Corey Flintoff

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki has just been promoted to White House Communications Director, a job with a lower public profile. It's going to be a loss for the Kremlin's idea of TV comedy.

The forced withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine is a blow to the recent ceasefire agreement — and to President Petro Poroshenko.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France met in Belarus on Wednesday in an effort to stop the war in Ukraine. The negotiation comes amid the heaviest fighting yet in eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed rebels have been gaining ground in a fierce offensive.

Leaders from France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia are scheduled to meet in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Wednesday to try to work out a peace deal for the war in Ukraine.

Russia's seizure of Crimea has been widely criticized. But what if Crimea was given away illegally to Ukraine back in 1954? Russian lawmakers are hard at work on their own version of history.

International efforts to bring peace to eastern Ukraine continue. Negotiators consider borders that acknowledge the areas that separatists control, if Russia withdraws heavy weapons from the region.

French President Francois Hollande and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel travel to Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the crisis in Ukraine.

Russian-backed separatists push forward into areas held by the Ukrainian military. The offensive is a disaster for civilians, trapped in towns and villages along the battle front.

Civilians in villages near the front lines in Eastern Ukraine are being forced to leave their homes as fighting intensifies between Government forces and Russian-back separatists.

The Ukrainian army reinforced its positions and evacuated civilians on Thursday from an enclave north-east of Donetsk that has Russian-backed separatists attacking on three sides.