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. [...]

Anti-war activists have called an emergency protest outside Downing Street on Thursday evening, as Prime Minister David Cameron says the UK is ready to "play its part" in airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq. Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Cameron called Islamic State formerly known as ISIS or ISIL) an “evil against which the whole world must unite”. [...]

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 [...]

New intelligence has emerged warning Washington that its upcoming confrontation with the Islamic State may leave it blind to a more sinister and direct threat from a much lesser known terrorist group that has arisen from the ashes of the Syrian war. Very little information is being released at the moment by anyone within American intelligence circles, but the group calling itself Khorasan is sa [...]

The US claims Syrian President Bashar Assad has broken the chemical weapons treaty he agreed to earlier this year, by launching chlorine gas attacks in Syrian villages. It comes as the Senate officially approved a plan to arm and train Syrian rebels. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday accused Assad of breaching the terms of the global pact on chemical weapons, by unleashing chlorine g [...]

$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 [...]

Islamic State responded in a video to US President Barack Obama's vow to "ultimately destroy" it, promising to kill any American ground forces deployed. The extremist group has gained recruits since Obama's declaration, according to observers in Syria. The 52-second clip, released late Tuesday as a preview for a longer video, uses quick edits and high-resolution images to depict besieged Americ [...]

The beheading of British aid worker David Haines comes at a “convenient” moment for PM David Cameron, who is seeking to persuade the public that the UK should again get involved in conflict in the Middle East, journalist Afshin Rattansi told RT. Another outrageous demonstration of the ISIS brutality took place on 13th September, when the IS issued a video of the beheading of UK aid worker D [...]

UK airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria could be illegal without the agreement of President Bashar Assad's government or a UN Security Council resolution, according to a House of Commons Library assessment. Prime Minister David Cameron will recall MPs to parliament to outline his plans for deeper military intervention in Iraq and Syria when he returns from the UN General Assembl [...]

Iran has refused an offer from the United States to join a global alliance preparing to combat Islamic State militants, according to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei said Monday that the US offered to discuss a coordinated effort with Iran against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL), a common foe in the region, in the midst of an escalating campaign of violence [...]

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 � [...]

Pope Francis has compared the current situation internationally to a third World War “fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres and destruction.” Calling wars irrational, the Pontiff lamented conflicts are often “justified by an ideology.” "War is irrational; its only plan is to bring destruction: it seeks to grow by destroying," Francis said while visiting Italy’s largest war memorial [...]

From 1618 to 1648 Europe was torn apart by a devastating and ruthless war. It was waged with fanaticism nourished by religious extremism absolving soldiers from atrocities because it was God’s will and done in God’s name. Out of this debacle came the Westphalian system giving rise to the nation-state. Fundamentally the conflict was about who should have the right to define ethics, norms, va [...]

The Austrian authorities have stopped two schoolgirls who were willing to leave the country and join the jihadists in the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). A third girl was planning to join them, but was stopped by her mother. A 14-year-old girl and her friend, 15, both from Vienna, were earlier reported missing, said Interior Ministry official Alexander Marakovits. [...]

Both Moscow and Kiev have similar thoughts on the resolution of the Ukraine crisis, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed in an interview with Russian media following the talks between Russian and Ukraine authorities in Minsk. On August 26, Presidents Putin and Poroshenko shook hands in Minsk, paving way for the contact group on the crisis in Ukraine to start work. On Friday, the B [...]

As the ceasefire in Ukraine gets off to a shaky start, the only way to rebuild the billions of dollars of damage in the nation's east is for the EU and Russia to work together, Lode Vanoust, former MP and deputy speaker of the Belgium parliament, told RT. First off, Kiev has now agreed to what appears to be a major concession, decentralization of power, which wasn’t even on the negotiating ta [...]

Foreign Policy magazine – Russia’s fierce critic – met with the leader of Azov Battalion, an irregular force assisting Kiev to cleanse eastern Ukraine of “terrorists.” The group boasts fierce tactics, “values far from European,” and Nazi-like attributes. Azov, which has an estimated personnel of 500 people, is one of about 50 volunteer battalions formed by Maidan activists and ult [...]

We are at the beginning of an epoch where at some point in the future there could be an open war between the advanced powers, and there is not much faith in the ceasefire in Ukraine, Samir Dathi, National Officer of the Stop the War Coalition, told RT. Ukraine's President is confident about a ceasefire - do you think he's right to be? [...]

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced ceasefires before and was always the first to violate them, Spanish volunteer Ramiro Gomez, who fought in eastern Ukraine against the troops of the coup-imposed Kiev government, told RT. According to the European volunteer, this ceasefire is in effect a part of Poroshenko’s strategy: “to reorganize the [Ukrainian] army which is already a la [...]