French president Francois Hollande has said he is taking a new peace initiative to Ukraine alongside German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Vladimir Putin is channelling his inner Trotsky through his dealings and attitudes towards Ukraine. Surely a day of reckoning will soon come, writes Yuliya Tymoshenko

The leaders of Russia and Ukraine have held their first talks since Moscow annexed Crimea, discussing ways to end their four-month conflict in a brief encounter during commemorations in France of the World War Two D-Day landings.

Ammunition explosions ripped through a military depot in southeastern Ukraine for a second day today, sending flames leaping dozens of feet into the air and showering surrounding villages with shells and shrapnel.

At least 19 miners were killed by an explosion that rocked a coal mine in southeastern Ukraine last night.