Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed on Friday what he said were Kiev's "criminal orders" for a surge in fighting in east Ukraine in which civilians have been killed.

• January 23, 2015

NATO has detected signs of heightened Russian involvement in fighting in parts of eastern Ukraine, the alliance's top military commander said on Thursday.

• January 22, 2015

Germany's Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she hoped a new round of talks with Ukraine and Russia in Berlin could help implement an elusive ceasefire in eastern Ukraine but warned against expecting too much, given another upsurge in the violence.

• January 21, 2015

Ukraine on Tuesday accused pro-Russian separatists of taking advantage of a ceasefire deal signed last September to seize more territory in the east and said Kiev would demand its return in any future peace talks.

• January 20, 2015

China on Monday lodged a protest with Tokyo after Japanese media quoted Japan's foreign minister as saying that a disputed border region between China and India belonged to India, in the latest source of friction between the two Asian rivals.

• January 19, 2015

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of terrorism and said Israeli "provocations" such as the bombardment of Gaza were contributing to radicalization in the Muslim world.

• January 17, 2015

Russian is concerned that a rotation by Kiev of front-line forces in eastern Ukraine could undermine peace efforts, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

• January 16, 2015

Russia is working to develop within a few years the capability to threaten several neighbors at once on the scale of its present operation in Ukraine, a senior American general said.

• January 16, 2015