French lawmaker Nicolas Dhuicq claims that Russia’s veto of a UN proposal that would have created a tribunal to prosecute those behind the MH17 downing was a defensive act as Moscow senses the growing belligerence of Western nations at the UN table.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday failed to adopt a resolution on creating a tribunal for criminal prosecution of those responsible for the loss of Malaysia’s passenger jet

The White House has described relations between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as "business-like" in response to a comment that both leaders "hate" each other recently made by the opinionated Republican presidential contender Donald Trump.

According to FMS statistics, a total of 2.642 million Ukrainians are currently in Russian territory, including half of them (1.038 million) from Ukraine’s southeastern regions

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has discussed with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte alternative proposals on establishing an international judicial inquiry to investigate the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 disaster.

"There is a feeling that different ‘color revolutions’ and other projects to replace legitimate regimes are aimed at triggering chaos and instability," Ivan Soltanovsky said

The honeymoon phase seems to have long since ended: soldiers fighting in eastern Ukraine are increasingly disillusioned and angry with Kiev authorities, who left the army and the country hanging, and praise ultranationalists for their alleged bravery and fighting skills.

Ukraine is trying to cling to existing disagreements in order to avoid doing anything, DPR people’s council deputy chairman and envoy to Contact Group Denis Pushilin says

A spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee said Ukraine "is going down the drain"

A report on the results of the public inquiry will be published before the Catholic Christmas on December 25

The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements”. Its monitoring was restricted by the parties and security considerations*. The SMM conducted crater analysis in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, after shelling impacted civilians and residential buildings. The SMM met with two persons being held at a pre-trial detention centre in Kyiv following their arrest at a checkpoint in the Donetsk region. An SMM patrol was threatened by an armed “DPR” member east of Mariupol.