Breakaway regions

In his first interview with Western media, Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovich told the BBC that Crimea splitting from Ukraine was a tragedy, but the only way to avoid war. Maidan violence contributed to the Crimean referendum, he said.

Two Ukrainian servicemen have confessed to the murder of a mother and daughter in the Kiev-controlled portion of eastern Ukraine, the local prosecutor’s office reported on Wednesday. The soldiers shot the women in the head with a machine gun.

The Ukrainian parliament has adopted amendments to state law allowing “admission of the armed forces of other states on the territory of Ukraine.” The possible hosting of foreign weapons of mass destruction is also mentioned in the documents.

Russia has erected 40km of fortified walls, and more than 100km of defensive trenches on its border with the rebel Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.

Enclava, a Balkan microstate proclaimed by a group of Polish tourists last month, has been forced to move to a new patch of land, after Slovenia said it was squatting on its territory.

As Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams meets Prince Charles on Tuesday to promote “reconciliation and healing" in Northern Ireland, the sister of one of the Troubles’ many Irish victims spoke out.

Moscow ‘can’t help thinking’ the recent terrorist attack in Macedonia has something to do with the country’s objection to anti-Russian sanctions and participation in the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, the Russian foreign minister said.

The question many people ask: How come hundreds of West Europeans came to fight for the self-proclaimed republics in Eastern Ukraine? In fact, the defense of Donbass became the first major volunteer war in Europe since the Spanish Civil War.

Following reports that Kiev’s military has launched a massive artillery attack on Donetsk, hitting residential areas, according to the DPR, Russia’s FM has called the OSCE chairman urging him to influence Kiev into immediately halting ceasefire breaches.