Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the crisis in Ukraine could not be solved by a further military escalation or without dialogue with representatives of the country's Russian-speaking eastern regions.

• August 26, 2014

Vietnam will send a special envoy to China this week to try to rebuild battered diplomatic ties with its communist neighbor after they sank to their lowest in three decades, amid a flare-up over sovereignty in the South China Sea.

• August 25, 2014

Ukraine accused Russia on Monday of sending soldiers across the border to open a new front in the separatist war that has devastated the east of the country and provoked the gravest East-West crisis since the fall of communism.

• August 25, 2014

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the standoff over Ukraine could be solved but only if control was tightened over the Ukraine-Russia border across which, the West alleges, Russia has been funnelling arms to help a separatist rebellion.

• August 23, 2014

Germany's vice chancellor has spoken out for a "federalization" of Ukraine once fighting between Ukrainian and Russian separatist forces in the eastern part of the country has ended.

• August 23, 2014

The first trucks from a Russian aid convoy on Thursday passed a Russian border check point and started moving towards the border crossing with Ukraine, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

• August 21, 2014

Ukrainian forces fought street battles with separatist rebels in the eastern town of Ilovaisk overnight into Wednesday as they sought to isolate rebel strongholds near the Russian border, an Interior Ministry official said.

• August 20, 2014

Poland believes Russia may be seeking to extend its ban on imports of food products from the European Union to goods in transit through Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechocinski said on Wednesday.

• August 20, 2014