"Today we need the Iron Chancellor," read the front-page headline in top-selling German newspaper Bild on Tuesday, next to a picture of Angela Merkel in a Prussian helmet.

• July 7, 2015

NATO is preparing for a long standoff with Russia, reluctantly accepting that the Ukraine conflict has fundamentally transformed Europe's security landscape and that it may have to abandon hope of a constructive relationship with Moscow.

• July 6, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be finding it hard to contain a wry smile as the European Union struggles with Greece's debt problems.

• July 4, 2015

Russia expressed "deep concern" on Thursday over Ukraine's plans to decentralize power as part of a peace deal with separatist rebels, underlining the gulf between Moscow and Kiev as the conflict rumbles on despite a ceasefire.

• July 2, 2015

Russia sought on Wednesday to ease concern in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia over plans to review the legality of a 1991 decision formally granting them independence from the Soviet Union.

• July 1, 2015

Syria's foreign minister said in Moscow on Monday Russia had promised to send political, economic and military aid to his country, where the army is coming under some of the heaviest pressure since the start of the civil war.

• June 29, 2015

The West should not drop its guard over Ukraine, the country's defense minister said on Friday, saying a build-up of Russian forces in support of separatists showed President Vladimir Putin was bent on seizing control of the country.

• June 26, 2015

Crude oil slipped for a second straight day on Thursday, weighed by weaker U.S. refined fuels markets and potential negative impact from Greece's debt crisis on European energy demand.

• June 25, 2015