Putin meets with Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders By The Japan Times   August 11, 2014   MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin held a joint meeting Sunday with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as concerns mount over the escalation of fighting over the South Caucasus region Nagorno-Karabakh. Putin met with Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in Sochi to discuss rising tensions in the disputed

Russia to participate in humanitarian mission to eastern Ukraine By AP   August 11, 2014 DONETSK, Ukraine - The Red Cross will lead an international humanitarian aid operation into Ukraine's conflict-stricken province of Luhansk with assistance from Russia, the European Union and the United States, Ukraine said Monday. The Kremlin earlier announced that it was dispatching the humanitarian convoy into eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia separatists

Russia sanctions will hurt German economy but needed - Vice Chancellor By Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters   August 3, 2014   BERLIN, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Tough new economic sanctions against Russia will hurt Germany's economy but they are necessary for the sake of peace in Europe, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said in a television interview on Sunday. The European Union imposed sanctions that took effect on Friday targeting Russia's banking, defence

Belarus to host Ukraine-Russia talks By Reuters   July 30, 2014   (Reuters) - Belarus will host talks between Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE security and rights organisation on the crisis in eastern Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko's office said on Wednesday. It did not say when the talks would take place but Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked Lukashenko to host them on Thursday and to focus on securing access to the site where

Ukraine Reports Heavy Fighting Around Malaysia Airlines Crash Site By LUKAS I. ALPERT in Moscow and PHILIP SHISHKIN in Donetsk, Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal   July 28, 2014   For weeks, residents of the three villages where the debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 landed have heard the fighting around them, and hoped the violence would pass them by. But on Monday, the crash site turned into the newest front in the war. Natalya Voloshina,

Petro Poroshenko: Ukraine needs the U.S. to respond to Russia: By Petro Poroshenko, The Washington Post July 27, 2014   When 298 innocent people were shot out of the sky by a Russian missile 10 days ago, people everywhere finally began to understand what is at stake in Ukraine. Half a year ago, I was not even considering becoming president of Ukraine. But like a great many Ukrainians at the time, I was disturbed that then-president Viktor Yanukovych

By The New York Times  Below is a visual guide to the continuing conflict in the Ukraine. View the original article here.  Military Base Buildup at the Russian Border: July 22, 2014 Two satellite Images of the Russian military base near Rostov were released on Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. American Intelligence officials said that the image on the right, taken approximately a month after the image on the left,

By David M. Herszenhorn and Andrew Higgins The New York Times 23 July 2014 KIEV, Ukraine — Fighting intensified in the rebel-controlled region of Ukraine on Wednesday, with military officials reporting that two Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jets had been shot down near the village of Dmytrivka in the east. Few details of the latest downings were available. But the news was reported as Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council in Kiev said the

Ukrainians in SA stage protest in city By Tankiso Makhetha, IOL news July 5, 2014 Johannesburg - The Ukranian community in South Africa staged a protest on Friday outside the Russian Embassy against the invasion and war being waged in the Ukraine. They also delivered a petition demanding that Russia withdraw its troops. The petition is to be delivered to Russia through the Russian Ambassador, Mikhail Ivanovich Petrakov. Protesters chanted anti-Putin

Russia and China Block Security Council Move to Prosecute Syria War Crimes By Rick Gladstone, The New York Times 22 May 2014 Russia and China on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have empowered the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Syria, defying widespread support for such a move by human rights advocates and many United Nations members including the United States. It was the fourth time