes commanding officers to use physical force against army defectors. It comes as the latest military draft has seen a lack of enthusiasm on the part of potential soldiers. Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday with 260 MPs in favor - only 226 votes were needed to pass the law. [...]

A single day of warfare in eastern Ukraine drains the nation's ailing economy of millions of euros, the Ukrainian president told German media. Poroshenko is asking for money and arms, but so far no European state has agreed to supply weapons to Kiev. The military crackdown in the eastern regions of Ukraine, which has already claimed the lives of at least 5,300 people, is ruining Ukraine’s eco [...]

Some 8,000 Ukrainian troops are believed to be surrounded near the village of Debaltsevo in Donbass, as militia units cut off the only road linking the pocket to Kiev-held territory. The servicemen have been offered the chance to surrender. The forces of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR) have stormed and captured the town of Uglegorsk, a stronghold of the Ukrainian army in the east of th [...]

Washington has been implementing its policy in Ukraine like it is part of the US even it is half way around the world, Richard Becker from the anti-war Answer coalition told RT. The Minsk agreements demand that both sides stop fighting and withdraw heavy weapons. But the US State Department suggested that supplying weapons to Kiev doesn't violate the spirit of the agreements.   [...]