The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany have reached an agreement to hold a new round of peace talks on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said after speaking by phone with his French, Russian and German counterparts that the negotiations will be held in the Belarusian

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Wednesday that she and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had detected signs of greater willingness from Russia to resolve the crisis in Ukraine’s pro-separatist eastern territories. But Poroshenko balanced this judgment by saying Ukraine was in a

Ukraine’s parliament voted in a new government on Tuesday, putting foreign technocrats in key financial roles and renewing terms for the foreign and defense ministers in a signal that no major change in policy is likely on the rebellious east. Parliament endorsed Pavlo Klimkin as foreign minister

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev spoke with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk by telephone, the Russian government’s press service said on Thursday. Medvedev and Yatseniuk discussed financial and economic relations between Russia and Ukraine, the press service added, without

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday 100 percent of Ukrainians were in favor of a having single state, without federalization, in a keynote address to the first session of a new parliament. «These are our warm wishes to those in the East or West who advise federalization,»

War veterans and nationalist radicals brought a revolutionary air to the opening on Thursday of Ukraine’s new parliament convened to name a government to hold the country together and set out a program of far-reaching reform. Hundreds of riot police guarded the building as the parliament quickly

Russian forces are still operating in eastern Ukraine, providing the backbone of separatist rebels fighting the Kiev government, NATO’s top military commander said on Wednesday after talks with Ukrainian leaders. U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove, visiting Kiev as head of U.S. forces in

President Poroshenko looks forward to the formation of the coalition and of the new Cabinet of Ministers this week (until December 1). He said about this at the press conference. «The coalition agreement should be not only initialed and signed this week. I hope that the parliamentary factions will

Most of the staff of the Ukrainian Security Service are the agents of the Kremlin. This was announced by parliamentary candidate of the party «Block Poroshenko» Yuri Stets. «It is clear that 70 percent could be argued that there is still a lot of exiles or hidden agents of the Kremlin» — said

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Thursday Europe and the United States should join Ukraine in forcing Russia to stick to a peace deal to end the separatist conflict, accusing the Kremlin of using Ukraine as a «playing-field». «Putin’s actions are a threat to everyone, the global

Prospects for peace in eastern Ukraine are «bleak», underscoring the need to uphold a shaky ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels, a senior official from the OSCE security watchdog said on Thursday Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, the Organization for Security and

Russia urged Ukraine’s leaders on Wednesday to talk directly to separatists to end the conflict in the east, but Kiev rejected the call and told Moscow to stop «playing games» aimed at legitimizing «terrorists». Russia backs the separatists but denies it is directly involved in the conflict in the

The first session of a new Ukrainian parliament, elected in October, will take place on Nov. 27, as said the head of a parliamentary working group, Volodymyr Groysman on Wednesday. “Today we have considered an important question and took action on it. The first session of the Ukrainian parliament

Russia’s economy looks certain to shrink next year due to the Ukraine crisis and eastern Europe is already seeing its weakest growth since the fall of communism 25 years ago, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Tuesday. In its annual Transition Report, the EBRD said Western