Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Minsk for talks with the leaders of the member states of the Eurasian Customs Union, Ukraine and representatives of the EU. Putin could also hold a bilateral meeting with Petro Poroshenko, the Kremlin said. Putin and Poroshenko greeted each other with a handshake as they met in the Belarusian capital at the start of talks on the Ukrainian crisis. [...]

Two churches in the Donetsk Region have been destroyed by shelling from Kiev troops, leaving three people dead. In the latest attack Monday, a church was completely destroyed, while on Saturday three worshipers were killed while praying. In Monday’s attack on St. John Kronstadt Orthodox Church on the outskirts of Donetsk, the shelling “caused a fire, and the church was totally burned with i [...]

Divided by mistrust and mutual recriminations, the Russian and Ukrainian leaders will hold rare talks on Tuesday that offer only a slim hope of progress towards ending five months of separatist war in Ukraine. Since Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko last met on June 6 in France, Ukraine has turned the tide of the conflict and largely encircled pro-Russian rebels holding out in two cities in t [...]

Russia doesn't want to escalate tit-for-tat sanctions with the West, but is ready to do whatever is necessary to protect its legitimate interests, including those of national security in all its dimensions, Russia's FM told The Daily Telegraph. Peace in Ukraine can only be attained through a broad national dialogue that includes all regions and its terms cannot simply be dictated by a “govern [...]

The Fitch ratings agency has downgraded Ukraine one step closer to default grade, as the Ukrainian currency the hryvnia hits a record low, and the economy balances on the brink of a collapse. Fitch cut the long-term local currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of Ukraine from B-,signifying a default risk, to CCC, where default is a real possibility, and affirmed its long-term foreign currency IDR [...]

With heavy fighting underway in south-eastern Ukraine, the distribution of humanitarian aid from Russia has started in the city of Lugansk, which is besieged by the Kiev forces. The first 12 points distributing food have already begun working. The minimum offering includes rice, buckwheat and sugar, three canned meats, a packet of tea and 10 liters of water, Novorossiya news agency reports. [...]

Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has made the decision to dismiss the country's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, a message on his official Twitter account says. The decision comes because “the majority of the MPs voted for dictator-style laws,” which cost the lives of Maidan activists, RIA Novosti news agency reports citing Poroshenko's spokesman. [...]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced plans for a second humanitarian convoy to be sent to eastern Ukraine, urging foreign actors and agencies to participate in continuing efforts at relieving the crisis. Failure to do so would constitute a violation of international law, he warned. [...]

After sustained defensive combat against Ukrainian troops in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk during August, rebels are now reporting of entrapping two large groups of Kiev troops and seizing military hardware in a counteroffensive. The main headquarters of the DPR army has made a decision to stop operations in small groups and form full-bodied independent military units, the [...]

Further delays in the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine, which is facing a humanitarian disaster, would have been unacceptable, President Vladimir Putin has said in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Given the obvious protractions by Kiev on the issue of the delivery of Russian aid to southeast regions of Ukraine, which are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe, a dec [...]

Moscow has accused Kiev of placing political interests above humanism, adding that it is confident it made the right decision to order a convoy with Russian humanitarian aid to proceed to the conflict zone without waiting for further Ukrainian permission. The Russian aid convoy on Friday finally reached Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, which has been devastated by repeated shelling. White Kamaz truc [...]

Ukrainian army shelling has forever changed the life of a teenage girl near Donetsk, who is now lying in hospital with a shattered arm and shrapnel wounds. The teen witnessed 15 people, including children killed by falling bombs along the river's shore. Government forces first bombed the village of Zugres in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on August 14. Several shells hit a beach full of [...]

There have been at least two countries in Europe in recent history that undertook ‘anti-terrorist’ military operations against ‘separatists’, but got two very different reactions from the Western elite. The government of European country A launches what it calls an ‘anti-terrorist’ military operation against ‘separatists’ in one part of the country. We see pictures on Western te [...]

Kiev should make public the records of communications between the Ukrainian air traffic control and the Malaysian Airlines flight 17 in the hours before it was shot down over Ukraine’s turbulent east, Russia’s UN envoy said. The issue was among several Russia raised at a UN Security Council meeting, which was called by Russia to discuss the progress of the investigation into the tragic inci [...]

OSCE observers stationed at two Russian border checkpoints, the Ukrainian counterparts of which are controlled by the Ukrainian military, have not witnessed any movements of weapons across the border. The monitors did witness young people “dressed in military style” moving across the border into Ukraine, Paul Picard, acting chief observer of the OSCE Mission, told journalists. However, all [...]

Ukraine government and rebels blame each other for attack, which has killed evacuees trying to escape the conflict. Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed on Monday when a convoy carrying refugees was hit by rocket fire near the eastern city of Luhansk, a Ukrainian military spokesman said. [...]

With over two weeks since his disappearance in eastern Ukraine, the whereabouts of Russian photojournalist Andrey Stenin remain unknown. His colleagues suggest that he may soon be freed as part of a large exchange of captives. Stenin’s employers at Rossiya Segodnya news agency (formerly RIA Novosti), said that they have so far failed to get any information on their journalist from the Kiev au [...]

Seventeen Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Russia's southern Rostov region on Saturday and laid down their arms after fleeing the fighting, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said. “It happened this morning,” Nikolay Sinitsyn, the official regional representative of the FSB, told RT. “They were provided with food, and they’re safe here. We’re carrying out a probe.” [...]

The deputy spokesperson for the US Department of State Marie Harf has called restraint on the Ukrainian military's actions in the east for the first time, following a major shelling of Donetsk that left at least 70 civilians dead. “We’ve stressed the importance of showing restraint to minimize casualties among the civilian – the local population,” Harf said. [...]

Citizens of Donetsk have recorded multiple videos of white glowing particles raining on residential quarters. The locals allege that Ukraine's military has shelled their city with internationally prohibited phosphorus incendiaries. On Thursday night, people in the Lenin district of the city of Donetsk saw a flow of white fire pouring down from the dark sky alongside the now-familiar sound of bo [...]

Russia's Security Service (FSB) has denied reports that the country's troops have crossed the border into Ukraine. Border guards have been deployed to provide security near the frontier, but they operate only on the Russian side, the FSB said. The mobile military teams “operate strictly within the territory of the Russian Federation,” a spokesperson for the FSB Border Guard Service in Rosto [...]

A Russian convoy to deliver humanitarian aid has reached the Ukrainian border. Some western journalists were given the opportunity to monitor its progress, as well as being allowed to see what they were carrying. The Ukrainian government had been adamant that this was little more than a 'Trojan Horse' being used to transport Russian military hardware to anti-government troops in the east of the [...]