Russia may ease the terms of its gas supplies to Ukraine but Kiev will have to pay for the gas Moscow is supplying to rebel-held areas of east Ukraine, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.

• March 11, 2015

The United States on Wednesday placed sanctions on eight Ukrainian separatists and a Russian bank, warning that recent attacks by rebels armed by Russia violated a European-brokered ceasefire in the war-torn country.

• March 11, 2015

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused European Council President Donald Tusk and Brussels bureaucrats on Tuesday of stirring up tensions between Moscow and the bloc over the crisis in Ukraine.

• March 10, 2015

Russian tanks and heavy military equipment have crossed the Ukrainian border in the last few days in breach of a European-brokered ceasefire agreed on Feb. 12, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

• March 10, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he ordered officials to start work on taking control of Crimea weeks before a referendum which, the Kremlin has asserted until now, prompted the region's annexation from Ukraine.

• March 9, 2015

The European Union needs its own army to face up to Russia and other threats as well as restore the bloc's foreign policy standing around the world, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a German newspaper on Sunday.

• March 8, 2015

The European Union is ready to step up sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, but its priority is to bolster a fragile ceasefire agreed in Minsk, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Friday.

• March 6, 2015

With less than four weeks until its deal for Russian natural gas imports ends, Ukraine risks losing its current discount unless it can agree a new pact, something that took six months and help from the European Commission to achieve last time.

• March 5, 2015