Ukrainian government forces prepared on Monday to withdraw artillery and heavy armoured vehicles within a proposed 30-km (19-mile) buffer zone after detecting a lessening of fire from Russian-backed separatists, a military spokesman said.

• September 22, 2014

Russia is not working on a new package of measures in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow's role in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying on Saturday.

• September 20, 2014

The Ukrainian city of Donetsk was rocked by blasts on Saturday, even as government forces and pro-Russian separatists prepared to create a buffer zone to separate the warring sides.

• September 20, 2014

Russia must think about protecting its Internet against threats from the West, a Kremlin spokesman said on Friday, in comments that one prominent critic said could herald moves to control all web-based data exchanges with the rest of the world

• September 19, 2014

Dozens of Russian energy ventures are in jeopardy due to Western sanctions on technology and funding. Looming over them all, a giant project the Kremlin is bent on saving no matter what.

• September 19, 2014

Russia may prop up energy companies Rosneft and Novatek with up to $3.9 billion each from its National Wealth Fund, a reserve of oil proceeds set up to buoy the country's pension system.

• September 19, 2014

Russia will not curb gas exports to Europe this winter to prevent countries from re-exporting supplies to Ukraine, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told an Austrian newspaper.

• September 18, 2014

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Western sanctions against Russia violated the principles of the World Trade Organization and the main way to combat them was to develop the domestic market.

• September 18, 2014