Ukraine said its artillery destroyed part of a Russian armored column that entered its territory overnight and said its forces came under shellfire from Russia on Friday in what appeared to be a major military escalation between the ex-Soviet states.

• August 15, 2014

European Union foreign ministers voiced concern on Friday at reports that Russian military vehicles had crossed into Ukraine overnight, but behind the tough talk there were signs that EU unity over sanctions against Moscow was fraying.

• August 15, 2014

Dozens of heavy Russian military vehicles massed on Friday near the border with Ukraine, while Ukrainian border guards crossed the frontier to inspect a huge Russian aid convoy

• August 15, 2014

Artillery shells hit close to the centre of Ukraine's separatist-held city of Donetsk for the first time on Thursday, killing at least one person, as a large Russian aid convoy rumbled towards the border.

• August 14, 2014

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday Russia would stand up for itself but not at the cost of confrontation with the outside world, a conciliatory note after months of tough rhetoric over the crisis in Ukraine.

• August 14, 2014

Russia's Rosneft (ROSN.MM), which produces more oil than Iraq or Iran, is seeking a $42 billion loan from a fund earmarked for Russian pensions to help it weather Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in Ukraine.

• August 14, 2014

A Snapshot of Key Developments in the External Relations of the Russian Gas Sector
By Jack Sharples, EGF Associate Researcher on the external dimensions of Russian gas

Key points:

• Gazprom and the EU – EU antitrust investigators continue to prepare ‘statement of objections’; Gazprom excluded from expanded EU sanctions list
• Nord Stream – Planned capacity auction for OPAL cancelled, as European Commission postpones ruling indefinitely
• South Stream - Gazprom subsidiary Centrgaz is awarded the construction contract for South Stream in Serbia; Bulgarian government willing to listen to the European Commission over South Stream; European Commission recommends that Serbia halt work on South Stream pending legal clarifications
• Gazprom and Ukraine - Naftogaz and Ukrainian government announce plan to avoid Russian gas imports until March 2015; Ukrainian government and Naftogaz disagree over reports of reduced gas deliveries from Europe to Ukraine; Gazprom and Naftogaz arbitration cases could be combined
• Asia-Pacific region - Gazprom continues design process for proposed Vladivostok LNG terminal
• Elena Burmistrova replaces Alexander Medvedev as Director-General of Gazprom Export

• August 12, 2014

Switzerland on Tuesday added 26 Russians and Ukrainians and 18 organizations to a list designed to prevent it being used as a conduit to circumvent Western sanctions against Russia.

• August 5, 2014