A Polish government spokesperson has criticized the deputy prime minister's remark on Ukraine‘s disintegrating economy, calling it “unfair.” Janusz Piechocinski painted a black scenario for the country gripped by hyperinflation and currency plunge. [...]

Washington and its NATO allies have already spent over $110 million on “security assistance” to Ukraine and are considering increasing the “lethality” of the aid, a top US diplomat told a Congressional committee in an accusatory anti-Russia speech. [...]

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. [...]

Ukrainian media in unison are misquoting Dutch investigators as accusing Russia of shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in July last year. The concert of reports by Ukrainian media on Thursday claimed that the Dutch team had established that it was a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile that shot down the Boeing airliner, killing almost 300 on board. The fact is they [...]

Western nations should heed Russia's legitimate security concerns over the volatile situation in Ukraine, a top Chinese diplomat has said in a rare public statement on the crisis that has damaged relations between Russia and the West. Qu Xing, China's ambassador to Belgium, said the Ukrainian crisis came about due to the ongoing “game”– a metaphor similar to that used by US geopolitical s [...]

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 [...]

Ukrainian supermarkets have imposed rationing of basic products after the drastic fall in the value of the hryvnia. The currency has lost 70 percent of its value causing people to stockpile food and buy electronics as a hedge. Restrictions apply for goods such as cooking oil, flour and sugar, Ukraine’s news agency UNN reports Wednesday. [...]

Burning tires, barricades of rubble and blood on the pavement - RT presents the most striking photos from last February's Maidan riots in Ukraine, which turned the capital Kiev into a warzone and led to an armed coup in the country. With police carrying batons and riot shields, and protesters metal clubs and home-made protective gear – their clashes at times looked more befitting of a medieva [...]

Ukraine has agreed to increase the cost of gas to consumer by 280 percent, and 66 percent for heating, as part of the IMF terms for getting extra financial aid, says Valery Gontareva the head of the National Bank of Ukraine. "From now on, in accordance with our joint program with the IMF, the tariffs will see rather a sharp increase of 280 percent for gas and about 66 percent for heat," said Go [...]

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 leader of France’s rightwing Front National (FN), Marine Le Pen, has called Brussels “American lackeys” over the EU's Ukraine policy. She further accused Washington of attempting to start a “war in Europe” and expand NATO towards Russia’s borders. [...]

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. [...]

Tuesday protests outside the president's offices in Kiev are just a part of a bigger picture of discontent grasping Ukraine, journalist Neil Clark told RT. With the economy worsening, former Maidan allies are now angered and splitting up. Is this a small pocket of discontent or are we seeing something wider here? [...]

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. [...]

The hryvnia lost 34 percent against the US dollar after the head of the central bank signaled it can no longer support the currency with regular interventions and will allow greater fluctuations. The hyrvnia hit a historic low of 24.5 per 1 USD. “Get used to market volatility," National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Valery Gontareva told reporters in Kiev on Thursday. [...]

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 [...]

The French president and the German chancellor are set to visit Moscow on Friday after a trip to Kiev, in order to find a peaceful solution to the escalating violence in Ukraine, the Kremlin has confirmed. “I can confirm that indeed tomorrow [Friday] Putin, Merkel and Hollande will have talks. [...]