Government forces were pulling out of an encircled town in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday after a fierce assault by Russian-backed separatists which Kiev and Europe said violated a crumbling ceasefire.

• February 18, 2015

Sweden and Finland plan to extend their cooperation on defense and set up a joint naval task force as the two neighbors respond to rising tensions with Russia in the Baltic region.

• February 18, 2015

Germany will overhaul its security strategy in coming years in response to Russian attempts to use "power politics and military force" to assert its interests, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

• February 17, 2015

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Tuesday that his government was working toward a successful negotiation with the euro zone on its loan program but would not succumb to blackmail.

• February 17, 2015

A Russian court on Tuesday ended house arrest terms for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and upheld a suspended three-and-a-half-year prison term for the protest leader in a theft case he says is politically motivated.

• February 17, 2015

Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics
1 January – 5 February 2015
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst

Key Points:

• Fethullah Gulen lambasts the AKP in the pages of The New York Times for Turkey’s perceived lurch toward autocracy. The government responds by seizing Gulen-affiliated Bank Asya for a lack of transparency.
• Free speech and journalism are increasingly under threat in Turkey as the AKP continues to crack down on critics, regardless of the issue.
• Greece’s new right-wing defence minister threatens to undermine Turkish-Greek relations in the eastern Mediterranean.
• The Turkish lira continues to slide against the dollar after the Turkish Central Bank considers cutting interest rates. President Erdogan continues to push for lower rates as a measure of fighting inflation, despite general economic theory to the contrary.

• February 17, 2015

Pro-Russian rebels pounded encircled Ukrainian government forces on Monday and Kiev said it would not pull back heavy guns while a truce was being violated, leaving a European-brokered peace deal on the verge of collapse a day after it took effect.

• February 16, 2015

Debt-laden Greece and EU paymaster Germany struck hardline postures ahead of a crucial meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday on the future of an unpopular international bailout for Athens, but France called for a compromise

• February 16, 2015