Ukraine

LONDON (AP) — An arms embargo against Russia would be little more than symbolic because Russia is largely self-sufficient in supplying its armed forces, a report argued Sunday.

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian officials said their forces advanced to the outskirts of a key town north of Donetsk on Saturday as they try to retake the stronghold held for months by pro-Russia rebels.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's foreign minister on Saturday accused the United States of encouraging Ukraine to challenge Moscow and heavily weighing in on the European Union.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Several European foreign ministers on Monday threatened to impose further sanctions against Russia if it fails to cooperate with Ukraine's proposed peace plan and doesn't stop the flow of arms and militants across its border into eastern Ukraine.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia on Monday cut gas supplies to Ukraine as a payment deadline passed and negotiators failed to reach a deal on gas prices and unpaid bills amid continued fighting in eastern Ukraine.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A quarter century after Poland embraced democracy, President Barack Obama held up this nation Wednesday as a guidepost for neighboring Ukraine as it seeks to fend off an insurgency widely believed to be backed by Russia that has rekindled Cold War-era tensions across Europe.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Demonstrators on the main downtown avenue of Ukraine's capital set piles of tires ablaze on Saturday to protest authorities' call to end the encampment that began six months ago. A few hundred meters away, workers in hard hats cleared debris from torn-down barricades.

Chechnya's regional leader said Wednesday that he hasn't sent any troops to fight alongside pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine, but he says some Chechens may have gone there on their own.

Dozens of dead insurgents lay piled in a van outside a morgue Tuesday, and a rebel said more were on the way. Bomb disposal experts disarmed a mortar round lodged in a corpse. A wrecked and blood-soaked truck at the Donetsk airport showed the grisly aftermath of battle.

In the roiling debate over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatist attacks have turned increasingly bloody, neither the country's richest man nor some of his dirt-poor compatriots have much time for patriotism, ethnic feuding or political parties.