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When Russian President Vladimir Putin began referring to portions of Ukraine by their Tsarist-era name, Novorossiya, Russia hands expressed alarm. Novorossiya, or “New Russia,” incorporates the area of Southern Ukraine from Donbass to the present day border with Moldova. Some suggested that Putin’s brazen invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula was a prelude to a much more significant land grab. They noted that Putin could have designs on the entirety of Southern Ukraine, linking Russia to the portion of Moldova known as Transnistria, an area which has been under Russian occupation for years and is already a de...

(GENEVA) — Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine. The agreement, reached after seven hours of negotiation in Geneva, requires all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions. It calls for the disarming of all illegally armed groups and for control of buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists during the protests to be turned back over to authorities. It also gives amnesty to protesters who comply with the demands, except those found guilty of committing capital crimes. Monitors with the Organization of Security...

Despite calls for a peaceful dialogue in the document on Ukraine adopted in Geneva, the coup-imposed Ukrainian Foreign Minister said it will not affect the “anti-terrorist” operation in the East of the country and the troops will remain there. Soon after the Geneva document, adopted at a four-side meeting between Ukraine, the US, the EU and Russia, was published, Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrey Deshchytsa said Kiev is not bound by its recommendations. According to Deshchytsa cited by RIA Novosti, “the troops in the East of the country are carrying out a special operation and can remain where they are.”

<p>Russia is “the only country in the world capable of turning the U.S.A. into radioactive dust.”</p> <p>That was the declaration made recently on a major Russian state TV channel by the popular anchorman Dmitry Kiselyov. The coarse tone in which he delivered this message was every bit as menacing as the actual words...</p>

Soldier Says Ukrainian Unit Switched to Pro-Russian Side, But Can't Be Confirmed SLOVYANSK, Ukraine—An armored column of military vehicles flying a Russian flag and carrying dozens of heavily armed fighters motored into this eastern Ukrainian city early Wednesday, a day after the Ukrainian army launched an operation to clear out pro-Russian separatists who had taken control of cities in the region. It wasn't immediately clear whether the men were Russian soldiers or local militants who had gotten their hands on military vehicles. A soldier on one of the vehicles said the unit was part of the 25th brigade of Ukraine's...

Seen several tweets of this over the last hour, and now this vid of the defection is posted on YouTube. The column had apparently been surrounded by several hundred pro-Russian civilians inside of Kramatorsk, with several older women linked arm-in-arm to prevent it's passing At about 8:50, you can see the commander arguing with someone on the phone..

-snip- The operation that the government said would confront pro-Russian militants in the east unraveled Wednesday with the entire contingent of 21 armored vehicles surrendering or retreating. -snip- One of the armored columns stopped when a crowd of people, many of whom were drinking or yelling taunts, gathered on the road before them. Later in the day its commander agreed to hand over the soldiers’ assault rifles to the very separatists they were sent to fight. Another column from the same unit, the 25th Dnipropetrovsk paratrooper brigade, surrendered not only its weapons but also the tracked and armored vehicles it...

First Sign That Geneva Discussions are Making Progress The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the European Union are working on a joint statement, in a sign that talks in Geneva may have made progress, according to two officials involved in the talks on Thursday. Both officials said it wasn't yet clear whether a joint statement would eventually be agreed among all four governments. No details were immediately available. Thursday's meeting, which started late morning in Geneva, is the highest-level direct talks between Moscow and Kiev since Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Opportunities for the West to hurt the Russian economy are limited, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday. Europe cannot stop buying Russian gas without inflicting pain on itself, and if the US tries to lower oil prices, the dollar will suffer. If the West tries to damage Russia’s influence in the world energy market, efforts will likely backfire, the Russian President said during his twelfth annual televised question and answer session. To really influence the world oil market a country would need to increase production and cut prices, which currently only Saudi Arabia could afford, Putin said. The president added he...

As Mein Kampf makes clear, Hitler sought to unite all the people of German speech and culture into one state, or Reich, preferably by peaceful negotiation, otherwise by war and conquest... Today’s drift toward war with Russia seems like a replay of the past. Putin is a Russian nationalist, who believes in a strong Stalinist state. His goal is to reverse the events of 1989–the end of the Soviet state and dissolution of its enormous empire... ...to wield against the various weak states that were part of the U.S.S.R... All have ethnic Russian minorities, who speak the language, boast of...

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia emphasized on Thursday that the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament had authorized him to use military force if necessary in eastern Ukraine, and also stressed Russia's historical claim to the territory, repeatedly referring to it as "new Russia" and saying that only "God knows" why it became part of Ukraine. Speaking in a televised question-and-answer show, Mr. Putin also admitted for the first time that Russian armed forces had been deployed in Crimea, the disputed peninsula that Russia annexed last month immediately after a large majority of the population voted in...